According to ancient traditions, it takes countless lifetimes to become a Buddha. The Buddha’s own path to complete awakening was chronicled in five hundred and forty-seven stories known as the jatakas, which underwent numerous adaptations in the centuries after the Buddha’s lifetime. In the fifth or sixth century CE, in the region known as present-day Sri Lanka, an anonymous author wrote an introduction to these, recounting the history of a vow that prompted this great quest. This narrative, titled Jatakanidana in Pali, preserves the oral traditions about the Bodhisatta, the one destined to become a Buddha in his final life. The text also functioned for centuries as a gateway to other early Buddhist teachings, offering valuable insights into the Buddha’s journey toward enlightenment. The story begins when, in one of his lives as an ascetic named Sumedha, the Buddha vows to delay his own awakening until he can guide others toward their release from the cycle of rebirth. This vow sets him on a long series of lives–as man, animal, and god. At the culmination of his spiritual journey, he recalls his past lives, his teachings, and the establishment of the monastic community that would preserve and spread these teachings.
