The entire history of Iran in 11 minutes

(Genius History) The entire history of Iran in 11 minutes

Fun and spirituality with the poet Rumi

(Daughter of Iran) Thinking is an Ego Trap: Thought will not solve our problems

(Shams of Tabrez) Life-Changing Rumi Poems (Ancient Wisdom for Modern Hearts)

Tomb Shrine of Rumi in Konya, Raulana Jelaledin Muhammad Rumi (wikipedia)

.

Rumi 'loves' disciple Chelebi

The History of Iran, formerly Persia, is rich and wondrous. Among the many strongest features of Cyrus the Great's powerful (Achaemenid) Empire is its enduring love of poetry. One need only to think of one of the world's greatest poets, Rumi (aka Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī).

Zionist Israelis and American imperialists, who together are trying to establish a Western beachhead in the center of the Middle East and calling it "Greater Israel," may hate Iran, but we love it and Iranians, the original Aryans.

Rumi's darkest lesson: How we become our own worst enemy: Jewish king

The Buddha's mothers (sisters Queen Maya and Queen Prajapati), according to maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, were Aryan-Iranians from a region now known as Sistan-Baluchistan, south of Buddhist Afghanistan, in ancient Gandhara (Indo-Scythia of the Sakas/Shakyas), the original Kapilavastu, which was not in Nepal as we are told. (See Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander).

(Shams of Tabrez) Rumi's secret of form and meaning (namarupa)

Mawlana ("Rumi") meeting Shams-i Tabrizi (Cāmiʿü’s-siyer of
Muhammed Tahir, Topkapı Palace Museum Library, Istanbul)

Whirling dervishes and Lala
visit Rumi's tomb in 1580

The Buddha's father, Scythian King or Tribal Chieftain Suddhodana, was a Central Asian from Kabul and Bamiyan, it would seem. But even if the historical Buddha and his biological parents bore no relation to the region, modern Iran is still a magnificent ancient society and a power to reckon with in the region.

It is a horror and a travesty that the CIA, NSA, NSC, Mossad, Israel, UK, TC, and USA meddle in it so much since at least the time of the Shah of Iran and U.S. puppet dictator gone rogue Saddam Hussein.

Mad at Iran, I quit the Olympic team

(AJ+) Why I quit Iran's Olympic team - but still love my country very much

Cavemen shamans got high all day? (sutra)

When did humans start smoking cannabis?

(Ink Explainer) June 4, 2026: When did early humans start smoking weed (THC/CBD)? The answer goes back way further than most of us would expect. Our relationship with cannabis did not begin in a college dorm or a back alley. — Rather, it started over 12,000 years ago, when some of the first farmers in East Asia looked at a very useful wild plant and thought, "Let's grow this."

This video traces the full history of cannabis — from a 2,700-year-old shaman's tomb in western China to the smoke-filled burial caves of the Pamir Mountains, the golden cups of Scythian warriors, the sacred altars of ancient Judah, the bhang rituals of India, a Chinese physician's lost anesthesia formula, a Congolese tribe that traded war for hemp, and the American political machine that turned a 12,000-year-old plant into one of the most dangerous [Schedule 1] substances on Earth.

By the end, viewers might start seeing this plant a little differently. All factual research sources are linked below.

Cross faded humans/monkeys?

(Mack) When did ancient humans first drink? Drunken monkey hypothesis

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📚 RESEARCH AND SOURCES: ▸ Yanghai Tombs — "Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia" (2008, Journal of Experimental Botany) doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 ▸ Jirzankal Cemetery — "The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs of western China" (2019, Science Advances) doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1391 ▸ Herodotus — The Histories, Book IV, on Scythian cannabis use (c. 440 BCE) ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Frozen Tombs of Siberia: The Pazyryk Burials of Iron Age Horsemen (1970, UC Press) ▸ Scythian Gold Cups — "Residue analysis of golden artifacts from Scythian kurgan in the Caucasus" (2015, Antiquity) ▸ Tell Arad Shrine — "Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad" (2020, Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology) doi.org/10.1080/03344355.2020... ▸ Atharva Veda — Ancient Vedic text listing cannabis among five sacred plants ▸ Robert Dudley and Dušan Borić — Research on anandamide and the endocannabinoid system ▸ Harry Anslinger — Federal Bureau of Narcotics records, the Gore Files, and the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 ▸ John Ehrlichman — interview quote on Pres. Dick Nixon's drug policy, published in Harper's Magazine (2016) by Dan Baum: "Legalize It All" harpers.org/archive/2016/04/l... ▸ DEA Judge Francis Young — "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (1988, Docket No. 86-22)

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PEOPLE MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Shen Nong — legendary Chinese emperor, traditionally credited as the author of the Pen Ts'ao Ching, one of the world's earliest medical texts, which recommended cannabis for joint pain and malaria. ▸ Herodotus — Ancient Greek historian (c. 484–425 BCE). Traveled through Central Asia and documented Scythian cannabis rituals in vivid detail. His accounts were confirmed by archeological discoveries nearly 2,400 years later. ▸ Sergei Rudenko — Soviet archeologist who in 1947 excavated frozen Scythian tombs in Siberia's Altai Mountains, confirming Herodotus's descriptions of cannabis use with perfectly preserved tent frames, heated stones, and cannabis seeds. ▸ Hua Tuo — Chinese physician (c. 140–208 AD). Mixed cannabis with wine to create an anesthetic and performed surgery during which patients felt nothing — 1,800 years before modern anesthesia, executed by warlord Cao Cao. His formula was lost when he burned his own writings in prison. ▸ Cao Cao — One of the most powerful warlords in Chinese history (155–220 AD). Had Hua Tuo arrested and executed after the physician refused to serve as his personal doctor. ▸ Harry Anslinger — head of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 to 1962. Criminalized cannabis through racist propaganda, fabricated evidence (the Gore Files), and targeted Black musicians including Billie Holiday. ▸ Billie Holiday — legendary jazz singer targeted by Anslinger, not for drug use but for performing "Strange Fruit," a protest song about American lynchings. ▸ John Ehrlichman — Pres. Nixon's domestic policy advisor, who in a 2016-published interview admitted the War on Drugs was designed to target anti-war protesters and Black communities. ▸ Francis Young — DEA administrative law judge who, after two years of reviewing evidence in 1988, concluded that cannabis should not be classified as a Schedule 1 drug alongside heroin. The DEA rejected and ignored his recommendation.

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🎨 Animation by Ink explainer

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#cannabishistory #weedhistory #history #ancienthistory #cannabis #marijuana #explainer #animation #education #HarryAnslinger #SilkRoad #archeology #humanhistory

Shamans: communication from spirit world

(Eden Foundation) Psychedelics (Entheogens) as Medicine 2025: Voices of Ancestors with Snow Raven

Ancient cavemen and cannabis smoking

(MACK) High all day? When did ancient human (cavemen) start smoking cannabis?

Doctor Feelgood? Cannabis, MD

(Saturday Night Live) The Pot Doctor (Kevin Spacey, Beck, Will Ferrell)

 

"The Cave of the Body" (Guhatthaka Sutta)

Clinging to this cave heavily defiled [1]

one is stuck, bewildered, far from seclusion

from craving for the sensual pleasures [2]

of the world, which are hard to let go.

Those chained to craving

bound by the allure of becoming

find no release

for there is no liberation by others.

Intent, before and behind [3], on thirst

for sensual pleasure here or before —

full of lust for sensual pleasures,

busy, deluded, greedy, entrenched

in the wobbling way [4] they —

impelled into pain — lament:

"What will we be

when we pass away from here?"

So one ought to train here and now.

Whatever one knows as wobbling

in the world, do not, for its sake, behave,

for such life, the enlightened say, is short.

I see them in the world

floundering

men immersed in craving

for new states of becoming.

Base people moan in the mouth of death, their craving

for states of eternal becoming and annihilation [5] unallayed.

See them floundering in their sense of mine like fish in the

puddles of a dried-up stream — and, seeing this,

live with no sense of mine, not forming

attachments to states of becoming.

Subdue craving for both sides [6], 

comprehending [7] sensory contact free of greed.

Doing nothing for which one would oneself

rebuke oneself, for the enlightened person

adheres not to what is seen, to what's heard.

Comprehending perception, one crosses over the flood —

the sage unstuck from possessions.

One, with arrow removed, lives heedful,

longing for neither

this world nor the next.

ENDNOTES

1. Nd.I: Covered with defilements and unskillful mental states, characteristics, qualities.
2. "Sensual craving" and "sensual pleasures" are two possible translations of kama ("sensuality"). According to Nd.I, both meanings are intended here.
3. Nd.I: "Before" ("in front") means experienced in the past; "behind" means to-be-experienced in the future.
4. Nd.I: "Wobbling way" means the karma of the Ten Courses of Unwholesome Action. (See AN 10.176).
5. States of not-becoming = "oblivion." These are states of becoming that people can get themselves into through a desire or craving for annihilation, either after death or as a misguided goal of their spiritual striving. (See Iti 49, ucchedavada, annihilationism). As with all states of becoming, these states are impermanent (transient) and disappointing (painful).
6. According to Nd.I, "both sides" has here several possible meanings: sensory contact and the origination of sensory contact; past and future; name-and-form; internal and external sense media; self-identity (view) and the origination of self-identity. It might also mean the states of becoming and not-becoming (eternalism and annihilationism) mentioned in the previous verse and below, in Sn 4.5.
7. Nd.I: Comprehending sensory contact has three aspects: (1) being able to identify and distinguish types of sensory contact; (2) contemplating the true nature of sensory contact (e.g., impermanent/inconstant, disappointing/unable to fulfill, and impersonal/not-self); and (3) abandoning attachment to sensory contact. The same three aspects apply to comprehending perception, as mentioned in the following verse.

• See also: AN 4.184

• Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Amber Larson (eds.), Guhatthaka Sutta, based on translation and notes by Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org, Sn 4.2 PTS: Sn 772-779), Wisdom Quarterly

Drunk monkeys? Ancient highs? Legal highs?

(GrowOn) When did ancient humans first drink alcohol, June 12, 2026

(once) Ancient humans got high every single day

How good are legal highs kratom, kava, kanna?

(Metta Beshay) Patreon: mettabeshay. All links are at linktr.ee/mettabeshay. "Getting high" [finding a temporary way out of our "normal" or usual state of consciousness] is an almost universal human experience. We are taught that alcohol is the default option for humans, but I learned that this is not the case.

 

Let's delve into the history of kanna in South Africa with the Koi Koi and the San people (Khoi San people). [The San people were made famous in The Gods Must Be Crazy (film series)].

Let's discuss the complex morality of the growing kratom use in the world. 

Let's try the most famous and confusing legal magic mushroom, the shamanic fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) and explore how to use it for sleep.

Finally, let's learn the best methods to prepare the popular Pacific Island plant kava.

I try all of these plants [from Nature's Plant Pharmacy] and provide a firsthand and honest report on how they make me feel.

I have learned that there is an insane number of legal plant medicines to explore, such as Mormon Tea made of ephedra, shrooms like psilocybin, areca nut or betel nut, Salvia divinorum or seer's sage, and fermented kanna...

CHAPTERS

• 0:00 Intro and disclaimer
• 1:28 Amanita muscaria (fly agaric)
• 6:39 Kava
• 12:50 Kratom
• 22:58 Kanna
• 30:17 Outro

WARNING: This video is strictly for educational and documentary purposes. I do not recommend anyone to try or repeat any of my actions in this video.

SOURCES

• The father of pharmacognosy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedaniu...
• High Uses of Benadryl / how_to_trip_safely_on_benadryl
• Kanna: Kanna History: https://kanna-info.com/history-of-kanna
• Basic kanna info: https://www.erowid.org/plants/kanna/k...
• Ann and Alexander Shulgin talking: • Ann and Sasha Shulgin Discussing Phen...
• European Conquer Kanna reports: “The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope” Translated in 1731 Active ingredients: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
• True Review Kanna Video: • Video Zembrin: https://www.amazon.com/Nutricost-Zemb...
• Mesembrine: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31299...
• Mesembrine: https://www.drugs.com/npp/sceletium-t...
• Pharmacology of Kanna: / all_you_need_to_know_about_kannas_pharmaco...
• More Chemistry Talk: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
• South African Ethnobotanist post / clarification_on_kanna
• Source also good dosing info and more: https://sceletium.com/knowledge/
• Its Chemical Action: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26615...
• Amanita: Amanita History: https://psychedelicspotlight.com/a-cu...
• Amanita Psychnautwiki: https://psychonautwiki.org/wiki/Amani... • The Fly Agaric 🍄 Facts, Myths, and Ex...
• Great Podcast Kava: Great Kava Info • The Science Behind Kava Alcohol Use in Micronesia https://micsem.org/article/alcohol-an...
• Native American Powwow • I Experienced My First Native America... • Salvia Trip Professionally Filmed • Salvia 2023 bad trip
• Mandrake: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles...
• https://www.botanical.com/botanical/m...
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
• https://wellcomecollection.org/articl...
• https://digirepo.nlm.nih.gov/ext/dw/1...
• https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscri...

• My kratom source: https://left-coast-kratom.com/buy-bul...
• My kanna source: https://sceletium.com/product/sceleti...
• My discount code: METTA99
• My Amanita muscaria (red mushroom) source: https://mn-nice-ethnobotanicals.com/c...
• My discount code: METTA
• Kava and kratom extract shot: https://www.shorebreakkava.com/produc...
• Discount code: METTA
• Cashapp: https://cash.app/$MettaBeshay
• Venmo: @Metta-Beshay

Oh, thought I was joking? No, I want that dang dolla. Instagram: mettabeshay

• once; Metta Beshay, Oct. 10, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly, orig. June 16, 2024

The Buddha's Mothers' Day (5/10)

Prince Siddhartha's [Central Asian/Scythian/Saka] mother, Maha Maya Devi, depicted in India

A "mother" is much more than one gives birth, she nurtures: Mother Maha Pajapati Gotami

Queen Maya as a sal tree spirit

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.

 

Madonna Pajapati and child

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 first Buddhist nun, Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, and reached enlightenment.

• Honor My Mother Gotami (bhikkhuni.net)
• Mahapajapati's going forth in the Madhyamaka-Agama (Ven. Analayo)
• The non-historicity of the Eight Additional Nuns' Rules as revealed in the Bhikkhuni Vinaya (Ayya Tathaaloka)
• Non-historicity of the Eight Garudhammas (Ayya Tathaaloka)
• Articles (Alliance for Bhikkhunis)
• Doubtful history of the Eight Garudhammas

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").

• Did the Buddha love his mother(s)?

This may seem like a strange depiction of baby Siddhartha,
but it is how he looks on the casket of his funerary ashes:

Detail of Afghan Bimaran casket (Charles Masson)

.

Queen Maya had a marvelous dream.

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!"

Ancient carving of Buddha’s mother Maya found

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.

• 

  Possible to marry, be intimate, remain happy?

  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
• Eight qualities of women, Nakulamata (AN 8:48)
• "Marriage" (Guide To Buddhism A To Z)

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.

.

Gold container of the Buddha's relics

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
• Treasury of the Buddha's Discourses: Appreciation of parents' love
• Buddhist attitude towards parents in Theravada Buddhism (drarisworld)

La vie de Bouddha (montagne de marbre, Danang): Sujata (milkmaid) and Punna offer dana

.

Other "mothers" in Buddhism

Earth Witnessing Mudra (c. 850)

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

Mother of the household: Rahulamata

Cousin, wife, confidante Bimba nurtures Sid

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.

Prajñāpāramitā Devī, Cambodia

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).

• Compassion, Mercy, and Love: Guanyin and the Virgin Mary (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Seven mothers of the Buddha?

Prajñāpāramitā Devī, Berkeley

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.

Ambapali bests the conceited Licchavis

Perhaps one could argue for Prajnaparamita of Java (Prajñāpāramitā Devī), Kwan Yin (female Avalokitesvara), brilliant courtesan and supporter Ambapali, a colorful Tara, Yeshe Tsogyal, Goddess Marici, Ven. Khema, Ven. Uppalavanna -- his two foremost female monastic disciples -- or the Queen of Heaven (Saraswati, Shri Lakshmi, Ma Durga, Maha Devi, Rati, Parvati, Radha, Matsu), whoever that Heavenly Queen might be (Guanyin or Virgin Mary), even if it turns out to be Maya Devi in Tusita.

Mothers so love their children that when they become novices (samaneras), they feed them.

 

Mother Sutra: We've all been mothers?

(Mata Sutta, SN 15.14-19 PTS: S ii 189 CDB i 659)

Whatever greatness we achieve, it is often on the backs of our mothers, whom we rarely thank.

 

Statue of mother and children (Genoa)

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...

• a being who has not already been your father...
• your brother...
• your sister...
• your son...
• your daughter at some time in the past or other.

My beautiful Black mom

"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

• Mata Sutta: "Mother Discourse" (Ven. Thanissaro translation)
• Women in Buddhism (Wikipedia)
• Conceived and compiled by Dhr. Seven with the help of Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Amber Larson, and Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly