Karma: Styles Brainstorm

Topic. My storybook will be about Karma as it relates to the Buddhist tradition. It will use stories that feature animals as the main characters to convey the lessons of karma. One story which I think I will use is The Monkey Kings Sacrifice. Another story that I would like to use is The Story of the Hermit and the Hare. There are many other comic books available from the library that provide stories about karma with animals.

Bibliography: 

The Monkey Kings Sacrifice, from Monkey Stories: Jataka Tales of Wile and Wisdom, by Amar Chitra Katha

The Story of the Hermit and the Hare, from The Life of Buddha, by A. Ferdinand Herold, tr. by Paul C Blum (1922)

Possible Styles.

Aesop's Fables. I think one interesting take on this would be to organize like a series of stories from Aesop's Fables. By keeping it not too long and reiterating a moral at the end of the story, I think people would be able to understand the message easily. These would mainly be composed as dialogues between the characters involved.

Stories told by the Animals. This would be set up as a group of hikers/explorers who get lost in the wilderness and encounter these various animals from the stories. Once they encounter the animals they may ask a question or say something that invokes the animal to tell their story as it relates to karma. After hearing these stories the group of hikers/explorers will be able to find their way back to the trail and to safety.

News report. I think another interesting way to tell these stories would be from the point of view of a news report. This would involve a news anchor reporting on an incident that happened in the local zoo or perhaps a far off jungle somewhere. This would be set in a world like ours, where animals don't speak or anything like that, so hearing stories such as the The Monkey Kings Sacrifice would be breaking news.

Family Camping Trip. This would be set as a family weekend camping trip in the woods. The stories would be told by a grandfather who is trying to teach these lessons of karma to his grandchildren. Sitting around a campfire, the children would be listening intently to the wise words of their grandfather. Since the stories involve animals, this would be something that would catch the youngsters' attention.

Yama, the Lord of Death, Holding the Wheel of Life: Wiki Commons