Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds (2)

Continued from PART 1: Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

• It can be pleasant, pleasurable, joyful, contented, blissful. The first two absorptions or jhanas have a characteristic rapture, joy, or I prefer "bliss" (ecstatic happiness) not based on the body, just a joy bubbling up based on a clear conscience, radical acceptance, universal love of everyone, non-opposition to anything. "It's all good," as Homer Simpson would say. But this is unthinkable to "spiritually" minded people seeking austerities, hardships to overcome, a quest, the climbing of a mountain, and the foolish repetition of a mantra they read the life story of the Buddha. You know that part where he said, "I will not move from this spot until my blood dries up and my bones turn to dust"? Nearly everyone erroneously concludes from this that "the secret" is a strong determination (adhimokkha) that put Siddhartha over the top.
• It's all that clenching of the teeth, sweating, efforting, manly virility (viriya) that was exactly in the way. Tiring of hedonistic pleasures as a prince, he ran in the other direction to the point of exhaustion, to Death's doorstep. Tiring of severe austerities that didn't work, what now? Back to hedonistic princely pleasures like Mara was possessing him to consider? NO.
• The Middle Way avoids both extremes. He ate. He didn't overeat. He slept. He didn't oversleep. He exercised. He didn't overexercise. He meditated (jhayanti). He didn't overmeditate (in the sense of that translated saying Bhikkhu Bodhi renders in a Pali expression), premeditate, undermeditate, and so on.

Sex with incredibly beautiful and alluring nymphs in heaven?

Heaven can be like TV's Fantasy Island

First understand that there are MANY "heavens." They are not all the same, and they are not all connected.

The Buddhist universe (which is a multiverse of bubble-like universes in all directions), in Buddhist cosmology, is divided into three spheres: the Sensual (kama), Fine-Material (rupa), and Immaterial (arupa). The Buddha frequently spoke of 31 distinct "planes of existence." These are not worlds but planes, which means there are countless worlds divided into these planes. They interact. For instance, the human and animal planes intersect as do the realm of ghosts and superior ET worlds. He mentioned other worlds that are not raised to the level of a "plane." Most interesting is the case of the human plane (manussya loka), which is not limited to this earth; there may be countless worlds where humans/humanoids live in the galaxy, world-system, and universe.

We are in the lowest of these, the sensual. It not only holds the human plane, it also includes the many hells, the animal plane, the ghost realm, and others. Surprisingly, there are the sensual heavens, extraordinary physical worlds, better and more beautiful than the world we know. These are in space, though some may also exist in our Hollow Earth (Agartha), which according to Buddhist cosmology is quite different than the way we imagine it. We are only aware of a portion of this plane, with our own sun and moon revolving overhead. There are other worlds separated from us by ice walls only surmountable by vimanas (ancient UFO type craft sometimes available to world monarchs in these worlds).

O, Janapada Kalyani, they want us to marry.

So one day the Buddha came back home to his family and friends, his people and familiar surroundings. His cousin/half-brother Nanda (the son of his mother's sister, who had raised him since the age of 7 days, when he was Prince Siddhartha) was getting married, possibly being married off to his sister, known variously as Sundari Nanda and Janapada Kalyani. Prince Siddhartha himself at the age of 16 had been married off to his cousin Bimba Devi (aka Princess Yasodhara). This is how it was among the royal Scythians/Shakyians/Sakas, as much as it may scandalize us. But it may have scandalized the Buddha because he intervened.

As he was leaving a meal invitation on the day before the wedding, the Buddha handed Nanda his brother his alms bowl. Nanda was glad to accompany him to the door out of respect and reverence for him. But when they came to the door, the Buddha did not take the bowl from him. He continued to walk, and Nanda thought he would carry his bowl to the gate. At the gate, the Buddha did not turn to take the bowl but continued walking all the way back to the monastic encampment in the grove where he was staying. CONTINUED IN PART II

As they were walking out of the gate, Janapada Kalyani was on the verandah of the palace watching this odd scene, Nanda following behind the Buddha with a monk's bowl in his hand. Worried, she called out to Nanda, "Come back to me soon, dear!" Nanda turned to see her ravishing beauty but dared not say anything out of respect for this spiritual master of great renown, his half-brother (same father, mothers who were sisters), with whom he had grown up with to the age of 29.

When the Buddha arrived at his dwelling, turned around and sat down. And there Nanda was standing holding the monk's bowl, which is what one brought along with seeking to gain admission to the monastic order, usually with some cloth for stitching a robe. The Buddha, seeing him said: "Nanda, are you here to become a monk?"

Confounded and unable to explain the misunderstanding, Nanda inexplicably just said "Yes." So the Buddha directed attendant monks, Scythian relatives and childhood friends of Nanda, to ordain him. They did. They were very proud that he had chosen to ordain and seek enlightenment instead of marrying the most beautiful "belle in the land," which is what Janapada Kalyani means

But Ven. Nanda was miserable and tormented by lust. He wanted to marry her, have sexual relations with her, and he wanted to disrobe and get back to the palace, to his riches, his status, and his future. He did not want to be celibate. And the more he tried to meditate as the Buddha had instructed him, the more frustrated he became.

I've lost everyone in this fire.

The other monks could see he was frustrated and miserable as a monk, so they told the Buddha. And the Buddha called for Nanda to be brought to him. Nanda came, looking miserable, and the Buddha asked him to hold on to his robe. When he took hold of the corner of the Buddha's robe, they flew through the sky over a great field where a forest had burned down. There Nanda noticed a she-monkey with a burnt nose and tail sitting on a stump looking around at the devastation.

They then traveled through the air upwards into space to the steps of a heavenly mansion (vimana). It was sparkling white, and many gorgeous, pink-footed nymphs were giggling and wiping the steps, bringing it to a sparkling shine. Nanda had never in his life beheld such beauty, such perfection of complexion and symmetry, such sexiness, newly nubile forms. He stepped toward them and asked what they were up to. They turned and batted their eyes, explaining that they were preparing this special heavenly mansion in expectation of the arrival of its owner, their master, the head of household, King Nanda.

Nanda was filled with awe and explained to them that surely King Nanda was a ruler on Earth. Why did they think this was his mansion? They explained that it was true that he was currently a royal living in a palace on Earth but that due to his karma, he would soon (because time is different on other planes, simultaneously moving at different speeds) be arriving in what might seem like a lot of human time but was in next to no time on this heavenly sensual plane.

Ven. Nanda turned to the Buddha and asked if he had heard what they said. The Buddha nodded and motioned that they had to go. Nanda was reluctant to leave, having just heard the greatest news of his life -- that all this would be his, and these would be his consorts, and he would live here in extreme pleasure as the owner and the ruler.

Noticing his excitement and giddiness, the Buddha asked Nanda if he happened to be interested in these celestial nymphs. Nanda was astonished at the question. Of course, he was interested, more than anything in all the world. The Buddha asked, "But what about Janapada Kalyani, your beautiful fiancée, who not long ago was the love of your life?"

Nanda shook his head and struggled to explain, "These are the most beautiful nymphs I have ever seen. Compared to the least beautiful of them, Janapada Kalyani seems like that she-monkey with the burnt nose and tail they had just seen sitting on a stump down there. She is not 1/16th part as beautiful; she does not even come into the count. The Buddha seemed surprised to hear it, as everyone knew Janapada Kalyani was the undisputed beauty of all the land (the janapada or territory of the Sakas/Scythians).

Then holding on to a corner of the Buddha's robe, they departed that world and descended to the human plane again. When they arrived, they did not stop but continued to descend into the plane of the Earth.

They descended through the ground to a dark and ominous underworld, where Nanda noticed two demon-like monsters tending a fire under a cauldron of heated oil. They were intent on their task and didn't seem to notice either the Buddha or Nanda there. So Ven. Nanda asked them what they were up to. One turned abruptly and rudely asked him what business it was of his, adding that if he had to know, they were preparing a welcome for that bad man Nanda, who would be arriving in no time to their chamber to be tortured and tormented, being boiled in hot oil.

Nanda was terrified but managed to stammer that he had heard that Nanda when leaving the human world was destined to ascend to a heavenly mansion, where nymphs awaited him as their master.

The monster agreed but pointed out that when his meritorious karma was exhausted there, King Nanda would drop into their hands, where they would be waiting for him to make him face the consequences of his unskillful karma, which he had also accrued in addition to the good. Nanda in terror looked toward the Buddha, who motion that it was time to go. Nanda desperately asked if the Buddha had heard what those hideous monsters had said. He had, and they departed, returning to the human world.

When they returned, the Buddha took his seat, and Ven. Nanda turned to return to his quarters to meditate. The Buddha asked him, "Weren't you interested in disrobing, being dissatisfied with the purity of the monastic life, Nanda?" "I'm fine," he said. "I should go practice. But, tell me, venerable sir, if I do, do you promise that when I pass away, I will be reborn among those pink-footed nymphs just like they said, there to be master of that mansion?" The Buddha assured him. So Nanda said, therefore, there was no need to disrobe.

The monks saw a marked change in Ven. Nanda, who was now diligent, determined, withdrawn into seclusion, constantly meditating. They approached him and asked what had changed. He recounted his experience in that sensual heavenly and the Buddha's promise that by applying himself, that would be his reward after passing from the human plane.

Does the body even matter?

Our body doesn’t matter after (Hindu) enlightenment. Buddhist enlightenment runs far deeper because the Buddha understood and taught that we are NOT consciousness nor any of the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." See the famous Heart Sutra for this insight.

The monks were scandalized and began to tease and taunt him. Nanda was confused. Instead of being happy for him, rejoicing to see him behaving with as much monastic dedication as any of them, they had now taken to referring to him not as "venerable" or "Friend Nanda" but as "hireling," bought with the price of nymphs. Ven. Nanda paid them no attention and went into seclusion to practice more diligently. The monks asked him, "What about your beloved fiancée who only recently you were walking around distraught, missing her and wanting to return to the place and the low life of an ordinary worldling?" Ven. Nanda had no need of that now; he had nymphs on his mind, and in the back of his mind, he also remembered what the demonic beings had said would happen after his sojourn in heaven.

The monks being scandalized by Ven. Nanda's newfound determination and efforts, his story of visiting his future destination and being promised his reward, complained to the Buddha, who reminded and admonished them to apply themselves with diligence to work out their own salvation now when circumstances were good, the Teacher was near, and they were young and able-bodied, sufficiently fed and robed, of good health, able to make progress. But they were upset at Ven. Nanda's special deal.

In no long time, Ven. Nanda made a breakthrough in his meditation and became enlightened. At that moment, his lust and interest in those many nymphs subsided, and he was at peace. He went to the Buddha to report his progress, announcing his attainment implicitly, how much he appreciated the encouragement, and that he now had seen the Dharma, the Truth.

The Buddha smiled but asked him, "What about our agreement? What about your reward?" Nanda blushed with embarrassment in front of the others and explained that at the moment of his attainment, he had released the Buddha of any such promise or obligation. The Buddha nodded in agreement. Turning to those monks who had not dedicated themselves, had not taken advantage of the excellent circumstances to practice, and had not broken through in their meditation practice.

This story, this beguiling Buddhist account from the Pali canon (almost certainly a backstory from the Dhammapada or the Nikayas, here retold from memory, originally struck a chord. It has very strong Dickensian and Ebenezer Scrooge elements about a miraculous turnaround, a kind of near-death experience that changes one's outlook completely and reorders one's priorities in life. It's amazing that a base aim could produce a holy outcome, that having set off to get lucky in the afterlife could keep one on task long enough for the Dharma and Discipline to work its magic and produce liberating insight. He must have let go, set aside his ambitions, and really investigated phenomena (dhammas) to produce knowledge-and-vision of the path and thereby perceive the true nature of existence as radically impermanent, incapable of fulfilling us, and impersonal.

So perhaps now that video makes sense of what's really possible and who's really up there waiting. This Round (Samsara) is long and wearisome. Long enough have we continued wandering on, reborn here and there, experiencing all of these things, long enough to have grown weary of its carrot and stick, its ups and downs, its promises and disappointments, the best laid plans of mice and men, long enough to let go.

• Thig 5.4: Sundarī Nandā Therīgāthā (Bhikkhu Sujato)
• The Buddha and Nanda go to heaven with … | Flickr
• No one need worry that the Buddha was playing favorites with his family. He saved Sundari Nanda, too, ordaining her as a Buddhist nun and teaching her until she reached enlightenment, just as he did for his mother (Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, the first Buddhist nun in history), his former wife (Ven. Bhaddakaccana, Rahulamata, Yasodhara, Bhadda, Bimba), his son (Ven. Rahula), his cousin (Ven. Ananda), and many other Scythian/Shakyian/Saka "princes" (royals, nobles, nomadic kshatriya warriors), nearly everyone from Kapilavastu, except those who clung to a worldly life.
• Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, is said to have attained one or more of the stages of enlightenment and become one of the Noble Ones (Aryans) because of the Buddha teaching him until he was free.
• And he visited his biological mother in another heavenly world within the Sensual Sphere, the World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa Deva Loka), to teach her and other devas who came to bring them all to self-realization, when she had at that time returned to live in the more exalted Tusita world, where she left to come to earth to provide the Bodhisatta a suitable womb and lineage. The World of the Thirty-Three might also be called Second Heaven, whereas Tusita is Seventh Heaven.
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly

Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

O, Scythian Princess Sundari Nanda (Gotami), you are the Janapada Kalyani of this land!

Is there a heaven (sagga)? By heaven is meant a literal "world of shining ones in sky so far up it's space" (the akasha-deva-loka). We agree with Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry's sentiment as he sings: "Is there a heaven? I'd like to think so" heard here:

(Roxy Music) "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

Retro Vintage Time Traveling - 1950s Sci-Fi - An AI Short Film

(Retro Retake) Dec. 2, 2024: #Retrofuturism merges seamlessly with the sleek futurism of the Space Age. Three enigmatic companions, clad in shimmering pink outfits, stand poised against the breathtaking backdrop of a distant time or planet, visible through the panoramic window of their spacecraft. This gem isn’t just a visual feast; it’s an invitation to dream, to wonder, and to step into a world where elegance meets cosmic adventure. Every scene captures the essence of a time we’ve never known but have always longed to explore. Are we ready for the captivating beauty of this retrofuturistic universe? #RetroFuture #retro #AIFilmМ

One of the most important questions of our time, since at least the time of the Buddha when the world was obsessed with sex and sensual pleasures, is: "Is there sex after death?"

A stark answer to this was once given by a hopeful comedian: "Yes," he assured his audience reasoning that, "You get laid in a coffin, don't you?" It may be funny, it may be serious. We don't want it to all end! Thinking we're something, we don't want to become nothing. We wish for life to continue (eternally) in some better way, some better place, many better circumstances. This is all possible through skillful karma (profitable, beneficial, wholesome deeds).

• The Buddha pointed out that there are three forms of desire (tanha, craving, thirst) that are terrible, plentiful sources of suffering: (1) craving for sensual pleasure (kama craving), (2) craving for eternal existence (bhava craving), and (3) craving for annihilation (when we want to get off this merry-go-round, vi-bhava craving).

Good deeds or bad, life will continue into the afterlife -- into countless future lives until we bring about enlightenment (bodhi) and awakening, liberation (moksha) and nirvana. It will not happen by accident.

It requires knowing-and-seeing, and that requires calm-and-insight, and that requires morality and right effort. The Buddha summarized it as sila, bhavana, panna or virtue (karmic skillfulness), meditation (mental cultivation), and wisdom (liberating insight).

What is morality?

Virtue means harmless, peaceful, pleasant.

The Buddha defined that simply as these Ten Courses of Wholesome Action, avoiding the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. A more basic definition is by way of roots: Those things rooted in greed, hatred, or delusion give rise to unskillful actions (karma), whereas those rooted in nongreed, nonhatred, or nondelusion give rise to skillful actions. We can call the good kind merit because its results are always welcome, pleasant, and wished for. (Unskillful karma is called that because it is bad, meaning that when it brings forth its results, they are unwelcome, unpleasant, and unwished for).

What is meditation?

Meditating is cultivating, not just by sitting

The English term "meditation" is very misleading because the Pali word bhavana really means "bringing into being" or "cultivating," and that can be done at any time through mindfulness and right effort. (Other Pali terms like jhana, jhayanti, anussati, and kammatthana are also rendered with this same catchall English term, adding to confusion as to what the practice is).

Meditation in English has come to mean sitting cross-legged. But "cultivating" can be done while engaged in actions, uttering chants, mantras, aphorisms, or affirmations. If I want to cultivate a fit body, I go to the gym, dojo, or walking path and exercise, practice movement and deeper breathing.

Similarly, if I want to cultivate a fit mind or heart, I go to sacred places, zendo, or forest (into nature) and exercise, mentally practice calm, attentiveness, wakefulness, positivity, equanimity, and more soothing breathing.

What is wisdom?

Insight into the true nature of reality

The goal of the previous to is to bring about insight, which we can set the preliminaries (a calm and attentive mind able to be consistently mindful, which means aware without reaction, judgments, thinking, ambitions, striving, or efforting, just being here now, whatever the circumstance, not getting sucked up in stories, narratives, assessments, judgments, or rationalizations). So we can think of it as vipassana (insight) bhavana (cultivation).

To cultivate insight, the Buddha explained in two famous sutras the Fourfold Setting Up of Mindfulness, that is, being mindful of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. This is called satipatthana. There's no need to think about it; all of the instructions are given in these two discourses. (See Ven. Analayo on the meaning of "mindfulness" in Early Buddhism and then read the simple exercises on, first, how to be mindful of the body). Simple is not easy. All that is needed is persistence to establish a practice. Doing a lot then nothing, a lot then nothing is no way to practice. Doing a steady amount, even if tiny at first, soon grows into a solid habit. Steadiness, not extreme efforting or insane determination, wins the game.

Anyone who's read or heard the Buddha's life story misunderstands what happened. Ask them. This is the key question. He's born a prince, wants more, renounces the throne, goes off on a spiritual question, heads for the mystic East, practices yoga and austerities (like regular fasting and penance and all kinds of moral rules) and monastic living and meditation... And it doesn't work. He doesn't become enlightened. So he doubles down. And it doesn't work.

But this time it's even worse. He exhausts himself to the point where he accepts help from women, whom the other wandering ascetics will not even talk to, stare at, or receive anything from. Here Siddhartha is talking to, looking at, and even receiving from, accepting an offering of food and nourishment.

The happily pregnant milkmaid Sujata offers the ascetic Siddhartha a rich meal of rice.

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He builds his strength back up and realizes the body is his friend, not his enemy as the other spiritual seekers feel sure is the case. But he realizes that nearly seven years of striving, enlightenment has not come. So rather than ramp it up even more than before, he suddenly remembers something that happened to him at age 7. He remembers a spontaneous meditative absorption (jhana) he entered as a child at the Harvest Festival in Kapilavastu (probably Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which was part of ancient Gandhara). He then wonders if this isn't the way to enlightenment.

A knowingness comes back to him that this is the way -- the way of letting go, giving up, surrender, radical acceptance, tolerance, letting things be.... He further wonders why he has been avoiding this pleasant abiding and realizes it has been because of his "spiritual" aversion to pleasure. But this is not sensual pleasure (kama sukha). This is super-sensual (abhi-kama, piti, blameless contentment, sukha, and joy, not dependent on the physical senses). If it is blameless, then it is okay.

• Even today, Buddhist spiritual seekers have the exact same fear without realizing it, thinking that the path has to be arduous and full of virile effort to count, when that is exactly why it didn't work for years and years for the Bodhisattva Siddhartha. CONTINUED IN PART II
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly; Retrofuturism; Roxy Music, "In Every Dream Home a Heartache"

The Buddha's sister Sundari Nanda Gotami

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The Buddha's sister, Princess Sundari Nanda

Did the Buddha have siblings? Yes. But soon after Prince Siddhartha was born, his biological mother, Queen Maya, passed away. (There is an interesting reason why this is so, but suffice it to say that young Prince Siddhartha would hardly have known anything was amiss).

The king's other co-wife, Maya's own younger sister, Maha Pajapati Gotami, stepped in to raise the prince as her own. She later had two children, whom she turned over to a nurse so that she could focus on raising the prince.

Madonna and child: Mahapajapati Gotami and Siddhattha Gotama

La Madonna i il bambino (Arte Italiano)

The Buddha's biological mother, Queen Maya

Siddhartha grew up with his younger brother, Nanda (who later almost marries the most beautiful female in all the land, Janapada Kalyani Nandā, but instead becomes enlightened thanks to the Buddha, then his fiancée becomes a nun, too), and his sister, Sundari Nanda [("Beautiful") Nandā Gotami, who either is or has become confounded with Rupa Nanda and Abhi-rūpa Nandā, meaning "Ultimate-Beauty Nandā"], and a cousin (or son from a harem dancing girl named Mriga, as recorded in another Buddhist tradition), the famous attendant Ananda.

• 

  The Buddha's stepmother/aunt, Queen Pajapati

  At the time, there were only three people on Earth with the karma to become "world monarchs"(chakravartin rulers): The Buddha, Rahula, and Ananda. If this is true, it suggests they are all related by blood and/or are a cohort frequently reborn together, as we know to be the case with Ananda, who many times was born alongside the Bodhisattva (Bodhisatta, the Buddha as referred to in past lives when he is a "being bent on supreme enlightenment). Ananda was the Buddha's trusty personal attendant for 25 years, who did not have the job for the first 20 years of the Buddha's 45-year ministry as others tried to do it. But then Ananda volunteered and did it better than anyone else had. Moreover, he was well suited not only by her affable personality but by strength of a memory able to memorize all of the sutras he had ever heard. There is a sutra when Rahula is coming of age and starts feeling strong worldly urges, talking about renouncing and returning to royal life to enjoy its pleasures. The Buddha, seeing this as a sign that the time has come to teach him intensively, he takes him aside to give him an earful, so that he awakens with the help of Sariputra as his teacher.

I love my life of luxury and privilege.

(Could it be a coincidence that their names as they have come down to us in history all contain the word "Nanda"? Everyone in Buddhism gets a popular name, not their given name but an appellation, to make them easy to remember. For instance, Prince Siddhartha's cousin and wife by arranged marriage when both were 16, was not "Princess Yashodhara." That's what we call her. Her actual name was Bimba Devi, and when she became a nun, fully enlightened, a fierce debater who could challenge anyone in any place she wandered, she known by many other names as if to conceal or diffuse her greatness -- Bhaddha, Bhaddha Kaccana, Rahula-mata, and so on.)

This focus is on his beautiful sister or half-sister, who also became a nun and also attained enlightenment with his help, just as his adoptive mother did, who became the world's first Buddhist nun.

The Buddha's sister: The Great Teacher Sundari Nanda Gotami

By Rev. Kyoji, Rising Lotus Sangha (revkyoji@gmail.com) Great Teacher Sundari Nanda (risinglotussangha.org), 2022; edited by Dhr. Seven and Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

AI (artificial intelligence) renders Sundari Nanda a Dravidian Indian rather than an Aryan (Iranian from Gandhara) Central Asian as was more likely (Ishy Comar/provided by Rev. Kyoji/Rising Lotus Sangha).

Author Rev. Kyoji (Rising Lotus Sangha)

When Sundari Nanda was born to King Suddodhana and Queen Pajapati Gotami, there must have been great rejoicing and some trepidation. Queen Maya, the king’s first wife, died seven days after giving birth to their son, Prince Siddhattha Gotama (Sidhartha Gautama, the Future Buddha).

Although heartbroken, the king had a second wife, Maha Maya’s younger sister Maha Pajapati Gotami. Some years later, when Queen Pajapati became pregnant and gave birth, there was great joy and hope that this time mother and baby would survive.

Fortunately, both did. King Suddodhana and Queen Pajapati welcomed their daughter Princess Sundari Nanda into the world with elaborate celebrations.

She was raised a princess treated with the utmost deference and respect. She had everything she could ever want and two parents who loved and doted on her.

She was known for being graceful, beautiful, and very well-mannered. As she grew, she very much enjoyed her privileged life and her royal status.

I'm leaving Scythia, Channa

When her brother, Prince Siddhartha, renounced his privilege and left the palace in the middle of the night to become a spiritual wander on a quest to find a solution to the problem of suffering (dukkha) and later, having found it, became the "Enlightened One," the Buddha, her life changed forever. 

As the eldest, Prince Siddhartha had been expected to take over as king (Scythian tribal leader) when his father passed. It was considered his birthright and responsibility.

But his leaving had been prophesied as one of two possible destinies if he were to see the real nature of life as full of suffering (old age, sickness, death), which his father for many years worked hard to keep him from seeing exactly so he would choose to stay in the palace.

So when at 29 Siddhartha defied his royal father, family tradition, and the interpretation of the Sage Asita’s words who made the prophecy with other Brahmin seers, it must have confounded his family and broken their hearts.

Siddhartha wandered for years, first committing himself under one yogi (Alara Kalama) then another (Uddaka Ramaputta), learning their samadhi meditation techniques as an ascetic before setting off on his own to find an answer to his central question, which could not be found under these eminent teachers.

Sitting under a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa) for 49 days, finally allowing himself the bliss of samadhi (meditative absorptions known as jhanas) followed by a systematic practice of mindfulness on four things (body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects), at age 35, he experienced a great awakening (maha-bodhi).

He found the answers to the universal problem of suffering and the path-and-practice that results in awakening and end to suffering in this very life.

Sometime after his enlightenment, Siddhartha, who was now regard as "the Buddha," returned to his home (Scythia, Saka, Shakya Land), to one of its three seasonal capitals, all called Kapilavastu. 

Ven. Rahula, the Buddha, and Ven. Ananda

Seven years after his enlightenment, the Buddha, at the request of his father, who missed him dearly as did all the people of his country, returned to his palace in the city of Kapilavastu.

His father was aging and ailing. The Buddha wanted to see him and help him before he passed. While visiting, he began talking to everyone who would listen about suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the way to the end of suffering, teaching what he had found.

It is said that his brother Nanda, his cousins, all of the men of the household, and many from Shakya Land (Scythia, Saka) followed him when he again left, leaving behind their privilege and luxuries.

Do nuns ever revert to beauty queens?

He was changing many lives, including Sundari Nanda’s, forever. 

When the king passed away, after having realized one or more of the stages of enlightenment thanks to his son, the women of the royal household -- Maha Pajapati, Sundari Nanda, Princess Bimba (Yashodhara), the royal harem, and the female servants and musicians -- were left in the palace without income or protection.

There must have been wealth stored in the palace, but that would not last forever. The women in the surrounding Shakya villages were left without sons or husbands because they, too, had followed Siddhartha and become wandering ascetics under him.

Do beauty queens ever become nuns?

Culturally, this left the women unable to support or protect themselves. Some stories suggest that King Suddodhana had been something of a regional warlord (much as is seen in modern Afghanistan, which at that time was ancient Gandhara) and the threat of his army had kept other leaders at bay, to say nothing of local bandits.

Grief stricken, hungry, needy, and fearful, the Shakya women and children stood outside the palace gates. What else could Queen Pajapati do? She let them in.

This had to be an unsettling time for the princess Sundari Nanda. What had happened to the life she once knew? Now there were many women and children, many mouths to feed, so many who needed her mother’s attention,

In addition, Sundari Nanda and the women had to be more careful as they were now open to attack by neighboring territories (maha-janapadas) and their regional warlords, who by now knew they were left alone and unable to fully defend themselves, although all Scythians/Shakyians were fierce warriors, including the women.

A decision was made. Queen Pajapati went to the Buddha for refuge, as the remaining representative of what was left of Shakyas, but she was turned away.

This did not stop the women. Queen Pajapati and 500 (a figurative not literal number) women shaved their heads like Buddhist monastics, put on saffron robes like wandering ascetics, and set off to find the Buddha to ask him to accept them as disciples the way he had the males, including his own 7-year-old son, Rahula.

Sundari Nanda was among them. She had no choice but to go with her mother, and her aunt Princess Yashodhara (Prince Siddhartha’s former wife).

• I can relate to Sundari Nanda here. As a teenager, I was forced to move from my hometown and state, leaving all of my family and friends, when my mother remarried. I did not go happily. I can imagine that this would have been the case for Sundari Nanda, too. She was having to leave the luxury of the palace and her position in the country to become a spiritual wanderer, sleeping in the forest, in all kinds of weather, and with wild animals, men, and ogres. What would be worse to meet on the road, savage animals or bandits? But what else could she do, where else did she have to go?

Most know the story about how women were finally admitted into the Buddha’s monastic community or Sangha. It was largely due to Maha Pajapati Gotami’s persistence who, with the help and advocacy of Ananda, pleaded the women’s case.

Because females are able to reach enlightenment just as males are (and because the Buddha had previously said his spiritual community would not be complete until it contained four kinds of people, male and female monastics and male and female lay followers), they were welcomed into the Buddha’s Sangha.

Burmese novice (samaneri) Phaung Daw Oo Temple (Huggy's pics/flickr.com)

Even when they were accepted, the Buddha (and the male Sangha) made it difficult. It is said that the women were subjected to eight additional rules (garudhammas), which made it easier for men and harder for women to ordain. Still, they stayed. They worked hard. They practiced harder, or at least everyone else did, but not Sundari Nanda.

• (This is doubtful, as the research of Ayya Tathaaloka (facebook) into the Bhikkhuni Vinaya or "Nun's Code of Discipline," a book of monastic rules and the origin story of each rule).

The legend goes that Sundari Nanda would have none of it. She wanted her old life back, with all its privileges and luxuries. She rebelled against monastic life.

Monastics find that beauty is only skin deep

Using her beauty and charm and her close relationship to the Buddha, she got others to do her chores. She refused to sit in meditation. She hated working or having to go on alms round to eat. Sew robes? She had always had someone to sew her gowns!

She was more interested in making friends than in doing what was asked of her. She felt out of place and at odds with herself. She was unhappy as a nun and wanted to leave the spiritual community even if it was full of her circle of relatives and friends. But where else could she go?

One day the Buddha said he wanted to speak to each of the nuns individually. Sundari Nanda, thinking she was in trouble, evaded the Buddha as long as she could. He was not fooled. He sent the other nuns for her.

She could not be found. He sent attendants for her. Each returned emptyhanded. In the end, he went and found her himself. Instead of berating or lecturing her, he filled her ears with the most pleasant words: telling her all the good things about her.

He encouraged her and built her up. Then he spoke to her of impermanence and the way to end suffering (dukkha, disappointment) in a way that spoke deeply to her. She was changed in that moment and became enlightened soon after.

Sundari Nanda came to be known throughout the nun's community as foremost in meditation. She was compassionate and taught many other women. She was remembered as a positive influence in her community.

• This point reminds me of how I felt with the rug taken out from under me when my mother announced that we were going to move 350 miles and forever be away from our family, friends, and the life we once had. The feeling in the gut when life changes on a dime, that’s part of what anicca (impermanence, transience, constant change) means.  I felt the same on the day my mother passed. I felt the same when I was going through a divorce. We have two choices at these times. grasp, resist, rebel, and be miserable or acknowledge, open to the experience, and move forward. Neither is easy.
• As a mother of daughters, I can also relate to Maha Pajapati. In leaving her home and the comforts of Kapilavastu, she was taking Sundari Nanda and the other women and children to safety. Leaving something we love almost always has tradeoffs. Change is inevitable about successfully navigating it involves compromise. Children cannot be expected to understand adult decisions. It’s our job as adults to act like adults and make the changes necessary for the health and welfare of the family.

Sundari Nanda’s story speaks to us about how we resist practice. We do not like all the self-discipline it takes. We know meditation practice can positively affect our lives. We’re afraid of what will change. We see it as losing things rather than building a more peaceful existence. When we can finally open ourselves, nirvana becomes possible. Isn’t that it?

Finally, this story speaks to me as a Zen teacher and priestess. The Buddha met Sundari Nanda Gotami where she was. He encouraged her. He did no harm. These are the Three Tenets of Teaching my current teacher is passing onto me as well, and I practice to uphold them. 

What did Sundari Nanda’s story say to you?

COMMENTS

• Shinjin (Shuso) Feb. 29. Recalling that in Sunday's dharma talk you mentioned the way Buddha spoke to Sundari reminded you of Unbuntu. Sundari Nanda's story reminds me to take the sacred pause when I'm feeling the resistence or noticing that someone else is. And that kind words work wonders.

Ayya Tathaaloka and the Buddhist nuns of the Alliance for Bhikkhunis (bhikkhuni.net)

(WQ) Women are found throughout the history of Buddhism. They have not been removed even if people act as if the Sangha only means the "Order of Monks." There was an equally significant "Order of Nuns." The monastic Sangha means both.

The special significance of the world is the Noble Sangha refers to the "community (monastic and nonmonastic) of enlightened practitioners," not to merely to people in robes, though there is much overlap. TO BE CONTINUED IN PART II

Flowers can hear and respond, says science

NewScientist.com; Kelly Ani and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

We heard you were coming, sweet friend.

Evening primrose flowers can hear approaching bees and quickly make their nectar sweeter in response to the sound.

Lilach Hadany and colleagues at Tel-Aviv University, Israel, collected nectar from flowers before and after exposing them to a range of sounds, including recordings of bees and synthetic noises.

• [Early Indian scientist and genius Jagadish Chandra Bose proved there was a secret life of plants, building and testing very sensitive instruments showing that plants (and even assumed to be inanimate metals) can hear and feel and respond to their environment and humans. He came to the attention of the world in a big way through syncretic Hindu-Christian guru Paramahansa Yogananda's book Autobiography of a Yogi.]

Are orchids flowers from space like mandava?

Within three minutes of exposure to actual bee sounds or artificial sounds of a similar frequency, the flowers increased the concentration of sugar in their nectar by 20 per cent on average.

There was no change in sugar levels in flowers played other sounds… More: Flowers hear bees and make sweeter nectar when they’re buzzing nearby | New Scientist

LUST, Lust, lust

Wisdom Quarterly (EXTENDED COMMENTARY) orig. pub. 12/12/10, 11:40 AM

Prince Nanda was young. He was the Buddha's brother [of the same father, King Suddhodana, but with different mothers, who were biological sisters, and Nanda's mother, Maha Pajapati Gotami (who later became the world's first Buddhist nun), adopted Siddhartha seven days after his birth, after his mother, her older sister, Maha Maya, passed away, which is when the younger sister took over her duties and raised Prince Siddhartha to be king of the Scythians/Shakyians].
 

One source says Nada was 16, which was the marriable age among the Scythians/Shakyians, who were later thought of as kshatriya warrior/noble caste members, the administrators at the time. Sixteen was the age Siddhartha, who at age 35 had a great enlightenment (maha-bodhi) to become the Buddha, "the Enlightened One," was married off to his 16-year-old cousin, Bimba Devi (Princess Yasodhara).
 

Brahmins (priestly caste members, who underwent a rigorous period of study as brahmacaryas under a guru to learn Sanskrit and the Vedas, the ancient "Knowledge Books" of the Indus Valley Civilization and proto-India) were expected to be celibate students, unlike modern Brahmins.

Don't think about, no, don't think about it. Don't name it. Breathing in, breathing out...

The best teen "sex" comedy ever made. It's The Scarlet Letter that shows us ourselves!

Because Nanda was young and not enjoined to be celibate, Scythia prudently prescribed marriage. He, as well as Prince Siddhartha, were not restricted to monogamy, however, not even our modern serial-monogamy.

The brothers and their royal cousins had "dancing girls" and female musicians and what seem to have been harems (ensuring palace pleasures for polygamist royals). Lust and warriorship were ways of life for Scythians/Shakyians and later Indian rulers.

This was Central Asia after all (not Nepal but ancient Gandhara, now Afghanistan, as Dr. Ranajit Pal realized), which continues these traditions. It's the same in the American "caste" system, not only the ubiquitous middle class.

Goodness knows. Perhaps Shakyian princesses had dancing boys (or girls) of their own. It is certain that all six of their senses were indulged with banquets (tastes), perfumes (smells), art (sights), music (sounds), baths and foot massages (tactile sensations), elaborate clothes and conquests (mind). Princes certainly had concubines when they ruled.

The point is, lust for sensual desires was the name of the game. So we say: Do it when you are doing it, and abandon it internally when you have given it up externally. To do otherwise is a sure way to misery.

Our Judeo-Christian mores, transplanted from the Near and Middle East, have been heavily influenced for millennia by contact with Buddhism. Ancient Jews were in Kashmir, India, and in places along the Silk Road from at least the time of the Buddha. So what happened in the Greater Indian Empire ("Maha Bharat") influenced what went on in Egypt, Jerusalem, Nazareth, and later Greece, Rome, Britain, Israel, and America, from East to West.

Chanda, what are these strange visions I'm seeing? - Real life, Prince.

But the message has been corrupted. We Americans are averse to discussing lust. We cringe. We blush. We're humiliated to talk about sex, sexuality, or even nudity.

We overcompensate in certain parts of the country, flaunting our pornography and "liberalized" attitudes toward free love, sex, and pleasure. But just under the surface, we exhibit as many hang ups as most of the rest of the world, which looks to the Great Western Empire (America) for how to act and think.

Wisdom Quarterly says, enjoy pleasures when indulging them, AND temporarily abandon lust if serenity and insight are a meditative aim.

What are those two up to? - I don't know, but it looks like they're having fun. Shall we? - Let's.

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Why only temporarily? Wisdom Quarterly is different from other Buddhist websites for one thing: We taught a young American the Dharma and saw it eventually result in literal enlightenment.

This took place in this decade. (Many people say there's no chance for enlightenment nowadays. Yet, we have seen it and have come to know of at least 21 other people to attain one or more stages of enlightenment). The person we personally helped was nice, neither angry nor dumb, yet lusty. Shockingly, this person continued to have and enjoy lust AFTER attaining.

That's not the popular conception of what the tradition teaches, but it is in the texts. In the Buddha's time, most of the people who attained were ordinary householders. Monastics were intensive practitioners and some of them became teachers if they were able. Whenever the Buddha taught, which was just about daily for 45 years, someone in the audience would come to realization. Most of them were invisible devas (the majority of the audience).

Monastics had a better chance than ordinary humans, but since ordinary humans outnumbered monastics, more ordinary humans reached one or more of the stages of awakening. This, of course, led many of them to seek ordination but not all of them. Many more stayed householders, with homes, spouses, chidren, and ordinary responsibilities.

We are not surprised, at least we shouldn't be (but still are sometimes), because there are a lot of examples of this in the ancient texts. Lust is set aside to attain, but it comes back unless one advances to the point of outgrowing the Sense Sphere (kama loka).

The many kinds of stream enterers (enumerated and explained in the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga and the once returners can carry on as before; only the nonreturners and arhats have internally changed so much as to not be able to carry on like ordinary Sense Sphere inhabitants. That is why nonreturners do not return to this world of the ordinary senses in the human world or lower Sense Sphere heavens. They are reborn in the Pure Abodes, Fine-Material, or Immaterial Sphere planes.

Not everyone who gains liberating knowledge-and-vision becomes a monastic. This leads to the paradoxical situation wherein worldly monastics have abandoned lust, but not noble (enlightened) lay practitioners.

It was this way at the time of the Buddha. Most people did not become monastics even after attaining one of the stages of enlightenment.

Even the deva-ruler Sakka (King of the Devas), is a stream enterer. He is the leader of two worlds in space, the World of the Thirty-Three and the Realm of the Four Great Kings (Tavatimsa and Catumaharajika deva loka, literal extraterrestrial worlds we do a disservice to if we dismiss them as "heavenly fantasies" in Buddhist cosmology).

Sakka has not completely given up lust. He is concerned and involved in human and non-human affairs on Earth and the longevity and success of the Buddha's dispensation.

Maha Moggallana, the Buddha's second chief male disciple, had to shake Sakka and the partying devas (always finding diversion up there the way the rich seem to do down here) in their aerial spacecraft/heavenly mansions (vimanas).

Lust is that way; it is not fully abandoned until the the third stage of enlightenment.  

Wisdom Quarterly's own earthly friend, advisor, and newest teacher attained not the first but the second of the four stages of enlightenment.

• The idea of only four stages is, however, a simplification; there are in fact finer distinctions that can be made: The Path of Freedom (pp. 308-309) explains that there are TEN STAGES: three kinds of stream enterers, the once-returner, five kinds of non-returners, and the arhat.

Lust will not yet be permanently abandoned until the stage of nonreturning (anagami). But to get to that stage, with a limit now placed on future suffering, there had to be a temporary letting go of lust.

Without setting aside lust (as well as ill-will and delusion) during meditation, there is no chance of staying serene (accessing the meditative absorptions or jhanas), developing the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (practicing "right mindfulness"), and gaining liberating-insight. Our friend accomplished this in just four intensive months on retreat.

Is there any better, more permanent happiness than sensual lust?

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This meant temporarily leaving behind the home life and its all-consuming concerns. It was the same in the past: Many if not most of the people who attained a stage lower than full enlightenment at the time of the Buddha were living and continued to live at home.

The need to set aside lust and other distractions is emphasized in the Buddha's teaching on the Five Hindrances to meditation, which cloud the mind and obstruct any possibility of insight.

Jhana ("right concentration," samma samadhi, defined as the first four absorptions, in the Noble Eightfold Path) is the way to suppress the Five Hindrances, the first of which is lust, and other more subtle mental defilements (asavas and samyojanas). But vipassana ("liberating insight," wisdom, direct knowledge) is the way to uproot them.

One would be considered a literal "saint" in most religions by simply suppressing the defilements in this way, even gaining the psychic powers (abhinna, iddhi) that "prove" one's saintliness by doing so.

But uprooting these defilements, which often does not involve the development of psychic powers, is what makes one a Buddhist "saint" (an arya, a "noble one"). By achieving even the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment, one finally puts a limit on suffering (to no more than seven more lives). One has known-and-seen nirvana directly. One is destined to become fully enlightened and liberated from rebirth and every form of suffering within at most seven more rebirths.

(That may amount to a much longer period of time than it first appears: If one is reborn in any of the many celestial deva-worlds, where lifespans are measured in aeons (kalpas), the number of years to enjoy the senses is difficult to calculate in human years. Even the lowest celestial world has more and better pleasure to inspire lust and clinging, with access that lasts much longer).

What stands in the way of that? Lust. To be successful one needs to set aside a pleasurable thing for a much more pleasurable thing, which may sound like a paradox. This is generally only possible to do in the human world and the lower deva planes (sensual heavens), because otherwise the superior heavenly pleasures are too great in those worlds and the danger in them too hard to see.

How can we set lust aside even for a moment? Force, willpower, guilt, shame, submitting to someone else's control? No, these won't hold. The only way to set aside, abandon, let go, and detach from our innate lust (and the other hindrances that obstruct serenity and insight) is contemplating the disadvantages of lust or contemplating the many advantages of letting go.

If we "contemplate" (anussati, prolonged and well-rounded mindfulness, sati -- recollection, consideration, reflection), the heart/mind effortlessly lets go of what we cannot let go of using mere willpower.

Temporarily abandon lust. (Normally, we do not even dream of doing this even temporarily because it's the only happiness we know). Any kind of "permanent" abandoning will come by itself. There is no need to do it permanently. Do this:

• Just for this moment, consider the repugnant aspects of sensuality: Lust shrivels up.
• Just for right now, love (forgive and accept) someone who's done something to offend, hurt, or harm you: Anger wilts.
• Right in this present moment, be mindful (bare, unembroidered awareness) of whatever is given attention (with no discursive thinking, evaluating, or judging): Delusion is dispelled.

The Dharma is immediate, unaffected by time. The relief happens right away. It invites one to come and see, to test, to experiment with and experience. The Kalama Sutta is the most popular original Buddhist discourse in America (according to Wisdom Quarterly). But it is often misunderstood to mean, "Do whatever, use common sense." It's not "common" sense. It's something one can see without blind faith, belief, or trust in a foreign authority, yet that's just the beginning: There is still truth to discover and preserve.

The Buddha's son, Ven. Rahula, also suffered from intense lust at 16 (according to Ven. Dhammadipa, 2008 BAUS lectures), which is when his father had him apply himself to meditation to break through by temporarily laying that burden down. (It's there to pick up again later if one wishes).

Rahula saw that he, his father, and Ananda all had the "marks of great men" (lakkhana) and were therefore destined to be world-monarchs over the entire subcontinent or this world (this cakkavala as cakkravartin kings) or to become buddhas, depending on whether or not they renounced the world.

His son Rahula had renounced it (at age 7), under his father's prompting (his father being the Buddha, returning after seven years absence to become enlightened himself), but his brother Nanda had not. Both gained the unsurpassable bliss and safety of personal enlightenment. Both did it by sidestepping the lust that was arising as humans in the Sense Sphere.

Maha Pajapati (the Buddha's adoptive mother) and Janapada Kalyani (his half-brother's fiance) also contemplated. And their minds became calm, dispassionate, detached from craving, grasping, and clinging. This temporary freedom allowed them to win enduring freedom.

Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, became fully enlightened -- in spite of the fact that he had lived sunk in sensual pleasures and administrative responsibilities, overseeing and defending Shakyian land holdings other clans wanted to overtake.

How did the Buddha's brother, sister, son, wife, adoptive mother, biological mother, father, and cousins become enlightened whether they had joined the Sangha or not? They did it the way everyone does, by settling and unifying the mind (with the first four jhanas or levels of Zen) then contemplating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness with that concentrated mind. It all starts with temporarily setting aside the craving called lust.

• Wisdom Quarterly tells the story of each family member
• The end of Thailand's "Zen Sense" on Mindfulness
• ART: Allegory of Lust (aiwaz.net)
• Lust during the Renaissance (Pagan Sphinx)

Nathaniel Hawthorne would be proud his Puritan American message was understood.