The Hare Who Gave Himself

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the full moon hangs round above the treetops. In a courtyard, a small child holds a star lantern and gazes up at the sky for a long time. Then the child turns to a grandmother and asks in a low voice what the hare on the moon is doing up there.

The grandmother laughs, strokes the child's head, and draws her grandchild down to sit beside her. She says she will tell the story. It is very old, and it comes from the Buddhist tradition. It is a Jataka tale. The Jataka tales are Buddhist stories about the earlier lives of the Buddha. In the scriptures, the little hare in this one is the Buddha, in an earlier life.

Long ago, in a green forest, four friends lived together. There was an otter that swam well in the river. There was a jackal, quick on its feet. There was a monkey that swung through the branches with ease. And there was a small hare, gentle, and the wisest of the four.

The four animals loved one another like brothers. Each found food in its own corner of the forest, and every evening they gathered to trade stories.

One day, a day of observance drew near, a day when people try to live more kindly and give more freely than usual. The hare spoke to the others. "On that day, if anyone hungry comes to beg for food, let us give them our own meals. Giving like this is a good deed." All three friends nodded.

High in the sky, a king of the heavens named Đế Thích heard the promise. He wanted to see whether the hearts of the four animals were true. So he turned himself into an old beggar, in ragged clothes, with an empty belly, and came down to the forest.

The old man reached the riverbank and met the otter first. "I am very hungry," he said, and he asked if the otter had anything to spare. The otter brought out the fish it had caught and offered them politely. The old man nodded and walked on.

Next he met the jackal, who gave him the meat and the milk rice it had found. Then he met the monkey, who picked him a bunch of ripe, fragrant mangoes. Every one of them had something to give. Every one of them shared gladly.

Last of all, the old man came to the hare.

The hare looked at the hungry old man and felt great pity. But then he saw the trouble. The hare ate only grass, and people cannot eat grass. He had nothing at all to offer that would fill the old man's belly.

The little hare sat and thought. Then he looked up, his eyes bright and calm. "Sir," he said, "I have no fish, no rice, and no fruit. But I have myself. Please make a fire. I offer myself, so that you may eat your fill."

The old man stood silent. Such a small hare, and he dared to give away his whole self.

Đế Thích used his power, and a heap of fire appeared. The hare stepped up close. Before going in, he shook himself three times, very softly. If any insect or ant was hiding in his fur, it could crawl out in time and not be hurt along with the hare. Even at the last moment, the hare was thinking of creatures smaller than himself.

Then the hare leaned gently into the fire, as softly as a swan settling onto a lotus pond.

But strangely, the fire was cool, cool as the dew of the night. Not one hair of the hare was burned. It was a fire that Đế Thích himself had made, and he could never have let the hare feel pain. He had only wanted to test the hare's heart. And the heart was so true that it left him speechless.

Đế Thích returned to his true form as a king of the heavens, with light shining all around him. He helped the hare up and held him close. "What a beautiful heart this is," he said. "I want the whole world, for all the ages to come, to know this hare."

So Đế Thích gently lifted the hare and drew the hare's likeness on the round face of the moon. From then on, on any night when the moon is bright, anyone who looks up can see the shadow of a gentle hare there.

The grandmother stopped and looked at her grandchild. Every year at Mid-Autumn, she said, when the moon is roundest and brightest, the family sits together, looks up, and sees that hare. It reminds us that giving with a whole heart is a beautiful thing.

The moon was still round and still bright. In that soft glow, the child saw a small hare sitting quietly, gentle, as if smiling down on the whole family.