Reading Notes:The Jataka Tales by H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas Part C

These are notes over the Jataka Tales by H.T. Francis and E.J. Thomas. The Lucky Sneeze was an interesting story. This was the first one I read where the king didn't get super angry all the time. In this one, the king was fine when the brahmin lied to him because he understood that his good fortune had been another man's bad fortune. He let it go, and the king before him just let the new man be king. In the Grateful Mouse, the mouse kept getting thinner and having to divide up her meat with cats that threatened her life. Again, the jataka tale invoked cleverness as the means of resolving the conflict in the story instead of violence. However, I thought the part where the bodhisatta told the mouse to say harsh words to the cats to make them kill themselves on the crystal was not very compassionate nor in line with the buddhist teachings I have heard.
However, the idea that the cats kill themselves with their own violence is very buddhist and interesting.

Crystal Cave by Andrew Malone on Flickr