Manitoba Buddhist Temple
A Buddhist temple in the Jodo Shinshu tradition
Rabbit in
the Moon - Part 2
The story of one of Shakyamuni's previous lives.
At that same time there was a mother tiger in the forest. Because all the food had disappeared the tigress and here babies were starving. The mother didn't have any milk for her young ones.
Everyone in the forest was by this time crying for food. Our three friends the fox, the monkey and the wiesel were looking for someone just like the tigress and her babies to git their stolen food to. They each presented the food stuffs in turn but the tigress could not eat it, nor would she give it to her cubs. She felt the bad karma of the food and could sniff the fouled taste the bad karma caused,
Finally rabbit reached the cubs and thier mother. He asked her what was wrong and she explained that she was starving; her cubs were dying. All the food hd disappeared because of Shakra, or it all had the taint of bad karma.
The rabbit said, "I'll jump into your mouth and save you and your babies. Open wide." At that the tigress opened wide to show her white sharp teeth. The rabbit jumped inside. Just as the tigress was about to bite into the rabbit, Shakra, the God of Gods, released the rabbit. He made all the food in the forest reappear.
"You Buddhas really mean what you preach", he said. He then rewarded the rabbit by placing his picture on the moon. Rabbit, of course, became a Buddha in a future lifetime. And if you look closely at the moon, you'll see the rabbit's likeness still there today.
December 15, 1999
The story of one of Shakyamuni's previous lives.
At that same time there was a mother tiger in the forest. Because all the food had disappeared the tigress and here babies were starving. The mother didn't have any milk for her young ones.
Everyone in the forest was by this time crying for food. Our three friends the fox, the monkey and the wiesel were looking for someone just like the tigress and her babies to git their stolen food to. They each presented the food stuffs in turn but the tigress could not eat it, nor would she give it to her cubs. She felt the bad karma of the food and could sniff the fouled taste the bad karma caused,
Finally rabbit reached the cubs and thier mother. He asked her what was wrong and she explained that she was starving; her cubs were dying. All the food hd disappeared because of Shakra, or it all had the taint of bad karma.
The rabbit said, "I'll jump into your mouth and save you and your babies. Open wide." At that the tigress opened wide to show her white sharp teeth. The rabbit jumped inside. Just as the tigress was about to bite into the rabbit, Shakra, the God of Gods, released the rabbit. He made all the food in the forest reappear.
"You Buddhas really mean what you preach", he said. He then rewarded the rabbit by placing his picture on the moon. Rabbit, of course, became a Buddha in a future lifetime. And if you look closely at the moon, you'll see the rabbit's likeness still there today.
December 15, 1999