Sacred Texts: Buddhism

Buddhism in Translations - § 7. The Great Struggle.

Henry Clarke WarrenPali Canon TranslationsTheravada Buddhism

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This is a narrative excerpt from the Introduction to the Jātaka, a foundational Pali Buddhist text, translated into English. It recounts episodes from the early renunciant life of Siddhartha Gautama — referred to throughout as "the Future Buddha" — beginning with his arrival in the city of Rājagaha as a wandering beggar, where his radiant appearance causes a royal stir and prompts King Bimbisāra to offer him his kingdom, which he refuses in pursuit of "supreme and absolute enlightenment." The narrative then follows his study of the eight stages of meditation under two teachers, Āḷāra Kālāma and Uddaka, which he ultimately rejects as insufficient for enlightenment, before describing the six-year "Great Struggle" of extreme asceticism at Uruvelā — fasting to near-death, suppressing breath, and rebuffing gods who try to sustain him. A distinctive claim the text makes is that these years of mortification were ultimately futile ("like time spent endeavoring to tie the air into knots"), and the Future Buddha's turn back to ordinary food — which causes his five companions to abandon him in disgust — is presented not as failure but as wisdom. The passage is notable for its layered perspective: human, divine, and royal observers all misread the hero's condition at key moments, while the narrative insists his path is legible only from the vantage of his destined Buddhahood.

Buddhism in Translations - § 7. The Great Struggle.

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