[For rehearsal, separate children by those who want to show their rakes, shovels, hoes, brooms, etc; baby dolls; special bowls; toy swords and shields. Put them in their sections, then tell them what parts they'll play. It is ok if there are more than 1 Buddhas and Angulimalas...bandits and monks. Farming villagers, and birth mothers make up the rest.]
Villagers/farmers: Heinrich, Antonia, Ruby, Lucy
Baby moms (as well as villagers): Ada, Chloe, Maya
Bandits (Angulimala): Tim and ST (bring sword)
Monks (Buddha): Galilea and Sam: (bring bowl, wooden if possible)
Narrator: Once upon a time, a long time ago, during the time of the Buddha, in fact, there was a small kingdom with people who were happy and well off. They farmed, and traded, and traveled with ease.
Unfortunately, a plague came to their kingdom in the form of a bandit. They called this bandit Angulimala.
[Angulimala flourishes sword.]
What does Angulimala mean you ask? Let's ask the people. [addressing the farmers] What does Angulimala mean?
Farmer kids: Finger necklace! Aaaahhh! [run off stage]
Angulimala: Mwaaahaaahaaa! I love the fear! [flourishes sword]
Narrator: Angulimala had sworn he would kill 1,000 people. He kept count by stringing one finger on his necklace. People fled the country to the protection of the city. One day, the Buddha came walking to this kingdom, and he heard of the feared bandit. He decided to investigate.
When Angulimala saw this lone monk walking toward him, he laughed with glee.
[Angulimala twirls sword and laughs.]
Angulimala ran toward the Buddha, but a funny thing happened. He was never able to get any closer to the monk. No matter how fast he ran, he couldn't catch up to the Buddha. He was very frustrated. Finally Angulimala stopped, and he said,
Angulimala: Stop monk! Why can't I get close to you?
And the Buddha said,
Buddha: I have stopped. You should stop too.
Angulimala: What does THAT mean?
Buddha: I have stopped living in hope and fear, and I have stopped hating and hurting others. If you want to be like me, you should stop too.
Narrator: And the Buddha looked at Angulimala with such love and kindness that Angulimala DID want to be like the Buddha. He wished with all his heart that he had never hurt anyone, and he threw down his sword and shield and asked the Buddha to be his teacher.
Angulimala traded his finger necklace for a necklace of prayer beads, [flip necklace] and learned to meditate with the Buddha. The Buddha convinced the king to pardon him, and the new monk spent many hours in the forest meditating and he became calm and peaceful.
Now Angulimala knew he could never make up for all the people he had killed. Often when he walked past a crowd, he was elbowed, or tripped with a shovel or broom handle, or bumped so that he fell in a ditch.
[villagers trip, bump, jab, the monk Angulimala.]
The Buddha helped him to understand this was an effect of his past life as a bandit, this was his karma. Angulimala couldn't blame them. He would pick himself up, and bow, and offer to mend the broken broom handle.
You'll remember in his old life, Angulimala took delight in fear and in killing people. Now he felt remorse, and he loved life. He felt if only he could help life come to be, he could make up for his past in a small way.
Because of his past life, Angulimala knew well the ways of wounds and blood, and because he wanted to help people live, he took on the specialty, you could say, of helping mothers give birth safely. Because he took great care to pay attention to their needs, mothers in his care gave birth to healthy babies. His knowledge that had once helped him be a very bad man now supported his very loving actions.
[Angulimala visits mothers with babies. One or two 'give birth.']
In time, less and less people tried to hit or trip the kind and loving monk. Eventually, the gratitude among families for his help in supporting life overwhelmed the old fear and distrust.
