Book Review

Before Buddha Was Buddha: Learning from the Jataka Tales
BY: Rafe Martin
Publisher: Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2017.
ISBN 978-1-61429-354-5

The Jataka tales are spiritual parables or teaching stories. The title Before Buddha Was Buddha is a play on the word “buddha” which means “enlightened” or “awakened.” It means: “before the person we know as the Buddha was awakened.” According to the Buddhist tradition, the Jataka tales are stories that the Buddha related to his disciples about his own past lives. What did he go through – making errors, learning lessons, struggling and persevering through lifetime after lifetime – before he could become fully enlightened? They reveal the pitfalls and challenges, as well as the hard-earned insights, of anyone seriously following a spiritual path.

In this book Rafe Martin, a Zen teacher in the Harada-Yasutani koan line, examines a selection of the Jataka tales to bring out the essential teachings embedded in them. Martin begins each chapter with a brief summary of one of the tales. He explains: “The Buddha didn’t just sit around talking about his past lives. He only told jatakas in response to situations that arose within his community. They were a way of helping untangle knots and open gates.”

In one tale a forester is hired to lead a 500-wagon caravan through the forest. Attacked by 500 robbers, the forester “dealing blows right and left, puts all 500 thieves to flight, then guides the caravan to safety.” When asked for the secret of his power, he says, “I have no secret. I had a job to do. Having sworn to protect you, I resolved to keep my word. I didn’t cling to life, but used it to fulfill my purpose.”

According to Martin, this swashbuckling tale offers encouragement and positive guidance for meditation: “The forester jataka reminds us that if we shift our focus from the habitual, self-centred self, then, even as countless thoughts arise, we’re like a person who singlehandedly faces and deals with hordes of foes.”

Another story begins with the future Buddha as a virtuous man suffering under extreme poverty. He sees the king of the Nagas (mythical snake-like beings with extravagant wealth and power) and wishes to enjoy the wealth of the Nagas. He is reborn as the king of the Nagas. In this lavish life he realizes his error: what he really wanted was enlightenment, which is available only in the short-lived human form. The tale then recounts his arduous, humbling struggle to merit another human birth.

As this tale shows, we all make mistakes, even the future Buddha. And who hasn’t wished for circumstances that were easier, in some way better? It is sobering to consider how dearly that wish for wealth cost the future Buddha. Martin says, “The central point of the legend is clear: don’t waste time, don’t waste this precious human life! … Mysterious and full of tremendous potential as human life is, we all know it can be difficult, full of loss, disappointment, misunderstanding, malice, sorrow, grief, and injustice.” Nonetheless, it is only in human form that enlightenment is possible. “The real treasure that we seek is right where we are, and we can find it if we don’t let our chance go by. But, will we? There’s the rub.”

In another story, the forest is on fire and the animals run to the river for safety. But one brave parrot sees that a few animals are caught in the fire, surrounded with no escape. She flies back again and again from the river into the blaze to sprinkle a few drops of water over the trapped animals. While everyone laughs at the absurdity of her efforts, she continues, even as her own wings get singed. Finally, the gods are so moved by her compassion that both the parrot and the trapped animals are miraculously saved.

Commenting on this tale, Martin quotes Seng ts’an, the Third Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, in his Verses on the Faith Mind: “When picking and choosing are cast aside, the Way stands clear and undisguised.”

There is no ground left for the parrot to pick and choose…. What does the parrot see that makes the Way clear and undisguised? From up high, she sees how all is connected: trees, river, mountains…. She sees intimately and knows the forest as herself…. The ancient grit of “me and mine” that stands like a veil between our seeing and doing is “gone, gone, entirely gone” as the Heart of Perfect Wisdom Sutra says.

The unconditional and generous love of the parrot risking her life in the fire is, thus, the outcome of enlightenment. Martin explains that enlightenment, as understood in Zen Buddhism, means a state in which one sees and knows that all is one. There is no separate self. The entire universe and all beings in it (often called “the ten thousand things”) are intimately connected as one being. Martin sometimes refers to this state of oneness, where there is no “other,” as “intimacy”:

Enlightenment is not a “thing” we “get.” It comes from losing, not gaining, losing the habitual self-centred “stuff” that cuts us off from wind, rain, sun, moon, stars, animals, people. With that wonderful failure, that liberating loss, we find intimacy, which is what we’ve been seeking for who knows how long…. Of course, it’s not that “I” become intimate with everything. Rather, the so-called “ten thousand things” step in and replace me. I’m gone.

The natural result of this realization is loving-kindness and compassion towards all.

Martin also points out, “Zen holds that generous, selfless behaviour is the expression of our True Nature.” He notes that our True Nature gets blocked or obscured, but “even animals can astound us with acts of love, selflessness, and loyalty – the very things that we like to imagine make us human. True Nature means the nature of all beings.” He quotes Zen master Hakuin, “From the beginning all beings are Buddha,” and asks, “Why don’t we know who or what we really are? How are we – just as we are, stuck and limited as we are – buddhas?” Martin explains, “Our path is not one of gaining new Buddhist beliefs, but of seeing more deeply into the nature of what we already are…. We don’t get rid of ourselves, but letting go and losing ourselves, we find ourselves as if for the first time.”

As the Jataka tales vividly illustrate, to reach realization of our own True Nature is not easy. The famous Zen master Dogen called spiritual practice “the path of continued exertion.” Martin summarizes one long, complex Jataka tale called “Two Cousins,” which follows the future Buddha through several past human and animal lives full of difficulties, and then comments, “We find that spiritual practice is not an escape, but a serious commitment to doing the real work. As we practice, our determination will be tested, the depths of our commitment sounded. But isn’t that what we want – a goal worthy of our efforts?”

The Jataka tales also drive home the unavoidable power of the karmic law. Everything we do, say, or think matters. The tales forcefully depict how even small indiscretions can have repercussions over lifetimes. The underlying message is to stay aware, make choices consciously, and keep our ultimate spiritual goal in view. As Martin says, “The consequences of old, even ancient thoughts and deeds will continue to arise, causing difficulties. Freedom from difficulties is not the freedom we are going to find. Freedom to accept our karma fully is.”

Difficulties come not as punishment and not randomly, but as ways of working through what we’ve created with our own past thoughts and deeds…. As we continue our zazen [seated meditation] we gain the freedom to choose better responses to old problems. Painful situations still arise, but we handle them less egotistically.

Martin offers a hopeful perspective, saying, “If we are the cause of our difficulties, while sobering, it’s good news. We can also be the cause of our own liberation.”

In the midst of difficulties brought on by our old karma, Zen asks us to make an effort, sit up straight, and plumb the question beneath it to the bottom. That question is, “Where is our freedom now?” Not just “How can we one day be free, but how are we free now?”… In the ups, downs, losses, gains, betrayals, disillusionments, miscommunications, misunderstandings, joys, ailments, anxieties, errors, triumphs, and sorrows that are our life, each one of us must and can find our answer – and our freedom.