My daughter heard the story of the prince who fed himself to a starving tigress. Was that wise, or only sad?
Its coordinates: 3.2 Normative Ethics · 3.2.1 Consequence-Based Approaches · 3.2.2 Duty-Based Approaches +3 more
On poya day at our temple the monk told the children the story of the prince who sees a tigress so weak from hunger that she is about to eat her own cubs. He lies down in front of her and gives his body so that she and the cubs can live. The monk said this was the perfection of giving.
In the three-wheeler going home my daughter was quiet, then she asked: "But now the tigress is strong, and she will eat other animals. And his mother and father lost their son. How do we know it was good?"
I did not know what to say. I said that the Buddha teaches us to look at the intention. She said: "Then why does the story tell us that the cubs lived?"
So I bring her question here. When Buddhist teachers praise an act like this, are they counting the lives saved, or praising the heart that gives, whatever happens after? Or is the story not meant to be copied at all?