Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (volume two of two)

By Āryaśūra
Translated by Justin Meiland
Cantos 21-34

In this second volume of the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives,” Arya·shura applies his elegant literary skill toward composing fourteen further stories that depict the Buddha’s quest for enlightenment in his former lives.

Here the perfection of forbearance becomes the dominant theme, as the future Buddha suffers mutilations from the wicked and sacrifices himself for those he seeks to save. Friendship, too, takes on central significance, with greed leading to treachery and enemies transformed into friends through the future Buddha’s miraculous virtue.

The setting for many such moral feats is the forest. Portrayed as home for the future Buddha in his lives as an animal or ascetic, the peaceful harmony of this idyllic realm is often violently interrupted by intrusions from human society. Only the future Buddha can resolve the ensuing conflict, influencing even kings to express wonder and devotion at the startling demonstrations of virtue they encounter.

The Great One’s heart was gripped by compassion and he went to the edge of the pit. There he saw the king writhing in despair. Dust had removed any gleam from his armor. His turban, clothes, and protective gear were in disarray. His heart was tormented by the pain of crashing into the pit. Seeing the king writhing in the pit,

His eyes filled with tears.
Compassion made him forget of him as a foe
And instead he shared in the king’s pain

520 pp. | ISBN-13: 978-0-8147-9583-5 | ISBN-10: 0-8147-9583-8 | Co-published by New York University Press and JJC Foundation

Excerpts

Cantos 21-34
(pp. 201–213; 9.1–9.36)
(20 pp, 0.55mb)
Download Excerpts (pdf)
Download CSL Front Matter (pdf)
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Download the title page and table of contents and one chapter of the book (in English and Sanskrit on facing pages), bundled together as a .pdf file. You can also download the CSL Front Matter (6pp, 1.3mb). It describes how we transliterate the Sanskrit text in the Roman alphabet and includes a guide to pronunciation. It also explains our system of representing phonetic fusion (sandhi).

You can set Adobe Acrobat Reader to display the Sanskrit text and translation in facing page view. Simply go to “View” in the toolbar, select “Page Layout” and click on “Facing.”

About the Translator

Justin Meiland has also translated Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives (volume two), Maha·bhárata IX: Shalya volume one and volume two for the CSL.

eCSL Word Frequency Counts

Top 50 Verbs

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	Saying	83
2	Addressed	52
3	Made	52
4	Saw	48
5	Said	47
6	See	43
7	Replied	42
8	Filled	40
9	Please	37
10	Tell	32

11	Adorned	30
12	Follow	29
13	Heard	29
14	Conduct	28
15	Go	25
16	Teaching	25
17	Became	24
18	Use	24
19	Become	24
20	Come	24

21	Felt	24
22	Give	24
23	Consider	23
24	Suffering	23
25	Show	22
26	Making	22
27	Blazing	21
28	Praising	21
29	Feel	21
30	Living	19

31	Make	19
32	Giving	19
33	Lived	18
34	Discussing	18
35	Cause	18
36	Suffer	18
37	Took	17
38	Approached	17
39	Know	17
40	Meant	17

41	Asked	17
42	Spotted	17
43	Stop	17
44	Honored	16
45	Protect	16
46	Set	16
47	Answered	16
48	Fall	15
49	Hold	15
50	Look	15

Top 50 Nouns

Rank	Unique Words	Number of Occurrences
1	King(s)	297
2	One	193
3	Man (men)	177
4	Virtue(s)	158
5	Bodhisattva	157
6	Way	106
7	Words	106
8	Forest	92
9	World	87
10	Compassion	80

11	People	75
12	Geese(goose)	73
13	Heart(s)	70
14	Ascetic	64
15	Monkey(s)	58
16	Path	57
17	Death	56
18	Mind	55
19	Life	55
20	Body	55

21	Story	54
22	Joy	53
23	Son	53
24	Tree(s)	52
25	Water(s)	52
26	Eyes	47
27	Nature	45
28	Evil	45
29	Lake	45
30	Pain	43

31	Power	42
32	Fruit(s)	42
33	Majesty	42
34	Happiness	42
35	Fear	40
36	Forbearance	39
37	Fame	39
38	Desire	38
39	Anger	37
40	Area	37

41	Bird(s)	37
42	Act(s)	37
43	Deer	36
44	King’s	36
45	Human	36
46	Sudasa	35
47	Women	32
48	Day	31
49	Time	31
50	Welfare	31