Losaka-Jātaka (41): The Short Circuit of the Mind

 

 

The Short Circuit of the Mind – The Losaka-Jātaka (41) Between Ancient and Contemporary

 

A Buddhist tale of karma, individual responsibility, and liberation, illustrated in 8 animated scenes.

 

Introduction to the story

There is a moment in every person’s life when a rule is applied in the wrong way. Not out of malice, often, but because of a kind of mental short circuit: we see the rule, but not the spirit that animates it. We live in an age obsessed with procedures, protocols, algorithms that mechanically execute what they have been programmed to do. Yet, just like in the ancient Jātaka you are about to hear, the real stake is always the same: individual responsibility across time.

 The Losaka-Jātaka (No. 41) tells the story of a monk who, even after becoming an enlightened one (Arahant), could never receive enough food. What past karma condemned him to this poverty? And how did he finally free himself? The Buddha revealed the chain of causes and effects that linked a single act of jealousy to countless lives of hunger, and showed that the very mind that creates the short circuit can also break it.

 

Video

Below are the 8 scenes we created to accompany the story. Each image corresponds to one of the narrative chapters and a key moment of the Jātaka.

 

Commented images

 

 

1. Introduction – The short circuit of the mind

 

Image: A human brain in short circuit, one hand gripping a law book while the other lets the concept of justice slip away. Futuristic city background with screens displaying regulations. 

Comment: Represents the mechanism that runs through the entire Jātaka: applying the letter without the spirit. An image that speaks to our time of bureaucracy and algorithms.

 

2. Chapter 1 – The weight of an ancient fault

 

Image: A fishing village in flames, a pregnant woman watches with an oil lamp. Soldiers and burning houses. 

Comment: Losaka’s birth is heralded by seven fires and seven royal vengeances. Collective suffering seeks a scapegoat, and the family is driven out.

 

3. Chapter 2 – The crow and the beggar boy

 

Image: A dirty, ragged child eating rice from the ground like a crow. Sariputta bends toward him with his alms bowl. 

Comment: The meeting that changes everything. Sariputta, the great disciple, welcomes the outcast and ordains him as a monk, not yet knowing his karma.

 

4. Chapter 3 – The last meal

 

Image: Losaka Tissa seated in the monastery hall, Sariputta holding the bowl while he eats sweets. Golden light. 

Comment: On the day of his death, Sariputta holds the bowl so that the food does not vanish. Finally Losaka eats his fill and attains Nibbāna.

 

5. Chapter 4 – The monastery and the buried fire

 

Image: A monk at night burying a bowl of food in the embers of a burned field. In the background, an Arahant walks away luminous. 

Comment: The original “short circuit” scene: the jealous monk, unwilling to share, buries the meal meant for the Arahant. From that gesture, a thousand years of hunger arise.

 

6. Chapter 5 – The rebirths of Mitta-vindaka

 

Image: A bamboo raft in the middle of the ocean, in front of a crystal palace with celestial maidens. A man gazes enchanted. 

Comment: Mitta-vindaka (the name Losaka took in an intermediate life) experiences temporary paradises, but his dissatisfaction always pushes him further, until the island of the goat-demon.

 

7. Chapter 6 – The goat and the lesson

 

Image: A man grabbing a goat by the leg in a dry moat, while goatherds rush in. On the city wall, a wise master watches with his disciples. 

Comment: The final mistake: mechanically applying a past experience (the magical goat) to a different situation (an ordinary goat). The master recites the famous verse: “The headstrong man who heeds not friendly counsel… shall come to harm.”

 

8. Conclusion – The ray of light that breaks the chain

 

Image: An iron chain breaking under a beam of white light; from the light emerges a Buddha seated in meditation. 

Comment: Beyond karma lies freedom. Wisdom is not only seeing past causes, but dissolving the attachment that keeps them alive. An invitation to interrupt our own daily short circuits.

 

Why this story still speaks to us

The Jātaka is not just an ancient tale. It is an X-ray of the human mind. How many times do we also apply the same solution to new problems? How often do we jealously guard what we believe is “ours”, ending up creating suffering for ourselves and others? How many times do we “grab the wrong goat”, hoping it will take us back to a lost paradise?

 Contemporary culture exposes us every day to similar short circuits: in social media, in corporations, in politics. The remedy, the Buddha teaches, is not mechanically accumulating merit, but developing that wisdom which sees reality as it is and breaks the chain of habit.

 

Ironic story

 

Losaka-Jātaka (41).

A small ironic story that brings the message of Losaka-Jātaka into our present.

  The Short Circuit of the Middle Manager

That is, how to apply the wrong rule to the wrong context and get exactly what you deserve

Marco was an exemplary office manager. He knew the company regulations by heart, he had underlined them with five different colors and he quoted them in meetings as others quote Dante. He was so loyal that when the new attendance management software began to report "anomalies", Marco felt compelled to apply the procedure: three days of suspension for those who clocked in after hours, even if only by one minute.

The first victim was Mrs. Carla, who for twenty years had arrived at 8:32 instead of 8:30 because she had to accompany her elderly mother to the day center. Marco read the rules to her with the voice of someone who believes he is doing justice.

Mrs. Carla did not protest. He took the suspension, then took early retirement. And from that day, inexplicably, everything began to go wrong in Marco's ward. The printers jammed only when he had to print. The coffee from the machine always came out bitter. The meetings were prolonged until they ended at times that made him miss the 6:42 p.m. train.

Marco did not connect the facts. He was a rational man.

Then came the young trainee Giulia, who used to leave her desk ten minutes earlier to catch the bus. Marco summoned her, showed her the circular, and applied the procedure. Giulia apologized, smiled, and the next day she brought a cake to the office for everyone. Except for Marco.

The cake was dark chocolate. Marco loved dark chocolate. That day, for the first time in his career, Marco felt something similar to a small, insignificant, but undeniable short circuit inside him.

"That's not fair," he thought. But he didn't know exactly what wasn't right.

In the following days, Marco decided to apply another procedure: the one for reporting "uncooperative behavior". He wrote three pages about Giulia. The next day, his car did not start. The next time again, he found on his dashboard a parking ticket in a place where he had parked for ten years without problems.

Marco did not connect.

At the quarterly meeting, the executive announced that Marco's office was the only one that had not met its targets. "I propose a training course on the corporate climate," said the executive. "You will participate too, Marco."

Marco attended the course. The first lesson talked about "flexibility", "active listening" and "intelligent application of rules". Marco took notes with his usual method: he underlined everything in green, which according to his color code meant "important but not a priority".

Back in the office, he found a reminder on his desk: "Please note that the procedure for clocking in is suspended for technical reasons". He looked at the paper. Then he looked at the cup of coffee that the cleaning lady, now in confidence, had left him with a smile.

The cup was full. The coffee was hot. And Marco, for the first time, no longer understood which rule to apply.

He took his coffee. He drank it. He didn't emphasize anything.

That night he dreamed of a goat staring at him with yellow eyes. In the dream, the goat said to him, "If you grab me by the leg, you will come back." Marco woke up with a start, sweating, and thought: "What kind of dream is that?"

The next day, he saw a goat in the meadow in front of the offices. It was the goat of the green service, the one that kept the grass low. Marco looked at her for a long time. Then he shook his head and went back inside.

He didn't grab the goat.

And perhaps, for a man accustomed to grasping everything that resembled a rule, that was the first true wisdom.

The ward slowly began to function again. The printers stopped jamming. Coffee became drinkable again. Marco did not become a saint, he did not leave everything to follow a spiritual master, he did not win the prize for management innovation. But every time he was about to apply a rule mechanically, he would think of the goat.

And he stopped.

 

End

 

Ironic note: If in some office, right now, someone is pointing out a regulation with five different colors, it is probably because he has not yet met his goat. But karma, as we know, has its gentle way of reminding us of this.

 

Credits

Text inspired by the Losaka-Jātaka (Jātaka 41), translated by E. B. Cowell and others. Images created with digital techniques according to the original  prompts. Video animation and editing by the author.