I have just finished preparing EW Burlingame’s 1922 collection of over 200 Buddhist Parables for inclusion on the Ancient Buddhist Texts website.
Last year I published the same translator’s Buddhist legends, his full translation of the Dhammapada Commentary, and that led me on to this work.
The Buddhist tradition has always been very strong on teaching through story form, and there is a wealth of parables in the tradition.
Burlingame here collected over 200 from the Canon (stories in the Vinaya, Four Main Nikāyas, Suttanipāta, and more); Para-Canonical (mainly the Milindapañha) and Commentarial sources (Dhammapada, Jātaka, and commentaries on the Nikāyas).
There is a wealth of imagery from the simple to the complex, with many memorable stories, and the material is a veritable mine for preachers and students alike.
There is also an interesting Introduction, which gives a good synopsis of the Buddha’s life, and at the conclusion of the book Burlingame shows how many of these stories penetrated popular stories known in the West.
I have to thank Donny Hacker for many hours of hard work in getting the original ocr-ed text into good shape, having the benefit of others in mind. As always the book is published in a number of formats: html, pdf, epub and mobi.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Publication of Old Javanese Metres
- New Album: Buddhas and Bodhisattvas on Level 1 at Borobudur
- Update of the Gaṇḍavyūha Reliefs at Borobudur
- Text and Translation of the Bhadra-cari-praṇidhānam
- Publication of Romesh Dutt’s Condensed Translations of the Indian Epics
I am interested in Buddhism.
I am interested in parable of Buddhism.
Can you share the valuable informations with me?
You are doing an excellent job, well done!
You here so many different stories how Siddhartha Gautama became enlightened from being an Ascetic then Buddha. Is there a definitive explanation? Many thanks, Robert
P.s. One of the stories I like, is when Siddhartha was an Ascetic and became very feeble and consequently on the verge of dying; he was by the riverside as he needed water, while there he saw a passing boat with a man teaching a boy to fish, the man said to the boy, never hold the line to tight or to lose. Siddhartha the realized the middle way.
Hi Catherine, just follow the links and you will have the whole book.