How the Buffalo were Released Unto Earth

In the first days a powerful being named Humpback owned all the buffalo. He kept them in a corral in the mountains north of San Juan, where he lived with his young son. Not one buffalo would Humpback release for the people on earth, nor would he share any meat with those who lived near him.

Coyote decided that something should be done to release the buffalo from Humpback's corral. He called the people to a council. "Humpback will not give us any buffalo," Coyote said. "Let us all go over to his corral and make a plan to release them."

They camped in the mountains near Humpback's place, and after dark they made a careful inspection of his buffalo enclosure. The stone walls were too high to climb, and the only entrance was through the back door of Humpback's house.

After four days Coyote summoned the people to another council, and asked them to offer suggestions for releasing the buffalo. "There is no way," said one man. "To release the buffalo we must go into Humpback's house, and he is too powerful a being for us to do that."

"I have a plan," Coyote said. "For four days we have secretly watched Humpback and his young son go about their daily activities. Have you not observed that the boy does not own a pet of any kind?"

The people did not understand what this had to do with releasing the buffalo, but they knew that Coyote was a great schemer and they waited for him to explain. "I shall change myself into a killdeer," Coyote said. "In the morning when Humpback's son goes down to the spring to get water, he will find a killdeer with a broken wing. He will want this bird for a pet and will take it back into the house. Once I am in the house I can fly into the corral, and the cries of a killdeer will frighten the buffalo into a stampede. They will come charging out through Humpback's house and be released upon the earth."

The people thought this was a good plan, and the next Morning when Humpback's son came down the path to the spring he found a killdeer with a crippled wing. As Coyote had foreseen, the boy picked up the bird and carried it into the house.

"Look here," the boy cried. "This is a very good bird!"

"It is good for nothing!" Humpback shouted. "All the birds and animals and people are rascals and schemers." Above his fierce nose Humpback wore a blue mask, and through its slits his eyes glittered. His basket headdress was shaped like a cloud and was painted black with a zig-zag streak of yellow to represent lightning. Buffalo horns protruded from the sides.

"It is a very good bird," the boy repeated.

"Take it back where you found it!" roared Humpback, and his frightened son did as he was told.

As soon as the killdeer was released it returned to where the people were camped and changed back to Coyote. "I have failed," he said, "but that makes no difference. I will try again in the morning. Perhaps a small animal will be better than a bird."

The next morning when Humpback's son went to the spring, he found a small dog there, lapping at the water. The boy picked up the dog at once and hurried back into the house. "Look here!" he cried. "What a nice pet I have."

"How foolish you are, boy!" Humpback growled. "A dog is good for nothing. I'll kill it with my club."

The boy held tight to the dog, and started to run away crying.

"Oh, very well," Humpback said. "But first let me test that animal to make certain it is a dog. All animals in the world are schemers." He took a coal of fire from the hearth and brought it closer and closer to the dog's eyes until it gave three rapid barks. "It is a real dog," Humpback declared. "You may keep it in the buffalo corral, but not in the house."

This of course was exactly what Coyote wanted. As soon as darkness fell and Humpback and his son went to sleep, Coyote opened the back door of the house. Then he ran among the buffalo, barking as loud as he could. The buffalo were badly frightened because they had never before heard a dog bark. When Coyote ran nipping at their heels, they stampeded toward Humpback's house and entered the rear door. The pounding of their hooves awakened Humpback, and although he jumped out of bed and tried to stop them, the buffalo smashed down his front door and escaped.

After the last of the shaggy animals had galloped away, Humpback's son could not find his small dog. "Where is my pet?" he cried. "Where is my little dog?"

"That was no dog," Humpback said sadly. "That was Coyote the Trickster. He has turned loose all our buffalo."

Thus it was that the buffalo were released to scatter over all the earth.

Osiris and Isis

Seth hated his brother, Osiris. Osiris, King of Egypt, civilized his people, and taught them to cultivate the land with barley and grain, and laws to live by. The opposite of Seth’s chaos and drought.

Finally, with the help of the Queen of Ethiopia and 72 other conspirators, Seth decided to destroy him.
Seth held a great feast, and a coffin was offered as a prize. All the guests slipped into it, trying it out for size, however, always one was too tall, too small, too fat, too skinny.

When Osiris tried out the coffin, it fit exactly.

Immediately the conspirators nailed shut the coffin and poured molten lead into the cracks, cutting off all air as Osiris took his last breaths on earth.

Osiris became Triumphant and ruler of the dead.

They launched his coffin into the river Nile. But the currents carried it up the coast to Byblos, instead of sinking to the bottom, as Seth desired. There on the shore near a great tamarisk tree, the coffin finally rested. The tree immediately sensed that this was a great God, and quickly reached out its long branches and embraced the coffin in loving protection. In time, the branches and roots grew around the coffin, and the tree increased in size and splendor.

“Ah, what a great tree!’ all the people of Byblos said, admiringly. “Just look at its size and beauty! It is as if from the Gods!”

The people admired it so much, that the King of Byblos ordered it cut down and placed inside the palace hall as a support, unknowing that the coffin was entwined inside.

Back in Egypt, Isis was distraught over her husband. No one knew where he had disappeared. She placed her son, Horus, in good care with the Cobra Goddess Wadjet, and then fled for the Delta in search of her husband. She knew that the souls of men did not rest without the correct funeral rites.

Wandering throughout Egypt, she searched for her husband everywhere.

“Have you seen my husband? Have you seen his painted coffin?” she asked. None had.

Finally, it was some children she met that said they had seen his coffin floating down the Nile. As she continued her journey, again she sought out children to ask, until she found Byblos and sat at the mouth of the Nahr al-Kalb, the Dog River. There the maidens of the Queen of Byblos came to bathe and do the washing. Isis lovingly adjusted their jewels and a sweet aroma accompanied the maidens back to the palace.

“What is that heavenly scent? The Queen asked, and the maidens said it was from the sad woman down by the shore. The Queen immediately brought Isis into the palace and they talked of their children together. The Queen said her young son, the Prince of Byblos, was ill and near death. Isis was a great healer and worker of magic spells.

“I will heal your son, but only if I can do it my way and you must never disturb me,” Isis said. The King and Queen agreed. Day in day out with Isis, the young prince Diktys grew healthier, bigger and stronger.
“Tell me,” The queen asked. “What is she doing in there?” But none of the maidens could answer.

“All we know,” the maidens said, “is that we hear a strange twittering when she enters the hall of the pillar.”
The Queen could stand it no longer and hid in the great hall to see what Isis was doing with her son.

She watched as Isis bared the great doors, and then created a huge fire. She placed the boy in between two logs in the flames, then turned in to a swallow and circled around and around the pillar she knew was her husband, lamenting and crying.

Horrified, the Queen rushed to rescue her son and tried to escape from the great hall.

Isis returned to her real form and confronted the woman.

“Oh, you foolish woman! You should not have disturbed me. In only a few more days, everything immortal in your son would have been burnt away and he would have become like the gods, forever young and immortal.”
Isis asked that the pillar and what it contained be given to her. Servants where brought to bring down the pillar and they split it open, revealing Osiris. Isis returned the pillar to the people of Byblos, and they worshipped it there for many years.

Isis placed the coffin in a boat and sailed back to Egypt. She hid the coffin in the delta under a bush while she went to check on her son Horus. A scorpion had bitten him, and she stayed with him until he recovered.

But while Isis was away, Seth went hunting in the marshes for wild boar. The moonlight glistened on top of the coffin and revealed its hiding place. Seth tore the coffin’s lid off, took Osiris’s body out and shredded it into 14 or 16 tiny pieces. Then he scattered all the pieces throughout Egypt. “It is impossible to destroy the body of a God, but I have!” he said laughing. “I have destroyed the body of Osiris!”

When Isis returned and saw the broken coffin, she knew it was Seth who did the deed. Out of papyrus she made a small boat and again set out in search of her husband. She sailed through the marshes and up the river searching endlessly for his pieces. Each time she found a piece, she created a shrine and performed the funeral rites for Osiris, as to trick Seth. But she kept the pieces until she found every one of them.

“Oh, my beloved, I have finally found you.” Then using her magic powers, she united the body of Osiris and he was resurrected. But Osiris preferred to remain and reign in the Duat, the heavenly afterworld, as the judge and ruler of the dead. Until one day he shall rise again rule Egypt as before.

The Cherry Blossoms

The nun Rengetsu was returning from a pilgrimage when she stopped in a town to rest for the night. Although she appeared tired and hungry, each door she knocked on refused her lodging. As the sun began to set behind the hills, she hiked up to a cherry orchard on the hillside. There she made a little bed of leaves under the trees and fell asleep. But something stirred her in the middle of the night. A beautiful scent fell over her. Pulling herself up from sleep, her opening eyes befell the loveliest of sights – the black sky behind dozens of trees with white cherry blossoms, all blooming radiant and shimmering in the moonlight. Tree after tree of nature’s beautiful canvas.

Rengetsu took in the beautiful experience. Then she turned toward the town, gave a little bow and said, “Oh, people of the village, thank you so much for turning me away tonight. For if you did receive me, then I would never have been able to witness such beauty tonight.”

As darkness turns to light, as winter heads toward spring, contemplate what good comes from difficulty. What difficulty comes from good? How can we judge anything? How do we know what is deemed good and bad anyway? Think of an obstacle that has become the vehicle for something positive that happened in your life

The Two Wolves

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too." The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather which wolf would win. The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

The Spirit Who Lived in a Tree

The Buddha decided to be born as a tree. He became a Sal tree and grew for sixty-thousand years. Beneath its enormous branches, hundreds of little Sal trees were growing up. This tree was so enormous and beautiful that all of the people in the nearby village would come and worship it. The King of Benares also heard of the tree.

“Many kings have their palaces built with many a pillar. Well, I shall build my palace with only one great pillar in the middle. This big tree shall be that pillar. I order it cut down!”

All of the townspeople were dismayed. They loved the tree, but they were worried what would happen if they did not carry out the King’s orders.

One night, the people lit oil lamps and walked to the great tree. They tied a string around its great trunk and put a nosegay of flowers on the end. Then they prayed, “Oh great spirit that resides in this tree. The King has ordered that in seven days we must cut you down. We don’t want to do it, but fear for our families. Please spirit, go somewhere else, and do no harm to us. Forgive us. We love and will miss you greatly.”

The tree thought, "This King is determined to cut me down. But my life only lasts as long as this tree. The thought of my death does not bother me as much as ….ah! Look at the little Sal trees around me! Their death and destruction is more painful to me than my own death.”

So that night, at midnight, a bright golden light filled the room and the spirit appeared next to the King’s bed, weeping.

The King awoke. “Oh! Who are you spirit, and why have you come? Why do you weep?”

“I am the spirit that lives in the tree you wish you cut down. I ask that you spare my life.”

The King thought a moment. “No, I cannot. I want my palace to stand on only one tree, and you will be that tree. I must cut you down,” he said.

“Then please,” said the spirit, “I make one request.”

“What is that?” the King asked.

“Please cut me down bit by bit. Begin with the branches, then cut the trunk and cut down to the roots last of all.”

“Why, this is a most painful death,” the King said. “One swift blow at the roots would fell you and you would be out of your misery.”

But the spirit said, “Yes, it is painful. But it is not as painful as seeing my beloved little Sal trees around me destroyed by my fall. Please, I ask you to honor my request.”

The King was deeply moved by the tree’s spirit of sacrifice.

“Oh, spirit,” the King said, “fear not. Your great concern for the life of others has moved me deeply. I will not cut you down. Return, great tree, to the forest in peace.”

The Banyan Deer

Long ago the Bodisat took a life as King of the Banyan deer. He was a radiant color of gold, with eyes like round jewels and his horns glimmering like silver. His mouth was as red as a rose; his hooves were bright and hard like lacquer work; his tail was fine and body large.

The King lived in the forest with a herd of 500 attendant deer. Not far away lived another deer as golden as he, and he was called the Monkey Deer and had a herd of many as well.

Now the king of this country loved to hunt and never ate a single meal without meat. Every day he summoned the townspeople to accompany him hunting. So a lot of work in town never got done, and the people began to complain.

“This king with his insistent hunting practices puts an end to our work and I never get anything done,” one townsperson cried.

“Yes, I’m tired of this!” another one said. “Let’s just make a park. We’ll provide food and drink for the deer, drive them in and then close the entrance. The King can go in there and hunt all he wants and we won’t have to disrupt our schedules anymore.”

So that’s what the townspeople did, surrounding the very place where the Monkey King and the Banyan Deer were living

The King was excited to go to the park and hunt, and when he got there, he saw the two remarkable golden deer.

“What fabulous creatures you are! I grant you your lives.” And he went to shoot another deer and brought it home.

Sometimes the King’s cook would go and shoot one. The deer, as soon as they saw his bow and arrow, would shake with fear of death and run away. However, they would get hit once or twice when the cook pursued them and they became weary or wounded and were killed. The herd told their king, and he sent for the Monkey Deer.

“Friend, the deer are being destroyed. All things must die, however, let them not be wounded with arrows,” the Banyan Deer said. “Let the deer take turns at a place of execution. One day the lot can fall on my herd, and the next on yours.

So every day one deer lay down and placed his neck on a chopping block, and the cook came and carried off the one he found lying there.

But one day the lot fell on a doe that was heavy with young. She went to the Monkey Deer and cried, “Please! I am with young! After I have brought forth my baby, we shall both take our turn on the block. Please order the lot to pass me by.”

But the Monkey Deer refused. So she turned to the Banyan Deer and pleaded with him. The Bodisat listened quietly and said. “So be it. Go back. I will relieve you of your turn.” And he himself went to lay his head on the chopping block at the place of execution.

The cook, seeing him, ran back to the king and said, “The King of the Deer whose life you promised to him is lying in the place of execution. What does it mean?”

Baffled, the King mounted his chariot and road out to the place and seeing the Bodisat said, “Friend! King of the Deer! I granted you your life! Why are you lying here?”

“Oh, great King!” The Bodisat said. “A doe heavy with young came to me. The lot had fallen upon her to be taken. I could not ask another to take her place, so I took it instead. Have no more suspicion, great King!”

“Ah, you golden–colored King of the Deer,” The king exclaimed. “Never before have I seen such mercy, kindness and compassion. I am pleased with you in this matter! Rise up. I grant you your life and to the doe as well!”

“Although we are safe,” The Bodisat said,” what about the other deer in the park?”

“I grant their lives to the rest, my Lord,” the King said.

“But what of the other animals in the forest, the birds in the sky, the fish in the streams. How will they obtain peace?”

“I grant all their lives as well. None shall hunt them,” the King declared.

Having interceded with the King for all creatures, the great being said,

“Walk in righteousness, O great King! By doing justice and mercy to fathers and mothers to sons and daughters, to townsmen and landsmen, when your body is dissolved, you shall enter the happy world of heaven!”

The Monkey and the Moon

There was once a monkey happily swinging from tree to tree. He swung to a branch where there he saw an amazing sight.

Below him was a pond with the glimmering image of the moon shining in the water. He was amazed by its beauty and brilliant white light.

Hanging on to the branch with one paw, he used his other paw to reach for that beautiful moon. He reached and he reached, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not reach the moon. And he refused to let go of the branch to get closer to the moon.

Try as he might, even until death, he will never give up trying to reach for the moon in the water and he will still hang on to his branch.

But by grace or chance, the branch he was hanging onto broke. The monkey plunged into the water. He slapped around in the water for a moment, looking for the moon. Then he looked up into the sky and -- there! There it was! The monkey saw the moon shining brightly against the dark night’s sky.