Mother's Day for Buddhists

Born to a standing mother, Maha Maya Devi, Siddhartha became the Buddha. Traditional stone carving, Zen You Mitsu temple, Tokyo (AssociatedContent.com).

Honoring Mothers in a Buddhist Way

As she went through the town, people gladly gave her a few seeds. But when she asked if anyone in the house had died, she was not so lucky. Not one house in the town had been untouched by death. By nightfall, she had learned the lesson that the Buddha had not had to speak [from the Buddhist story of the mother Kisagotami, who became an enlightened nun].

• Buddhist Resources for Anyone's Mother's Day

She was not the only person on earth who had lost a loved one. Love for the mother, in the context of the Buddhist belief in rebirth, extends to all living beings. According to the Lankavatara Sutra, in the endless cycles of time that are accounted for in Buddhist teachings, [nearly] every living being has at one time or another been your mother or father, your brother or sister, your son or daughter.

The Christian poet John Donne wrote, "Every man's death diminishes me." For a Buddhist, that is very limiting. Every death, according to Buddhist teaching, diminishes us all.

A bodhisattva [someone intent on full enlightenment] is [not quite yet] an enlightened being who vows not to leave the world of samsara -- that is, birth, death, and rebirth -- until all beings have attained enlightenment. There are many female bodhisattvas identified in different Buddhist traditions.

One of the most famous is Guan Yin. In different traditions and languages, her name may be spelled as Kuan Yin or Kwannon. Her name means "hearing the cries of the world." It is said that as she heard these cries, her two arms were not enough to reach out to all those who were suffering. She now has anywhere from eight to one thousand arms, and she is sometimes referred to as the Buddhist Madonna.... More>>