GENEROUS WISDOM: Commentaries by H.H. the Dalai Lama XIV on the Jatakamala

Four teachings on the Jatakamala: Garland of Birth Stories of Buddha were given by His Holiness during the Great Prayer Festival in Dharamsala. The theme is the bodhisattvas' perfection of generosity--but His Holiness also speaks on the perfection of ethics and patience, dependent-arising and karma.

Generous Wisdom is a set of four commentaries on the Jatakamala: Garland of Birth Stories of Buddha given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during the annual Great Prayer Festival that follows Tibetan new year in Dharamsala, keeping alive the tradition started by Tsongkhapa in 1409. This work is probably the first of its kind, for it is not just a story-telling but brings new meaning to life when one reads through the book.

Though the theme of this work is the perfection of generosity of the bodhisattvas, His Holiness speaks comprehensively on other perfections such as ethics and patience. He also speaks at length on such concepts as karmic action, dependent-arising and the four classes of reason applied in Buddhism to study phenomena, which correlate with modern scientific methodology.

"It is Buddhism which represents the Tibetan identity." This is the conviction central to what His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama has taught in his recent Commentaries on The Jatakamala: Garland of Birth Stories. A representative four Commentaries--here translated for the first time--have been included in this collection.

All of the stories have as their theme--as do the stories upon which they are based--the practice of generosity, first of the Buddhist Six Perfections. Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned by Tibetans from these Commentaries, then, is to rediscover their true identity by being generous. That this lesson might well apply to other people regardless of nationality goes without saying.

Generosity is not all of Buddhist practice, of course. His Holiness offers counsel on a whole range of behaviors in a wide array of life situations. Thus a second major emphasis becomes clear; any action must derive from a right understanding of one's faith. In order to understand Buddhism, he repeatedly notes, we must study it, testing both our powers of rational analysis and the rationality of the Buddha's teachings.