In this article I explain how my negative view of the Jataka Tales changed.

The Jataka Tales are an ancient collection of stories originating from the Indian subcontinent that were passed down through the ages, first as an oral tradition and later transcribed and translated into many languages. They are essentially the past life stories of the Buddha: stories of when he was a tiger or a beggar, an elephant or a king, but always a bodhisattva. There are about 550 of them, although some of those 550 only have titles and some have no titles.

Most published versions are full of violence, aggression, misogynistic stereotypes, and other tropes that I felt were not relevant to today’s learners. For example, there are stories about owls who eat crows’ heads, greedy mothers, a son cleaving his father’s head open with an axe in order to kill a mosquito, spirits devouring men and scattering the bones, people so angry their hearts explode out of their mouths, vain women being reborn as dung worms, and so on. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche once told me that we should be cautious about the media we consume, watching violence, gore, and bad behavior can create a karmic imprint. We might become accustomed to these images and recreate them in our next lives. At the very least they might penetrate a child’s dreams and give all involved a bad night’s sleep.

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