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===Short bio of Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche===
==Jataka No. 407==
Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche was born in Rabshu in the province of Kham in eastern Tibet. He was born at sunrise on Mahakala Day, the twenty-ninth day, of the second month in the Year of the Wood Mouse, 1924. On this day, very early in the morning, Rinpoche's mother went to fetch water from the stream, carrying the full vessel of water home. Rinpoche was then born with no pain to his mother.


According to Tibetan tradition, all of these special circumstances show a very auspicious birth. Rinpoche's father was a devoted Manjushri practitioner who constantly recited the Manjushri Sutra. He would go to sleep reciting the sutra and when he woke up, he simply continued with his recitation. His practice was so strong that he was known to benefit even animals when they would die. When Rinpoche was quite young, his father taught him to read and write, as well as study and memorize Dharma texts. Rinpoche decided at a young age to follow the path of his older brothers, who were both monks. At the age of twelve he entered Thrangu Monastery in eastern Tibet.
===Mahakapi Jataka -- The Great Monkey King===


When he was eighteen years old, Rinpoche went to Tsurphu Monastery to visit the Seat of His Holiness, the Sixteenth Karmapa and the following year Rinpoche received his gelong vows from the Eleventh Tai Situ Rinpoche at Palpung Monastery. After the gelong ordination, Rinpoche returned to Thrangu Monastery, and soon after this he joined the year-long Vairochana group retreat, special to Thrangu Monastery. By the end of the Vairochana retreat, Rinpoche was very enthusiastic to participate in the traditional three-year retreat, which he began shortly thereafter. After completing the three-year retreat, Rinpoche expressed the heartfelt wish to stay in retreat for the rest of his life; however, the Eighth Traleg Rinpoche strongly advised him to come out to receive transmissions from Kongtrul Rinpoche and to join Thrangu Rinpoche and other lamas in the newly formed shedra (monastic college) at Thrangu Monastery. Traleg Rinpoche felt that Khenpo Rinpoche had attained insight and realization in his years of retreat and that this education would be of great benefit to many students in the future.
One day in [[Jetavana]] Monastery Bhikkhus began talking about the good that the Buddha did for his relatives. When the Buddha asked them about their subject, and they told him, he said, "Bhikkhus, this is not the first time the Tathágata has done good works to benefit his relatives." Then he told this story of the past.


In 1954, when Rinpoche was thirty years old and had completed his advanced training, he received the title of khenpo. For the next four years he was an attendant and tutor to Thrangu Rinpoche. They traveled together teaching, studying, and benefiting others. By the late fifties the threat of the Communist Chinese was creating a progressively more dangerous situation for the Tibetan people. In 1958 Rinpoche left Thrangu Monastery along with Thrangu Rinpoche, Zuru Tulku Rinpoche, and the three-year-old Ninth Traleg Rinpoche. After two and a half months they arrived at Tsurphu Monastery. His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, with his profound vision, was aware of the dangers, and told them they must leave immediately for Sikkim. In March 1959, the lamas left Tsurphu. The group quickly reached the border between Tibet and Bhutan then traveled to Buxador, located at the border of India and Bhutan where a refugee camp was set up by the Indian government. During this time, due to the heat and unhygienic conditions, disease spread rapidly throughout the camp, and by his eighth year there, Rinpoche had become terribly sick. In 1967, Rinpoche went to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, the seat of His Holiness the Karmapa in India. Since his health continued to decline, His Holiness sent him to teach at Tilokpur, a nunnery in Himachael Pradesh founded by His Holiness and Sister Palmo. Rinpoche's health improved while he was in this area; however, when he returned to Rumtek, his condition worsened once again. His Holiness then sent Rinpoche to Tashi Choling Monastery in Bhutan. Unfortunately his health again grew worse, leading to a long and serious hospital stay. Upon His Holiness's return from the United States in 1975, Rinpoche returned to Rumtek. In this same year, Khenpo Rinpoche received the title of choje-lama ("superior Dharma master") from His Holiness the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa. For so many years Rinpoche had been ill with tuberculosis, and now he was close to dying. He asked His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa if he could go into retreat for the rest of his life. In response His Holiness instead asked Rinpoche to go to the United States as his representative in order to establish his seat in America, to be called Karma Triyana Dharmachakra. Rinpoche was initially unable to obtain a visa due to his illness, but soon he acquired a special type of visa that enabled him to enter the United States specifically for the purpose of receiving medical treatment.  
Long, long ago, when [[Brahmadatta]] was reigning in [[Baranasi]], the Bodhisattva was born as a monkey in the Himalayas. When he was fully grown, he was extremely strong and vigorous and became the leader of a troop of eighty thousand monkeys.


Years later, when His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa visited the United States, Rinpoche thanked him for saving his life. His Holiness responded by telling Rinpoche that if he had stayed in India he would have died. By February 1976, Rinpoche was on an airplane bound for New York City, to begin a different life as teacher of the Dharma in a culture and environment far removed from his home in eastern Tibet. When Rinpoche arrived in New York, he spent one month in the hospital receiving treatment, but it took a year for him to regain his weight and become strong and healthy again. Rinpoche gave his first teachings in New York City at what was to become the first KTC (Karma Thegsum Choling) center in the United States. Soon more centers were established, and when His Holiness visited again in 1977, the search began for a permanent site for His Holiness's seat in America. His Holiness had told Khenpo Rinpoche that he should open the new center on the auspicious day of Saga Dawa in 1978. Earlier in the year they had purchased the Mead House, located on a mountaintop in Woodstock, New York. The day Karma Triyana Dharmachakra opened was the very day (the fifteenth day of the fifth Tibetan month in 1978, May 25, 1978) that His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa had commanded Rinpoche to do so. Since this time, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche has been teaching extensively with a warmth and directness that communicates the compassionate wisdom of the Kagyu lineage. The Venerable Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche is the Abbot of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the North American seat of His Holiness the Gyalwa Karmapa, head of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. Rinpoche is also the retreat master at Karme Ling in upstate New York.
On the bank of the Ganges there was an enormous mango tree, with two massive branches so thick with leaves it looked like a mountain. Its sweet fruit was of exquisite fragrance and flavor. One branch spread over the bank of the river, but the other extended over the water. One day, while the monkey king was eating the succulent fruit, he thought, "If any of this fruit ever fell into the river, great danger could come to us." To prevent this, he ordered the monkeys to pick all the mango flowers or tiny fruit from that branch. One fruit, however, was hidden by an ant's nest and escaped the monkeys' attention. When it ripened, it fell into the river.


===Primary Teachers===
At that time, the King of [[Baranasi]] was bathing and amusing himself in the river. Whenever the king bathed in the river, he had nets stretched both upstream and downstream from where he was. The mango floated down the river and stuck in the net upstream from the king. That evening, as the king was leaving, the fishermen pulled in the net and found the fruit. As they had never seen a fruit like this before, they showed it to the king.


===Primary Lineage===
"What is this fruit?" the king asked.


===Publications===
"We do not know, sire," they answered.


===Internal Links===
"Who will know?"


===External Links===
"The foresters, sire."
*[http://www.whatever.com WHATEVER TEXT YOU WRITE AFTER THE LINK WILL APPEAR ON THE PAGE (the link itself won't appear)]


[[Category:Tibetan Buddhist Teachers]]
The king summoned the foresters, who told him that the fruit was a mango. The king cut it with a knife and, after having the foresters eat some, tasted it himself. He also gave some of the fruit to the ministers and to his wives.
[[Category:Kagyu Masters]]
 
The king could not forget the magnificent flavor of the ripe mango. Obsessed with desire for the new fruit, he called the foresters again and asked where the tree stood. When he learned that it was on the bank of the river, he had many rafts joined together and sailed upstream to find it. In due course, the king and his retinue arrived at the site of the huge tree.
 
The king went ashore and set up a camp. After having eaten some of the delectable mangoes, he retired for the night on a bed prepared at the foot of the tree. Fires were lit and guards set on each side.
 
At midnight, after the men had fallen asleep and all was quiet, the monkey king came with his troop. The eighty thousand monkeys moved from branch to branch-eating mangoes. The noise woke the king, who roused his archers.
 
"Surround those monkeys eating mangoes and shoot them," he ordered. "Tomorrow we will dine on mango fruit and monkey's flesh."
 
The archers readied their bows to obey the king. The monkeys saw the archers and realized that all means of escape had been cut off. Shivering in fear of death, they ran to their leader and cried, "Sire, there are men with bows all around the tree preparing to shoot us. What can we do?"
 
"Do not fear," he comforted them. "I will save your lives." Then he climbed onto the branch stretching over the river. Springing from the end of it, he jumped a hundred bow-lengths and landed on the opposite bank of the Ganges. Judging the distance he had jumped, he thought, "That is how far I came." Then he found a long vine and cut it, thinking, "This much will be fastened to a tree, and this much will go across the river." He secured one end of the vine to a sturdy tree and the other around his own waist. Then he again leapt across the river with the speed of a cloud blown by the wind. In his calculation, however, he had forgotten to include the length to be tied around his own waist, so he could not reach the trunk of the mango tree. He reached out and grabbed the end of a branch firmly with both hands. He signaled to the troop of monkeys and cried, "Quick! Step on my back and run along this vine to safety. Good luck to you all!"
 
The eighty thousand monkeys, each in turn, respectfully saluted the monkey king, asked his pardon, and escaped in this way. The last monkey in the troop, however, had long resented the leader and wished to overthrow him. When he saw the monkey king hanging there, he exulted, "This is my chance to see the last of my enemy!" Climbing onto a high branch, he flung himself down on the monkey king's back with a dreadful blow that broke his heart. Having caused his rival excruciating pain, the wicked monkey triumphantly escaped and left the monkey king to suffer alone.
 
Having seen all that had happened as he lay on his bed, the king thought, "This noble monkey king, not caring for his own life, has ensured the safety of his troop. It would be wrong to destroy such an animal. I will have him brought down and taken care of." He ordered his men to lower the monkey gently down to a raft on the Ganges. After the monkey had been brought ashore and washed, the king anointed him with the purest oil. Spreading an oiled skin on his own bed and laying the monkey king on it, the king covered him with a yellow robe. After the noble animal had been given sugared water to drink, the king himself took a low seat and addressed him, "Noble monkey, you made yourself a bridge for all the other monkeys to pass over to safety. What are you to them, and what are they to you?" he asked.
 
The monkey explained, "Great king, I guard the herd. I am their lord and chief. When they were filled with fear of your archers, I leapt a great distance to save them. After I had tied a vine around my waist, I returned to this mango tree. My strength was almost gone, but I managed to hold the branch so that my monkeys could pass over my back and reach safety. Because I could save them, I have no fear of death. Like a righteous king, I could guarantee the happiness of those over whom I used to reign. Sire, understand this truth! If you wish to be a righteous ruler, the happiness of your kingdom, your cities, and your people must be dear to you. It must be dearer than life itself."
 
After teaching the king in this way, the monkey king died. The king gave orders that the monkey king should be given a royal funeral. He ordered his wives to carry torches to the cemetery with their hair disheveled. The ministers sent a hundred wagonloads of wood for the funeral pyre. When the regal ceremony was over, the ministers took the skull to the king. The king built a shrine at the monkey's burial place, and made offerings of incense and flowers. He had the skull inlaid with gold, raised on a spear, and carried in front of the procession returning to Baranasi. There he put it at the royal gate and paid homage to it with incense and flowers. The whole city was decorated, and the skull was honored for seven days. For the rest of his life the king revered the skull as a relic, offering incense and garlands. Established in the wonderful teaching of the monkey king, he gave alms and performed other good deeds. He ruled his kingdom righteously and became destined for heaven.
 
After the lesson, the Buddha declared the Truths and identified the Birth: "At that time the king was Ánanda, the monkey retinue was this assembly, the wicked monkey was Devadatta, and I myself was the monkey king."
 
 
Footnotes
 
1. Robes, food, lodgings, and medicines.
 
2. The asuras, the predecessors of the devas, lost their heaven because Sakka was able to expel them when they were too drunk to fight him.
 
3. The Buddha Kassapa was the Buddha immediately preceding Gotama in the lineage of the Buddhas.
 
4. Gold, silver, pearls, gems, cat's eyes, diamonds and coral.
 
5. The belli (beluva or vilva) is the Bengal quince.
 
----
 
Retold by [[Ken & Visakha Kawasaki]]
 
Buddhist Publication Society<br>
Bodhi Leaves BL 138<br>
Copyright © 1996 Ken & Visakha Kawasaki<br>
For free distribution only<br>
You may print copies of this work for your personal use.<br>
You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computer networks,<br>
provided that you charge no fees for its distribution or use.<br>
Otherwise, all rights reserved<br>
[[Buddhist Publication Society]]<br>
P.O. Box 61<br>
54, Sangharaja Mawatha<br>
Kandy, Sri Lanka<br>
This electronic edition was transcribed directly from PageMaker files provided by the BPS.<br>
<br>
 
[[Category:Pali Translation]]

Latest revision as of 07:34, 16 January 2006

Jataka No. 407

Mahakapi Jataka -- The Great Monkey King

One day in Jetavana Monastery Bhikkhus began talking about the good that the Buddha did for his relatives. When the Buddha asked them about their subject, and they told him, he said, "Bhikkhus, this is not the first time the Tathágata has done good works to benefit his relatives." Then he told this story of the past.

Long, long ago, when Brahmadatta was reigning in Baranasi, the Bodhisattva was born as a monkey in the Himalayas. When he was fully grown, he was extremely strong and vigorous and became the leader of a troop of eighty thousand monkeys.

On the bank of the Ganges there was an enormous mango tree, with two massive branches so thick with leaves it looked like a mountain. Its sweet fruit was of exquisite fragrance and flavor. One branch spread over the bank of the river, but the other extended over the water. One day, while the monkey king was eating the succulent fruit, he thought, "If any of this fruit ever fell into the river, great danger could come to us." To prevent this, he ordered the monkeys to pick all the mango flowers or tiny fruit from that branch. One fruit, however, was hidden by an ant's nest and escaped the monkeys' attention. When it ripened, it fell into the river.

At that time, the King of Baranasi was bathing and amusing himself in the river. Whenever the king bathed in the river, he had nets stretched both upstream and downstream from where he was. The mango floated down the river and stuck in the net upstream from the king. That evening, as the king was leaving, the fishermen pulled in the net and found the fruit. As they had never seen a fruit like this before, they showed it to the king.

"What is this fruit?" the king asked.

"We do not know, sire," they answered.

"Who will know?"

"The foresters, sire."

The king summoned the foresters, who told him that the fruit was a mango. The king cut it with a knife and, after having the foresters eat some, tasted it himself. He also gave some of the fruit to the ministers and to his wives.

The king could not forget the magnificent flavor of the ripe mango. Obsessed with desire for the new fruit, he called the foresters again and asked where the tree stood. When he learned that it was on the bank of the river, he had many rafts joined together and sailed upstream to find it. In due course, the king and his retinue arrived at the site of the huge tree.

The king went ashore and set up a camp. After having eaten some of the delectable mangoes, he retired for the night on a bed prepared at the foot of the tree. Fires were lit and guards set on each side.

At midnight, after the men had fallen asleep and all was quiet, the monkey king came with his troop. The eighty thousand monkeys moved from branch to branch-eating mangoes. The noise woke the king, who roused his archers.

"Surround those monkeys eating mangoes and shoot them," he ordered. "Tomorrow we will dine on mango fruit and monkey's flesh."

The archers readied their bows to obey the king. The monkeys saw the archers and realized that all means of escape had been cut off. Shivering in fear of death, they ran to their leader and cried, "Sire, there are men with bows all around the tree preparing to shoot us. What can we do?"

"Do not fear," he comforted them. "I will save your lives." Then he climbed onto the branch stretching over the river. Springing from the end of it, he jumped a hundred bow-lengths and landed on the opposite bank of the Ganges. Judging the distance he had jumped, he thought, "That is how far I came." Then he found a long vine and cut it, thinking, "This much will be fastened to a tree, and this much will go across the river." He secured one end of the vine to a sturdy tree and the other around his own waist. Then he again leapt across the river with the speed of a cloud blown by the wind. In his calculation, however, he had forgotten to include the length to be tied around his own waist, so he could not reach the trunk of the mango tree. He reached out and grabbed the end of a branch firmly with both hands. He signaled to the troop of monkeys and cried, "Quick! Step on my back and run along this vine to safety. Good luck to you all!"

The eighty thousand monkeys, each in turn, respectfully saluted the monkey king, asked his pardon, and escaped in this way. The last monkey in the troop, however, had long resented the leader and wished to overthrow him. When he saw the monkey king hanging there, he exulted, "This is my chance to see the last of my enemy!" Climbing onto a high branch, he flung himself down on the monkey king's back with a dreadful blow that broke his heart. Having caused his rival excruciating pain, the wicked monkey triumphantly escaped and left the monkey king to suffer alone.

Having seen all that had happened as he lay on his bed, the king thought, "This noble monkey king, not caring for his own life, has ensured the safety of his troop. It would be wrong to destroy such an animal. I will have him brought down and taken care of." He ordered his men to lower the monkey gently down to a raft on the Ganges. After the monkey had been brought ashore and washed, the king anointed him with the purest oil. Spreading an oiled skin on his own bed and laying the monkey king on it, the king covered him with a yellow robe. After the noble animal had been given sugared water to drink, the king himself took a low seat and addressed him, "Noble monkey, you made yourself a bridge for all the other monkeys to pass over to safety. What are you to them, and what are they to you?" he asked.

The monkey explained, "Great king, I guard the herd. I am their lord and chief. When they were filled with fear of your archers, I leapt a great distance to save them. After I had tied a vine around my waist, I returned to this mango tree. My strength was almost gone, but I managed to hold the branch so that my monkeys could pass over my back and reach safety. Because I could save them, I have no fear of death. Like a righteous king, I could guarantee the happiness of those over whom I used to reign. Sire, understand this truth! If you wish to be a righteous ruler, the happiness of your kingdom, your cities, and your people must be dear to you. It must be dearer than life itself."

After teaching the king in this way, the monkey king died. The king gave orders that the monkey king should be given a royal funeral. He ordered his wives to carry torches to the cemetery with their hair disheveled. The ministers sent a hundred wagonloads of wood for the funeral pyre. When the regal ceremony was over, the ministers took the skull to the king. The king built a shrine at the monkey's burial place, and made offerings of incense and flowers. He had the skull inlaid with gold, raised on a spear, and carried in front of the procession returning to Baranasi. There he put it at the royal gate and paid homage to it with incense and flowers. The whole city was decorated, and the skull was honored for seven days. For the rest of his life the king revered the skull as a relic, offering incense and garlands. Established in the wonderful teaching of the monkey king, he gave alms and performed other good deeds. He ruled his kingdom righteously and became destined for heaven.

After the lesson, the Buddha declared the Truths and identified the Birth: "At that time the king was Ánanda, the monkey retinue was this assembly, the wicked monkey was Devadatta, and I myself was the monkey king."


Footnotes

1. Robes, food, lodgings, and medicines.

2. The asuras, the predecessors of the devas, lost their heaven because Sakka was able to expel them when they were too drunk to fight him.

3. The Buddha Kassapa was the Buddha immediately preceding Gotama in the lineage of the Buddhas.

4. Gold, silver, pearls, gems, cat's eyes, diamonds and coral.

5. The belli (beluva or vilva) is the Bengal quince.

Retold by Ken & Visakha Kawasaki

Buddhist Publication Society
Bodhi Leaves BL 138
Copyright © 1996 Ken & Visakha Kawasaki
For free distribution only
You may print copies of this work for your personal use.
You may re-format and redistribute this work for use on computer networks,
provided that you charge no fees for its distribution or use.
Otherwise, all rights reserved
Buddhist Publication Society
P.O. Box 61
54, Sangharaja Mawatha
Kandy, Sri Lanka
This electronic edition was transcribed directly from PageMaker files provided by the BPS.

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