<http://www.buddha-images.com/vessantara-jataka.asp>

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> It depicts the life of prince Vessantara who gives away all his possessions, including his children to become servants of an evil spirited character.
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What can this say that Buddha encourages the laymen The [Middle Way](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Way), while his act of donating children during the life of prince Vessantara seems quite extreme for a layperson? 

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> Monks, these two extremes ought not to be practiced by one who has gone forth from the household life. (What are the two?) There is addiction to indulgence of sense-pleasures, which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable; and there is addiction to self-mortification, which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable.
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