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Oregon, United States
loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !

Friday, October 17, 2008

a rabbit's reward

Over at Khandro.net, I was perusing their page of hare and rabbit symbolism when I came across the story of why there's a hare in the moon:
In one of his lives, the Bodhisattva was born in the holy city, Varanasi, as a
hare. He had three friends, a monkey, a jackal and an otter. They decided
that they would practice the Perfection (Skt. paramita) of Generosity on the
up-coming fast day, for it was said that for those who observed the virtues at
that time, the merit was greatly multiplied. . .

What did they all offer? Was it good or bad that the Hare got to have a place on the moon? Guess you'll have to go read the story! And stop off to see the very rare striped Sumatran rabbit.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting post. We love hares, though I love them for different reasons to my humans. Ahem.

If the hare survived as a reward for its promise of self sacrifice, then appearing on the moon was a good thing.

That Sumatran hare looks rather tasty (sorry, couldn't help myself)

hehe!