Origins of Sacred Temple Prostitution

The Origins and History of Prostitution | doc

Yeah, I think sacred would be better.

(History But Fast) Originating from ancient cultures and societies, prostitution [trading sex for consideration, usually monetary] has been documented as a defined thing as far back as 2400 B.C. in ancient Mesopotamia, where sacred edicts legitimatized this practice.

Deeply rooted in tradition, culture, and socio-economic dynamics, it grew with civilization, oftentimes blurring lines between religious acceptance and societal norms.

Commerce, slavery, segregation -- various factors intertwined, shaping its complex history. With changing times, the perception and status of prostitution has also metamorphosed, sparking a spectrum of laws, debates, and attitudes around the world.

Let's journey back in time, unraveling the enigmatic roots of sacred prostitution in Sumer as reported in the oldest written work we have, The Epic of Gilgamesh.

Archeologist finds tomb of Gilgamesh in Euphrates

Get Real: Pimps 'n Hoes

On the Block with Pimps and Prostitutes

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Would it be the worst thing to bring back sacred prostitution?

Girls Gone Bible (not Wild)

There is a fascinating little book out there in the world somewhere (and lost in the stacks of the Wisdom Quarterly Library), a pamphlet really, called something like An Experience of Enlightenment. Fascinating title but misleading. First of all, no one gets enlightened.

What happens is that the author recounts the true story of an incident that happened to affluent Westerners, friends dabbling in the occult by having a seance to "communicate with the other side." Sounds ominous, but who wouldn't want to connect to the Other Side, the Twilight Zone, the Shadow World? Sounds scary, but it ended well, not with actual enlightenment but with an experience that was eye opening.

The banana hammock is a popular undergarment

A spirit came through telling them an unbelievable story. They're all Judeo-Christian by tradition so, of course, they don't really care about or believe in religion or spirituality. But then this being, entity, ghost comes through a medium with such a stunning story that it makes them all doubt their secularism. The spirit says that thousands of years ago (~3,000) he used to be a priest in charge of a temple in what is now India, at the sacred confluence of some rivers up north (in the IVC, Gandhara, Scythia region under the Himalayas).

One day a prince is traveling through, and as priest he shows him hospitality. He claps for a temple dancing girl to come out and entertain this guest, this youth, as he is given food and drink. The priest has a crush on this dancing girl, possibly a temple prostitute of some kind or just a veiled sacred Kathak dancer, She immediately falls in love with the youth and he with her. The priest notices and sends her away. But it's too late. They elope. And when the priest, the spirit through the medium, notices, he loses control and kills her. He might have killed the youth, too.

In either case, it's in contradiction to his religion and priestly duties, so when he dies and expects to get into Brahma's heaven for his life of religious devotion to protecting the temple to some god or another, he is unable. Kind Brahma tells him he needs to get their forgiveness. That is, it's not enough that he apologize. That would be easy. It's that they must forgive him. Everyone at the seance table is moved by his testimony and glad he contacted them with this story of past lives, heaven, sin, lust, possessiveness, God, and karma, BUT what's it got to do with them?

(Radio WHP) Prostitution in Victorian Los Angeles, California

What's a Hell's Half Acre? The U.S. has had various.

Westerners horsing around at an American seance table. That's when he lays down the boom, showing how strange the working-out-of-karma is: Those two people he needs to get the forgiveness from at sitting at the table right now. You're one of them, temple dancing girl being ogled by the priest, and that guy's the former youth.

Would sacred temple prostitution have mitigated this situation? Or is emotional love going to always win out, prompting our craving, longing, and attachment? This poor priest, possessive murderer. This poor frustrated couple, gets reborn to find each other anew, in the holy precincts of a temple to the God, but then this jerk's attachment leads him to a jealous rage that gets people killed and him in 3,000 or more years' worth of trouble, trying to track these two down to get them to understand what happened, accept his apology, and grant their forgiveness so he finally move on and up. Do they grant it?

Readers come a way with a dizzying set of questions about what the Buddha was talking about when he warned about craving, lust, attachment, karma (deeds), thoughts, views, words...and forgiveness (khanti). This is a Western author talking to Westerners. There is no Indian, except what we were before rearising here. Even us, why do we care about spiritual India so much?

Why did Paramahamsa Yogananda claim he found his former students now living in the West, reborn white and prosperous? And they recognized him, were attracted to him, found his Kriya Yoga teaching perfectly in line with the Jesusism and Christianity they were now born into, when even today few people realize the "lost years" of Jesus (Issa) were spent in northern India, at that time culturally Tibet, at Hemis Gompa, where he

• studied with Buddhist monks,
• met Brahmins,
• learned Vedic teachings...

He took all of this back to the West with his Zen-like parables for answers and other oddities, totally unJewish but very much in line with what the Essenes suddenly started to practice in Palestine/Israel out of nowhere, with no predecessor in Jewish texts or customs. The Gnostic texts that talk about the way of the Essenes is very Dharmic and much more Buddhistic, Eastern, and mellow as opposed to anything Abrahamic.

And if we go much further back to the Sumerian roots of Judaism (who took those ancient stories and made them about themselves), to a time before the Jewish priests desecrated "God's House" and turned the temple into a usury-bank for moneychangers, a den of iniquity and hypocrisy, so odious that Saint Issa/Jesus Christ flipped those tables over and chased them out, securing the place for godly things again.

Imagine a temple economy based not on the disgusting ritual slaughter of sacrificial animals and black magic rites of scapegoats and blood atonements to some insane tribal war god demanding the scent of burnt offerings (roasted flesh) wafting up to Him but instead the disgusting ritual prostitution of holy orgasm and sex with respect and not possessiveness and clinging. We could be as bonobos rather than chimps and vicious apes!

• This temple economy based on killing animals is exposed in Christspiracy and is just like the ancient Greeks' obsession with dead offerings to their pantheon in Homer's The Odyssey and which even the good Vedas talk about having Brahmin priests do for Brahma or other more sinister spirits, godlings, demigods/titans, ogres, reptilians/Draconians, and interlopers (superiors, devas, asuras, yakkhas, nagas, brahmas)

Who knows how the great Sumerians set up a system of sex at church, sex at temple, sex in the holy precincts of houses of worship, devotion, and morality-learning, but it would be great to bring it back.

Whether prostitution is ultimately good or bad, no one can question how bad it is in current practice -- full of condemnation, shame, drug abuse, exploitation, pimps, madams, abusive boyfriends, lack of agency and advancement. Sex work could be a positive thing. It's going to be a thing anyway.

Look at the bonobos, chimps, gorillas, monkey, macaques, orangutans, and other primates, they use sex the way humans do. And to say we don't is willful ignorance, foolishly dismissing what anyone can see.

• History But Fast, March 9, 2024; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, orig. 3/27/24

Beautiful Buddhist courtesan Ambapali

Āmrapālī (also known as "Ambapālikaka," "Ambapali," or "Amra") was a celebrated nagarvadhu (royal courtesan) of the Republic of Vaishali (located in present-day state of Bihar, India) in ancient proto-India around 500 BC [1, 2, 3].

Ambapali also won the title of rajnartaki (court dancer) [4]. Following the Buddha's Teachings, or Buddha-Dharma, she became an arahant, a fully enlightened disciple.

She is mentioned in the ancient Pali language texts and Buddhist traditions (āgama sutras), particularly in conjunction with the Buddha staying at her mango (amba) grove, Ambapali-vana, which she later donated to the Sangha (Monastic Order), where the Buddha taught the famous Ambapalika Sutra [5, 6, 7, 8].

The legend of Ambapali originated in the Buddhist Rebirth (Jataka) Tales some 1,500 years ago.

• VIDEO: How Buddhism started: Afghanistan

Early life

I can help it: I was born this way [by past karma]

Ambapali was born around 600-500 BCE, to Mahanama and an unknown mother.

Etymologically, the variants of her name derive from a combination of two Sanskrit words, amra (Pali amba), meaning "mango," and pallawa, meaning "young leaves or sprouts" [9].

It is said that she was spontaneously born at the foot of a mango tree in one of the royal gardens in Vaishali — which resulted in her name [10].

Even as a young maiden, Ambapali was exceptionally beautiful and ethereal. It is said that a feudal lord by the name of Mahanaman was so enchanted by the young Ambapali's beauty that he abandoned his kingdom and moved to Ambara Village, a small hamlet in Vaishali in present-day Muzaffarpur [11].

As a courtesan

I will dance to please the royals.

Vaishali was the capital city of the Licchavi tribe, one of the eight warrior (Pali khattiya, Sanskrit kshatriya) clans that had united to form the Vajjian confederacy [12].

The king was elected by an electoral college consisting of princes and nobles from the kshatriya clans. It was customary that the most beautiful women in the land, rather than marrying one man, dedicated themselves to the pleasure of many [13].

Ambapali grew up to be a lady of extraordinary charm and grace and was talented in many art forms [Geisha-girl style, a well education companion rather than someone simply providing sexual services][13].

Many young nobles desired her company. When King Manudev of Vaishali, saw Ambapali perform a dance in the city, he plotted to "own" her as a possession. He murdered Ambapali's childhood love and would-be-groom, Pushpakumar, on the day of their wedding.

Afterwards he made an official announcement declaring Ambapali as the "bride" of Vaishali — that is, the nagarvadhu ("royal courtesan"). She was also bestowed with the title of Vaishali Janpad Kalayani (Pali janapada kalyani "the belle of the land" of Vaisali), given to the most beautiful and talented girl of the kingdom for a period of seven years.

Ambapali had the right to choose her lovers, but according to the aforementioned custom, she could not be committed to any one man.

After being declared a nagarvadhu [14], her talent and beauty attracted so many men that the glory of Vaishali during this period is often attributed to Ambapali's fame [13]. The price to see Ambapali's art form was 50 karshapanas (Pali kahapanas, Bactrian gold from Afghanistan/Gandhara) per night, and her treasury grew much larger than the treasuries of some kings [13].

Who would objectify and judge kids' beauty?

It is said that Ambapali was declared the "most beautiful" girl at the age of 11 and was later made nagarvadhu. She also is a celebrated rajnartaki (court dancer) in the ancient Vaishali. Ambapali was also proficient in music, dance, hunting, archery, horse handling, and so on. She had great love for classical songs and dance [4, 15].

Legends associated with Ambapali

Ambapali and King Bimbisara

Carving of the Buddha and Ambapali

Stories of her beauty travelled to the ears of famous Buddhist King Bimbisara, ruler of the hostile neighboring kingdom of Magadha, where the Buddha often stays. The king attacked Vaishali and took refuge in Ambapali's house.

King Bimbisara was a good musician. Before long, Ambapali and King Bimbisara fell in love. When she learned his true identity, Ambapali asked King Bimbisara to leave and cease his war. 

King Bimbisara, smitten with love, did as she asked. In the eyes of the people of Vaishali, this incident made him a coward. Later, Ambapali bore him a son named Vimala Kondanna.

Ajatashatru (patricidal Prince Ajatasattu), King Bimbisara's son by Queen Chellana (according to Jain tradition) or Queen Kosala Devi (according to Buddhist tradition), later invaded Vaishali due to a dispute with his brothers.

He was so moved by her beauty that when Ambapali was imprisoned, he burned the whole of Vaishali. Almost everyone died in the massacre, except his beloved Ambapali, but when she saw the condition of her motherland, she renounced her love for him.

Ambapali and the Buddha

(We're not really Ambapali. We just play her in
a Wisdom Quarterly play about her life).

In Buddhist texts, Ambapali is noted as having had the opportunity to serve food to the Buddha during his last visit to Vaishali, shortly before his passing into final nirvana [16].

Ambapali attended his sermon at a nearby grove and was so deeply moved by it that she invited him for a meal at her quarters [17]. In other accounts, it is stated that the Buddha himself took shelter in her mango grove and was visited by Ambapali, who paid her obeisance to him and then extended the invitation [18].

The Buddha consented to her proposal of offering him a meal with silence, as was his custom [17]. On her way back, her chariot came face to face with that of the princely nobles of Vaishali who were also rushing to invite the Buddha to accept their offer of a meal with them.

The Buddha towering in neighboring Kapilavatthu

They berated her by calling her a "mango-woman" and asked her, as a woman of ill repute (a courtesan), to move her vehicle aside and let her social superiors pass on the single lane road.

It is then that she announced that the Buddha had already accepted her invitation and was coming to her house for a meal offering. The princes were upset and offered her gold in return for the privilege of hosting the Buddha, but she refused [18, 19].

The Buddha also turned them down when they asked him to accept their offer, having already committed to Ambapali's charitable donation.

The Buddha recognized her beauty and advised his disciples to be mindful in her presence because they easily become infatuated with her if they did not remain mindful [19]. [The Buddha advised monastics to imagine beautiful members of the other sex to be thought of as daughters or mothers, sons or fathers, so as not to succumb to their physical allure or beyond-physical charm.]

Ambapali received the Buddha with her retinue in her grand residence, which had been specially decorated for the occasion [20]. It was no less than the palace of any king [20], such was the wealth she had amassed.

At the conclusion of the meal offering, she offered to the Buddha and his spiritual community (Sangha) her entire property, including her mango groves, which became the venue for several sutras on mindfulness [20].

Awakened lay Buddhist

Why is the Buddha so famous throughout Asia?

Soon thereafter, she renounced her position as courtesan and court dancer, accepted the Buddhist way, and remained an active supporter of the Buddha's Sangha. She dedicated her life to the service of the poor and the destitute [20].

On growing up, Ambapali's son, Vimala Kondanna, also became a Buddhist monk and a renowned Buddhist elder (thera) [16].For having followed the Buddha's Teachings, the Dharma, she had become a fully enlightened disciple. More

• Ambapālī (Dictionary of Pali Proper Nouns, palikanon.com)
• Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

How to HUG a Buddhist Tree (sutra)

Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Dhr. Seven, Jen B., CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Imagine a tree so tall we need to invent equipment to climb it and all our friends to hug it.

It's true! The kundalini energy is tingles. Buddhist meditation is better under trees!

California has the best, oldest (bristlecone), and tallest (redwood) trees in the world.

.

1. If you would hug a tree, do it slowly, softly, with friendliness, full of altruistic kindness the Buddha called metta. Trees are very sensitive, remarkably sensitive, more than most humans will ever know.

Roots of trees are best for meditating.

(Ask Maitreyi, who will be at Shakti Fest-Bhakti Fest in Joshua Tree, California, in May of 2018 or consult the scientific research in The Secret Lives of Plants).
 

Why did the ascetic Siddhartha retire to various groves of trees in his quest for enlightenment and even after his great awakening? There was the banyan tree grove where he gave up penances and self-starvation, where the maiden Sujata offered him solid food. 

The bodhi tree still lives in Bodhgaya, India

There was the bodhi tree grove (bodh gaya), where he became enlightened. There was the grove of trees in the Deer Park, where he gave his first discourse.

There was the bamboo grove (Veluvana) where he found cool shade and took up residence. There were the mango groves (like the one the courtesan Ambapali donated to the Buddha) he stayed at on the outskirts when visiting big cities.

Could some energy emerge from the ground to feed the tree and his own spine, or fruit to gather without getting up (like the nutritious figs of the pipal tree, Ficus religiosa, the bodhi tree that are said to contain a chemical quite like an entheogen)?

Veneration of a sacred grove of trees in India

2. Ask permission to warn the tree and/or any "spirit" (dryad, bhumi deva, woodland fairy) residing in or above it. Trees serve as wonderful homes to the fairies or elementals.

This does not mean that trees have "souls" or "spirits" but rather that devas frequently take up residence in some old, special, or tall trees. There is a long history of veneration of such trees and sacred groves of trees.

3. Then slowly approach, embrace, open your heart, clear your head, and hold on out of loving compassion. You may then feel the bounce back of energy. What we put out into the world comes back to us in manifold ways, exponentially grown all out of proportion to our action (karma). It is not "cause and effect" (which states that the effect will be the equal and opposite force of the cause). It will be like one oak seed or acorn giving rise to a giant tree and countless acorns. Thank the tree, and go in peace. The tree will remember you.

• A California tree (Methuselah) older than Buddhism's Bo

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Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; DailyMail.co.uk; Nica, BananaTV

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• 

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  Vinod Khanna to play the Buddha  A film on Ambapali (the courtesan Amrapali) has gone on the floors with a new face, Jinal Pandya playing the "bride of Vaisali," who mesmerized several [ancient] royals with her beauty but was herself so influenced by [the] Buddha after serving him a meal [of alms] that she renounced her position as state courtesan to become his active supporter. Vinod Khanna plays [the] Buddha.
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When the Courtesan met the Buddha

G.P. Malalasekera (Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names courtesy of the German site palikanon.com) edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero, Wisdom Quarterly

You, too, will succumb to the power of beauty if you do not practice mindfulness (vigilant "bare awareness," sati) and exercise the mindful contemplations/recollections (four foundations, satipatthanas). Craving is the weak link in Dependent Origination for escape.

Who'll be Miss World in a pageant when everyone's in traditional Indonesian dress? (AP)

  

The Buddha (Kingstone_13)

Ambapālī (Ambapālikā): a courtesan of Vesāli. She is said to have come spontaneously into being at Vesāli in the gardens of the king (a familiar trope indicative of the woodland devis and fairies of far surpassing beauty, e.g., the life story of the Buddha's chief female disciple the nun Uppalavanna Theri once born of a blue lotus or the recent Japanese "Tale of Princess Kagyuga").

The gardener found her at the foot of a mango tree -- hence her name (amba = mango) -- and brought her to the city. She grew up so full of beauty and of grace that many young princes vied with each other for the honor of her hand. (This sounds exactly like the Shinto/Buddhist folktale of the Moon goddess avatar Princess Kagyuga!)

Tadolf Swiftler vs. Jen Law (article.wn.com)

Finally, in order to end their strife, they appointed her courtesan (a female courtier). Later she became a devout follower of the Buddha, and building a monastic complex (vihāra) in her own garden grove, gave it to him and the Buddha's Monastic Order (Sangha). This was during the Buddha's last visit to Vesāli shortly before his final nirvana.

 

It is said that when Ambapālī heard of the Buddha's visit to Koti village near Vesāli she and her retinue drove out of the city in magnificent chariots to meet him and, after hearing a discourse, invited him and the monastics to a meal the next day. The Buddha accepted this invitation and had, as a result, to decline one from the Licchavi princes of Vesāli.

 

Some devis (divine-human hybrids, demigoddesses, fairies), like this one from Scotland in Tartan-Scottish, might default to their beauty to succeed and overcome a sexist planet like Earth (costumed dolls by Martha Boers/a-faerietale-of-inspiration).

 

Who's that bad girl? Michelle Trachtenberg

While returning from her visit to the Buddha, Ambapālī was so elated at the idea of having the Buddha to a meal the next day, she refused to make way for the Licchavi princes who were on their way to invite the Buddha. She told them she had invited them and they attempted to purchase her invitation. She refused to give up her invitation for anything in the world.

The DA. says that just before beautiful Ambapālī's visit, the Buddha admonished the monastics to be vigilant and mindful (contemplating reality rather than being neglectful and taken in by appearances), lest they should lose their heads about her (DA.ii.545).

 

It was after this meal that Ambapālī gave over her park, the Ambapāli-vana, often thought of as a mango grove, to the Buddha and the Monastic Order. The Buddha accepted the gift and stayed there some time before going on to Beluva (Vin.i.231-3; D.ii.95-8); the two accounts vary in details. For example, in the Long Discourses (Digha Nikaya) version, the Buddha was already in Ambapālivana, and not in Kotigāma, when the courtesan visited him.

 

I want to be a courtesan. - No, honey, you mean "princess"! You want to be a princess or a nun! - No, dad, I think I'd rather be a courtesan or business woman or rock star. - Okay, be a rock star but not like your role models Britney Spears or Selena Gomez. No more Disney!

.

I'm a warrior princess, li'l girl, not a wh*re.

Ambapālī had a son, Vimala-Kondañña, who was an eminent Elder (an enlightened monastic or thera/theri of many years standing). Having heard him preach one day, she renounced the world and -- working for insight by studying the working of the law of radical impermanence as crudely illustrated in her own aging body -- she attained full enlightenment (Therīgāthā 206-7).

 

Nineteen verses ascribed to her are found in the Psalms of the Sisters or Therīgāthā (ThigA.252-70).
 

Black Beauty Barbie (kattisdolls.net)

In the time of Sikhī Buddha she had entered the Monastic Order. While yet a novice, she took part in a procession of Buddhist nuns (bhikkhunīs) and was doing homage at a shrine when an enlightened elder nun (arhat therī) in front of her hastily spat in the court of the shrine. Seeing the spittle and not knowing who had committed the fault, she said in reproof: "What prostitute has been spitting here?"

It was owing to this remark that she was born as a courtesan in her last rebirth (ThigA.206-7).

 

The Apadāna (also quoted in the Therīgāthā) gives some more details about her. She had been a daughter of a noble warrior caste (kshatriya/khattiya) family in the time of Phussa Buddha and had done many meritorious deeds in order to be beautiful in later rebirths.

In a future life as a deva in Heaven #2, I'm going to marry Sakka, King of the Devas. - Hah, you wish! He's already married to an asura princess (Martha Boers/a-faerietale...).

 

Fruit beauty is deva beauty.

As a result of the abuse of the nun (referred to above) she had been born in hell and later had, for ten thousand lives, been a courtesan. In Kassapa Buddha's time she had practiced celibacy (Ap.ii.613ff.; ThigA.213f).

 

It is said that she charged 50 kahāpanas a night from her patrons and that Vesāli became very prosperous through her. It was this that prompted King Bimbisāra to get a courtesan for his own city of Rājagaha (Vin.i.268), modern Rajgir, where the Buddha often resided atop the poorly named Vultures Peak, which has no vultures and is merely a beautiful hill overlooking Rajgir that was a good retreat, a tiny hermitage the Buddha used to be close to the city, Bamboo Grove monastery, and one of his many royal patrons, King Bimbisara, his wife, and their bad son the subsequent King Ajatasattu.

The devas (space nymphs) as depicted in Thai cultural art (Ammar Crazzy/flickr.com).

 

Among Ambapālī's patrons was King Bimbisāra, and he was the father of her son Vimala-Kondañña (ThagA.i.146). [This would seem to make Ambapali a kind of Queen of Rajagaha except not technically as happens in royal matters of polyamory and polygamy, multiple partners and wives, ladies in waiting, etc. King Bimbisara, who had reached the first stage of enlightenment and therefore loved and had an unshakeable faith in the Buddha, Dharma, and noble Sangha, was not so different from Ambapali, who also loved the Three Gems.]

 

In the Psalms of the Sisters (vv.1020-21; Psalms of the Brethren.ii.129) there are two verses which, according to tradition, were spoken by Ananda in admonition of monks who lost their heads at the sight of beautiful Ambapālī. Whether this was before or after she joined the Monastic Order we are not told.