The Buddha's Law Among the Birds

by Edward Conze

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In the Buddhist religion, the Dharma concept of the Buddha is not confined to men, but is taught to all kinds of beings, including ghosts and animals. According to a legend Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Mercy, had taken among the birds the form of a cuckoo - an animal which recommends itself to the Buddhist mind by its attitude to family life.

Probable, no more than three centuries ago, an unknown Lama wrote a charming book describing how the birds of the Himalayas met under the leadership of the cuckoo on a holy mountain and how they were instructed in the Buddhist way of living and thinking. Though a popular book, simple and unsophisticated, it brings home the overtones of the faith which has ruled Tibet for so many centuries.

The present book constitutes an English translation of the Tibetan original. In this introduction, Dr. Conze not only sketches the background of the story, but gives extracts form another Tibetan work, originating from the Kagyudpa school of Milarepa, which describes the spiritual antecedents of the cuckoo.

In spite of its deep content The Buddha's Law Among the Birds is pleasant and easy reading. As a work of popular interest, it should be welcomed by scholars as well as by general readers interested in Buddhist literature.