Book cover of The Jatakas

Book description

When my concentrated mind was purified; I directed it to the knowledge of the recollection of past lives' -The Buddha on the night of his enlightenment
Associated with the living traditions of folk tale; drama and epic; the Jatakas recount the development of the Bodhisatta-the being destined to become the…


When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked The Jatakas as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

More popular even than the Dhammapada, and often illustrated in Buddhist architecture, are the Jataka Tales, a collection of stories from the previous lives of the Buddha. The jatakas (‘birth stories’) are premised on the night of the Buddha’s enlightenment, during which he remembered hundreds of thousands of former births.

In these past lives, he was not yet a Buddha, but a bodhisattva, which, in the Theravada tradition, is someone who has resolved to become a Buddha and received this confirmation or prediction from a living Buddha. Thus, in the Jataka Tales, the bodhisattva, having been inspired by his encounters…

If you love The Jatakas...

Ad

Book cover of December on 5C4

December on 5C4 by Adam Strassberg,

Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!

On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…

Want books like The Jatakas?

Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 2 books like The Jatakas.

Browse books like The Jatakas

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,278

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

📚 If you like The Jatakas, you might also like...

Book cover of The Bridge: Connecting The Powers of Linear and Circular Thinking

The Bridge by Kim Hudson,

The Bridge provides a compassionate and well researched window into the worlds of linear and circular thinking. A core pattern to the inner workings of these two thinking styles is revealed, and most importantly, insight into how to cross the distance between them. Some fascinating features emerged such as, circular…

Book cover of And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown

And Then They Were Gone by Ron Cabral,

Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger.

The authors taught in a small high school in San Francisco where Reverend Jim…