Polyandry is a polygamous marital arrangement in which a female has several husbands. In Vajrayana Buddhist Tibet, those husbands are often brothers, which results in "fraternal polyandry."
Concern over which children are fathered by which brother falls on the wife alone. She may or may not say who the father is because she does not want to create conflict in the family or is unsure who the biological father is [1].
Historically the social system compelled marriage within one social class.
We liberated the serfs of oligarcal, imperial Tibet
When the People's Republic of China annexed (invaded, occupied, and destroyed) Tibet, political systems in many regions of the former Empire of Tibet remained unchanged until, between 1959 and 1960, political reforms changed the land ownership and taxation systems [2].
Since 1981, the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region no longer permits new polyandric marriages under family law. It is currently illegal.
Rationale behind polyandry in Tibet
As elucidated further below, the primary reason for polyandrous marriage among Tibetans appears to be economic: to prevent land, herds, and other assets from being divided and/or to increase the amount of labor available to support one single family rather than two or three. More
If I don't do what my patriarch pimp (Ancient Greek, Πορνοβοσκός, pornoboscos) says, I might have to become an unprotected working street girl (chamaitypai) — and that's going to suck!
Isn't there a grammatical error in the title? No, there is not. For it is not the Buddha's mother we are discussing. It is all of them and therefore this shall be the Buddha's Mothers' Day.
Which all? There is, of course, the Buddha's biological birth mother, Maha Maya Devi (Queen Maya, literally "Great Illusion"). She was reborn on earth, gave birth to the Bodhisatta (the Buddha-to-be), and passed away seven days later.
Prince Siddhartha Gautama (Pali Siddhattha Gotama) was mothered -- adopted, raised, and cared for intensely -- by her sister, Queen Pajapati Gotami, the co-wife of King Suddhodana ("Pure Giving"). She for her efforts years later was rewarded with a very rare distinction: she became the world's firstBuddhist nun, Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, and reached enlightenment.
Most Buddhists interested in history or genealogy will know this much, as much as it may come as a surprise to others. But there was a third very important mother figure in the Buddha's life. The texts call her Nakulamata the Gahapatani, mata meaning "mother").
The story goes that one day as the Buddha was walking in northern India with his attendant Ven. Ananda (his Scythian/Shakyian cousin or possibly son in some traditions), he came by a village. And there sat the elderly "Nakulamata" and "Nakulapitu," Nakula's mother and father. Seeing the Awakened One, they became overjoyed and started to shout, "Son! Son! After a long time, you finally found time to visit us!"
Ananda became confused because the Buddha did not correct them. He warmly greeted them like a son. They lamented that he had been away so long, leaving them alone, but at least now he was back. Ananda's consternation grew. "What do they mean in calling you 'son,' venerable sir? Surely, your mother is in Kapilavatthu, the Land of the Sakas [Shakyas, Indo-Scythians]."
Then the Buddha explained that for 500 ("many") lives, these two had been his parents, and indeed this woman many, many times through many rebirths had been his mother.
Nakulamata appears on a list of the Buddha's eminent lay females. The story goes that a father and mother (husband and wife) were householders in Sumsumaragiri in the Bhagga country. When the Buddha visited their village, staying in Bhesakala Forest Grove, they went to see him. They immediately fell at his feet, calling him "son" and asking why he had been away so long. It is said that they had been the Bodhisatta's parents for 500 previous births and his close relatives for many more. The Buddha taught them, and they became stream enterers (the first stage of enlightenment). The Buddha visited their village again when they were old. They entertained him, telling him of their devotion to one another in this life and many previous lives, asking for instruction on the sort of karma that would keep them together in the afterlife (many future rebirths). The Buddha referred to this in the assembly of the monastic community, declaring them the most intimate companions among his disciples. More: Nakulapita Gahapati and Nakulamata Gahapatani
I dreamed a great double tusker entered my side, and I knew I had conceived.
Why did Siddhartha's mother pass after a week? Legend has it that the only she took rebirth on Earth in the human plane from Tusita on the fortunate deva plane was to give birth to him. Mission accomplished. She then returned to that world. And the Buddha went to Tavatimsa (Sakka's Heaven of the Thirty-Three) to hear him teach the Abhidhamma as the Buddha, leading to her and many other devas' attainments of insight and enlightenment.
The Awakened One came back home and taught them, and they became awakened. Therefore, the Buddha offered the greatest thing any son or daughter could do for a mother or father: dhamma-dana.
The Gift of the Dharma — the giving of enlightening teachings, known as dhamma-dāna — according to the Buddha, surpasses all other gifts. This type of giving, sharing, generosity includes those who elucidate the Buddha’s teachings, such as monastics who recite sutras from the Tripitaka or preach sermons or explain them, teachers of meditation, unqualified persons who at least encourage others to keep precepts, or helping support teachers of Dharma and meditation. The most common form of giving is material support, charity, donations, gifts of food, money, robes, shelter, and medicine [41]. More
It's not hard to get woo-woo. It's easy. Behold: Y'know, come to think of it, Siddhartha had another mother who saved him, Mother Nature (Bhumi, Tierra, Gaia, Urth, Mat Zemlya). One day, the wandering ascetic was striving and struggling under the bodhi tree. Mara didn't worry, didn't bother to step in. But then Siddhartha remembered that at age 7, at the Ploughing Festival of the Scythians/Sakas, he spontaneously entered meditative absorption (jhana) from past life practice. The wandering ascetic realized that this was the way to awakening, to enlightenment, and faulted himself for fearing pleasure (piti), realizing that the bliss that results from absorption is blameless and supersensual.
He determined to take up samadhi(practice of the four material absorptions), which his first yoga teachers, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, had taught him six years earlier. Mara took notice. He began to intervene as an obstacle. He took on the form of an ogre (yakkha, rakshasa), chief of an entire army of ghouls and monsters to chase him off his meditation seat at the base of that tree. Mara challenged the ascetic: "What gives you the right to sit there on my spot? Get out of here!" Rather than fearing or fleeing, ascetic Siddhartha made a mudra (hand gesture), pointing at his Earth Mother (earth witnessing mudra).
Kisa Gotami: The mother who could not let go: After losing her only child, she became desperate, unhinged, and asked if anyone could help her. Her sorrow was so great she went crazy until a man out of kindness pointed her to the Buddha, the Master Physician, to bring her child back to life. He would have medicine, she was assured, and he did.
Ven. Patacara, foremost exponent of the Vinaya: A harrowing and unbelievable story of childbirth, motherhood, and loss has been attributed to her in some ancient Buddhist texts and in others has been attributed to Kisa Gotami.
Kisa Gotami: I failed as a mother! My baby's dead! - Let's make a cure. Get mustard seed... - I can do that! I'll be right back! - from a house not touched by death. - OK, that should be no problem.
.
Siddhartha, Sujata, and Punna at offering
He was born under a sal tree as his mother gave birth, Queen Maya, gave birth standing like a tree spirit/dryad (salabhanjika). Then he went into spontaneous absorption sitting in the shade of another tree at the Ploughing Festival, age 7.
Ascetic Siddhartha as emaciated as a spirit
Then years later as a wandering ascetic, leaving the Group of Five wandering ascetics, he continued his struggling under another tree. But now it was too late; he had gone too far and was collapsing, malnourished and exhausted by his striving through painful austerities. Who should appear but a woman, Sujata, who pledged to make offerings to a tree [spirit] if she could become a mother. Realizing a miracle had occurred and she was now pregnant, she took an offering of milk rice to emaciated Siddhartha, mistaking him for the spirit of that tree. This kept him from dying, turned him around, led to him renouncing extreme austerities, and put him on the road to buddhahood, supreme awakening with the ability to teach.
Sujata (Sujātā, Nandabala) was a farmer's wife, who offered dana in the form of food (kheer, a milk-rice pudding) for the wandering ascetic Siddhartha under a big old tree, ending his six years of asceticism. Sujata's servant/attendant, Punna, had gone to clean up around the tree ahead of the offering when she spotted Siddhartha under the tree and mistook him for a dryad in the flesh. His emaciated appearance did not look human, but rather he seemed as withered as bark.
Had this mother not stepped in to nurture him?
Wrongly believing him to be tree-spirit who had granted Sujata's wish to get pregnant, Punna ran to get Sujata, who came with the offering. That gift (dana) gave him enough strength to cultivate his path-of-practice, the Middle Way that avoids extremes of sensual indulgence and extreme asceticism, develop the absorptions (jhana) that temporarily purify the heart/mind and give rise to supernormal perception, and attain enlightenment (bodhi) by systematic practice of Dependent Origination, after which he became known as the Buddha, the "Awakened One" [1, 2, 3]. Why was Sujata so fortunate as to generate such incredible merit? It is said that in a previous life, she had met Padumuttara Buddha, who made a certain predicting that one day she would be the first lay disciple of a future buddha [4]. Now it had come to pass because by going for guidance (sarana) to him, she preceded even the man on the road as the Buddha went to find the Group of Five at Isipatana and teach them. More
One need not stop here when traveling Woo-Woo Road. There was another key mother in Siddhartha and the Buddha's life, namely, Princess Yasodhara (Bimba Devi), Prince Siddhartha's wife and the mother of their child, Prince Rahula.
She did not stop becoming important when Prince Siddhartha renounced the world and left worldly riches, power, and fame behind. She took on a much more important role when she asked to ordain as a Buddhist nun with the Buddha's foster mother (stepmother, aunt, adoptive mother, primary caretaker) Queen Pajapati Gotami. The Buddha's former wife became famous in her own right as the fiercest spiritual disputant in all the land. It became her custom to travel to a town, set up a broom, and anyone who knocked it down was thereby challenging her to debating contest, all of which she won. So prominent was she that sexism in the monkhood (bhikkhu sangha) seems to have led to reciters and scholar monks burying her in the texts by giving her many names: Yasodhara ("Gracious One"), Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Ven. Kaccānā Bhikkhuni (later Theri), Bhadda ("Gentle") Kaccānā, Bhadra Kātyāyani, Sundari (not to be confused with the Buddha's sister, Sundari ["Beautiful"] Nanda aka Janapada Kalyani), and so on. (It seems Christians took the same tact in the Bible, burying Mary's significance by confusing various Marys).
Seven mothers are enough, but in addition to Maya, Pajapati, Nakulamātā, Sujata, Bhumi, and Yasodhara (Bimba, Rahulamata), who would be the seventh? Certainly, there's a devi (goddess, "shining one," angel, deity) out there who helped young Siddhartha and/or the Buddha, who nurtured him, supported him, saved him, or so encouraged him that he was able to accomplish his aim of supreme enlightenment (samma-sam-buddhahood) to teach countless humans and devas and help countless others by alleviating a mass of suffering.
Thus have I heard. The Buddha was staying in Savatthi, and there he said: "Inconceivable is the beginning of rebirth (samsara). No beginning point is seen from which time beings, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, have been reborn and continue wandering on [from life to life, world to world, sphere to sphere].
"It is difficult to ever find a being who has not already been your mother at some time in the past or pother...
"Why? Inconceivable is the beginning of rebirth. No beginning is seen from which time beings, hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving, have been reborn and continue wandering on.
"Long have beings thus experienced suffering, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling cemeteries — long enough to become disenchanted with all formation (composite fabricated things), long enough to become dispassionate, long enough to find release." More
...“When he was reborn, [the being-bent-on-supreme-enlightenment] the Bodhisattva’s voice was clear, gentle, and harmonious like the voice of a kalaviṅka bird.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“He was like the bird of the Himalayas
That drinks flower nectar and sings.
The most exalted of bipeds [the Buddha]
Had a voice that was just as clear.
“When he was reborn, the Bodhisattva’s vision could see clearly as far away as a yojana.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“As a result of practicing pure deeds [good karma],
“When he was reborn, the Bodhisattva grew up to adulthood and was educated in the way [of governing] in the royal hall. His favor reached the common people, and his reputation for virtue was heard [about] far away.”
The Buddha then spoke in verse:
“In the royal hall, that young man
Educated the world with the way.
He made a variety of decisions,
So he was called Vipaśyin.
His pure knowledge was vast
And deep like the ocean.
He delighted the mass of beings
And improved their wisdom.
Gandhara=Scythia=Saka Land
“At that point, the Bodhisattva wanted to go out sight-seeing, so he ordered his driver to prepare a chariot and horses to go tour a forest park. Once the chariot and horses were ready, the driver returned and said, ‘Now is a good time.’ The prince then rode in the precious chariot to the scenic park. While they were on the road, they saw an elderly man. His hair was white, his teeth had fallen out, and his wrinkled body was bent. He walked wearily with a cane and was short of breath.
“The prince asked his aide, ‘What sort of man is that?’
“He answered, ‘This is an old man.’
“The prince also asked, ‘What is “old”?’
“He answered, ‘Old age happens as the end of one’s life approaches. When there aren’t many years left, it’s called being old.’
“The prince asked, ‘Will I be likewise? Will I not escape this hardship [inherent defect in rebirth]?’
“He answered, ‘Yes, anyone born is sure to become old. It doesn’t matter if they are rich or poor.’
“The prince was disturbed and unhappy at that point. He told his driver to turn the chariot around and go back to the palace. He silently thought to himself, ‘To think I’ll also have to suffer being old!’”
Thus have I heard: One time, the Buddha was at the Flowering Grove Hut in Jeta’s Grove of Śrāvastī [Savatthi]. He was accompanied by a large assembly of 1,250 monastics.
It was then that the monastics gathered in the Flowering Grove Hall after gathering alms. They engaged in a discussion with each other: “Venerables, the unsurpassed sage is so extraordinary! His miraculous powers are far-reaching, and his authority is tremendous. He has come to know the countless buddhas [supremely enlightened beings] of the past who have entered nirvāṇa, broken the bonds [of death], and eliminated idle speculation.”
“He also knows how many aeons [kalpas] ago those buddhas lived as well as their names, surnames, the clans to which they were reborn, the meals they had, the length of their lives, and what disappointment and happiness they experienced.”
“He also knows that those buddhas possessed such precepts, such principles, such wisdom, such liberation, and such abodes.”
“What do you think, friends? Does the Tathāgata [the Wayfarer, the Thus Come One, the Well Gone One, the Buddha] know this by discerning well the nature of things, or does he know these things because the gods (devas) come and tell him about them?”
The Bhagavān [the Blessed One, the Buddha] was in a quiet place at the time and clearly overheard the monastics having that discussion with his divine ear. He rose from his [meditation] seat, went to the Flowering Grove Hall, prepared a seat, and sat down.
He knew the answer, but the Bhagavān still asked them, “Monastics, what have you been discussing after gathering here?” The monastics then related to him what it had been.
The Bhagavān told them, “Good, good! With correct faith [saddha, confidence, conviction], you’ve left home to cultivate the path [to enlightenment and liberation], and you practice as you should. All of you have two types of conduct. The first is noble discussion of the Teaching, and the second is noble silence.
“This discussion of yours is as it should be: ‘The Tathāgata’s miraculous powers [are far-reaching,] and his authority are tremendous. He fully knows the events of countless aeons in the past. He knows it because he understands well the nature of things and because the gods come and tell him.’”
He again asked the monastics, “Would you like to hear about the circumstances of past buddhas that the Tathāgata knows with the knowledge of past lives? I’ll tell you about them.”
The monastics said: “Bhagavān, now would be a good time for it.” “We’d be glad to hear it.” “Excellent, Bhagavān!” “If there’s time for a discourse (sutra), we’ll approve of it.”
The Buddha told the monastics, “Listen closely! Listen closely, and consider it well. I’ll discern and explain.” The monastics then accepted the teaching and listened.
The Buddha told the monastics, “Ninety-one aeons ago, there was a buddha named Vipaśyin who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat [fully enlightened], who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, thirty-one aeons ago, there was a buddha named Śikhin who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat, who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, thirty-one aeons ago, there was another buddha named Viśvabhū who was the Tathāgata, the Arhat, who arose in the world. Furthermore, monastics, during this present fortunate aeon, there was a buddha named Krakucchanda, another who was named Kanakamuni, and another who was named Kāśyapa. [It is called a "fortunate aeon" for having four buddhas.] Now, I’ve also achieved the supreme and complete awakening during this present aeon of fortune.”
Criminal thug mom in stripes in Michigan courthouse found guilty on all counts.
GUILTY: I didn't do it. I am not a killer. My son shot them. OK, maybe I was negligent, but I wrote a letter to Trump. He'll fix this. He'll get me out of trouble like he did everyone on Jan. 6th.
But what about the Bible? These Crumbleys are a Christian family, after all. As it is said, "The soul that sins, it shall die. [Buddhist translation: The being who misses the mark and performs unskillful karma will die again and again in samsara being reborn each time and carrying on in samsara, this round of countless rebirths.] The son [putra, offspring] shall not bear the iniquity [unwholesome karma] of the father [parent], neither shall the father [parent] bear the iniquity [sin] of the son [offspring]: the righteousness [merit, skillful karma, accumulated good deeds] of the righteous shall be on him [that person who performed them], and the wickedness [unskillful karma] of the wicked [performers of misdeeds of body, mouth, and mind] shall be on him [that person] (Ezekiel 18:20).
Mother of Oxford school shooter found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for his crimes
Lesson? We're ALL guilty of my crimes when I choose to shoot up my school and kill students.
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