Buddha Vol. 08

The Buddha has travelled back to his home in Kapilavastu to summon more followers. He delivers his final sermons in Jetavana, the forest of Buddhist lore where the Buddha is said to have spent the last several years of his life teaching.

The very final sermon he gives is of the parable of the self-immolating rabbit, the very first story told in Tezuka’s Buddha series, but with a crucial difference which Buddhists refer to as the middle path. Sacrificing of the self to help others (as in the case of the rabbit), should not necessarily lead to death. All life is sacred.

Story and art by Osamu Tezuka.