For the love of Gnostic Mary (Magdalene)

(The Lost Gospel) The Lost Book of Priestess Mary Magdalene

Special Rules for Nuns? (Ayya Tathaaloka)

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

Global Congress on Buddhist Women, Hamburg, Germany

Special rules for females that subordinate Buddhist nuns to monks (garudhammas or "heavy offenses") are not what they first appear to be.

American Theravada Buddhist nun Ayya Tattaaloka reveals what her research, as well as that of other Buddhist scholars, found. There appears to be no gender difference. (How could that be? We are all led to believe women are subordinate to men in the monastery).

Both monks and nuns have sanghadisesa (calling for a meeting and subsequent meeting of the Sangha) disciplinary rules, which are rather heavy.

In the same way, both males and females have "heavy offenses," that is, garudhammas.

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• Ayya Taathaloka (videos); Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, originally compiled on 9/17/10

First Buddhist Women: Stories of Awakening

Susan Murcott (Parallax Press, MIT), 2022; Dhr. Seven, Jen Bradford (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Why would anyone leave the world? Nuns have no fun! Women can be as free as men.

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First Buddhist Women: Poems and Stories of Awakening (2nd ed.)

(Susan Murcott, MIT D-Lab) This book has 4.7 stars out of 5 with 40 ratings.

First Buddhist Women is a readable, contemporary translation of and commentary on the "enlightenment verses" of the first female disciples of the historical Buddha.

It 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 spiritual poetry.

Through commentary and storytelling, author Susan Murcott traces the journey of the

• wanderers,
• wives,
• mothers,
• teachers,
• courtesans, and
• prostitutes

who became leaders in the Buddhist community, roles that even today are rarely filled by women in other often patriarchal religions.

Their poetic verses beautifully express their search for enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual attainments, peace, and their struggles in society. More

Women's bodies are weird: doctors' beliefs

I'm starting to get the feeling that maybe the world doesn't want me around. Hmmph.

.

Ancient beliefs about women's bodies

I swear I was just doing it for longevity, Dear.

Indeed, girl's and women's bodies have been a subject of inspiration and wonder, but they've also been grossly misunderstood throughout history.

While today most myths about the female body have been debunked, it's a fact that many odd beliefs prevailed for thousands of years.

The Buddha gave us a way out of misery.

More often than not, these were detrimental to women, ignorant, as well as blatantly misogynistic (women-hating). In this gallery, Stars Insider revisits some of these beliefs, from ancient civilizations to the Victorian era, and everything in between.

Women have no sexual desire? In Victorian times, sexual urges were something most exclusively attributed to males. Any expression of sexual desire from females was frowned upon. Queen Victoria herself reportedly told her daughter to "lie back and think of England" on her honeymoon wedding night. More

• Woman finds encyclopedia from 1870s filled with "facts" that sound like they come from another dimension (msn.com)
• This Pagan Scottish holy ground is haunted by fairies

The Nuns' Quarters (sutra)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), Upassaya Sutta (Saṁyutta Nikāya, "Connected Discourses with Kassapa" (sn.16.10) "The Nuns’ Quarters" edited by Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A nun asks questions of the Buddha.

Thus have I heard. On one occasion Venerable Maha Kassapa was dwelling at Savatthī in Jeta’s Grove, in Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. Then, in the morning, Ven. Ānanda dressed and (sn.ii.215) taking bowl and robe, he approached Ven. Maha Kassapa and said: “Come, Ven. Kassapa, let us go to the nuns’ quarters.”

“You go, friend Ānanda. You’re the busy one with many duties.”

A second time Ven. Ānanda said to Ven. Maha Kassapa: “Come, Ven. Kassapa, let us go to the nuns’ quarters.”

“You go, friend Ānanda. You’re the busy one with many duties.”

A third time Ven. Ānanda said to Ven. Maha Kassapa: “Come, Ven. Kassapa, let us go to the nuns’ quarters.”

Then, in the morning, Ven. Maha Kassapa dressed and, taking bowl and robe, went to the nuns’ quarters with Ven. Ānanda as his companion. When he arrived, he sat down on the appointed seat.

Then a number of nuns approached Ven. Maha Kassapa, paid respect to him, and sat down to one side. As they were sitting there, Ven. Maha Kassapa instructed, exhorted, inspired, and gladdened those nuns with a Dharma talk, after which he rose from his seat and departed.

Then the nun Ven. Thullatissa, being displeased, expressed her displeasure: “How can Master Maha Kassapa think of speaking on the Dharma in the presence of Master Ānanda, the Videhan sage? For Master Maha Kassapa to think of speaking on the Dharma in the presence of Master Ānanda, the Videhan sage — this is just as if a needle-peddler (sn.ii.216) would think he could sell a needle to a needle-maker!”

Ven. Maha Kassapa overheard the nun Ven. Thullatissa making this statement and said to Ven. Ānanda: “How is it, friend Ānanda, am I the needle-peddler and you the needle-maker, or am I the needle-maker and you the needle-peddler?”

“Be patient, Ven. Kassapa. Women are foolish.”

“Hold it, friend Ānanda! Do not give the Monastic Community (Saṅgha) occasion to investigate you further. What do you think, friend Ānanda? Was it you that the Blessed One brought forward in the presence of the Monastic Community, saying:

“‘Monks, to whatever extent I wish, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states [of mind and heart], I enter and dwell in the first meditative absorption (jhana), which is accompanied by thought and examination, with rapture and happiness born of seclusion. Ānanda also, to whatever extent he wishes, secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption’?”

“No, venerable sir.”

“I was the one, friend, whom the Blessed One brought forward in the presence of the Monastic Community, saying: ‘Monks, to whatever extent I wish…I enter and dwell in the first mediative absorption…. Kassapa also, to whatever extent he wishes, enters and dwells in the first meditative absorption.’

• [The same exchange is repeated for the remaining meditative attainments and the six direct knowledges, all as in the preceding discourse (sn.ii.217).]

“I was the one, friend, whom the Blessed One brought forward in the presence of the Monastic Community, saying: ‘Monks, by the destruction of the taints, in this very life I enter and dwell in the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, realizing it for myself with direct knowledge. Kassapa also, by the destruction of the taints, in this very life enters and dwells in the taintless liberation of mind, liberation by wisdom, realizing it for himself with direct knowledge.’

“Friend, one might just as well think that a bull elephant seven or seven and a half cubits high could be concealed by a palm leaf as think that my six direct knowledges could be concealed.”

The nun Thullatissa fell away from the monastic life. Source: SN 16.10: Upassaya Sutta—Bhikkhu Bodhi (suttacentral.net)

An ancient enlightened Buddhist nun

Therīgāthā (16.1), Verses of the Elder Nuns, The Great Chapter, Mahā Nipāta, Verses of Ven. Sumedhā Theri, Sumedhātherīgāthā; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Guru Ma, an Indian female teacher (Yoga Ayurveda and Vedic Sciences, Glendale)

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In the City of Mantāvatī,

of King Koñca and his main royal-consort,

she was the daughter Sumedhā,

confident in those applying the Teaching.

Virtuous, eloquent,

very learned and disciplined in the Teaching of the Buddha.

She approached her mother and father and said:

“Dear parents, listen!

I seek the joy of nirvana,

as all states of existence -- even the divine -- are temporary.

Sensual pleasures are worthless without fail:

they bring little satisfaction but much distress.

Fools become infatuated with sensual pleasures

that are acrid like snake-venom.

They are consigned to hell for long periods of time,

where they experience injury and pain.

Those who have done unskillful deeds feel sorrow

in their state of downfall, where they constantly do even more harm.

Unrestrained in body, speech,

and mind,

lacking wisdom,

not intending to stop the arising of suffering,

and not knowing the Teaching,

such fools do not recognize the ennobling truths.

Mother, most people do not understand

the truths skillfully taught by the Buddha.

They are delighted with planes of existence,

they long for rebirth as shinging ones (devas).

But rebirth as a shining one

is a finite and temporary state of existence.

Fools are not frightened,

of being reborn again and again.

From the four planes of downfall,

it is hard to obtain the two higher destinations.

For one gone to a place of downfall,

there is no going forth [as a Buddhist monastic] in the hell realms.

The two of you should allow me

to go forth in the doctrine of the One Possessed of Ten Powers.

Living at ease, I would be able to strive

for the abandoning of rebirth and death.

How can there be delight in a plane of existence

with a worthless body devoid of substance?

Allow me to go forth,

so that I may bring an end to craving for eternal existence [again becoming].

One who is distant from the arising of buddhas

has no opportunity.

I will not spoil the virtues of the spiritual life,

for the rest of my life.”

Then Sumedhā further said to her parents:

“I will not take food

from a householder,

I will be overtaken by death.”

Distressed, her mother and father start to cry,

completely overpowered.

Together they try to convince her,

while she is lying on the floor of the palace.

“Rise up, little child! What is this sadness?

You are engaged to be married in Vāraṇavatī.

King Anīkaratta is handsome

and you have been promised to him.

You will become his chief queen-consort,

the wife of King Anīkaratta.

Holding precepts, keeping celibacy,

life as an outcast [recluse] — these are difficult to do, little child.

As a queen you will have authority, wealth, sovereignty,

fortune, and pleasure.

You are a young lady; enjoy sensual pleasures!

Get married, child!”

Then Sumedhā replied:

“Who would want such a worthless state of existence?

Either I will go forth,

or I will die, but I will not marry.

What is this impure putrid body,

a dreadful corpse with a tainted smell?

Who would want to enter

this oozing skin-bag full of impurities?

What do they know about this

disgusting thing plastered with flesh and blood,

a carcass which will be given as food

to worms and birds?

Before long it will be taken to the cemetery,

a corpse deprived of consciousness,

left there like a discarded log,

by disgusted relatives.

Thrown away in the cemetery,

it becomes food for others.

Even one's own mother and father are disgusted and [afterward] go bathe themselves,

what can be expected from everyone else?

Hanging on to this worthless corpse,

bones bound together by tendons

in this putrid body

full of excrement and saliva.

One who dismembered it,

bringing the internal parts out,

would not be able to endure its smell —

even one's own mother would be disgusted.

The aggregates, elements, and sense domains,

are conditioned, rooted in birth, suffering.

Pondering wisely,

why would I wish to marry?

If day after day 300 spears

would constantly attack the body,

100 years of this torment

would be good if then there were a final end of suffering.

I would consent to this torment,

as would anyone who has heard the Teacher’s words:

‘Long is the cycle of rebirth and death,

for those who are slain again and again.’

Among shining ones and human beings,

among animals and among titans,

among hungry ghosts and in the hell realms,

no limit to torment is seen.

There is much torment in the hell realms,

for those who are oppressed in the lower realms,

Even among the shining ones there is no safety,

and no happiness higher than nirvana.

Those who have attained nirvana,

committed to the words of the One Possessed of Ten Powers;

Living at ease, they strive

to abandon birth and redeath.

Today, father, I will leave behind

this worthless wealth,

I am disenchanted with sensual pleasures,

I am at peace because I have renounced sensuality; it has been made like a palm-stump.”

As she said this to her father,

Anīkaratta, to whom she was engaged to be married,

approached Vāraṇavatī

at the time prearranged for the wedding.

Then Sumedhā cut off her thick, soft, dark hair

with a sword,

closed the palace,

and entered the first meditative absorption (jhāna)

She had already entered it,

when Anīkaratta came to town.

Then in the palace, Sumedhā

cultivated well the perception of impermanence.

As she fixed her mind intently on this,

Anīkaratta quickly ascended.

With limbs adorned with gold and gems,

joining palms (añjali), he asked Sumedhā:

“As a queen there is authority, wealth, sovereignty,

fortune, and pleasure.

You are a young lady; enjoy sensual pleasures!

Sensual pleasures are difficult to obtain in this world!

Royalty has been handed over to you:

enjoy wealth and give gifts!

Do not be downhearted,

your mother and father are distressed.”

Sumedhā, who had no need for sensual pleasures

and was free of delusion, said to him:

“Do not delight in sensual pleasures!

Look at the drawbacks of sensual pleasures!

Mandhātā, king of four islands,

embraced the path of enjoying sensuality.

He died unsatisfied,

not with desires fulfilled.

Even if the seven kinds of gems were to pour down from the sky

like rain in all ten directions,

not even then would there be satisfaction in sensual pleasures:

human beings die unsatisfied.

Sensual pleasures are like a knife on a butcher’s block,

sensual pleasures are like a snake’s head.

They burn like a torch,

they resemble a skeleton.

Sensual pleasures are impermanent, unstable,

much suffering, highly venomous;

A heated iron ball,

the root of calamity, resulting in suffering.

Sensual pleasures are like tree-fruit,

like a piece of meat, they are suffering;

Sensual pleasures are deceitful as a dream,

like borrowed goods.

Sensual pleasures are like the stake of a spear,

a disease, an abscess, a calamity, an affliction.

Like a fire pit,

the root of calamity, fear, and destruction.

In this way sensual pleasures have been declared to bring much suffering,

and to be obstructive.

Go, not to me, but to the Buddha!

My own confidence is in him.

What can another do for me,

when their own head is on fire?

When one is bound by birth and death,

one should strive for its end.”

After she opened the door,

and saw mother, father, and Anīkaratta

sitting down on the ground crying,

she said:

“Long is the cycle of birth and death for fools,

they cry again and again,

without beginning or end for the death of the father,

the death of the brother, and one’s own death.

Tears, mother’s milk, blood,

you move along in the cycle of birth and death without beginning or end.

Bear in mind the pile of bones

of all these sentient beings going through one life after the other.

Bear in mind that all the tears, mother milk, and blood

could fill the four oceans.

Bear in mind the pile of bones of one world cycle,

would be just as abundant.

Saṃsaric existence is without beginning or end,

as vast as the land of Jampudīpa [Rose Apple Land = India].

Even if the earth was made into little balls the size of a jujube seed,

it still would not add up to all the mothers among mothers.

Bear in mind all the grass, wood, branches, and foliage,

carried along since beginningless time.

Even if they were made into twigs each only the size of four fingers,

they would still not add up to all of fathers among fathers.

Bear in mind the one-eyed turtle in the eastern sea,

and, far away, a block of wood with a hole in it;

the chance of gaining a human rebirth

is like the chance of putting one’s head through that hole.

Bear in mind the form of this miserable body,

without any substance, like a lump of foam.

See the aggregates as impermanent,

bear in mind that there is much agony in hell.

Bear in mind those filling up the cemetery,

again and again, in all those lives.

Bear in mind the danger of crocodiles,

and bear in mind the four truths.

Knowing about the deathless,

why would you indulge in the five bitter drinks?

For all delight in sensual pleasures,

is more bitter than the five bitter drinks.

Knowing about the deathless,

why would you set yourself on fire with sensual pleasures?

For all delight in sensual pleasures,

is burning, boiling, trembling, aglow.

When one can be without enmity,

why would you want the many enemies that come with sensual pleasures?

Like rulers, fires, thieves, and other unpleasant things,

sensual pleasures are common and bring many enemies.

Knowing freedom,

why would you want the imprisonment of sensual pleasures?

For sensual pleasures are undesirable

and result in the suffering of imprisonment.

As a blazing grass torch

burns one who holds it and does not let it go,

sensual pleasures are like a torch:

they burn the one who does not let go of them.

Do not renounce abundant happiness

for the sake of the minute happiness of sensual pleasure.

Do not be like the fish who swallows the hook,

and is then slain.

One should willingly train oneself with regard to sensual pleasures.

You are like a dog bound by a chain:

sensual pleasures will attack you

like hungry savages would a dog.

Yoked to sensual pleasure,

you will experience unlimited suffering,

and much mental distress.

Give up these unstable sensual pleasures!

When there is the undecaying,

why would you want sensual pleasures, which are subject to decay?

All rebirths in all places are

seized by death and sickness.

This is non-decay, this is non-death,

this is non-decay and non-death, the path of sorrowlessness.

Without enmity, unobstructed,

unfaltering, fearless, not afflicted.

Attained by many,

the deathless state even today can be obtained in this way:

it is possible by whomever wisely commits themselves,

but not without striving.”

Thus spoke Sumedhā,

without desire for any conditioned things.

Teaching Anīkaratta in this way,

Sumedhā threw her hair on the ground.

Having stood up, Anīkaratta

with hands in añjali asked her father:

“Set free Sumedhā,

to go forth for liberation and seeking truth.”

Released by mother and father,

she went forth, leaving behind fear and sorrow.

She realized the six special knowledges,

the highest fruit for one who is training.

Wonderful and extraordinary,

was the Nirvana of the princess.

This is a story of some of her past lives,

that was explained near the end of her life:

“In the Buddha Koṇagaman’s time,

in a new settlement in the Saṅgha’s park,

myself and three friends,

gave the gift of a monastic dwelling.

Ten times, a hundred times,

hundreds and hundreds of times,

I was born as a Deva,

not to mention among humans.

When we were amongst the devas we had great psychic power,

not to mention among humans.

I was a queen of seven jewels,

a woman like a jewel.

This is the cause, the origin,

and root of my acceptance of the teachings.

That was my first contact,

enjoying the Dhamma and Nirvana.

This is how they act, those who have faith

in the words of superior wisdom.

They are disenchanted with states of existence,

and after becoming disenchanted, they become dispassionate.”

Thus, Sumedhā Theri [the elder nun or theri, a monastic with at least ten rains retreats or years seniority in the Bhikkhuni Sangha or Nuns Order] spoke these verses.

The Great Chapter is finished.

Complete is the Therīgathā.

THE VERSES OF THE ELDER NUNS ARE FINISHED.

Kung Fu Buddhist nuns kick @ss (video)

TeleSUR English; Reuters; Wiriya Sati, Katrina Lucas (The Buddha's Lost Nuns); ESPN Brazil; Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Dhr. Seven, Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly wiki edit

Himalayan Buddhist nuns teach self-defense

(TeleSUR English) These Vajrayana Buddhist nuns (bhikṣhuṇī) are defying stereotypes and helping females defend themselves -- one punch at a time. videosenglish.telesurtv.net.

(Thompson Reuters Foundation) 2017 Trust Conference: The Kung Fu Nuns

The Buddha's Forgotten Nuns (W. Sati, Kat Lucas)

A Tibetan Buddhist nun (gelongma or bhikṣuṇī) is a monastic who observes the full set of observances outlined in the Monastic Disciplinary Code (Vinaya).

The exact number of rules observed varies from one ordination lineage to another. Generally, nuns observe 360, while monks observe 265.

A novice (getsulma or śrāmaṇerikā), preparing for full ordination, adheres to 25. A layperson or child too young to keep all the rules may take the Five Vows called "approaching virtue" (genyen).

These five may be practiced as a monastic, where the genyen maintains celibacy, or as a lay practitioner, where the married genyen maintains fidelity.

Starting with the novice ordination, some may choose to take 40 years to gradually arrive at the rules of a fully ordained monastic.

• This is quite like the ancient Indian tradition of living a full married/work life then giving it all up to become a sannyasin or "renunciate" who lets go of worldliness.

Others take the novice and full ordination on the same day and practice as a monastic from the beginning, as all of the novice rules are included in the monastic rules. More

Inspiration from Enlightened Buddhist Nuns

Susan Elbaum Jootla (Buddhist Publication Society Wheel #349 via AccessToInsight.org) edited by Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly

Tibetan nuns in the Himalayas, Ganden Jangchup Choeling nunnery (Reuters/dailymail.co.uk)

The Buddha, a Scythian from the west who was enlightened in the East, opened the Path to enlightenment and liberation to everyone regardless of sex, race, class, caste, or wealth.

Female + meditation = full enlightenment.

Let's explore the sacred gathas, verses or songs, composed by enlightened Buddhist nuns (arhat bhikkhunis and/or theris) from the time of the Buddha, looking at them as springs of inspiration for contemporary Buddhists.

Most of the verses are preserved in the Therigatha or "Psalms of the Sisters," a small section of the vast Pali language canon.

The Buddha ordained and taught nuns and female novices as well as monks (chandwimala).

 

Therigatha (Dr. A. K. Singh)

The Therigatha has been published twice in English translation by the Pali Text Society, London, first in 1909 (reprinted in 1980) by Mrs. Caroline Rhys Davids in verse under the title Psalms of the Early Buddhists: The Sisters and again in 1971 by K. R. Norman in prose under the title The Elders' Verses, II. (Theri literally means "female elder," an "elder" being a person of any age who has at least ten years as a monastic).

Quotations from both translations are used here, referring to Psalms of the Early Buddhists by page number and to The Elders' Verses by verse number. Mrs. Rhys Davids' translations have sometimes been slightly modified.

• Women and Buddhism: Suggested Reading (BuddhaNet)

Amazing Buddha Girl ordained in L.A. (WQ)

This discussion also draws upon the verses of female ascetics from the Kindred Sayings (Samyutta Nikaya) included by Mrs. Rhys Davids at the end of Psalms of the Sisters.

 

From the sayings of some enlightened nuns at the time of the Buddha modern followers of the Noble Eightfold Path to enlightenment can receive a great deal of instruction and inspiration, help and encouragement.

These verses can assist us in developing and strengthening virtue, concentration, and liberating wisdom, the three divisions of the Path to complete freedom (nirvana). With their aid we are able to play-and-work more effectively towards eliminating mental defilements that hold us back life after life and towards finding lasting peace and unshakeable happiness.

 

Our beloved California Buddhist nuns, like Ayya Tathaloka (shown here in center) from the Bay Area, with the help of progressive elder monks like Ven. Piyananda, helped reestablish the Theravada Nuns' Order known as the Bhikkhuni Sangha (bhikkhuni.net).

 

Therigatha (K. Blackstone)

In some respects, the inspiration we can gain from these verses may be stronger for females than for males, since these are in fact women's voices speaking. (Males have an analogous text, Psalms of the Elders or Theragatha). And when the theme of the verses is the mother-child bond, this is bound to be the case.

However, at a deeper level, the sex or gender of the speakers is irrelevant. For the ultimate truths they articulate explain universal principles of reality far beyond gender or other social constructs like race, socioeconomic status, beauty, age, and so on. They are equally valid for males and females.

 

The "Lord of Death," rules samsara (rebirth).

The verses of the nuns, if systematically examined, can help serious Buddhist meditators understand many central aspects of the Dharma, the Teachings of the Buddha, which as a coherent Path again set in motion the Wheel of Timeless Truth.

The background to the verses, including biographical information on the nuns who uttered the inspired songs, is provided by the ancient commentary on the Therigatha by the Venerable Acariya Dhammapala.

The First Buddhist Women

Mrs. C.A.F. Rhys Davids included some of these background stories in Psalms of the Early Buddhists. In the first part of this essay we look at these stories and consider the themes they suggest which are relevant to contemporary students of Buddhist meditation.

Then we discuss a selection of the verses themselves, which deal with many specific Teachings of the Buddha.

We in the 20th century who are seeking to attain enlightenment and final liberation will find ourselves deeply grateful to these fully awakened Buddhist nuns of the past for their profound assistance in illuminating the Dharma for us in their own distinctly personal ways.

I. The Background Stories

Samsara, the frightful Wheel of Life and Death

The ancient commentaries give us information about each nun's background and also explain the verses themselves. Two major themes of relevance to modern students of the Dharma run through these stories.

One is the immeasurably long time that we -- as males and females, as light beings in blissful worlds and miserable beasts in worlds of woe and everything in between -- have all been lost in this samsara, this Endless Round of Birth and Death.

Therigatha (Harvard)

The second is the inscrutable working out of the impersonal law of karmic causality, the truth that our actions really do have effects, which brought these women into contact with the Buddha's Teachings in what was to be their final rebirths when they finally found liberation from all further suffering. More

Women and the Buddha's Mother (sutra)

Dhr. Seven and Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly translation, Mahapajapati Sutta (AN 8.53). UPDATED, edited by Ashley Wells

Ideal altar: chief disciples Khema and Uppalavanna (nuns), Sariputta and Mahamoggallana (monks), Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya, Thailand (Rainer Lott, Steffi Esch/flickr).

Kwan Yin (metafisicamiami.com)

  

Kwan Yin (Great-wall-hikers/flickr)

There is one overarching female Buddhist figure -- Kwan Yin (originally Avalokiteshvara), Goddess (bodhisattva) of Compassion and Mercy "who looks down from on high and hears the cries of the world."
  
But during the Buddha's lifetime, there were five overarching women, five females of great importance, five who are rarely spoken of in spite of the fact that four became enlightened nuns with his help.

The first prominent female in the Buddha's life was Maya Devi, his biological mother. She passed away seven days later (having completed her pre-birth "mission," descending from a celestial world to the human plane to give birth to the Bodhisat then being reborn in the space-realm known as the The World of the Thirty-Three). Siddhartha, after he became the Buddha, would travel there to teach her, Sakka, and other beings there the "Higher Teachings" (Abhidharma).
 

The second was her sister, Mahapajapati Gotami (pictured below), who raised Siddhartha as her own from the age of seven days. She was married to the same man as her sister -- King Suddhodana, leader of the Shakya Clan, whose capital was at a major crossroads named Kapilavastu, in the vicinity of modern Bamiyan, Afghanistan, outside of modern Kabul. (For the past century or more, Nepal has officially been considered the archeological location, a notion refuted by the maverick Dr. Ranajit Pal). She later became the first Buddhist nun (bhikkhuni and first nun "elder" or theri).

Siddhartha's wife, Yasodhara (aka Bimba, Bimba-devi, Bimba-sundari, Bhaddakacca, "Rahula's mother" Rahula-mata, and the great disputant Bhaddhakaccana), was left cared for even when Siddhartha set off to find enlightenment and the end of suffering.
  
She stayed in the palace to raise their son with the protection of Siddhartha's parents, the title of "princess," the riches of the kingdom as the mother of the future king, and news of her husband's whereabouts and activities. Many imagine she was left heartbroken and in the dark.
 

Setaketu to be reborn a human

Note that upon his return his father, who also knew where he had been since he had sent emissaries to encourage him to return, tells him that faithful Yasodhara had declined all suitors offering their hand in marriage, had taken to wearing wandering-ascetic garments and sleeping on the floor rather than her high bed to be like him.
  
They had been together in many past lives, and they enjoyed a special connection few understood, even after his return from his successful spiritual quest. For she became a prominent nun under the Buddha. She was no longer called Bimba or Yasodhara but rather Bhaddakaccana, an enlightened disciple.

Avalokiteshvara with a thousand arms (tibet-photo.com)

 

(Rainer Lott, Steffi Esch/flickr.com)

The Buddha's two chief female disciples helped him form and bring the Bhikkhuni Sangha (Order of Nuns) to enlightenment, much as his two chief male disciples (Sariputra and Mahamoggallana) did with the Bhikkhu Sangha (Order of Monks). The monastic disciple foremost in wisdom was Khema, and Uppalavanna was foremost in psychic powers.

To Gotami (the Buddha's Mother)
Thus have I heard. At one time the Buddha was staying at Vesali, at the Great Forest, in Peaked-Roof Hall.
 
Then [the woman who raised him as her own son, sister of his biological mother] Mahapajapati Gotami went to him, bowed, and stood respectfully to one side.

Standing there she said to him: "It would be good, venerable sir, if the Blessed One would teach me the Dharma in brief such that, having heard the Dharma from the Blessed One, I might dwell withdrawn, secluded, mindful, ardent, and resolute."

 

The first Buddhist nun, Maha Pajapati Gotami

"Gotami, qualities of which you know, 'These qualities lead to passion (angst) rather than dispassion (peace), to being fettered (trapped) rather than being unfettered (freed), to accumulating (grasping) rather than relinquishing (letting go), to self-aggrandizement (delusion) rather than modesty (humility in line with reality), to discontent (unhappiness based on craving) rather than contentment (satisfaction based on letting go, abandoning, and peaceful-detachment), to entanglement (drama or enmeshed in personal politics) rather than seclusion (serene solitude), to laziness (sluggishness, sloth, or torpor) rather than aroused persistence (zest for liberation), to being a  burden rather than being a blessing (to others)" -- all of that you may categorically regard in the following way:

"'This is not the Dharma (teaching that leads to liberation), this is not the Discipline (rules of self-discipline and restraint leading to liberation), this is not the teacher's instruction.'

 

"As for the qualities of which you know, 'These qualities lead to dispassion rather than passion...to being a blessing rather than being a burden (to others)' -- all of this you may categorically regard in the following way:

"'This is the Dharma, this is the Discipline, this is the teacher's instruction.'"

 

This is what the Buddha said. Delighted, the nun Mahapajapati Gotami rejoiced at his words.