Jataka Tale_The Golden Goose

This is the second Jataka tale called the Golden Goose. And Jati means birth. These are tales of the previous births, they say, of the Buddha – former lifetimes. Many of them are from when he was an animal. They're kind of like fairy tales, they have characteristics of the fairy tales we tell to children.

As wonderful as these fairy tales are for children, maybe they're really meant for adults. Perhaps adults can apply them and understand the deeper meaning.

Transcript

So this morning I'll continue with telling stories.

Tuesday I started with a Jataka tale.

And Jati means birth.

These tales are of the previous births,

They say,

Of the Buddha,

Former lifetimes.

And many of them are from when he was an animal.

And they're kind of like fairy tales,

They have characteristics of fairy tales that we tell children.

And as wonderful as these fairy tales are for children,

Maybe they're really meant for adults.

Perhaps adults can apply them and understand the deeper meaning in them.

Maybe adults have the best chance of living out the values of some of these tales.

So the tale for today is called The Golden Goose.

It's a Jataka tale.

And it's similar to a European tale of the goose that laid the golden eggs.

It sort of makes me wonder if these ancient stories may have traveled and moved through the world because people were inspired by them and they were meaningful.

So in the Buddhist version of this tale,

There were two farmers,

A husband and a wife,

And their two children.

And they sort of eked out an existence working really hard on their farm,

Just barely growing enough to support themselves and to feed their children.

And it was a really tough life,

You know,

On the edge of poverty and starvation.

And at some point,

The wife started to feel sick.

And she got progressively sicker and sicker.

And it became clear that she wasn't going to survive.

She was going to die.

So as she was laying there in bed,

She made a resolve that she would come back.

She'd be reborn in such a way that she could come back and support her family.

That was her resolve.

And so she died.

The night that she died,

The children had a dream.

And the dream was that their mother came back to see them and said,

Dear ones,

Soon I'll be coming back.

In a few months,

I'll come back and I'll support you.

Make sure that you're okay and that you don't starve.

And when I come back,

You won't recognize me by what I look like.

But I'll identify myself to you and you'll know me.

So the children,

They woke up in the morning,

And they told their father about this wonderful dream.

And the father who was really,

Really heartbroken from the loss of his wife said,

Oh dreams,

They just make it life more difficult.

But just get disappointed and you should forget those kind of dreams.

But the children didn't forget the dreams.

They just kept the dream alive.

And they would talk about it between themselves,

About their dream and how their mother would come back.

And then many months later,

This goose started waddling up the path towards the farm.

And the goose was quite large and fat,

And it was peculiar in that its feathers were golden,

A golden color.

So when the farmer saw this,

He thought,

Oh good food for our dinner.

Finally.

We've been hungry now for days and he went out to capture the goose.

But the goose knew what was happening and ran into the forest and hid for safety.

But later in the day,

The goose came back when the farmer was away cooking.

And it came up to the children who were playing outside and said to them,

My dear children,

I'm your mother and I've come back.

And I'm here to take care of you in this way.

Each day,

Pluck one feather from me,

But only one feather and hold the feather up to the sunlight.

It'll turn to solid gold.

If you have that gold,

You can sell and it can support and take care of you and the family.

Then the goose said,

Do it right now.

So the kids plucked one feather and held it up to the sun.

And sure enough,

Like poof,

It turned into metallic gold.

And they ran back to their father who was cooking in the kitchen and said,

Look what we have.

This goose came along and told us if that is,

If we held up this feather,

It would turn to gold.

And we can have gold.

But there's a caveat to this.

The goose said that we were supposed to pluck only one feather a day.

So the father,

You know,

The farmer was quite surprised and said,

Okay,

So show me.

So they went out and they saw the goose outside.

And the kids said again,

You can only pluck one feather a day.

So the next day they went out and they plucked a feather and sure enough,

They held it up to the sun and it turned to gold.

And they did this every day.

And pretty soon,

Although they didn't become phenomenally wealthy,

They had enough wealth to live safely and comfortably.

And it was a good time for them.

They had enough food and clothes and their basic welfare was taken care of.

So,

In these circumstances,

At some point,

The farmer was getting more and more comfortable.

But as happens,

There was some discontent.

And he thinks to himself,

Well,

There may be a fortune to be made here.

I could get really wealthy from this goose.

What if I plucked all the feathers out?

Then I'll have a big fortune and who knows what I can do then?

But the kids said,

No,

No,

No,

You can't do that.

Just one feather a day.

So the farmer waited and he thought about it and he thought some more and he's like,

Well,

You know,

It's dangerous if I just let the goose live here.

The wolves and foxes might come along and gobble it up and then we'll have no feathers at all.

So it's better to harvest all the feathers now and have wealth than to have the possibility of losing it.

So when the kids were off somewhere playing,

The farmer found the goose and grabbed it and pulled out fistful of feathers,

Pulled all the feathers off the goose and put them in a basket.

Then he held the basket up to the sun so they would turn to gold.

And lo and behold,

Nothing happened.

And so he became a little distraught.

And so the farmer scattered all the feathers on the ground so all of them would get direct sun.

Nothing happened.

And the farmer sort of yelled out in despair,

Oh no.

And the kids heard and they came running over and saw what had happened.

And they said,

Oh no,

Mother told us that we were only to take one feather from the goose at a time.

And the father was like,

Your mother?

No,

No.

And then the farmer trying to rationalize what he had done said,

Well,

You know,

The feathers will grow back.

So they waited some days or weeks,

However long,

And the feathers didn't grow back.

Or they did grow back,

But they came in as gray and kind of dull,

Not gold.

And as they took the feathers out and held it up against the sun,

You know,

Nothing happened.

And after some time,

The goose just flew off and never came back.

But it wasn't a complete disaster because of the feathers they already had.

They did have enough.

They had gathered enough to see that their basic well-being for the rest of their time was met so they could continue living in this way.

And the kids grew up pretty well.

But greed.

You know,

Here we are.

Greed.

All of us are recipients of generosity,

Each of us.

The world is,

In a sense,

Like a golden goose.

You know,

The world,

The earth provides us with feathers that we can harvest and we can take care of and use to live well.

But then we get greedy and afraid of losing,

And we want more and more and more.

You know,

On this planet for hundreds of years,

Even as far back as like thousands of years ago,

3,

000 years ago,

We've been over-consuming and over-farming and destroying our land.

And the civilizations that grew there had died out because the land became infertile in some situations.

So there's a tendency in human beings to overdo it.

Have you noticed?

We take too much.

More and more and more.

And then destroy the very thing that is providing for us.

This is happening again,

You know,

Today in this world.

The drive to consume,

To have,

To want.

We're not carefully content with one feather that's just enough to let us live well and happily.

But instead we strive for more and more and more.

What is your golden goose?

What are the feathers that you collect?

And when is it that you take so much that you can take more than is given,

More than is sustainable,

Maybe even destroy the goose?

This is a good reflection for us.

I wonder how many people have gone into debt that way.

How many have consumed somehow that they can't repay their debts and are in trouble,

Pulling all the feathers from the goose?

So meditation is one of the ways that we learn how to abide in contentment,

Deep satisfaction,

And a deep sense of well-being and peace,

Which is really not dependent on material goods and wealth and having more and more things.

But rather it's a way to grow in a healthy kind of way.

The Buddha used the word abundance when referring to some of these inner qualities that we can develop.

Perhaps the real gold is the gold within.

If we learn how to connect to that inner gold,

We'll find out that we have all the gold that we need to have a happy and contented life.

So may your hearts this day be the golden goose.

Thank you for your kind attention and your practice.