Lust: The Power of Sex: I must have it!

(Bhakti Vikasa Swami) Power of Sex, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (Hare Krishna ISKCON Hinduism)

(Asha Bhosle) Indian Hari Krishna film, Dum Maro Dum, smoking groovy ganja

Maybe mindless devotion to Krishna?

Hare Krishna kirtan bhajan - Hare Krishna chanting in Hindu America

(Joe Rogan) Ancient origins of Hare Krishna Movement?

Hare Krishna Hare Rama Mantra | Srila Prabhupada's world | ISKCON

Hindu: Why sex means suffering (ISKCON)

Why Sex Means Suffering

Lord Krishna loves Radha, gopis

(भक्ति विकास स्वामी - Bhakti Vikasa Swami) Oct. 21, 2025: #misery #sex #bvks #sex #misery. Recorded on October 1, 2025, in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India. Practice brahmacharya (spiritual "celibacy") for Ayurveda, avoiding sinfulness (pāpa). For thousands of ISKCON (Int'l Society of Krishna Consciousness) talks on the Bhagavad-gita, Srimad Bhagavatam, Caitanya-caritamrta, and Bhajans, please see cross platform apps:

• social.bvksmedia.net/m/connect,
• Facebook: social.bvksmedia.net/fb
• WhatsApp: social.bvksmedia.net/wa
• Instagram: social.bvksmedia.net/ig
• Support: donate.bvksmedia.net

(Bhakti Vikasa Swami) Material entanglement via sexual attraction:

Brahmacari (celibacy over chastity for students of the Dharma)

Lovers Radha and Krishna

Krishna's consorts: Radha, Rukmini, Satyabhama, Jambavati, and five other chief queens, plus 16,000 to 16,100 junior queens [8] [Note 2].

On the one hand, Radha is seen as Krishna's lover-consort (although in some beliefs Radha is considered to be Krishna's married consort).

On the other hand, Rukmini and Krishna's many other consorts are already said to be married to him.

Polygynist Lord Krishna had eight chief wives, known as ashtabharyas. Regional texts vary in the identity of Krishna's wives (consorts), some presenting them as Rukmini, some as Radha, all gopis ("milkmaids"), and some identifying all as different aspects or manifestations of the goddess Lakshmi [8, 9].

Our Republican president and politicians

(Adam Mockler) Melania walks in on Trump in the act

Sex and Suffering on Valentine's Day

(Matt on Buddha's Wisdom) SEX in BUDDHISM: not a moral rule but a deeper question

Valentines is a heart-shaped box of chocolates

Valentine's Day (aka Saint Valentine's Day, Feast of St. Valentine [1]) is celebrated annually on February 14th [2].

This celebration of going from Lust to Love like the Go Go's, it originated as a Christian feast day honoring a martyr named Valentine, and through later folk traditions it has also become a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and love in many regions of the world [3, 4].

Cupid is Mara and Kama

There are a number of martyrdom stories associated with various Saint Valentines connected to February 14th [5], including an account of the imprisonment of Saint Valentine of Rome for ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire in the third century [6, 7].

According to an early tradition, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his jailer [8]. Numerous later additions to the legend have better related it to the theme of love: Tradition maintains that Saint Valentine performed weddings for Christian soldiers who were forbidden to marry by the Roman emperor [7]. An 18th-century embellishment to the legend claims he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter signed "Your Valentine" as a farewell before his execution [9].

Will consumers buy cheap cards?

The 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary recorded the celebration of the Feast of Saint Valentine on February 14th [10, 11]. The day became associated with romantic love in the 14th and 15th centuries, when notions of courtly love flourished, apparently by association with the "lovebirds" of early spring.

In 18th-century England, it grew into an occasion for couples to express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").

Valentine's Day symbols that are used today include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid [who acts like the India god Kama, Greek Eros and Aphrodite, Roman Venus, and Buddhist Mara].

No sex please. We're Ameboids 'n Gatchularians

In the 19th century, handmade cards gave way to mass-produced greetings [12] thanks to capitalism. In Italy, Saint Valentine's keys are given to lovers "as a romantic symbol and an invitation to unlock the giver's heart" as well as to children to ward off epileptic fits (called Saint Valentine's Malady) [13], which could be thought of as an overwrought lover's obsessive mania, like St. Vitus' Dance. More

Jewish sex: stripping vs. old men

"Stripping vs. Old Men Sex" - Russian Vicka Margulis (stand up comedy)

Let's talk about sex: poetry (6/19)

When sexbots arrive, will they have Replika data?

Visit my weekly Peace Class at PRS, Hollywood.

Sex is a sticky subject. Uh, mmm, icky finicky touchy (not touchy) sticky subject -- ooh, it's nasty. Don't talk about it! What's brown and sticky? A tree. We aim to unstick it.

Sexworld flash fiction (Koertge)

This Thursday the SPARC Centre Gallery (Third Thursdays) monthly poetry reading arrives, featuring South Pasadena Poet Laureate Ron Koertge and Wisdom Quarterly's very own peace activist and poet Mandy Kahn.

See her weekly (Wednesday night) Peace Class at prs.org. The subject this warm month? A theme of passion, romance, getting down and dirty, and summer love with an OPEN MIC segment running throughout the reading. That means YOU can come and read, too.

Mandy Kahn's Peace Class (returns in Sept.)

English only?

In English Rumi might sound filthy and vulgar.

• The Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi: Reynold A. Nicholson (free download, borrow, and streaming: Internet Archive)

What is the sound of one hand... Uh, mmm, no, what is the sound of 1,000 jaws dropping?

Just say "no," Adults. No one should have sex. Better those energies were expended following something far more useful. But what could possibly be more useful, or more enjoyable, than sex?

Once the Bodhisattva (Buddha-to-be) reflected, "Why do I, being subject to aging and death, also seek things that are subject to aging and death? What now if I were to seek out that which is beyond aging and death?"

But if everyone dies and everything eventually passes away, what is not subject to aging and death? What is beyond impermanence?

There is one element that has overcome aging and death and that transcends all suffering, that has overcome sorrow, lamentation, and disappointment. And that is the unconditioned element called nirvana.

Nirvana is better than sex?
Nirvana is better than anything. Everything else is ultimately disappointing. Why? Everything else is subject to incessant arising and passing away. We cling. It fades. We hurt. We are left empty and dissatisfied. Things reveal themselves to be impersonal, unable to stand independently.

As close as nirvana is, realization of it is a long way away from those who do not practice, who do not apply themselves, who do not determine to realize it in this very life.

Even for such people, there is serenity or samatha meditation, which gives access to amazing levels of bliss, serenity, and -- by adding vipassana on top of right samadhi -- degrees of liberating-insight.

As close as calm-and-insight meditation are, realization serenity or wisdom are a long way away for those who do not practice, who do not determine to realize them in this very life.

There's a reason to sit, a better form of pleasure?

Even for such people, there is virtue, which is a more sublime form of joy (piti, rapture, pleasure, bliss) beyond reproach, beyond blame, worry, or any remorse.

As close as virtue is, it is a long way away for those who do not practice, who do not determine to realize it in this very life.

For such people, endowed with virtue, they may enjoy sex that harms no one and does not involve anyone dependent on others. For those who are independent, self-supporting, who are capable of consenting and making their own decisions. Let's talk about sex between them.

Hey, did you ever consider Tantra?

One need not imagine that sex brings one closer to enlightenment -- as Great Vehicle (Mahayana and esoteric Vajrayana) practitioners following the pre-Buddhist Indian path of yogic Tantra may imagine.

As ordinary householders living in the world -- interested in wealth, prosperity, and personal satisfaction through gain, fame, and endless distractions -- sex may serve that purpose.

It of necessity will be disappointing (dukkha). If it were not, the Buddha would never have pointed out a better path to pursue, a way thing to strive for, a superior form of pleasure. There is another way that goes against the stream (the current, the flow), does not pull one by the floods, does not entangle one in the revolving wheel of rebirth and redeath (samsara).

Is anyone going against the stream?

Noah Levine, scandalized founder of Dharma Punx, Against the Stream, Refuge Recovery

• 

  A path to go against the stream

  The path of the spiritual revolutionary is a long-term and gradual journey toward awakening (enlightenment, bodhi). If we want a quick fix or easy salvation, this is not it. Turn back now, plug back into The Matrix, and enjoy that delusional existence. The Buddha's Dharma is a path for real rebels, malcontents, and truth seekers. The wisdom and compassion of the Buddha is available to all, but the journey to personal freedom is arduous. It takes a steadfast commitment to Truth and, at times, counterintuitive (against instinct) action. We have at our disposal everything we need to undertake this journey. There is only one prerequisite -- the willingness to play, to do the practice, to follow the path through the darkest recesses of our minds and hearts, to stand in the face of great resistance and fear and continue in the direction of freedom. For those who are willing, the ability is a given. The Buddha isn’t a god or deity to be worshipped. He was a rebel and ford finder (who rediscovered the way crossing over), an overthrower, destroyer of ignorance, the Master Physician who re-found the path to complete freedom from suffering. The Buddha left a legacy of Truth for us to experience for ourselves, not to believe in him. The practices and principles of these Teachings, the Dharma, lead to our direct experience of knowledge, wisdom, compassion, and full liberation. This is not a faith-based philosophy, but an experiential one. The point of the spiritual revolution is not to become a "good Buddhist," but to become a wise and compassionate being, to awaken from our life of complacency and delusion and ignorance and to be a buddha, an awakened being. In order to do this, it is helpful to study the life and teachings of the original rebel, the Wandering Ascetic Sid — the Buddha.

What about love and relationships? That is different. We are talking about sex.

Love is grand. Most people have nothing higher to live for. And as an English word we confound it with all kinds of loves, when it only refers in this context to romantic love, which feels great but is not what people really mean. It is like referring to the prestigious and selfless faculty when one really means the greedy and despised administration or the mishmash of students. "School" means all three, but we put the best face on it.

The same with relationships. They can be great educators, harder to endure than a monastic life. But most are not. We pretend they are because they can be. But most of them, most of the time are not. Yet everyone claps and says "Awww" when anyone gets engaged. Awww, what? Awww, they're going to be so unhappy, and then the world can say to them, "Welcome to the club."

So let's stick to the subject and talk about sex.

• Men want sex, it is said.
• Yes, so do women -- even though it is said that they do not.
• Well, if they repeatedly indulge and stress about it, they will be caught up in stress and disappointment. But that stress is the only happiness they know.
• Right! It's like the Buddha comparing sexual craving to a leper's itch. The itch gets so bad, the sores so itchy, that placing an arm over an open fire can feel like a downright relief. Fire cauterizes the wound and so soothes the itch. It keeps one from going crazy, even at the cost of great pain or disfigurement.
• If only there were a way not to feel crazy yet not get burned.
• We don't have to have wait for heartbreak to feel "burned."
• Oh, totally. Good sex, great sex, unreal sex is still disappointing, to say nothing of the mediocre sex we mostly all settle for.
• Should independent people have sex?
• If they want to. They're free to. They can even do it while practicing virtue (sila). There is no reason for guilt, self-recrimination, or holding wrong views about it. Abstain, it's better, but indulge with a clear conscience that we are not "forbidden" to do it. One day, some days, meditate, too.
• They might succeed in meditation.
• Successful meditation (jhana, absorption) is better than sex -- full of rapture, joy, and supersensual bliss called piti.
• I've heard. But how could bliss be supersensual?
• There's a higher bliss, a better form of pleasure that is not dependent on the body or bodily feelings and pleasant sensations.
• You think?
• I know.
• Then why would anyone go back to sex as a source of relief or attempted-happiness?
• Those blissful states aren't always available to everyone; they take practice, which takes persistence and a little commitment. They are not permanent or reliable all the time. I mean, they are always there but not always available to everyone. We have base cravings and very strong habits.
• Restraint is good.
• Yes, it is great. But that's not always what the mind wants. And the mind usually gets what the mind wants.
• That's for sure. The body is weak compared to the mind even when the spirit is willing.
• Spirit?
• The breath, the prana, the Spiritus.
• Oh yea.
• Well, good times.
• Good times.

Common first date mistakes to avoid (allwomenstalk.com)

• How To (video); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly, orig. 12/15/11-4/23/24; Noah Levine on going against the stream (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Don't think about sex 🍆💘😭

The Buddha was very wise.

Thoughts of sensuality (craving for pleasures of the five senses) oppress the person beset by them again and again, becoming an obsession and compulsion. What's worse, getting what one craves does NOT solve the problem: Wanting is still there or soon comes back. Getting was no solution at all. Repeatedly getting in fact leads to addiction, a worse compulsion that sees no way out of the quagmire. (Giggity).

When the goal of the mind-body is just pleasure and more of it, the trap begins to become clear. But what other goal might one set for oneself? Liberation from disappointment and all suffering (dukkha). That goal is nirvana, realized by enlightenment (bodhi). But how?

Good times get giggity.

That is what a Buddha answers, having exposed the problem, he claimed there is a cause (craving accompanied by aversion, both rooted in delusion) to our disappointment/suffering. There's a final solution, too. The fourth ennobling (enlightening) truth is that there is a path, a middle way, to the solution.

That might be a better goal, something else to fixate on and strive for, relaxing into it until the illusion dissolves and ultimate-reality becomes clear. Until then, what's a person to do but take Jerri Blank's advice to herself, "Don't think about sex, don't think about sex, don't think about sex," which will be about as useful as saying, "Don't think about pink elephants."

Did you just think of pink elephants? Didn't we just say not to think of pink elephants. Why do we keep saying "pink elephants," which only makes us think of pink elephants... Don't think about sex. Oops! We just said...

(It doesn't work to try to not think about what you're thinking about; it does work to think about something else and keep thinking that other thing).

• Video short; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

LUST: Bodies are sexy and beautiful

You're, like, a total hottie and that makes me feel something gooey on, like, the inside, y'know?

.

The new fluidity aims to make us all bi, gay, NB

The body (form) is thought to be most obviously “me,” what “I” regard as the most tangible part of my “self.”

Around it therefore are constructed many views, all of them distorted and perverted to some extent, which prevent insight arising into the body as it really is.

This book, Bag of Bones, is a small Buddhist anthology relating to the body in various ways. It presents material which, if contemplated by the earnest and sincere student of the Dharma, will eventually provide fruitful insight and, thereby, freedom from the many cravings, obsessions, addictions, lusts, desires, and fears centered on the body.

Such thirst for pleasures in which the body is the instrument (though it is in the heart-mind where they dwell), awaken and intensify greed of all kinds, for instance, for food and sex and ego boosts of all kinds.

Greed (attraction, grasping, clinging, addiction, attachment) often accompanies pleasurable sensations. Therefore, desire (craving) needs a rather bitter medicine to combat it.

How can anybody say this body is unattractive?

So the number of items contained here on the unattractiveness of the body, its decay and death — all unpleasant matters — is high. Some of the material concerned with bodily unattractiveness is like a healing balm that need only be taken while the disease of greedy-lust is active. Afterwards, it may be discontinued and set aside.

It is important to understand this so as not to form the mistaken impression that the Buddha advocated viewing all beauty as loathsome. There is a great deal of beauty in this world, not all of which causes us to become obsessed with harmful things.

It is only that there is a hook hidden in beauty, an unseen danger that gets tangled with the greed in one’s heart and leads to more and more complications and difficulties.

Fears center around aging and disease, decay and death. They are never overcome by pretending they do not exist. Ostriches are said to bury their heads in the sand at the approach of enemies.

Only resolutely facing the inevitable features of life can bring insight and the dispelling of fear. The Buddha’s instructions on how to contemplate the body are addressed to those who are able, through their lifestyle, to practice them.

This means in effect monks and nuns, novices, together with dedicated lay people. The former group have this contemplation given to them by their monastic teachers at the time of going-forth from the homebound to the left-home life, which is when we might most need such a medicine to combat lust.

Gallery of the World's Ugliest Women : r/dalle2

Lust hurts and often harms anyone, but it can completely destroy the high life of someone training in monasticism.

Laypeople keeping the Five Precepts have contentment with their partners as an important part of their practice. Sex is a natural part of their life but should still be restrained and kept within the bounds of the Third Precept. If not, how much trouble might follow!

But some few may wish to live without sexual attachments, and this cannot be done in the way of Dhamma (the Buddha's Teaching or natural truth) by ignoring the power of our human sexual drive or by repressing and suppressing it.

Only when it is treated with mindfulness (nonjudgmental awareness and observation) can it be transcended. It does not last forever. It is overcome by the first meditative absorption and uprooted by the stages of enlightenment.

The aspect of mindfulness needed for this is the subject, or rather the interrelated subjects, of this book.

Bhutan: Last Himalayan Buddhist kingdom

In today's world we are subjected to a mass media bombardment of sensuality. Sex especially is used as the bait (attractant) to sell things, a titillation of sensory experience.

When this is continued, defilements of mind, notably lust, greed, and attachment, are sure to be strengthened. When this has happened, the result is not more happiness but only an increase of disappointment (dukkha, stress, ill, woe), suffering, trouble, and difficulties.

I stared until they started to look like skeletons, bags of bones, all of them. I ought to let go, become a monk, and gain enlightenment because flesh and bones are gross. I didn't tell them.

.

The medicine for such over-indulgence and over-stimulation is given here. It is said that this subject of meditation is unique to the Buddha’s Teachings, the Dhamma, and that elsewhere it is not clearly taught.

This is unsurprising as we find that desire is sometimes accepted as being “natural.” Wherever desires are viewed as “natural,” that is, inherent in one’s nature or self, nothing much can be done about them.

But the Buddha analyzed desires into those which are wholesome — the zeal to practice Dhamma, for instance — and the unwholesome ones, among which are greediness and lust.

They may not be gross either, as in the case of the meditator who is greedy for bliss, or visions, psychedelic experiences, and attached to such things.

The Buddha has provided the medicine for all unwholesome desires, and according to our various ways of life we can use it to effect partial or complete cures.

When the emphasis is so much on sensuality, youth, and beauty as we find now, the darker sides of life get pushed away and attempts are made, always unsuccessful, to sweep them under the rug. Those who try to do so will not be pleased with the exercises contained in the Buddha’s contemplation of the body as it really is.

• Patikulamanasikara: Purposely focus on the unattractive (asubha)?

Look at those breasts and butt colon!

Such things will appear to them as morbid and unnatural, offensive and repulsive. Yet, they are also a part of this life and should not be ignored. And if the effort is made to ignore what is unpleasant about the body, sooner or later one will be jolted into the recognition of these things.

Such jolts are not pleasant. Rather than leave it until one is forced to know the body’s unpleasant sides, it is better to acquaint one’s emotions with this knowledge gradually. In this spirit, Bag of Bones is being published.

Unfortunately, being only a book, it cannot give person-to-person advice on special problems. It can only offer some general guidelines to people who are interested in reducing their greediness and lust.

It's only skin deep for reptilian hybridization

A word of warning: meditation on the unattractiveness of the body can be very potent and should only be practiced with moderation and care, especially if one has no personal contact with a teacher of Buddhist meditation.

If fear and anxiety, or other extreme unwholesome emotional states arise after practice of it, then it will be better to lay it down and take up loving kindness (mettā) or recollection of the Buddha (Buddhānussati) as one’s meditation instead.

This book, therefore, is not so much for beginners in Buddhism but rather for those who have already practiced for some time. May it inspire many people to practice the Dhamma more intently!

• Wheel 271, Bag of Bones: A Miscellany on the Body (Australian Theravada Buddhist monk Ven. Khantipalo, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka; excerpt edited by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Pornhub's top search statistics (JKL)

Handsome murder suspect Luigi Mangione's new lawyer, Pornhub’s top searches, the Chanucorn and Hawk Tuah Girl!

(Jimmy Kimmel Live) Dec. 11, 2024: Pornhub has revealed its top searches for 2024, and there were some especially unusual searches, murder suspect Luigi Mangione has now lawyered up and fans of Luigi are offering to pay his legal fees, police in Altoona report that they’ve been getting threats from his supporters, and "The Chanucorn" (Hanukkah Unicorn Gary Greenberg) makes his return to announce his romantic holiday movie featuring the [crypto coin scam artist] Hawk Tuah girl! #Kimmel

Roast master comedian Nikki Glaser to host Golden Globes

Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds (2)

Continued from PART 1: Sex in Heavenly Space Worlds? (1)

• It can be pleasant, pleasurable, joyful, contented, blissful. The first two absorptions or jhanas have a characteristic rapture, joy, or I prefer "bliss" (ecstatic happiness) not based on the body, just a joy bubbling up based on a clear conscience, radical acceptance, universal love of everyone, non-opposition to anything. "It's all good," as Homer Simpson would say. But this is unthinkable to "spiritually" minded people seeking austerities, hardships to overcome, a quest, the climbing of a mountain, and the foolish repetition of a mantra they read the life story of the Buddha. You know that part where he said, "I will not move from this spot until my blood dries up and my bones turn to dust"? Nearly everyone erroneously concludes from this that "the secret" is a strong determination (adhimokkha) that put Siddhartha over the top.
• It's all that clenching of the teeth, sweating, efforting, manly virility (viriya) that was exactly in the way. Tiring of hedonistic pleasures as a prince, he ran in the other direction to the point of exhaustion, to Death's doorstep. Tiring of severe austerities that didn't work, what now? Back to hedonistic princely pleasures like Mara was possessing him to consider? NO.
• The Middle Way avoids both extremes. He ate. He didn't overeat. He slept. He didn't oversleep. He exercised. He didn't overexercise. He meditated (jhayanti). He didn't overmeditate (in the sense of that translated saying Bhikkhu Bodhi renders in a Pali expression), premeditate, undermeditate, and so on.

Sex with incredibly beautiful and alluring nymphs in heaven?

Heaven can be like TV's Fantasy Island

First understand that there are MANY "heavens." They are not all the same, and they are not all connected.

The Buddhist universe (which is a multiverse of bubble-like universes in all directions), in Buddhist cosmology, is divided into three spheres: the Sensual (kama), Fine-Material (rupa), and Immaterial (arupa). The Buddha frequently spoke of 31 distinct "planes of existence." These are not worlds but planes, which means there are countless worlds divided into these planes. They interact. For instance, the human and animal planes intersect as do the realm of ghosts and superior ET worlds. He mentioned other worlds that are not raised to the level of a "plane." Most interesting is the case of the human plane (manussya loka), which is not limited to this earth; there may be countless worlds where humans/humanoids live in the galaxy, world-system, and universe.

We are in the lowest of these, the sensual. It not only holds the human plane, it also includes the many hells, the animal plane, the ghost realm, and others. Surprisingly, there are the sensual heavens, extraordinary physical worlds, better and more beautiful than the world we know. These are in space, though some may also exist in our Hollow Earth (Agartha), which according to Buddhist cosmology is quite different than the way we imagine it. We are only aware of a portion of this plane, with our own sun and moon revolving overhead. There are other worlds separated from us by ice walls only surmountable by vimanas (ancient UFO type craft sometimes available to world monarchs in these worlds).

O, Janapada Kalyani, they want us to marry.

So one day the Buddha came back home to his family and friends, his people and familiar surroundings. His cousin/half-brother Nanda (the son of his mother's sister, who had raised him since the age of 7 days, when he was Prince Siddhartha) was getting married, possibly being married off to his sister, known variously as Sundari Nanda and Janapada Kalyani. Prince Siddhartha himself at the age of 16 had been married off to his cousin Bimba Devi (aka Princess Yasodhara). This is how it was among the royal Scythians/Shakyians/Sakas, as much as it may scandalize us. But it may have scandalized the Buddha because he intervened.

As he was leaving a meal invitation on the day before the wedding, the Buddha handed Nanda his brother his alms bowl. Nanda was glad to accompany him to the door out of respect and reverence for him. But when they came to the door, the Buddha did not take the bowl from him. He continued to walk, and Nanda thought he would carry his bowl to the gate. At the gate, the Buddha did not turn to take the bowl but continued walking all the way back to the monastic encampment in the grove where he was staying. CONTINUED IN PART II

As they were walking out of the gate, Janapada Kalyani was on the verandah of the palace watching this odd scene, Nanda following behind the Buddha with a monk's bowl in his hand. Worried, she called out to Nanda, "Come back to me soon, dear!" Nanda turned to see her ravishing beauty but dared not say anything out of respect for this spiritual master of great renown, his half-brother (same father, mothers who were sisters), with whom he had grown up with to the age of 29.

When the Buddha arrived at his dwelling, turned around and sat down. And there Nanda was standing holding the monk's bowl, which is what one brought along with seeking to gain admission to the monastic order, usually with some cloth for stitching a robe. The Buddha, seeing him said: "Nanda, are you here to become a monk?"

Confounded and unable to explain the misunderstanding, Nanda inexplicably just said "Yes." So the Buddha directed attendant monks, Scythian relatives and childhood friends of Nanda, to ordain him. They did. They were very proud that he had chosen to ordain and seek enlightenment instead of marrying the most beautiful "belle in the land," which is what Janapada Kalyani means

But Ven. Nanda was miserable and tormented by lust. He wanted to marry her, have sexual relations with her, and he wanted to disrobe and get back to the palace, to his riches, his status, and his future. He did not want to be celibate. And the more he tried to meditate as the Buddha had instructed him, the more frustrated he became.

I've lost everyone in this fire.

The other monks could see he was frustrated and miserable as a monk, so they told the Buddha. And the Buddha called for Nanda to be brought to him. Nanda came, looking miserable, and the Buddha asked him to hold on to his robe. When he took hold of the corner of the Buddha's robe, they flew through the sky over a great field where a forest had burned down. There Nanda noticed a she-monkey with a burnt nose and tail sitting on a stump looking around at the devastation.

They then traveled through the air upwards into space to the steps of a heavenly mansion (vimana). It was sparkling white, and many gorgeous, pink-footed nymphs were giggling and wiping the steps, bringing it to a sparkling shine. Nanda had never in his life beheld such beauty, such perfection of complexion and symmetry, such sexiness, newly nubile forms. He stepped toward them and asked what they were up to. They turned and batted their eyes, explaining that they were preparing this special heavenly mansion in expectation of the arrival of its owner, their master, the head of household, King Nanda.

Nanda was filled with awe and explained to them that surely King Nanda was a ruler on Earth. Why did they think this was his mansion? They explained that it was true that he was currently a royal living in a palace on Earth but that due to his karma, he would soon (because time is different on other planes, simultaneously moving at different speeds) be arriving in what might seem like a lot of human time but was in next to no time on this heavenly sensual plane.

Ven. Nanda turned to the Buddha and asked if he had heard what they said. The Buddha nodded and motioned that they had to go. Nanda was reluctant to leave, having just heard the greatest news of his life -- that all this would be his, and these would be his consorts, and he would live here in extreme pleasure as the owner and the ruler.

Noticing his excitement and giddiness, the Buddha asked Nanda if he happened to be interested in these celestial nymphs. Nanda was astonished at the question. Of course, he was interested, more than anything in all the world. The Buddha asked, "But what about Janapada Kalyani, your beautiful fiancée, who not long ago was the love of your life?"

Nanda shook his head and struggled to explain, "These are the most beautiful nymphs I have ever seen. Compared to the least beautiful of them, Janapada Kalyani seems like that she-monkey with the burnt nose and tail they had just seen sitting on a stump down there. She is not 1/16th part as beautiful; she does not even come into the count. The Buddha seemed surprised to hear it, as everyone knew Janapada Kalyani was the undisputed beauty of all the land (the janapada or territory of the Sakas/Scythians).

Then holding on to a corner of the Buddha's robe, they departed that world and descended to the human plane again. When they arrived, they did not stop but continued to descend into the plane of the Earth.

They descended through the ground to a dark and ominous underworld, where Nanda noticed two demon-like monsters tending a fire under a cauldron of heated oil. They were intent on their task and didn't seem to notice either the Buddha or Nanda there. So Ven. Nanda asked them what they were up to. One turned abruptly and rudely asked him what business it was of his, adding that if he had to know, they were preparing a welcome for that bad man Nanda, who would be arriving in no time to their chamber to be tortured and tormented, being boiled in hot oil.

Nanda was terrified but managed to stammer that he had heard that Nanda when leaving the human world was destined to ascend to a heavenly mansion, where nymphs awaited him as their master.

The monster agreed but pointed out that when his meritorious karma was exhausted there, King Nanda would drop into their hands, where they would be waiting for him to make him face the consequences of his unskillful karma, which he had also accrued in addition to the good. Nanda in terror looked toward the Buddha, who motion that it was time to go. Nanda desperately asked if the Buddha had heard what those hideous monsters had said. He had, and they departed, returning to the human world.

When they returned, the Buddha took his seat, and Ven. Nanda turned to return to his quarters to meditate. The Buddha asked him, "Weren't you interested in disrobing, being dissatisfied with the purity of the monastic life, Nanda?" "I'm fine," he said. "I should go practice. But, tell me, venerable sir, if I do, do you promise that when I pass away, I will be reborn among those pink-footed nymphs just like they said, there to be master of that mansion?" The Buddha assured him. So Nanda said, therefore, there was no need to disrobe.

The monks saw a marked change in Ven. Nanda, who was now diligent, determined, withdrawn into seclusion, constantly meditating. They approached him and asked what had changed. He recounted his experience in that sensual heavenly and the Buddha's promise that by applying himself, that would be his reward after passing from the human plane.

Does the body even matter?

Our body doesn’t matter after (Hindu) enlightenment. Buddhist enlightenment runs far deeper because the Buddha understood and taught that we are NOT consciousness nor any of the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." See the famous Heart Sutra for this insight.

The monks were scandalized and began to tease and taunt him. Nanda was confused. Instead of being happy for him, rejoicing to see him behaving with as much monastic dedication as any of them, they had now taken to referring to him not as "venerable" or "Friend Nanda" but as "hireling," bought with the price of nymphs. Ven. Nanda paid them no attention and went into seclusion to practice more diligently. The monks asked him, "What about your beloved fiancée who only recently you were walking around distraught, missing her and wanting to return to the place and the low life of an ordinary worldling?" Ven. Nanda had no need of that now; he had nymphs on his mind, and in the back of his mind, he also remembered what the demonic beings had said would happen after his sojourn in heaven.

The monks being scandalized by Ven. Nanda's newfound determination and efforts, his story of visiting his future destination and being promised his reward, complained to the Buddha, who reminded and admonished them to apply themselves with diligence to work out their own salvation now when circumstances were good, the Teacher was near, and they were young and able-bodied, sufficiently fed and robed, of good health, able to make progress. But they were upset at Ven. Nanda's special deal.

In no long time, Ven. Nanda made a breakthrough in his meditation and became enlightened. At that moment, his lust and interest in those many nymphs subsided, and he was at peace. He went to the Buddha to report his progress, announcing his attainment implicitly, how much he appreciated the encouragement, and that he now had seen the Dharma, the Truth.

The Buddha smiled but asked him, "What about our agreement? What about your reward?" Nanda blushed with embarrassment in front of the others and explained that at the moment of his attainment, he had released the Buddha of any such promise or obligation. The Buddha nodded in agreement. Turning to those monks who had not dedicated themselves, had not taken advantage of the excellent circumstances to practice, and had not broken through in their meditation practice.

This story, this beguiling Buddhist account from the Pali canon (almost certainly a backstory from the Dhammapada or the Nikayas, here retold from memory, originally struck a chord. It has very strong Dickensian and Ebenezer Scrooge elements about a miraculous turnaround, a kind of near-death experience that changes one's outlook completely and reorders one's priorities in life. It's amazing that a base aim could produce a holy outcome, that having set off to get lucky in the afterlife could keep one on task long enough for the Dharma and Discipline to work its magic and produce liberating insight. He must have let go, set aside his ambitions, and really investigated phenomena (dhammas) to produce knowledge-and-vision of the path and thereby perceive the true nature of existence as radically impermanent, incapable of fulfilling us, and impersonal.

So perhaps now that video makes sense of what's really possible and who's really up there waiting. This Round (Samsara) is long and wearisome. Long enough have we continued wandering on, reborn here and there, experiencing all of these things, long enough to have grown weary of its carrot and stick, its ups and downs, its promises and disappointments, the best laid plans of mice and men, long enough to let go.

• Thig 5.4: Sundarī Nandā Therīgāthā (Bhikkhu Sujato)
• The Buddha and Nanda go to heaven with … | Flickr
• No one need worry that the Buddha was playing favorites with his family. He saved Sundari Nanda, too, ordaining her as a Buddhist nun and teaching her until she reached enlightenment, just as he did for his mother (Ven. Maha Pajapati Gotami, the first Buddhist nun in history), his former wife (Ven. Bhaddakaccana, Rahulamata, Yasodhara, Bhadda, Bimba), his son (Ven. Rahula), his cousin (Ven. Ananda), and many other Scythian/Shakyian/Saka "princes" (royals, nobles, nomadic kshatriya warriors), nearly everyone from Kapilavastu, except those who clung to a worldly life.
• Even the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana, is said to have attained one or more of the stages of enlightenment and become one of the Noble Ones (Aryans) because of the Buddha teaching him until he was free.
• And he visited his biological mother in another heavenly world within the Sensual Sphere, the World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa Deva Loka), to teach her and other devas who came to bring them all to self-realization, when she had at that time returned to live in the more exalted Tusita world, where she left to come to earth to provide the Bodhisatta a suitable womb and lineage. The World of the Thirty-Three might also be called Second Heaven, whereas Tusita is Seventh Heaven.
• Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly