Essay Week 4: The Many Reincarnations of Buddha

For this weeks reading I read the Jataka Tales Unit by Shedlock. I have to say that I really did enjoy reading these stories. Because of how fun the stories were I think I have decided to read another Indian Unit, but I have not chosen yet which one. I obviously had some favorites from the reading that you can see here, but in reality it was very difficult to choose just a couple of readings to pick as my favorite. I think one of the most enjoyable things about this reading unit was the take on the different animals that were the reincarnation of Buddha! It was very fun to find out the moral of the story and see how everything panned out. I also really liked that all of the reading were under 800 words. This made reading a breeze because I was able to take pauses if I need to and the stories did not get too long and boring. They were kept short and pretty understandable for the main point. This is something that I had trouble with in the Odyssey Unit. 

Buddha: Philosophers of the Axial Age

I think this reading would go really well with pretty much any other reading about Buddha. In terms of background information that I would have wanted I think some more insight into Buddhism Philosophy in the introduction would have been useful. I think I understood the readings pretty well, but it may have been more enhanced with some more general knowledge about Buddhist Philosophy. I found the readings so interesting that I ended up doing some research on my own anyways!

I was not expecting to do a reading like The Jataka Tales Unit, but I am very happy it has found its way to me. They are simple and straight forward reads and they could be very easily compared to Aesop's Fables. I would highly recommend reading either one of the Jakata Tales Unit Readings!