Past Lives: Entering the Buddhist Imagination Author(s): Rafe Martin Source: Storytelling, Self, Society, Vol. 6, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2010), pp. 212-222 Published by: Wayne State University Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41949134 Accessed: 26-03-2019 20:32 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Wayne State University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Storytelling, Self, Society This content downloaded from 128.151.71.24 on Tue, 26 Mar 2019 20:32:02 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Storytelling, Self, Society, 6: 212-222, 2010 n ,ļ-|or|no Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ixUUlicUyc ISSN 1550-5340 print / 1932-0280 online fim Taylor & Francis Group DOI: 10.1080/15505340903393229 Past Lives: Entering the Buddhist Imagination Rafe Martin This article examines the traditional, ancient Buddhist story tradition of jataka tales - tales of the Buddha's former births. And it connects the jataka tradition with contemporary Zen Buddhist practice, as well as with the role of deep imagination in the art of storytelling and its function in our lives today. When [the Dharma] ... is internalized it is most naturally taught in the form of folk stories: the jataka tales in classical Buddhism, the koans in Zen.