Buddha’s past life as a rabbit

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

While I’m sure our bunnies tend to resemble the Buddha when they’re scrunched into bunny loafs, there are actually a few stories about Buddha’s lives that involve rabbits! This is an extremely annotated version of one of the Buddha’s past lives.

 

The Buddha was reborn as a rabbit in the forest. He had three friends – a jackal, a monkey, and an otter. On a day of observation and fasting, the rabbit advised his friends that they should obstain from eating and if any beggar came by, they must offer the beggar any food that they have.

The jackal had milk curd to offer. The monkey had mangoes to offer. And the otter had fish to offer. The rabbit, however found himself in a tricky situtation. As a creature of the earth, he grazed on grass in the forest and therefore had nothing to offer to a passing beggar. The rabbit, being selfless, made a virtuous decision. Since he had no food to offer, he would offer his own flesh to eat.

The deity Sakka overhead the wise rabbit’s decision and decided to test his virtue. He descended from the heavens and appeared to the rabbit as a beggar. The rabbit advised the beggar to prepare a fire and inform him when he was ready so he could sacrifice himself in the fire to satisfy the beggar’s hunger. Sakka prepared the fire.

The rabbit leaped into the burning coals, but the flames did not even singe his fur. The fire was cold. The rabbit turned to the beggar, telling him that the fire was cold and asking the meaning behind it. The beggar replied to the rabbit, revealing to him that he was actually  the deity Sakka and had simply come to test the rabbit’s virtue. The rabbit then replied to Sakka, telling him that no matter who would try to test his virtue in this manner, be it a god or a simple inhabitant of the earth, they would never find him unwilling to give.

 It’s also said the there is an image of a rabbit on the moon and that it was put there by Sakka to honor the rabbit’s virtue.

 

[Beka27]

hmmm. very interesting. i think i remember a retelling of this in the Stories Rabbits Tell book.

[Sage Cat]

In Chinese folklore, the “rabbit in the moon” is often portrayed as a companion of the moon goddess Chang’e; the rabbit is constantly pounding the elixer of life for her in a morter.

In the Japanese & Korean versions he is pounding rice.

The HRS web site has an article conectiong the Rabbit in the moon with Easter, it mentions this same story – very interesting!

/www.rabbit.org/journal/1/history-of-easter.html

The crew of Appolo 11 was told to watch out for Chang’e and her rabbit just before they landed on the moon!

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[MarkBun]

Okey guys, name ONE of your rabbits that would actually turn their nose up at food for a day.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

This one!

 

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[Author]

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