| | I haven't studied them thoroughly, but there's often a connection drawn to a present day situation by claims of reincarnation ("in this story, I [the buddha] was the king, the present-day monk Y was the deer, and the courtesan who tricked Y into disrobing was the man who tricked the deer into entering my palace," or "this action in an earlier life is why I now have back pain."), which I take to imply that the story is an allegory meant to apply to that kind of situation. They are basically ethical teachings. I have never heard of any practice based on them, though, and not all of the ones I've read make sense to me as allegories (and I'm pretty sure this interpretation is highly heterodox to traditionalists, who seem to take them literally.) |