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| Dedicated to the good Western nun Ven. Aloka who inspired this translation. |
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Nun called the "Preserver of the Discipline"
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| I'm young and want to do it, elope! |
When she was 16 years old, her parents locked her up in a penthouse (the top floor) of a seven-story tower surrounded by guards to prevent her from keeping company with any young men.
In spite of this extreme precaution [or perhaps because of it], Patty became involved in a sexual affair with a male servant in her parents' house.
When her parents had arranged a suitable marriage for her with a young man of appropriate social standing and means, she decided to elope with her low-class lover instead.
She escaped from her prison tower by disguising herself, and the young couple went to live in a village far away from Savatthi.
Her new husband farmed, and now the young wife had to do all the menial chores that had formerly been carried out by her parents' servants. So she began to reap the results (phala, fruits) of her karma (actions).
When she became pregnant, she begged her husband to return her to her parents' house to give birth [in accordance with ancient Indian custom], saying to him that a father and mother always have a soft spot in their hearts for their child, no matter what she has done.
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| I'm marrying for love. Take that, parents! |
However, her husband refused on the grounds that her parents would surely subject him to torture or imprisonment.
When she realized that he would not give in to her pleas, she decided to make her way to her parents by herself.
When the husband found her gone and was told by the neighbors of her decision, he followed her and tried to persuade her to return. However, she would not listen to him.
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| Central Asian beauty, a Scythian, NE India |
Before they could reach Savatthi, birth pains started, and soon a baby son was born. As there was no more reason to go to her parents' house, they turned back and resumed their family life in the village.
Sometime later she became pregnant again. And again, she pleaded with her husband to take her home to her parents. Again, he refused. And again, she took matters into her own hands and started off on the journey, carrying her older child. When her husband followed her and pleaded with her to return with him, she would not listen and instead continued on her way.
A fearful storm arose out of season with thunder and lightning and incessant rain. Just then her birth pains started, and she asked her husband to find her some sort of shelter.
The husband went off in search of material for a shelter and set about to chop down some saplings.
The husband went off in search of material for a shelter and set about to chop down some saplings.
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| No one need die from a venomous bite. Metta prevents it. Khandha Paritta is the antidote. |
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| Dead, rigid from lack of cultivating metta |
A venomous snake (naga) bit him just then, and he instantly fell dead.
Patty waited and waited in vain. After having suffered birth pains, a second son was born to her. Both children screamed at the top of their lungs because of the buffeting of the storm. So the mother protected them with her own body all night long.
In the morning she placed the newborn baby on her hip, gave a finger to the older child to suck on, and set out on the path her husband had taken saying, "Come, dear child, your father has abandoned us."
But after a few steps, she found her husband lying dead, his body cold and rigid. She wailed and lamented and blamed herself for his untimely death.
She continued on her journey to her parents' house, but when she came to the Aciravati river, it was swollen waist-deep on account of the rain. She was too weak to wade across with both children, so she set the older child on the bank and carried the baby across to the other side.
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| What sort of tasty flesh is on that shore? |
The older boy saw his mother stop in the middle of the river and heard her loud yells. He thought she was calling him to come, so he started out after her, and he was immediately swept off by the powerful current.
Wailing and lamenting, Patty went on her way, half crazed by the triple tragedy that had befallen her, losing husband and all her children in a single day.
As she came nearer to Savatthi, she met a traveler who was just coming from the city. She inquired about her family from him, but at first he refused to answer her. When she insisted, the traveler finally had to tell her that her parent's house had collapsed in the recent storm, killing them both as well as her brother. Their cremation was just taking place.
People seeing her naked pelted her with stones and rubbish and chased her off.
At that time the Buddha was staying at Jeta Grove in millionaire's monastery. He saw Patty approaching from afar and recognized that in a past life she had made an earnest resolve to become a nun well versed in the Dharma.
Therefore, he instructed his disciples not to obstruct her, but to let her enter and come near him.
One of the lay followers tossed her a cloak, and after she wrapped herself in it, she bowed at the Buddha's feet. She then recounted to him the series of tragedies that had befallen her.
The Awakened Teacher listened to her with great compassion then made it clear to her that the painful experiences she had gone through were only tiny drops in the impermanent [and ultimately impersonal] ocean of sorrow (samsara) in which all beings drown if they are attached to what ceaselessly rises and falls.
He told her that all through many existences, she had already wept more tears over the loss of dear ones than could be contained in the waters of the world's four oceans. He said:
But little water do the oceans four contain
compared with all the tears that humans have shed
by sorrow smitten and by suffering distraught.
Woman, why heedless do you yet remain?
This exposition of the Awakened One penetrated her heart/mind so deeply that at that very moment she was able to completely grasp the impermanence of all conditioned things (i.e., dependently arisen phenomena/things that utterly depend on constituent factors for their existence).
When the Enlightened One had finished his teaching, she had attained the certainty of future liberation by realizing stream-entry (the first stage of enlightenment).
When the Enlightened One had finished his teaching, she had attained the certainty of future liberation by realizing stream-entry (the first stage of enlightenment).
She thereafter practiced diligently and soon realized final deliverance through full enlightenment. Then she declared:
With ploughs the fields are ploughed;
With seed the earth is sown;
Thus wives and children feed;
So young men win their wealth.
Then why do I, of virtue pure,
doing the Master's Teaching,
neither lazy nor proud,
nirvana [liberation] not attain?
Having washed my feet
I watched that water,
noticing the foot-water
flowing from high to low.
With that the heart/mind was calmed
just as a noble, thoroughbred horse.
Having taken my lamp,
I went into my hut,
inspected the sleeping place
then sat upon the couch.
Having taken a pin
I pushed the wick right down, and
just as the lamp went out,
so all delusion of the heart went, too.
— Therigatha (Psalms of the Nuns) 112-116
It had been enough for her to see the water trickle down the slope to recognize the whole of existence, each life a longer or shorter trickle in the flood of craving.
There were those who lived a short time like her children, those who lived a little longer like her husband, and those who lived even longer like her parents. But all underwent constant change, in a never-ending rising and falling. This thought-process gave her so much detachment that she attained to total freedom of the heart the following night.
The nun who became the keeper of the discipline
Ven. Patacara thereby became the female counterpart of the Buddhist monk Ven. Upali, formerly Prince Siddhartha's lowly royal barber.
That she had chosen the "Rules of Monastic Conduct" as her central discipline is easy to understand, because the results of her former indulgences had become bitterly obvious to her.
She learned in the Sangha that an intensive study of the monastic rules was necessary and self-purifying for monastics. It brought with it the security and safety of self-discipline. She learned not to become complacent or lazy when comfortable, or anxious and confused when suffering.
Because of her own experiences she had gained a deep understanding of the human predicament and could be of great assistance to her fellow nuns.
She was a great comfort to those who came to her with difficulties. The nun Ven. Canda said that Ven. Patacara showed her the right path out of attachment and helped her to achieve liberation (Thig. 125).
Another nun, Ven. Uttara II, reported how Ven. Patacara spoke to a group of nuns about right conduct and discipline:
Another nun, Ven. Uttara II, reported how Ven. Patacara spoke to a group of nuns about right conduct and discipline:
Having established mind
One-pointed, well-developed
Investigate formations
As other, not as self.
— Thig. 177
Ven. Uttara took Ven. Patacara's words to heart and said:
When I heard these words —
[Ven.] Patacara's advice,
After washing my feet —
I sat down alone.
— Thig 178
Thereby this nun, too, was able to attain to the three "True Knowledges" (te-vijja) and final liberation (nirvana). In the Verses of the Elder Nuns we have a record of Ven. Patacara's instructions to the nuns and their resulting gains:
Having taken flails
Young men thresh the corn.
Thus wives and children feed.
So young men win their wealth.
So likewise as to the Buddha's Teachings,
From doing which there is no remorse.
Quickly cleanse your feet
And sit you down withdrawn.
Devote yourselves to calm of mind/heart
And thus practice the Buddha's Teachings.
When they heard these words —
Ven. Patacara's instructions,
Having washed their feet,
They sat down, each one secluded,
Devoted themselves to calm of heart/mind
And thus followed the Buddha's Teachings.
In the night's first watch*
Past births were remembered;
In the middle watch of the night,
The divine eye was purified.
In the night's last watch,
They tore asunder the mass of gloom.
Having risen, they bowed at her feet,
Her instructions having done.
We shall live revering you
Like the Thirty-Three Devas do Indra [Sakka],
Undefeated in [celestial] war.
We are with Triple Knowledge true
And gone are all the taints.
— Therigatha 117-121
- [*Night in the Buddha's time was divided into three "watches," the first from 6:00-10:00 pm, middle from 10:00 pm-2:00 am, last watch from 2:00-6:00 am.]
Ven. Patacara was able to effect the change from a frivolous young girl to a theri (revered "elder" nun of at least ten rains retreats) in the Sangha quickly because from previous rebirths she had already possessed this faculty.
During the time of the previous Buddha Kassapa of the 28 mentioned by the Buddha Gautama, it is said that Ven. Patacara had been a nun and had lived the monastic life for many, many years. The insights she gained thereby had been covered over through her actions (karma) in subsequent lives.
But when the next buddha appeared in the world, she quickly found her way to him, the reason at the time being unknown to her, spurred on by her tremendous suffering. Relentlessly attracted to the Awakened One and the liberating Dharma (Teaching), she entered into the left-home life and soon attained to complete freedom. More
Sources: A1,24; Thig 112-121,125,175,178; Ap. 11 No.20; J 547
- Hellmuth Hecker, Sr. Khema (German trans.), Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha (Wheel 292, BPS, accesstoinsight.org); Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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