Week 5 Reading Dairy: Jatakas (Shedlock)

The reading unit I chose this week was the Jatakas (Shedlock).

When I read The Parrot That Fed His Parents, it caught my eye. It caused me to reflect back on all the things that my parents have provided me throughout my life. Like that parrot, I will definitely take care of my parents in their old age.

I also enjoyed reading The Bull That Proved His Gratitude. In ways I can relate that to The Parrot That Fed His Parents. The parrot in that reading is also proving his gratitude to his parents by feeding them, like the bull is proving his gratitude to the old women by obtaining money.

The Monkey that Saved the Hero made me a bit curious. There didn't seem to be a hero in the reading that was saved. The monkey king saved his entire 80,000 troupe from the water ogre. So I was a little confused at to why the title of the reading says that the monkey was saving a hero.

Grandmother's Golden Dish reminds me of a term that called "sharking' in the serving business. "Sharking" is where a waiter waits a the front of the restaurant to sit a table in their own section, breaking the certain rotation that is in place for all the servers. I one had a coworker who did this; that table of four people ended up spending 20 dollars in the entirety of their meal, and the waitress got around 3 dollars for a tip. Needless to say she was not excited about that table.

How the Antelope Was Caught reminds me of my parents dog. Every time they eat some sherbet ice cream, and are at the end of the bowl, they scrape the bottom of the bowl to get the last of it. When this happens, if their dog is in another room, he will immediately come to their side. They normally let him lick the bowl clean. It has turned into a Pavlovian response for him.

In The River Fish and the Monkey, I was surprised that the fisherman were asking such a high price for the fish when they knew not that there was a package full of money inside of it. The river spirit must have powers beyond that of just stuff within the river.

I was really confused after reading The Poisonous Trees, the stanza that the Bodhisatta says at the end of didn't make sense to me. After a while I realized that because the tree is not hard to climb, and there are plenty of fruit on its branches, then it must be bad fruit that grows. It's a clever way to realize what kind of tree that is.