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You hold in your hands a collection of the most beloved stories, teachings and parables attributed to Gautama Buddha, enlightened teacher and sage who lived and taught in the northeastern part of ancient India. His teachings mostly in the form of Jatakas, stories of previous lifetimes, and Sutras, discourses given to monks, composed the foundation of Buddhism. The fact that these teachings have been preserved for approximately twenty five centuries, is due mostly to one monk, Ananda, the Buddha’s closest disciple and primary attendant. Known for his impeccable memory, Ananda was the first person to recollect all of the Buddha’s teachings at the First Buddhist Council which was gathered shortly after the Buddha’s passing, and, as the legend says, lasted for over seven months. After that the teachings were passed on orally for many generations of monks and nuns through repetition and communal recitation.

The first Buddhist scriptures written in Pali, Burmese and Sanskrit are dated to the 1st century BCE, while most of Jatakas are dated to the 3rd-4th century BCE. Only during the second half of the 19th century the first Buddhist texts were translated and introduced into the Western world. The most traditional translation of Jatakas from Pali into English is attributed to E.B. Cowell in his book The Jataka; or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, published in 1895; and the translation of Sutras and Jatakas from Burmese to English is attributed to Captain F. Rogers in his work Buddhaghosha’s Parables, published in 1870. Both of these works were used extensively in putting together this book.

Around the same time Paul Carus, a German-American author and philosopher, also collected ancient Buddhist parables in his masterpiece, The Gospel of Buddha, published for the first time in 1894. The stories he discovered and compiled exhibit a more mystical and magical tone describing the Buddha’s encounters with demons and celestial devas. Furthermore, some of these stories bear a close resemblance to old Chinese and Indian folk tales, while some stories have parallels to the early Christian teachings. For one thing, A Widow’s Mite parable is analogous to A Lesson of the Widow’s Mite from the Synoptic Gospels (Mark 12:41—44), and is thought to be recorded by a Buddhist saint and philosopher Acvaghosha, who lived in India around 150 CE.

This mingling of facts and legends is only natural given that the narrative of the Buddha’s life was retold across cultures, times, and monasteries, and many details were gradually added. So perhaps, instead of asking how these Buddhist scriptures originated, we can ask what do the scriptures do once they enter the world. Conceivably, their ability to catalyze transformations seems to be the best measure of their authenticity. It is believed that the multitude of differences and details in Buddhist scriptures reveals a key to understanding them: the diversity of texts is purposeful and immeasurable because of the Buddha’s intention to meet the needs of everyone he anticipated addressing.

From this perspective, this book is not an exhaustive list of Jatakas and Sutras, but rather a mere scratch on the surface of countless Buddhist scriptures. When selecting and editing the stories I tried to introduce an overview of the different forms of teachings found in Sutras, as well as to present the story of the Buddha and some of his closest disciples. In the end, the choice of stories admittedly happened more out of the personal adoration and preference, rather than any earnest structure. My hope is that other readers find them enriching as well and if not inspirational, then at least entertaining.

May these teachings bring you peace, compassion, joy, wisdom and the gift of unshakable inner freedom.