The Proud Peacock and the Mallard: The Price of Getting Cocky

The Proud Peacock is one in a series of Jataka Tales from Dharma Publishing. They describe the book this way:
A golden mallard, chosen by the birds to be their king, grants his daughter's wish to select her own mate.  From all available candidates, the princess chooses an elegant peacock.  Delighted, the peacock shows off his beauty.  Realizing his prideful nature, the mallard princess rejects the peacock and chooses a more modest mate.  Deeply ashamed, the peacock utters a hoarse cry of dismay.  To this day, peacocks still make this same sound.

 I used this story with both my primary and upper elementary aged students.
With my primary children, I raised the following questions for discussion:

• Why did the king summon (call) all the birds of the world together?
• Who did the princess choose first?   Why did she choose him?
• Why did the princess change her mind about the peacock?
• Who did the princess choose instead of the peacock? Why did she choose him?
• Who was the Buddha in this story? How is the mallard like the Buddha?
• What would have been a better way for the peacock to behave when he was chosen?
• What does this story teach us about how we should act when someone notices our good qualities?

After our discussion, my little ones colored pictures of both a mallard and peacock. They can be pasted on construction paper with the quote, "Modesty is more beautiful than pride."

This lesson lends itself to fun arts and crafts activities.  It's also a great story to be told with a flannel board and simple felt pieces or acted out in a mini-play.  The only limit is your own creativity with whatever resources and funds you have available.

Here are the pictures I used for the kids to color:

My older students discussed these questions:

• Why would the Buddha share this story?  What is the moral?
• The Buddha is concerned with ending our suffering.  What dangers and suffering does this story help us avoid for ourselves?  for others?
• Can you think of everyday examples of the peacock's behavior?  (Couldn't help but giggle when Justin Beiber's name popped up)
• Can you think of everyday examples of the mallard duck?
• Compare the mallard with our faithful monks.  What are the similarities?
• Initially the princess chose the peacock.  What does this tell us about beauty and charm?  Are they intrinsically bad?  
• Can you think of someone who seemed very attractive to you when you first met, but as you got to see their true character, their vices affected your view of them?  What about the reverse.  Have you ever met someone who seemed rather plain until you got to know them better?  Did it change the way you viewed them physically?

I closed this lesson with a brief meditation.  Towards the end of it I asked the students to ask themselves: Are there areas of my life where I may be in danger of behaving like a peacock?  What can I do to prevent this from happening?

This lesson surprised me.  I've had the book for a few years now but it seemed almost too simplistic to use.  Boy was I wrong.  This simple story stirred up an engaging discussion with my middle school students. Sharing the Buddha's message of humility and inner beauty can lighten the burden our children carry, growing up in a culture that values physical beauty and self-promotion over simplicity and modesty.  

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem!

The Black Bull: Treating and Speaking to Others With Kindness

"Treat others with kindness and your deeds will be rewarded."

This lesson can be shared with children of any age.

Buddha Stories by Demi beautifully illustrates 11 Jataka Tales. Most local libraries have a copy to lend.  It can also be purchased from bookstores in the US.  I pulled this week's story from these sweet pages.

The black bull is dearly loved by its master.  As a calf it was given the name Beauty.  In an attempt to repay his master for his kindness, Beauty persuades him to enter a bull race with a handsome reward for first place.

Beauty is startled and heartbroken at the start of the race when his master whips him and shouts curses upon him.  Shocked by his master's behavior, Beauty loses the race and costs his master a great deal of money.

It is only when both Beauty and his master remember the importance of kind actions and words that they are reconciled and richly rewarded.

Here are some questions I asked the youngest children as we read along:

1.) How did the master feel about Beauty before the contest?

2.) What did the master do to Beauty to try to make him go fast in the race?

3.) Why didn't Beauty win the race?

4.) What did Beauty ask the master to do at the next race?

5.) What happened when the master kindly asked Beauty to race fast?

The older children used the following questions for discussion after the story:

1.) Have you ever had someone tell you to do something in a rude way?
How did it make you feel?

2.) Have you ever asked someone to do something in an angry way?
Did they comply with your request?

3.) How does speaking kindly during conflict help both ourselves and the people with whom we disagree?

4.) How can using Beauty's tactic help us resolve quarrels with our siblings?  friends? teachers? parents?
(We then created some hypothetical conflicts and discussed the best way to speak to those involved.)

After our discussion, we decided to make simple duct tape bracelets to help us remember throughout the week to speak and act kindly.   We folded duct tape over twice longway.  Then using dark fabric markers, the kids chose their own words to write on the tape.  Some decorated their words with stripes and flowers.  Others kept it very simple.  I hot glued the ends with a thin strip of velcro to make them easy to put on and take off.

Unfortunately, I only had my camera phone with me so the pictures are not great.

It's nice to close this lesson with a brief Loving Kindness Meditation.  Invite the children to sit comfortably, close their eyes, and focus on their breathing.  Then guide them in these thoughts:

May I be well, happy, and peaceful.

May my parents be well ,happy and peaceful.

May my teachers be well, happy, and peaceful.

May my family be well, happy, and peaceful.

May my friends be well, happy, and peaceful.

May those who are unkind to me be well, happy, and peaceful.

May all living beings be well, happy, and peaceful.

May all living beings be freed from suffering by the power of Triple Gem.

Kassapa and the Fire Worshipers

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 4 and 7.  However, I plan to use this again with upper elementary students.  Some of my older kids have been asking for more lessons that include art and projects.

Kassapa was the chief of a group of Brahmin hermits who worshiped fire.  In a sacred room they kept a fire burning.  The room also housed a great serpent that was rumored to be a monstrous fire dragon.

The Buddha visited the hermits.  He told Kassapa that he would like to sleep in the room of the sacred fire.  This concerned Kassapa.  He was certain that the serpent would harm the Buddha.  That night the Buddha sat erect in perfect mindfulness.  The fire serpent tried to attack the Buddha.  It spewed it's poison all over, but the Buddha was protected by his special powers.  The serpent was consumed in it's fiery rage.

In the morning, Kassapa entered the fire room, expecting to find the Buddha consumed by the serpent.  He was amazed to find the Buddha alive and the serpent destroyed.  The Buddha said to Kassapa, "His fire has been conquered by my fire."  Kassapa realized that the Buddha was an extraordinary man.  He decided to shave his head, put on robes and follow the Buddha's teaching.

When the other fire worshipers learned that Kassapa had become a disciple of the Buddha, they too decided to become monks.  The Buddha gave a sermon to the men who had worshiped fire.  He said, "The three most powerful fires are greed, ingorance, and hatred.  One must put out these fires to end suffering."

Keep it simple.
I wanted the children to  remember what the Buddha said about the three fires.  Our lesson activities centered around this theme.

Use what you have.
This story is an exciting one for the children.  Rather than reading it from a book, I recommend using props.  Using felt or paper images of the characters and the snake, or dolls and a toy snake would be a nice way to keep their attention.  I'd love to give a few of my son's Lego action figures a bit of a "make-over" for this lesson next year.

Reflection
After the story I laid out a felt cloth and placed three felt images of fire on it.  These were made by cutting brown felt into 6 strips.  Then I cut red or orange felt into the shapes of three flames.  You could use construction paper instead.

The children were asked to recall the three greatest fires.  As they called them out I placed an index card with the word underneath one of the flames.  My stepson is great at making "burning letters".  He made the index cards with the words GREED, IGNORANCE, and HATRED in fancy, flaming letters.

Then I asked, "What did the Buddha say we must do to these fires to end our suffering?  Do we have to make the fires bigger?"  The children all knew that my suggestion was silly.  "You have to put it out!"   Our group was small enough, that we had time for each child to take a turn labeling the three flames and then putting out the fires, by removing the flames from the wood.

We talked about each word in simple terms.
Greed is wanting more and more.  It's wanting things so badly that you are angry when you can't get them.  It's wanting things so badly that you're willing to hurt yourself or others for it.  

Ignorance means to not know about something.  When the Buddha speaks of ignorance he is talking about not understanding the Dharma, his teachings.

Hatred is being so angry that you want to hurt others or yourself.

To help the children remember these three dangerous fires we also did a little pasting project.

They were each given a paper with the words Put out the fires of: at the top.
At the bottom of the paper were the words Anger, Greed, Ignorance. 

 Each child was also given 3 pre-cut paper flames and 6 pre-cut paper logs. 

  They pasted the logs and fire above each word.  The final product looked like this:

When I do this project with my older students I will make a few changes to the presentation.  First, we will read the story aloud together.  Second, instead of a felt board, the three fires will be introduced with three actual candles.  The children will have a chance to label and light the candle.  Other children will then use a snuffer to put out the flames.  Also, when it is time to create the art, I'll give them the paper and scissors and let them create their own interpretation of the fires however they like.

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem!