ABSTRACT
My investigation in this chapter focuses on the Ja¯takas, which are a part of the Khuddaka Nika¯ya of the Sutta Pit
˙ aka or the first basket of the Pali
Canon. The Ja¯takas are a collection of over five hundred stories that in common parlance are called folklore. Each story conveys a moral that is considered as the basis of righteous conduct by early Buddhists. In the first part of this chapter I will discuss my reasons for selecting the Ja¯taka books for the development of my thesis despite the presence of some uncertainty about their importance in scholarly Buddhist traditions and despite caution from scholars about their use. I will demonstrate that the evaluation of these texts is significant in defining a sense of environment in early Buddhism, and that recent research indicates that I am justified in including them as a source of information. Following this some of the stories contained herein will be assessed for their factual and ethical content to establish how an environmental perspective, both affirmatively and negatively, can be elaborated. The general outcome of this exercise is the non-contentious revelation of an environmental virtue ethics component in them (similar in theme to the one developed in the rest of the Canon). In conclusion, the contradictions that the search for an environmental ethics in the Ja¯takas may generate as well as other obstacles that have to be faced along the way will be highlighted. My final analysis seeks to ascertain the role of the Ja¯takas in the formation and development of the position of early Buddhism on nature not only through their framework of virtues but also through their innate pragmatic nature. Ultimately, I include the Ja¯takas here not only because they are fairly expressive of the thesis I have advanced in the last two chapters, but also because they draw attention to some possible limitations of this position in early Buddhist philosophy.
