Buddhist Tales for young and old

Grandma's Blackie
[Loving-kindness]
Once upon a time, when King Brahmadatta was ruling in Benares, there was an old woman who had a calf. This calf was of a noble dark color. In fact, he was jet black without a spot of white. He was the Bodhisatta - the Enlightenment Being.

The old woman raised the little calf just as though he were her own child. She fed him only the very best rice and rice porridge. She petted his head and neck, and he licked her hand. Since they were so friendly, the people began calling the calf, "Grandma's Blackie'.

Even after he grew up into a big strong bull, Grandma's Blackie remained very tame and gentle. The village children played with him, holding onto his neck and ears and horns. They would even grab his tail and swing up onto his back for a ride. He liked children, so he never complained.
The friendly bull thought, "The loving old woman, who brought me up, is like a kind mother to me. She raised me as if I were her own child. She is poor and in need, but too humble to ask for my help. She is too gentle to force me to work. Because I also love her, I wish to release her from the suffering of poverty." So he began looking for work.
One day a caravan of 500 carts came by the village. It stopped at a difficult place to cross the river. The bullocks were not able to pull the carts across. The caravan leader hooked up all 500 pairs of bullocks to the first cart. But the river was so rough that they could not pull across even that one cart.
Faced with this problem, the leader began looking for more bulls. He was known to be an expert judge of the qualities of bulls. While examining the wandering village herd, he noticed Grandma's Blackie. At once he thought, "This noble bullock looks like he has the strength and the will to pull my carts across the river."

He said to the villagers standing nearby, "To whom does this big black bull belong? I would like to use him to pull my caravan across the river, and I am willing to pay his owner for his services." The people said, "By all means, take him. His master is not here."

So he put a rope through Grandma's Blackie's nose. But when he pulled, he could not budge him! The bull was thinking, "Until this man says what he will pay for my work, I will not move."

Being such a good judge of bulls, the caravan leader understood his reasoning. So he said, "My dear bull, after you have pulled my 500 carts across the river, I will pay you two gold coins for each cart - not just one, but two!" Hearing this, Grandma's Blackie went with him at once.


Then the man harnessed the strong black bull to the first cart. He proceeded to pull it across the river. This was what all one thousand bulls could not do before. Likewise, he pulled across each of the other 499 carts, one at a time, without slowing down a bit!

When all was done, the caravan leader made a package containing only one gold coin per cart, that is, 500 coins. He hung this around the mighty bullock's neck. The bull thought, "This man promised two gold coins per cart, but that is not what he has hung around my neck. So I will not let him leave!" He went to the front of the caravan and blocked the path.
The leader tried to push him out of the way, but he would not move. He tried to drive the carts around him. But all the bulls had seen how strong he was, so they would not move either!
The man thought, "There is no doubt that this is a very intelligent bull, who knows I have given him only half-pay." So he made a new package containing the full one-thousand gold coins, and hung it instead around the bull's neck.
Then Grandma's Blackie re-crossed the river and walked directly towards the old woman, his 'mother'. Along the way, the children tried to grab the money package, thinking it was a game. But he escaped them.
When the woman saw the heavy package, she was surprised. The children told her all about what happened down at the river. She opened the package and discovered the one thousand gold coins.
The old woman also saw the tired look in the eyes of her 'child'. She said, "Oh my son, do you think I wish to live off the money you earn? Why did you wish to work so hard and suffer so? No matter how difficult it may be, I will always care for and look after you."

Then the kind woman washed the lovely bull and massaged his tired muscles with oil. She fed him good food and cared for him, until the end of their happy lives together.



The moral is: Loving-kindness makes the poorest house into the richest home.
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:- http://www.buddhanet.net/bt1_30.htm

 

The Golden Plate
[Greed and Honesty]

Once upon a time in a place called Seri, there were two salesmen of pots and pans and hand-made trinkets. They agreed to divide the town between them. They also said that after one had gone through his area, it was all right for the other to try and sell where the first had already been.

One day, while one of them was coming down a street, a poor little girl saw him and asked her grandmother to buy her a bracelet. The old grandmother replied, "How can we poor people buy bracelets?" The little girl said, "Since we don't have any money, we can give our black sooty old plate." The old woman agreed to give it a try, so she invited the dealer inside.

The salesman saw that these people were very poor and innocent, so he didn't want to waste his time with them. Even though the old woman pleaded with him, he said he had no bracelet that she could afford to buy. Then she asked, "We have an old plate that is useless to us, can we trade it for a bracelet?" The man took it and, while examining it, happened to scratch the bottom of it. To his surprise, he saw that underneath the black soot, it was a golden plate! But he didn't let on that he had noticed it. Instead he decided to deceive these poor people so he could get the plate for next to nothing. He said, "This is not worth even one bracelet. There's no value in this. I don't want it!" He left, thinking he would return later when they would accept even less for the plate.



Meanwhile the other salesman, after finishing in his part of town, followed after the first as they had agreed. He ended up at the same house. Again the poor little girl begged her grandmother to trade the old plate for a bracelet. The woman saw that this was a nice tender looking merchant and thought, "He's a good man, not like the rough-talking first salesman." So she invited him in and offered to trade the same black sooty old plate for one bracelet. When he examined it, he too saw that it was pure gold under the grime. He said to the old woman, "All my goods and all my money together are not worth as much as this rich golden plate!"

Of course the woman was shocked at this discovery, but now she knew that he was indeed a good and honest fellow. So she said she would be glad to accept whatever he could trade for it. The salesman said, "I'll give you all my pots and pans and trinkets, plus all my money, if you will let me keep just eight coins and my balancing scale, with its cover to put the golden plate in." They made the trade. He went down to the river, where he paid the eight coins to the ferry man to take him across.

By then the greedy salesman had returned, already adding up huge imaginary profits in his head. When he met the little girl and her grandmother again, he said he had changed his mind and was willing to offer a few cents, but not one of his bracelets, for the useless black sooty old plate. The old woman then calmly told him of the trade she had just made with the honest salesman, and said, "Sir, you lied to us."

The greedy salesman was not ashamed of his lies, but he was saddened as he thought, "I've lost the golden plate that must be worth a hundred thousand." So he asked the woman, "Which way did he go?" She told him the direction. He left all his things right there at her door and ran down to the river, thinking, "He robbed me! He robbed me! He won't make a fool out of me!"

From the riverside he saw the honest salesman still crossing over on the ferry boat. He shouted to the ferry man, "Come back!" But the good merchant told him to keep on going to the other side, and that's what he did.

Seeing that he could do nothing, the greedy salesman exploded with rage. He jumped up and down, beating his chest. He became so filled with hatred towards the honest man, who had won the golden plate, that he made himself cough up blood. He had a heart attack and died on the spot!

The moral is: "Honesty is the best policy."
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The Symbol of the Lotus

A rare purple lotus. JeanL Photography / Getty Images


By
Barbara O'Brien

Updated September 04, 2018


The lotus has been a symbol of purity since before the time of the Buddha, and it blooms profusely in Buddhist art and literature. Its roots are in muddy water, but the lotus flower rises above the mud to bloom clean and fragrant.


In Buddhist art, a fully blooming lotus flower signifies enlightenment, while a closed bud represents a time before enlightenment. Sometimes a flower is partly open, with its center hidden, indicating that enlightenment is beyond ordinary sight.

The mud nourishing the roots represents our messy human lives. It is in the midst of our human experiences and our suffering that we seek to break free and bloom. But while the flower rises above the mud, the roots and stem remain in the mud, where we live our lives. A Zen verse says, "May we exist in muddy water with purity, like a lotus."


Rising above the mud to bloom requires great faith in oneself, in the practice, and in the Buddha's teaching. So, along with purity and enlightenment, a lotus also represents faith.

The Lotus in the Pali Canon
The historical Buddha used the lotus symbolism in his sermons. For example, in the Dona Sutta (Pali Tipitika, Anguttara Nikaya 4.36), the Buddha was asked if he was a god. He replied,


"Just like a red, blue, or white lotus—born in the water, grown in the water, rising up above the water—stands unsmeared by the water, in the same way I—born in the world, grown in the world, having overcome the world—live unsmeared by the world. Remember me, brahman, as 'awakened.'" [Thanissaro Bhikkhu translation]
In another section of the Tipitaka, the Theragatha ("verses of the elder monks"), there is a poem attributed to the disciple Udayin:

As the flower of a lotus,
Arisen in water, blossoms,
Pure-scented and pleasing the mind,
Yet is not drenched by the water,
In the same way, born in the world,
The Buddha abides in the world;
And like the lotus by water,
He does not get drenched by the world. [Andrew Olendzki translation]

Other Uses of the Lotus as a Symbol
The lotus flower is one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism.

According to legend, before the Buddha was born, his mother, Queen Maya, dreamed of a white bull elephant carrying a white lotus in its trunk.

Buddhas and bodhisattvas are often portrayed as either seated or standing on a lotus pedestal. Amitabha Buddha is nearly always sitting or standing on a lotus, and he often holds a lotus as well.


The Lotus Sutra is one of the most highly regarded Mahayana sutras.

The well-known mantra Om Mani Padme Hum roughly translates into "the jewel in the heart of the lotus."

In meditation, the lotus position requires folding one's legs so that the right foot is resting on the left thigh, and vice versa.

According to a classic text attributed to Japanese Soto Zen Master Keizan Jokin (1268–1325), "The Transmission of the Light (Denkoroku)," the Buddha once gave a silent sermon in which he held up a gold lotus. The disciple Mahakasyapa smiled. The Buddha approved Mahakasyapa's realization of enlightenment, saying, "I have the treasury of the eye of truth, the ineffable mind of Nirvana. These I entrust to Kasyapa."

Significance of Color
In Buddhist iconography, the color of a lotus conveys a particular meaning.

• A blue lotus usually represents the perfection of wisdom. It is associated with the bodhisattva Manjusri. In some schools, the blue lotus is never in full bloom, and its center cannot be seen. Dogen wrote of blue lotuses in the Kuge (Flowers of Space) fascicle of Shobogenzo.

"For example, the time and place of the opening and blooming of the blue lotus are in the midst of fire and at the time of flames. These sparks and flames are the place and time of the blue lotus opening and blooming. All sparks and flames are within the place and time of the place and time of the blue lotus opening and blooming. Know that in a single spark are hundreds of thousands of blue lotuses, blooming in the sky, blooming on the earth, blooming in the past, blooming in the present. Experiencing the actual time and place of this fire is the experience of the blue lotus. Do not drift by this time and place of the blue lotus flower." [Yasuda Joshu Roshi and Anzan Hoshin sensei translation]

• A gold lotus represents the realized enlightenment of all Buddhas.
• A pink lotus represents the Buddha and the history and succession of Buddhas.
• In esoteric Buddhism, a purple lotus is rare and mystical and might convey many things, depending on the number of flowers clustered together.
• A red lotus is associated with Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It also is associated with the heart and with our original, pure nature.
• The white lotus signifies a mental state purified of all poisons.
• :- https://www.learnreligions.com/the-symbol-of-the-lotus-449957
  

 

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