How one woman changed Buddhism

Sanghamitta Day Celebrations

Sanghamitta and the Bodhi Tree

Saṅghamittā (Sanskrit Saṅghamitrā, "Friend of the Sangha") with the nun's name Ven. Ayapali Theri [1], who lived from 282 BC–203 BC [1].

 

She was a fully enlightened (arhat, arahant) Indian Buddhist nun and the eldest daughter (as recounted in Sri Lankan tradition as recorded in the Dīpavaṃsa) of Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (304 BC–232 BC) with his first wife Queen Devi (302 BCE–242 BCE).

Together with her monastic brother, Ven. Mahinda Thero, she entered the order of Buddhist monastics. The two siblings later went as Buddhist missionaries to the island of Sri Lanka to spread the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, at the request of Sri Lankan King Devanampiya Tissa (250 BC–210 BC), who was a contemporary of King Ashoka.

• (Theravada) Buddhism in Sri Lanka
• Buddhism was first missionary faith

Emperor Asoka at Nava Jetavana Temple, Shravasti, for the Third Buddhist Council

 

From Emperor Ashoka's India to Sri Lanka

Ashoka was initially reluctant to send his daughter (according to the Sri Lankan tradition) on an overseas mission, even one of only 35 miles, the distance between the subcontinent (India) and the island (dipa or dvipa).

However, because of the insistence of Ven. Sangamitta herself, he finally agreed. She was sent to Sri Lanka together with several other nuns to start the Buddhist nun's lineage of (Bhikkhuni Sangha or order of fully ordained female Buddhist monastics) at the request of King Tissa.

• 

  Sangha incomplete without women

  THERE ARE MANY GREAT WOMEN IN BUDDHISM: Many come to mind like the Buddha's enlightened wife (Bimba Devi, Yasodhara, Rāhulamātā, Bhadda Kaccana, Subhaddakā, and called by many other names to dilute her magnificence and prominence in the Bhikkhuni Sangha, as if she were the "Mary" so often mentioned in Christianity); Ven. Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami, the Buddha's mother and history's first Buddhist nun; Western German Jewish Buddhist nun Ayya Khema, who restarted full ordination in Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka; Khema Theri, foremost in wisdom; Uppalavanna, foremost in psychic powers; Ven. Sundarī Nanda, the Buddha's fully enlightened sister (possibly the same as the "Belle of the Land," the most beautiful Janapada Kalyani); Kwan Yin Bodhisattva, Goddess of Compassion; Prajnaparamita, Goddess of Wisdom (Buddhism's Sophia); the various colored Taras; Ambapali the Wise Courtesan; Ven. Kisa Gotami; Dipa Ma; modern American greats like Tara Brach, Ven. Tathālokā Bhikkhunī, Sharon Salzberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Shaila Catherine, Tina Rasmussen; and the many advanced ones like Beth Upton, Sayalay Susila, Sayalay Dipankara, and so on.

There she ordained Queen Anulā and other women in King Tissa's court at Anuradhapura who desired to be ordained as nuns after Mahinda converted them to Buddhism [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

After Sanghamittā’s contribution to the propagation of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and her establishing the Bhikkhunī Sangha or Meheini Sasna ("Order of Buddhist Nuns") there, her name became synonymous with "Buddhist Female Monastic Order of Theravāda Buddhism" that was established Sri Lanka, Burma, China, and Thailand, in particular.

The day she brought the most revered Bodhi tree as a sapling to Sri Lanka and planted it in Anuradhapura, where it still survives, is still celebrated annually on the Full Moon Day of December as Uduvapa Poya or Uposatha Poya and "Sanghamittā Day" by Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhists [3, 5, 7]. More

• Venerable Gotami (video), Dec. 22, 2025; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Power of Buddhist women and nuns

U.S. Theravada Ayya Tathaaloka

Can women attain Buddhist enlightenment (bodhi) in our present patriarchy? - YES!

.

Can women awaken? - Yes, they can!

WOMEN IN BUDDHISM is a topic that can be approached from varied perspectives, including historically, archeologically, anthropologically, theologically, and from the view of modern feminism.

Topical interests include the theological [study of the divine or "god" (theos, dios, deus, devas)] status of women, the treatment of women in Buddhist societies in the home and in public, the history of women in Buddhism, and a comparison of the experiences of women across different schools of Buddhism.

As in other religions, the experiences of Buddhist women have varied considerably.

Western feminist Vajrayana

Scholars such as Bernard Faure and Miranda E. Shaw are in agreement that Buddhist Studies is in its infancy in terms of addressing gender issues. In 1994, Shaw gave an overview of the situation:

"In the case of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, some progress has been made in the areas of women in Early Buddhism, monasticism, and Mahayana Buddhism. Two articles have seriously broached the subject of women in Indian Tantric Buddhism, while somewhat more attention has been paid to Tibetan nuns and lay yoginis [1]. More

First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening

Researcher Susan Murcott has 4.6 out of 5 stars (58 reviews) for First Buddhist Women, a readable, contemporary translation of and commentary on the "enlightenment verses" (bodhi-gathas) of the first female disciples of the Buddha.

This book explores Buddhism’s relatively liberal attitude towards women since its founding nearly 2,600 years ago, through the study of the Therigatham, the earliest known collection of women’s religious poetry.

A Journey Into Peace (by nun Lodro Palmo)

Through commentary and storytelling, author Susan Murcott traces the journey of the wives, mothers, teachers, courtesan, prostitutes, and wanderers who became leaders in the Buddhist community, roles that even today are rarely filled by women in other patriarchal societies and religions.

 

Their poetic verse (about their moment of awakening) beautifully expresses their quest for spiritual attainment and their struggles in society. More: First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening

• eBook: A Journey Into Peace: Timeless Tales of Zen Buddhism: 60 Illustrated Short Stories to Melt Anxiety, Find Keys to Happiness: Begin Your Journey to Inner Peace, Stop Negative Thoughts, Calm Overthinking (by Buddhist nun Lodro Palmo)

• Tsoknyi Nuns, excerpt from Blessings; Better Buddhist (AI mispronouncing names of many enlightened Early Buddhist nuns); Susan Murcott; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

A teaching for the Buddha's mother

For the Buddha so loved the mother who raised him that he made her the first Buddhist nun.

Thus have I heard. One day the Blessed One (the Buddha) was staying in Vesali, in the Hall with the Peaked Roof in the Great Forest.

[His foster mother, the Scythian/Shakyian former queen, the sister of his biological mother and second wife of his father, the world's first Buddhist nun] Maha Pajapati Gotami went to the Blessed One, bowed, stood respectfully to one side, and said:

"Venerable sir, it would be good if the Blessed One were to teach me the Doctrine (Dhamma) in brief so that, having heard it from the Blessed One, I might dwell apart, secluded, heedful, ardent, and resolute [withdrawn into calm-and-insight meditation]."

"Gotami, qualities of which it may be said, 'These qualities lead to

• passion rather than dispassion,
• fetters rather than being free,
• accumulating rather than letting go,
• self-aggrandizement rather than modesty,
• discontentedness rather than contentment,
• entanglements rather than seclusion,
• laziness rather than perseverance,
• [indolence rather than persistence,]
• being burdened rather than being unburdened,'

"you may categorically maintain, 'This is not the Doctrine, this is not the Training (Discipline), this is not the Teacher's instruction.'

"As for the [opposite qualities], you may categorically maintain: 'This is the Doctrine, this is the Training [Discipline], this is the Teacher's instruction.'"

That is what the Buddha said. Gratified, Maha Pajapati Gotami rejoiced in his words.

• 
  

Contentment

Satthusasana Sutta: "Contentment Discourse (to Upali)," The Teacher's Instruction

Scythians lived in peace thanks to him

Venerable Upali went to the Blessed One, bowed, sat respectfully to one side, and said: "Venerable sir, it would be good if the Blessed One were to teach me the Doctrine in brief so that, having heard it from the Blessed One, I might dwell apart, secluded, heedful, ardent, and resolute."

"Upali, those qualities of which it may be said, 'These things do not lead to complete:

• disenchantment,
• dispassion,
• cessation,
• calm,
• direct knowledge,
• awakening, nor to
• nirvana,'

"you may categorically maintain, 'This is not the Doctrine, this is not the Training, this is not the Teacher's instruction.'

"As for the qualities of which [the opposite may be said], you may categorically maintain, 'This is the Doctrine, this is the Training, this is the Teacher's instruction.'"

• See also: AN 8.53; SN 56.11; MN 72
• Initial steps of the Buddha's training: sikkhāpada
• Dhammapada chapter on sukha: Happiness
• Nibbidā, finding disenchantment – Dharma PhD
• Contemplation on disinterestedness regarding worldly things
• Freedom through letting go (internal renunciation)
• Upāli Sutras (from the Pali canon)
• Edited by Dhr. Seven based on translations by Ven. Thanissaro, Gotami Sutta (AN 8.53 PTS: A iv 280), Satthusasana Sutta (AN 7.79 PTS: A iv 143), Wisdom Quarterly

Happy Mother's Day, Buddha (video)

WARNING: Who is your mother? It is your current mother. The others were past mother so are not your mother. Do not cling even to your current, beneficial, wonderful mother. How much less to the others. Not every daughter will be a mother, but every mother was a daughter. Love your parents. Be grateful. Repay them with Dharma. Or (like, you know, if they were horrible) leave them be. This is what is best for you. Let them be what they will be. You don't own them. They don't own you. Do you owe them? Yes, very likely. If you refuse to repay them, okay then let them be. You are missing out on a rare chance because no ordinary karma is so powerful as what we do to or for our parents. They are like the Buddha for us, so valuable and extra-meaningful is what we do to and for them. That is how karma is. This is part of right view as the Buddha defined it. And because of wrong view, we suffer much. To not suffer, let us have confidence and believe the Buddha. Above all karmas is one karma: making an end of karma. And how do we do that? Awaken, know-and-see, and touch nirvana.

The Buddha's mothers (Mother's Day Special)

(Alan Peto) UNITED STATES. Mother's Day is a popular holiday, but is there a Buddhist equivalent? Did the Buddha ever speak of "mothers"? Yes, often! In addition to past lives, karma (actions) supporting his parents, he helped one of his closest disciples in a practice to help his mother who was reborn as a hungry ghost (preta). This became so popular among laypersons that there is a festival for it. We can also practice loving-kindness, compassion, and generosity for mothers right here and now. These are foundational Buddhist values that are perfect for Mother's Day (and every day).

Contact Alan Peto:  alanpeto.com/contact. Video disclaimer:  alanpeto.com/legal/video-disc...

Is the first video mockery? Whether said in jest or semi-seriously, it is nevertheless profoundly true. How long is samsara? That's easy to answer but, first, What exactly is samsara?

• Samsara is the "Endless Cycle of Rebirth," the spinning "Wheel of Life and Death," the "Revolving in the Ocean of Death, Suffering, and Rebirth" because every time one dies, one meets with rebirth -- and this has been going on since the beginningless past and will go on into the unforeseeable future.

Ah, in that case, who knows? A billion years?

Buddhist Mother's Day

(single_cell) Happy Mother's Day to all moms from the Buddha's moms (Maya and Pajapati) to God's wife, Asherah, to Jesus' mom Mary (Miriam) [both at one time or another being called the "Queen of Heaven"], to our mom, Eve of Eden (and the first female in the Agganna Sutta, the "Discourse on Beginnings [of Life on Earth]" (a.k.a. "A Buddhist Genesis") to the progenitor mother in science, also called Eve.

Beautiful Scythians/Shakyians of Central Asia

Hooray for moms! Can we agree that when we first began as a single cell, we were already composed of two halves embedded in a mother (or petri dish), cared for by a mother (or lab workers), and someone somewhere was a father, participating or not. Parents are very important because parenthood is karma. We are fortunate in having parents, but this fortune is not for nothing. We, too, have been mothers.

And samsara is so long, has been going on for so many billions of years and far longer than that, for aeons (kalpa) without discernible beginning, which is not to say there was no beginning but only to say that no beginning is visible, apparent, or sensible to our logic and assumptions about its nature. What is the nature of an answer that would fit the question? It must satisfy the question based on our other assumptions. So if we ask, "When did it all begin?" we are in no way prepared for the real answer. We're only hitting our head against a paradox of our own making.

• Single_cell, May 13, 2012; Alan Peto, May 7, 2022; Dhr. Seven (text), Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Nominating remarkable local women (KTLA)

KTLA 5, Los Angeles; Ashley Wells and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

This Squaw for surviving US genocide

KTLA 5 News recognizes the great contributions women have made to this nation and local communities, particularly (but not exclusively) Los Angeles.

Remarkable Women is part of a nationwide Nexstar Media initiative to honor the influence that women have had on public policy, social progress, and the quality of life.

• KTLA 5 (ktla.com) is a local L.A., California, news channel

Remember, speaking for Brando?

KTLA 5 celebrates local women who inspire, lead, and forge the way for other women. It is not just about one day or one month — but about what they do day-in and day-out.

In order to celebrate these women, help is needed finding them, to learn about their background, and to hear their stories.

Please use this form to nominate a Remarkable Woman in your life. Entries accepted through November 30, 2023.

First Buddhist Women: Stories of Awakening (Susan Murcott)

Remarkable woman Zabie Yamasaki '21 | KTLA

During the month of March 2024, KTLA 5 will highlight four local women who will be considered for Nexstar’s nationwide 2024 Woman of the Year Award, with KTLA 5’s local winner announced the day after April Fool's Day 2024.

The nationwide finalists and winner will be announced on a “Remarkable Women” special in May 2024.

• More + NOMINATION FORM

Black Buddhist nun Faith Adiele

WHO TO NOMINATE? Whom shall we nominate? My mom! (No, MY mom!) She's wonderful and made our lives possible not by giving birth but by raising us. Or maybe those women who founded Black Lives Matter, or a Western Buddhist nun doing remarkable things (like former nun in good standing and world traveler Beth Upton or current California bhikkhuni Ayya Tataaloka or Pema Chodron), or that girl, you know that girl, she's like a sister but the real thing?

First Buddhist Women

Our nominee: awakened Beth Upton

This is a readable, contemporary translation of -- and commentary on -- the "enlightenment verses" of the first female disciples of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni.

It explores Buddhism’s relatively liberal attitude towards women since its founding 2,600 years ago, through the study of the Therigatha.

• [Theri = "elder nun," an "elder" being any female monastic of at least 10 rainy retreats standing, which means she would be no less than 17-years-old, which is more than long enough to be fully enlightened, and gatha = "poetic verse or song"]

The Buddha elevated females to parity.

It is the earliest known collection of women’s religious poetry. Through commentary and storytelling, author Susan Murcott traces the journey of the wives, mothers, teachers, courtesans, prostitutes, and wanderers who became leaders in the ancient Buddhist community.

These are roles that even today are rarely filled by women in other patriarchal religions. Their spiritual poetry (recounting how they became awakened) beautifully expresses their search for spiritual attainment and their struggles in society. More

Tathālokā Bhikkhunī at InsightLA.org, founded by the awakened wife of the awakened American teacher Jack Kornfield (Spirit Rock), Trudy Goodman's Insight Los Angeles

Remarkable Women 2023 nomination form (ktla.com/remarkable-women-contest)

The Buddha's sister, Sundari Nanda

Hellmuth Hecker, Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha (translated from German by Sister Khema, 1994); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Jen Bradford (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Boys Only Club: The Buddha with relatives Rahula and Ananda, no sister Sundari Nanda, brother Nanda, or wife/baby mom Bimba/Yasodhara/Bhaddakacca in patriarchal Thai artist's rendering.

Sundari (Beautiful) Nanda, the Buddha's half-sister he grew up with, who became a nun

.

Sundari Nanda, the Buddha's beautiful sister

I can renounce anything but my self.

When she was born, Sundari Nanda was lovingly welcomed by her parents — the father of the Buddha [King Suddhodana] and his second wife [Queen Pajapati, the younger sister of the Buddha's deceased biological mother, Queen Maya].

Her name Nanda means "joy, contentment, pleasure," and was given when parents were especially joyful about the arrival of a baby.

Nanda was extremely well-bred, full of grace and beauty.

To distinguish her from others [particularly her brother Nanda] by the same name, she was later called Rupa Nanda, "one of delightful form," and Sundari Nanda, "Beautiful Nanda."

In due course many members of her [Scythian/Shakyian/Indo-Saka] family — the royal house of the Sakyans — left the household life for the left-home life [of renunciation enlightenment and liberation from all suffering], influenced by the amazing fact that one of their clan [Prince Siddhartha Gautama known as the "Sage of the Scythians" or Shakyamuni] had become a supremely-enlightened teacher [samma-sam-buddha].

Among them was her brother Nanda, her [Scythian] cousins, and finally her mother [the world's first Buddhist nun, Maha Pajapati or "Great Pajapati"], together with many other Scythian/Sakyan ladies.

Thereupon Beautiful Nanda also took this step, but it is recorded that she did not do it out of confidence [saddha, faith, conviction] in the teacher [the Buddha] and the teachings [the Dharma], but out of love for her family and a feeling of belonging with them.

.

One can only imagine the respect and exalted treatment accorded to the graceful sister or half-sister of the Buddha and how touched people were by the sight of the beautiful royal Scythain daughter [nearly as beautiful as the Buddha himself, and Brother Nanda, cousin Ananda, son Rahula, and wife variously called Bimba Devi, Princess Yasodhara, Rahula Mata, Bhadda Kacca, Bhadda Kaccana], so near in family ties to the Blessed One, wandering among them in the saffron ascetic garb of a wandering ascetic nun.

But it soon became obvious that this was not a good basis for a nun's life. Sundari Nanda's thoughts were mainly directed towards her own beauty and her popularity with people, traits which were karmic resultants [vipaka] of former good actions.

These resultant fruits [phala] now became dangers to her, since she forgot to reinforce them with new actions. She felt that she was not living up to the high ideals people envisioned for her. She felt she was far from the goal for which so many nobly-born members of the Scythian family clan had gone into the left-home life. She was sure that the Blessed One would censure her on account of this. Therefore, she managed to avoid and evade him for a long time.

One day the Buddha requested all the nuns to come to him, one by one, to receive a teaching, but Sundaria Nanda did not comply. The Teacher let her be called specially, and then she appeared before him, ashamed and anxious by her demeanor.

The Buddha addressed her and appealed to all her positive qualities so that she listened to him willingly and delighted in his words. When the Blessed One knew that the talk had uplifted her, had made her joyful and receptive to his teaching, he did not immediately explain ultimate reality to her, as is often mentioned in other accounts of the "gradual instruction," frequently resulting in noble attainment of awakening/enlightenment to his listener.

How Sundari Nanda became enlightened

The Buddha awakens his chief female disciple, foremost in wisdom, beautiful and vain Khema, in the same way as his sister, Sundari Nanda: psychic conjuring a vision of aging, sickness, and death.

.

Because Sundari Nanda was so taken with her own physical beauty, the Buddha used his psychic powers to conjure up the vision of an even more beautiful woman, who then aged visibly and relentlessly before her very eyes.

Thereby Sundari Nanda could see, compressed within a few moments, what otherwise one can only notice in people through decades — and often because of proximity and habit one does not even fully comprehend: the fading away of youth and beauty, the decay, the appearance of wrinkles and gray hair.

The vision affected Nanda deeply; she was shaken to the center of her being.

After having shown her this graphic imagery, the Buddha explained the law of impermanence to her in such a way that she penetrated the truth of it completely, thereby attaining knowledge of future liberation: stream-entry, the first stage of enlightenment.

As a meditation subject the Buddha gave her the contemplation of the impermanence and the foulness of the body. She persevered for a long time with this practice "faithful and courageous day and night"(Thig 84) as she described in her verses in the "Verses of the Enlightened Nuns" (Therigatha):

Sick, impure, and foul as well,

[Sundari] Nanda, see this congeries

With the unlovely,* develop mind

Well-composed to singleness.

As is that, thus will this likewise be.

Exhaling foulness, evil smells,

A thing it is enjoyed** by fools.

Diligently considering it,

By day and night thus seeing it,

With my own wisdom having seen,

I turned away, dispassionate.

With my diligence, carefully

I examined the body

And saw this as it really is —

Both within and without.

Unlusting and dispassionate

Within this body then was I:

By diligence from fetters freed,

Peaceful was I and quite cool.

— Therigatha 82-86

• *The meditations on seeing the body as unattractive, either as parts, or after it is dead and beginning to bloat and decompose. See Bag of Bones (Wheel 271/272), BPS.lk.
• **This is a play on her own name, Nanda or Joy and "abhinanditam."

Because Sundari Nanda had been so infatuated with her physical appearance, it had been necessary for her to apply the extreme of meditations on bodily unattractiveness as a counter-measure to find equanimous balance between the two opposites. For beauty and ugliness are just two kinds of impermanence. Nothing can disturb the cool, peaceful heart ever again.

Later the Buddha raised his half-sister as being the foremost amongst nuns who practiced meditative absorption or jhana.* This meant that she not only followed the analytical way of insight (vipassana), but put emphasis on the experience of tranquility (samatha).

• *Jhana: total mental absorption in meditation [right mindfulness].

Enjoying this pure well-being, she no longer needed any lower [sensual] enjoyments and soon found indestructible peace [i.e., nirvana].

Although she had adopted the left-home life because of attachment to her relatives, she became totally free and equal to the Blessed One she venerated.

• Sources: A I, 24; Thig 82-86; AP II, No.25 (54 verses).
• NOTE: Wisdom Quarterly refers to Sundari Nanda as the Buddha's sister rather than half-sister, as she was the daughter of the same father and of the Buddha's biological mother's sister, which makes her closer, but English does not seem to have a fractional word for it. Moreover, they grew up together.

Mother's Day: The Buddha's Three Mothers

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly (AN 2.32) UPDATED

Mother's Day in America in 12 comics from The New Yorker (newyorker.com)

 

The birth of Siddhartha with Mother Maya

The historical Buddha Prince Siddhartha Gautama had three mothers in his final rebirth when he made an end of all further rebirth and suffering.

Most people will have heard of Prince Siddhartha's second mother, his biological mother, Maha Maya Devi ("Great Queen Maya"). She was a queen among the Scythians/Shakyians, the first wife of his father [the rich Gandharan/Afghan chieftain] King Suddhodana, whose riches derived from the Silk Road Route through Kabul/Bamiyan that brought wealth, merchants, and spiritual travelers to the ancient faraway capital of Kapilavastu, the Buddha's hometown.

Birth mother: Queen Maha Maya Devi

Maya's beauty was like a "dream" or "magical illusion"; in fact, the name maya derives from the Sanskrit and Pali word for "illusion" (taken in Mahayana-Hinduism as māyā, two religions that so influenced one another as to be the same thing with different names for the same deities, one buddhas and the other avatars].

The Buddha goes up to Tavatimsa or the celestial World of the Thirty-Three to see his deceased mother, Maya, who descends with others from Tusita (the "Contented Heaven") to hear him teach.

.

We had a son! - Now the drama really begins.

Any illusion, of course, is fleeting. Queen Maya passed away seven days after giving birth to her only son Prince Siddhartha. It was no accident. There are reasons given for this in the back story -- the most spiritual being that she only volunteered for a human birth to give birth to him.

That motherly task done, Maya Devi returned to a more comfortable existence in the Tusita World. She benefitted greatly for this act (karma) in the World of the Thirty-Three, where the Buddha went to preach to her until she and the other beings present were awakened and freed from suffering. The Buddha was able to repay her for her generosity and help. As it turns out, we enter life knowing, on some deeper level, those individuals who play the role of parents, partners, relatives, friends, and enemies. But this is a truth bigger than most of us can easily digest or would be willing to accept. So the drama (lila) goes on.

• 

  Buddhism reached the Maya of Mesoamerica.

  The words "Maya" -- the Mexican Native Americans from Mesoamerica and Central America who crafted the Mayan Calendar -- and "Guatemala" both derive from the name of the Buddha's mother, whose surname is Gautama and mala (garland).
• Reference: American Rick Fields' How the Swan Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America where these and many more connections are drawn showing Buddhism's arrival in the Americas long before the Conquistadors, Catholicism, and European Christianity.

Maya, Mariah (Mary), a queen in heaven

Mother Maya was reborn as a devaputra ("deva-offspring" or "reborn among devas") back in the Tusita World. Her former son, Prince Siddhartha, who years later became the Buddha, thanked and repaid her for her help in this very life by teaching her the liberating-Dharma, in the legendary narrative account of how the Abhidharma ("Higher Teaching") came to be.

Other devas from Tusita and elsewhere who were present in Sakka's celestial realm in space also got to hear the teaching. King Sakka, a stream-enterer and therefore a devoted follower of the Buddha, was most happy to host, the legend goes.

Our parents do so much for us that, according to the Buddha, the only way we can ever repay them is by teaching or leading them to the ennobling Dharma.

The Other Mothers

Foster mother: Maha Pajapati Gotami

Many will also have heard of the Buddha's foster or stepmother related by blood, Queen Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami (Sanskrit Gautami). As Mother Number 3, she was Queen Maya's sister and co-wife. She is famous because she became the world's first Buddhist nun then an enlightened one.

Both sisters were married to King Suddhodana. Pajapati stepped forward to care for the newborn Siddhartha to the detriment of her own two children -- her son, Nanda, the Buddha's brother (who shared a father, with sister-mothers, who nursed and adopted Siddhartha at the age of 7 days, which would seem to make her a little more than a foster mother or Nanda and Sundari Nanda half-siblings) and daughter, the Buddha's rarely mentioned half-sister, Beautifuld (Sundari) Nanda.

Queen Pajapati was the mother of these two royals, but it is said she gave up primary care of her biological children to nurse, care for, and raise Prince Siddhartha (the future Buddha), the firstborn heir to the Scythian throne in Kapilavastu.

 

Mother of his child: Princess Bimba (Yasodhara)

She is much more famous in this world than Maya because Pajapati (Sanskrit Prajapati) went on to become the first Buddhist nun. The Buddha's brother and sister also ordained and became enlightened.

This was in addition to Siddhartha's wife, Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Princess Bimba Devi, much more popularly known as Yasodhara.

Rahula, Bimba, and Siddhartha

What we are never told as we hear the story of the Buddha's life repeated is the fact that Prince Siddhartha did not "abandon" his family.

Far from becoming a deadbeat dad, taking up a good ol' time in the wilderness as an extreme ascetic, he actually saved his family the only way he could: He first had to go off in search of enlightenment then come back awakened with answers and a solution to the problem of suffering. Then he led and encouraged his

• biological mother (Maya),
• biological father (Suddhodana),
• cousin-wife (Princess Yasodhara/Bimba Devi),
• second-son (Rahula [Ananda being the first, as some Buddhist traditions record]),
• half-brother (Nanda),
• half-sister (Sundari Nanda),
• foster mother (Pajapati),
• cousins (Scythian relatives referred to as Shakyian princes),
• extended family members (other Scythians in the palace compound of King Suddhodana) to liberation (moksha), to enlightenment or full awakening, and nirvana (complete freedom).

He remembered his biological mother and visited her where she was reborn. Such was the reverence of the Buddha for his parents, and many monastics followed suit. For example, there is the famous case of one of the Buddha's chief male disciples, the Brahmin Maha Moggallana, visiting his mother in hell to help her. The other chief male disciple, the Brahmin Ven. Sariputta, also had a whale of a time convincing his unbelieving mother who placed no faith in the Buddha.

The Buddha's former wife became an enlightened Buddhist nun and famous disputant called by various names to disguise her greatness: Rahula-mata, Bhaddakaccānā, and so on. is not the Buddha's mother. How could she be the Buddha's mother? She was their son Ven. Rahula's mother.

The First Mother: Nakulamata

Questionable quote (Lotusing/Flickr)

The Buddha's "first mother," Nakulamata, is a strange story of rebirth. One day the Buddha was walking down a road with his monastic disciples when he passed an elderly couple. The man, Nakulapita, called out to him, "Son! Your mother and I have been missing you! It has been a long time since you visited us!"

Kwan Yin as Mother Goddess (D)

The monastics thought this was very strange. Stranger still, the Buddha approached them and spoke to them in a very kindly way like a son full of gratitude. The monastics were confused.

Why is the teacher letting these strangers talk to him this way, addressing him as "son"?

The Buddha later explained that for 500 (which actually just means "many") lives this couple had indeed been his parents. Over and over, the karma of the three being such, they were born together. This woman raised him over and again. And here she was in his last life running into him apparently by chance but not really. This meeting was no accident; it was brought about by the force of karma.

The nuns and monks may have been surprised to hear who this couple was but, in fact, the Buddha taught something far more mindboggling:

So long is this "continued wandering on" through births and deaths called samsara that it is difficult to ever meet anyone with whom one has not already shared all relationships.

• Nakulamata ("Nakula's mother") was the wife of Nakulapitā ("Nakula's father"), householders from Suṁsumāragiri in the Bhagga country. When the Buddha visited their village and stayed at Bhesakalāvana (the forest grove nearby), they went to see him. They immediately fell at his feet, calling him “son,” asking why he had been away so long. It is said that they had been the Bodhisatta’s parents for 500 (which is figurative for "many") rebirths and his close relatives for many more. The Buddha taught them, and they became stream enters (the first stage of enlightenment, sotāpannas). The Buddha visited their village once more when they were old. They entertained him, speaking of their devotion to one another in this life and asking for a teaching to keep them likewise together (in a loving relationship) in the afterlife (in future lives). The Buddha referred to this in the assembly of the Monastic Saṅgha, declaring them to be the foremost in intimate companionship among his disciples. AN.i.26, AN.ii.61… (G.P. Malalasekera rom Pali Proper Names, edited by Wisdom Quarterly).
• Wisdomlib.org definition: Nakulapita
• Happily ever after and even after that (dharmatown.org)

Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin (pinterest.com)

Look around; all those people have already been one's mother, father, and so on... How much gratitude do we have for them? How much do we owe them?

While this seems preposterous, it seems so only because we do not fathom or comprehend how long an aeon (kalpa) is, how many there have been, or how many times we have already been reborn, how many existences we have already lived and are yet to live, and how much we have already suffered as we yearn for more and more rebirth.

We have no idea what has been. For if we knew, we would not be so eager to continue to cycle and revolve in ignorance again and again.

In that final existence, the Bodhisattva (or Buddha-to-be) had taken rebirth in a special way to accomplish his goal of becoming a world-teacher, a Supremely Enlightened Teaching Buddha, and Maya had volunteered to serve this world-system in the capacity of giving birth to such a great being.

Chinese Madonna and child (Macao)

But here in the world, already existing, was the Bodhisattva's long-time mother, his mother many times over, and now she had again found him. Our mothers, even when they do not give birth to us this time, are all around (fathers, too).

Our nurturers are here, and still they nurture us -- sometimes they attack us perhaps due to their lack of understanding or our lack of gratitude -- and stranger still we, too, are former mothers and fathers of countless others. Such is the incomprehensible working out of karma (deeds), an imponderable (acinteyya) thing.
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms -- and we mean ALL of them including YOU, you dummy, from from Wisdom Quarterly. (You, yes you, male and female readers. We have all been a mom countless times!)