Empty Hand Zen Center

By Caroline Reddy

Stories in words are among our oldest, most powerful, most mysterious tools. Through mere sounds on the air or squiggles on a page, they give us what no other technology can - ourselves. –Rafe Martin

All photos by Fran Shalom

The art of storytelling is a craft - just as powerful and compelling in our fast paced, twitter engrossed society as it once was in ancient India. On Sunday, May 23^rd, author and storyteller Rafe Martin, who has written numerous books, such as the Rough-Face Girl and Birdwing, offered his insights in a dharma talk at the Empty Hand Zen Center which helped our Sangha enter a deeper understanding of The Jataka Tales. These classic tales trace the Buddha’s karmic path - both as animal and human; they were told by Buddha to his disciples over 2,500 years ago to teach about entering the Boddhisatva path. Within the fabric of each tale teachings central to include virtues such as compassion and prajna or wisdom. These attributes are perceived in Buddhism as Paramitas or qualities of perfection that carry us into the realm of a Boddhisatva: an enlightened being who serves all sentient beings.  

Rafe explained that by reading The Jataka Tales we gain a fundamental understanding that the hindrances the Buddha faced are universal in nature; thus, these stories provide us all with an opportunity for growth and insight. As Zen practitioners, sitting upright on our cushions, we begin to awaken to the notion that whatever endeavor each of us may face in any moment is our own Jataka tale - our own life story which carries us forth and becomes part of our own endless path. Rafe shared with our Sangha how these canonical legends impacted his life as he struggled to find his own way.  The author and storyteller described his experience as a “dweller in no-man’s land” since he and his wife, Rose, had children, and were among the few Zen practitioners at Rochester Zen Center who were parents.  One day, in an old bookstore, Rafe stumbled upon a book published in 1878 that contained The Jataka Tales. Each story encompassed a lifetime of efforts that the Buddha had faced as he evolved in his many lives.

Rafe explored The Jataka Tales as an apparatus for our own practice. These timeless tales became a compass for his zazen.  Perchance because the sound of the gong in Zen is so pivotal—bringing us home to ourselves, to no separation between the sound of the bell and our own breath—discovering the Jataka Tales was like hearing the sound of the gong. In a moment of sudden personal insight, the tales linked him instantly to his own practice, his own parenthood, and a way into his own Jataka. He could now share these legendary tales with children, just like his mother had shared fairy tales with him as a child.

Rafe also revealed the story of the Buddha to be the ultimate call of the hero: leaving home on a quest, a journey to unearth the truth of life.  The Jataka Tales reveal virtues that Buddha acquired; his own evolution led him to help his disciples. Timeless tales have always been utilized by human beings as a device to unravel our true nature. Buddha, Rafe explained, often used his empty mind to see into the foibles of his Sangha. He would look into the life of each of his disciples and see many past lives connecting the present situation to past imperfections thus helping the disciple understand his own lineage and his conditioned existence within the framework of a particular difficult situation.

Rafe also shared two Jataka tales with our Sangha. He first told us the well-known tale of The Hungry Tigress, a story that reveals a self-less act of a true Bodhisattva. The thirteenth Dalai-Lama noted this Jataka at the Tibetan Prayer festival and illustrated it as a tale that embodies the virtue of compassion. In one of the Tathagata’s past lives, the Buddha comes upon a hungry tigress who is about to devour her cubs. In a self-less act he feeds himself to the tigress to spare the lives of the cubs.  This story still resonates in our modern world; we see examples of many Bodhisattvas who give themselves completely by performing altruistic humanitarian actions. “What are we willing to do?” Rafe asked our Sangha.

After giving us a dynamic explanation of his own path and The Jataka Tales, Rafe shifted—like a shaman—as he animated the story of The Sage Little Bowman. In this lesser-known tale, a wise young cripple, who is knowledgeable about the way the world operates, and highly-skilled with a bow and arrow, sets out to make a living. He comes upon a mighty man named Bhimasena who is not living up to his full potential; the two men form an unlikely bond. The Sage Little Bowman lives in the shadow of Bhimasena and guides him as Bhimasena saves the kingdom from dangerous beasts. As Bhimasena’s popularity grows, he believes that he no longer needs the young cripple and thinks he can manage well on his own—as he felt he had been taught well; hence, he sends away the cripple. When the kingdom is threatened and Bhimasena cannot aid the king, the Sage Little Bowman comes forth and reveals his true identity: It was he who had the wisdom, knowledge, and skills as the bowman; it was he who had slain the beasts.

In his essay On Fairy-Stories, Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings, examines the fairy tale as having an essential element which he has baptized as a “eucatastrophe”—in which a sudden catastrophic moment ends on a joyous note instead of in lament. The Sage Little Bowman, offers the same concept; in the bleakest moment in this tale the true hero emerges. This archetypical motif can be found in innumerable myths and legends. Rafe examined The Sage Little Bowman as a story that depicts knowledge, wisdom, skillful means, and compassion—all virtues of a true Boddhisattva. 

Rafe then encouraged our Sangha to discuss The Sage Little Bowman. Some members saw this tale as an allegory for our shadow-self often aiding us in ways we could not fathom. Rafe also explained that a handicap that we possess is in many ways a metaphor for recognizing an inherent gift that helps us as we unfold our true nature on this realm which is often similar to Middle Earth. He challenged us to take a great leap and not be like Gollum—who saw himself as a separate entity—but to wake up to no separation.

The Buddha, as Rafe understood was not only a monk, but had been a family man and had faced hardships just as we do today in our hectic world. In a simple definition, we have now “joined the club.”  In The Jataka Tales we begin to understand that the Buddha’s job was to evolve. The obstacles that we face, the Buddha had faced in infinite lifetimes. Buddha’s fate was to emerge into Buddhahood. He too had made mistakes and failed just like all the great heroes in myths and legends; Frodo, King Arthur, and Beowulf experienced their own struggles, but these difficulties became their champions. Like these beloved heroes, Buddha did not surrender: he walked his endless path, gaining in wisdom, compassion, and countless other virtues.

In The Power of Myth, Joseph Campell claims that “the closest thing we have to a planetary mythology is Buddhism. In it all things are potentially Buddha-things.” Rafe Martin asked us to view The Jataka Tales as a gateway to live like a Buddha. In our imperfections we are perfect and in our incompleteness we are complete. 

Rafe Martin's forthcoming book, Endless Path: Awakening With the Buddhist Imagination - Jataka Tales, Zen Practice, and Daily Life, is available in September and can be pre-ordered here.