One story tells of the Bodhisattva being born as a Banyan deer in the forest of Kosala, whose king hunted deer every day with his friends in the forest, often riding through carefully planted fields in the chase. The farmers in exasperation enclosed an area where the king could hunt without destroying their crops. Inside this area the deer agreed that, rather than having many injured and many more frightened each day, one deer would be selected by lot for the royal hunt. This worked well until the lot fell to a mother with a newborn fawn. Distressed, she asked if some other deer would take her place so that the life of her fawn might be spared. No one volunteered until the Banyan, king of the deer, came forward and himself took her place.

When the king arrived and saw the noble beast standing before him, he drew his bow with delight. The deer, unflinching, showed no fear, its eyes steady and full of love. The king's arm trembled. For the first time in his life he felt for a deer, recognizing its feelings and its courage. Lowering his bow he said, "Forgive me, Noble Beast, I grant you your life."

The Banyan deer replied, "Your Majesty, though you grant immunity to me, what is to happen to my herd?"

The king was moved. "I grant them their lives. From now throughout my kingdom there shall be no more killing of any beast of the forest, bird of the air, or fish of the water!"

So it was that the Buddha-to-be, when incarnated as a deer, established the king and his kingdom of Kosala in the practice of virtue.

Another story is that of The Demon with Matted Hair. Once upon a time, when Brahmadatta was King of Benares, the Bodhisattva was born as the son of the king's first wife. People rejoiced and prophets announced that the child would become famous throughout India for his skill with the "five weapons" -- bow, spear, sword, club, and shield. Hearing this, the king named his son Prince of the Five Weapons and, when the child had attained sixteen years, sent him to a far-famed teacher to learn their use. This he did, becoming so proficient that he was given the five weapons as a reward. Armed and confident he set out to return to Benares. He came to a thick forest where travelers warned him against a demon with matted hair that kills everyone he sees. But the Buddha-to-be was fearless and continued on into the heart of the forest. Sure enough, there stood the terrible demon who "made himself tall as a palm tree; his head was the size of a pagoda, his eyes as big as saucers," with two great tusks protruding from his hawk-like face.

"Stop!" shouted the demon. "I want you for breakfast." The prince did stop -- to fit his bow, and he shot an arrow straight at the demon's heart. The arrow, alas, stuck in his matted hair. Not deterred, he shot again, and yet again. Fifty times he shot and fifty arrows stuck in the demon's matted hair. He drew his sword, it stuck too. He attacked with his spear. He swung his club. Then he addressed the demon, "I am Prince of the Five Weapons. Today I am going to pound you and grind you to powder!" and with a mighty shout he leapt at the monster; hit him with his right fist, then with his left. He kicked him with one foot, then with the other, and finally with all his might he butted him with his head -- all successively stuck in the demon's matted hair!

Thus the young prince was "five times snared, caught fast in five places; hanging suspended; yet he felt no fear -- was not even nervous." "Strange," thought the demon, "here is a noble man! More than man is he! Never such a one have I seen!" And he asked aloud: "Why are you not frightened to death?"

"Why should I fear?" answered the prince. "In one life a man can die but once. Besides in my belly is a thunderbolt; if you eat me, it will tear you to pieces." (To Buddhists, a thunderbolt signifies spiritual knowledge.)

Hearing this, the demon was frightened to death himself, and let the prince go, saying: "Young Sir, you are a lion of a man. I set you free."

And so the prince departed -- after he had explained to the demon what would be the result if he persisted in evil, and the benefits of the five virtues. When he reached Benares he was royally welcomed, and later became king, ruling with righteousness, giving alms and doing good deeds.

This story of the Demon with Matted Hair is so unusual, yet so reminiscent of an episode in the Uncle Remus tale of Brer Rabbit that one commentator believes it was carried by Buddhists from India to South Africa and transported via slave ships to the New World. Told to children on the plantations, it was written down by J. C. Harris. The episode tells how Brer Fox, annoyed with Brer Rabbit, "fit up a contrapshun, what he calls Tar Baby." Brer Rabbit passed the time of day with Tar Baby but, annoyed at its obstinate silence, hit it with his right fist, then his left, kicked it with both his feet and butted it with his head, each of which successively stuck in the "contrapshun."

This five-point attack on Tar Baby and the Demon with Matted Hair is obviously symbolic. In India rabbits have their likeness seen on the face of the moon, and it is generally believed that an eclipse of the moon occurs when it is "almost swallowed up" by a demon with matted hair!

In our Jataka tale the Prince of the Five Weapons is an incarnation of the Buddha-to-be, yet in an earlier incarnation this same Bodhisattva as a misguided, naked, "matted hair ascetic" learned firsthand the worthlessness and peril of the "solitary" path -- that asceticism which seeks spiritual advancement by concentrating on self and undergoing exaggerated austerities.

Philosophically, the matted hair demon characterizes the passivity, inertia, and ignorance in nature and in ourselves which must be "conquered and transmuted"; symbolizes also the precosmic Darkness, the Chaos before "creation," before the kingdoms of lives were arranged into the orderly and harmoniously functioning Cosmos.

Fables have lasting appeal because of their many levels of meaning and because in their heroes we see ourselves. By their ingenious examples we learn how to disentangle ourselves from materialistic involvement, and how to develop the use of the five weapons of spiritual attainment so that, when in the end we triumph, we will have helped not only ourselves, but others on the journey towards perfection.

(From Sunrise magazine, June/July 1987; copyright © 1987 Theosophical University Press)