The Buddha was a great storyteller and often told stories to get his message
across. Stories were also told about the Buddha by his followers both to explain
and understand the Dharma. These stories have been passed down to the present
day and the most popular ones are the Jataka tales, a collection of hundreds of
tales about the Buddha's past lives. They show the kind of life one should lead
to become a Buddha one day. In many of these stories, the Buddha appears as an
animal to teach the value of qualities such as kindness, compassion, and giving.
Once upon a time, the Buddha came into the world as a Monkey King and ruled
over 80,000 monkeys. He was very tall and strong and had wisdom like the sun. In
his kingdom on the banks of the Ganges River, there was a mango tree as big as
the moon. The 80,000 monkeys jumped from branch to branch chattering and eating
the lovely fruit that was big and sweet and delicious. Sometimes a ripe mango
fell into the river.
One day, the Monkey King strolled downstream and came upon a river palace
where a human king lived. "Soon danger will come if the mangoes float
downstream," he told the monkeys. "Pick all the mangoes and flowers on the trees
and take them deep into the forest."
But one mango, hidden by a bird's nest, was left unseen by the 80,000
monkeys. When it was large and ripe, it fell into the river and floated
downstream where the human king was bathing.
The human king, who was very curious, tasted the beautiful mango. "This is
delicious!' he exclaimed. "I must have more. Servants, find all the mangoes and
bring them to me at once!"
Deep in the forest, the servants found hundreds of mango trees. In the trees
were the 80,000 monkeys. When the human king heard about the monkeys, he was
very angry, "The monkeys are eating my mangoes. Kill them all!" he ordered his
archers.
"Very well," said the archers and chased the monkeys to the edge of the
forest where they came to a deep cliff. There was no way for the monkeys to
escape. Shivering with fright, they ran to the Monkey King asked, "What shall we
do?"
"Don't be afraid. I will save you," said their king. Quickly, he stretched
his huge body as far as possible and made a bridge over the cliff to a bamboo
grove on the other side.
"Come monkeys, run across my back to the bamboo grove," he called. And so the
80,000 monkeys escaped.
The human king watched all that happened. He was amazed, "This Monkey King
has risked his life to save his whole troop! And all I'm doing is being selfish.
I have learned a great lesson." Then he called to his archers, "Put down your
bows. It isn't right to kill this King of Monkeys."
Forgetting about the mangoes, the human king went back to his palace by the
river and ruled kindly and wisely for the rest of his life.
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