Life inside China's 'Heavenly Palace'

(SpaceX Insider) Inside China's Tiangong Space Station

Alleged photo of TSS Heavenly Palace (CGI?)

Tiangong (Chinese 天宫, Pinyin Tiāngōng, lit. "Heavenly Palace") [5][6], officially the Tiangong Space Station [7] (Chinese 天宫空间站, Pinyin Tiāngōng Kōngjiānzhàn), is a permanently crewed space station constructed by China and operated by China Manned Space Agency [8].

Tiangong is a modular design, with pieces docked together while in low Earth orbit, between 210 and 280 miles (340 and 450 kms) above the surface of Planet Earth.

Modules of the Heavenly Palace (TSS)

It is China's first long-term space station, part of the Tiangong program and the core of the "Third Step" of the China Manned Space Program. It has a pressurized volume of 12,000 cubic feet (340 m3), slightly over one-third the size of the US's International Space Station.

Tiangong Space Station aims to provide opportunities for space-based experiments and a platform for building capacity for scientific and technological innovation [9] far in excess of Europe, the US, or any other human efforts on the planet currently. More

What’s inside China’s Death Villages? (The biggest cover-up yet)

Jade Emperor out Buddha'd the Buddha?

• The Jade Emperor seems to be the Sakka (King of the Devas, Sakra, Indra) of East Asia, made famous in the Pali canon by having a whole section of texts dedicated to him: Sakka, King of the Devas, ruler of the Celestial World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa)

The Anger-Eating Demon (sutra)

What modern person can believe in angelic and demonic influences? That's nonsense!

Indian artists try to depict ancient sacred texts.

The Anger-Eating Demon is an ancient Buddhist story retold by German Theravada monk Ven. Nyanaponika Thera.

Once there lived a demon (asura) who had a peculiar diet: He fed on the anger of others. And as his feeding ground was the human world, there was no lack of food for him. He found it quite easy to provoke a family quarrel, or national and racial hatred.

Even to stir up a war was not very difficult for him. And whenever he succeeded in causing a war, he could gorge himself without much further effort. For once a war starts, hate multiplies by its own momentum and affects even normally friendly people.

This man is not channeling an ET creature.

So the demon's food supply became so rich that he sometimes had to restrain himself from overeating, being content with nibbling just a small piece of resentment found close by.

But as it often happens with successful people, he became overbearing and one day when feeling bored he thought, "Shouldn't I try it with the happy celestials (devas)?"

Sakka (Magdha of Macala): St. Michael

On reflection he chose the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Devas ruled by Sakka, King of the Devas. He knew that only a few of these fortunately reborn beings had entirely eliminated the fetters of ill-will and aversion (which is possible by the practice of Buddhism), though most devas were far above petty and selfish quarrels.

So by his magic power (abhinna) he transferred himself to that heavenly realm and was lucky enough to come at a time when the Divine King Sakka was away. There was no one in the large audience hall and without much ado the demon seated himself on Sakka's empty throne, waiting quietly for things to happen, which he hoped would bring him a good feeding.

Sakka as warrior deva (archangel, light being)

Soon some of the devas came to the hall and at first they could not believe their own divine eyes when they saw that ugly demon lounging on the throne, squat and grinning.

Having recovered from their shock, they started to shout and lament: "Oh you ugly demon, how can you dare to sit on the throne of our supreme king? What utter disrespect! What a crime! You should be thrown headlong into a lowly hell and straight into a boiling cauldron! You should be drawn and quartered alive! Begone, begone!"

But while the devas grew more and more angry, the demon was pleased because from moment to moment -- as their anger grew -- he grew in size, in strength, and in power.

What "demons" possess an infamous person?

The anger he absorbed into his system started to ooze from his body as a smoky red-glowing mist. This putrid aura kept the devas at a distance and their streaming radiance was dimmed.

Suddenly a bright glow appeared at the other end of the hall, and it grew into a dazzling light from which Sakka, the King of Devas, emerged.

He who had firmly entered the irreversible stream that leads to nirvana (sotapannaship, the first stage of Buddhist enlightenment) was unshaken by what he saw.

The smokescreen created by the devas' anger parted when he slowly and politely approached the usurper of his throne:

"Welcome, friend! Please, remain seated. I can take another seat. May I offer you a drink of hospitality? Our ambrosia (amrita) is good this year. Or do you prefer a stronger brew, like Vedic soma?"

While Sakka spoke such friendly words, the demon rapidly began to shrink into a diminutive size and finally disappeared, trailing behind a whiff of malodorous smoke, which likewise soon dissolved. — Based on Samyutta Nikaya, Sakka Samyutta, No. 22.

Commentary

It was my idea to get tattoos and amputations

The gist of this story dates back to the sutras (discourses) of the Buddha. But even now, over 2,600 years later, our world looks as if large hordes of Anger-Eating Demons are haunting it and are kept well nourished by millions slaving for them all over the earth.

Fires of hate and wide-traveling waves of violence threaten to engulf humankind. Also, the grassroots of society are poisoned by conflict and discord, manifesting in angry thoughts and words and in violent deeds.

Is it not time to end this self-destructive slavery of humans to our impulses of hate and aggression, which only serve demonic forces?

Oh, that we would be as loving and kind as the devas, the "shining ones," in the heavens!

.
This story tells how these demons of hate can be exorcised by the power of gentleness and love (metta). If this power of love can be tested and proven, at a grassroots level, in a widely spread net of personal relationships, society at large and the world at large will benefit from it. Source

NOTE: 1. The Buddhist "Doctrine" or "Natural Law and Regularity" (Dhamma) here referred to may be expressed in the words of the Dhammapada (V. 5):

"Not by hating does hatred cease

In this world of tooth and claw;

Love alone from it can release —

This is an Eternal Law."

• Translated from Ven. Nyanaponika's German into English by Francis Story (aka, Anagarika Sugatananda), The Elimination of Anger: With Two Stories Retold from Buddhist Texts (accesstoinsight.org); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhism: Trump as Anger-Eating Demon?

• Skip ahead to The Story of the Anger-Eating Demon

Anger Eating Demons | Ajahn Brahm

I can take it and grow as well as I can dish it out.

(Buddhist Society of Western Australia) Ajahn Brahm talks about the fault-finding mind that only looks at what is wrong with things. The British Theravada monk in the Thai Forest Tradition explains how life doesn’t go wrong. It just goes different or counter to our expectations. People are not "wrong" but different. He recounts two classic ancient Buddhist stories, that of the Anger-Eating Demon and "The Two Arrows."

Support the BSWA in making Buddhist teachings available for free online via Patreon: buddhistsocietywa. Copyright Buddhist Society of Western Australia (bswa.org). Originally delivered July 10, 2011.

The Fall of Lucifer, Atlantis (Robert Sepehr)

Lucifer was the most beautiful of all the angels (celestial devas). What happened?

Buddhist "Lucifer": Vepacitti (Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia)

The Fall of Lucifer with Robert Sepehr

(Atlantean Gardens) April 24, 2020. Lucifer means "Light-Bringer" or "the morning star," and is the Latin name for the planet Venus in its morning appearance, often used for mythological and religious figures and goddesses associated with the planet. Due to the unique movements and discontinuous appearances of Venus in the sky, mythology surrounding these figures often involved a fall from the heavens to earth or to the underworld.

[In Buddhism this happens as well with a titan chieftain (asura) named Vepacitti. He is the equivalent of Christianity's Lucifer-cum-Satan figure tossed out of a celestial world by a St. Michael figure named Sakka, King of the Devas. Devas are "shining ones" or "light beings" inhabiting that world, called "the Heaven of the Thirty-Three" (Tavatimsa deva loka). Deva is a general name for many more glorious light beings living on higher planes of existence, similar to angels, archangels, deities, and divinities of higher orders.]

• European Pre-History and the Oera Linda Book
• Legend and Mystery of the Holy Grail
• God of Wisdom, Thief of Fire
• An old Irish legend about an ancient Egyptian princess

One of the symbols associated with the goddess is called the rose or the pentagram of Venus, because every 8 years it makes a pentagram shape in the sky with its orbit. For every 8 Earth years, Venus goes around the sun 13 times, and the number 13 is also associated to the lunar cycle. The word Satan means adversary...

• Sacred Bloodlines and Mysteries of the Goddess

ABOUT: Robert Sepehr is an anthropologist and author (amazon.com). Interview excerpt: Tau Tia L Dauglass Radio program: Nightwatch. Robert Sepehr links: linktr.ee/RobertSepehr. Thanks for supporting Atlantean Gardens: patreon.com/AtlanteanGardens

Visiting the Future Buddha in Meditation

CC Liu, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit

When will the Future Buddha Maitreya come? When the Dharma is no longer practiced.

Great Himalayan statue of the Future Buddha Maitreya, welcoming him from Tusita

.

There are sensual and supersensual heavens.

Tuṣhita (Sanskrit) or Tusita (Pāli) is one of the six sensual worlds of the shining ones (devas) within the Sensual Sphere (kāma dhātu), located between two celestial worlds or heavens called Yāma and the Nirmāṇarati.

• Deva types (Buddhism)

Like the many other heavens, Tuṣita is said to be reachable through meditation (in particular the attainment and mastery of jhana or meditative absorption).

Tusita is the heaven world where the Bodhisattva ("Being-bent-on-supreme*-enlightenment") Śvetaketu (Pāli Setaketu or "White Banner") resided before choosing to be reborn on Earth -- because the circumstances were suitable to continue his mission to find perfect enlightenment (i.e., full awakening with all of the factors necessary for the supreme capacity to teach) as Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, the "Sage of the Scythians" or Shakyamuni.

• *"Supreme" buddhahood (samma-sam-bodhi) refers to the same full enlightenment as disciples of a buddha but with the added psychic powers, knowledges, mastery of language, and abilities to teach and establish the Dharma and a monastic Sangha at a time when these have disappeared from the world. An arahant is a kind of "personal buddhahood," a pacceka buddha has the powers and knowledge of a supreme buddha but not the capacity to effectively teach others a path to awaken. Buddhas of the past differ in their capacity and thus the length of time the Dharma or that Sangha (practicing community, particularly as monastics) endures.

It is, likewise, the heaven where the Bodhisattva Nātha ("Protector") currently resides, who will later be reborn as the next supremely-enlightened teaching buddha, Maitreya (a kind of Messiah or beneficial "friend" in the future).

• Foundation forming absorption: pādaka-jjhana
• Chart: Consciousness States (Buddhist Dictionary)

The Bodhisatta (Setaketu) on throne in Tusita heaven, stone carving, Kushan Dynasty, Pakistan

Most Buddhist literature holds that Queen Maya, the historical Buddha's biological mother, passed away seven days after the birth of her son Prince Siddhartha (who would later become the Buddha).

When this happened, she was reborn in Tusita. [It is said that she was a deva in Tusita when the Bodhisattva was encouraged by the other devas there to take rebirth on Earth, as the circumstances were suddenly suitable, so s/he volunteered to precede him and give birth to him, which is odd because he looked down from Tusita and beheld a woman, Maha Maya Devi or Queen Maya, suitable as a vessel for rebirth).

To thank and repay his mother, the Buddha set an intention to teach her the liberating Dharma. Seven years after the Buddha's great awakening (maha bodhi), she traveled from Tusita down to Tavatimsa (the World of the Thirty-Three), where the Buddha later preached the "Ultimate Doctrine" or Abhidharma to her and the other devas present [1].

Descriptions

Like all heavenly celestial realms in Buddhism, Tuṣita is the residence of divine beings or devas. According to the Visakhuposatha Sutta of the Pali canon [2], time runs much differently in these higher worlds than on Earth:

"Visakha, that which among humans is 400 years is one night and day of the Tusita devas, their month has 30 of those days, their year 12* of those months; the lifespan of the Tusita devas is 4,000 of those heavenly years...

• [*One might think 13, as with the phases of the moon on earth with four weeks per month or moonth for 28 days times 13 full moons = 364 days with one transitional reset day for 365 days for a year, according to Wisdom Quarterly's speculative calculations of earth-time by the moon as its natural moon clock.]

Mahayana view

The Buddha dealing with Mara the Temptor and daughters

In Mahayana Buddhist thought, Tuṣita is where all bodhisattvas destined to reach supreme enlightenment in their next life dwell for a time before taking that final rebirth.

One such reference can be found in the "Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life," an apocryphal Mahayana text:

"Each of these bodhisattvas, following the virtues of the Mahasattva Samantabhadra, is endowed with the immeasurable practices and vows of the Bodhisattva Path and firmly dwells in all the meritorious deeds.

"That person freely travels in all the ten quarters [directions] and employs skillful means of emancipation. One enters the treasury of the Dharma of the Buddhas and reaches the Other Shore [Nirvana].

"Throughout the innumerable worlds one attains Enlightenment. First, dwelling in the Tusita Heaven, one proclaims the true Dharma. Having left the heavenly palace, one descends into a mother's womb."

Tuṣita heaven is therefore closely associated with Maitreya (the Future Buddha), and many Buddhists vow to be reborn there as devas so that they can hear the teachings of the current Bodhisattva residing there and ultimately be reborn with him as humans when he becomes a buddha.

Other bodhisattvas dwell in this heavenly realm from time to time. Tuṣita is part of the same world-system as Earth, so it is relatively close, whereas the Pure Land of Amitabha [Cosmic] Buddha is treated as being in a separate world-system entirely. More

My dead son has been reborn (sutra)

Ven. Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thera (trans.), Maṭṭhakuṇḍalī (Khuddaka Nikāya, Petavatthu, The Ubbari Chapter 17. Mattakundali; Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A Brahmin was crying over his dead son’s grave when he saw a grieving deva (lit., "shining one") who was disguised as a young man.

Brahmin: "My dear child, you are very handsome, wearing polished earrings, garlands, and sandalwood cream. You are weeping, holding your head in your hands in the middle of this forest. Why are you crying so sadly?"

Deva: "I have received a bright golden chariot, but it does not have wheels. That is why I am so sad. I am about to commit suicide."

Brahmin: "Oh dear boy, tell me, what kind of wheels do you need? Should they be made of gold, jewels, rubies, or silver? I will give you a pair of wheels made from anything."

Deva: "We can see the sun and moon right here. It would be great if my chariot could have them as wheels."

Brahmin: "Oh, dear boy, you are indeed foolish. You seek something that cannot be obtained. I am sure that you will die from sadness because it is impossible to get the sun and moon as your wheels."

Deva: "But wait a minute. We can see the sun and moon moving [rolling] in the sky. We can see their color and tracks. But when someone dies, one can never see him again. So who is more foolish, you or me? You are crying over your dead son, who cannot even be seen, and I am crying over something that can at least be seen."

Brahmin: "Oh, dear boy, what you just said is very true! Of the two of us, I am the greater fool. I am crying to get my dead son back, like a childish boy crying to obtain the moon.

I want to commit suicide and be dead like my dead child! (Before Dying 2014/gifphy.com)

.

"My heart was burning with sadness over the death of my son, like when fat is poured onto a fire. But now, all my sorrow has been extinguished as if I had been sprayed with water. I was struck with an arrow of grief, but you have removed it from me, my dear boy. Having heard your advice, I have become tranquil and cool, with the arrow of sorrow removed. I no longer grieve or weep."

Devas sporting about in a heaven (Wat Bonniwet)

"Are you a deva, a divine musician [or divine messenger, gandhabba], the divine king Sakka, or some deva’s son (devaputta)? Who are you?"

Deva: "Your son has been cremated in this cemetery. You are weeping over his remains. I am that son of yours! Having done a meritorious deed, I was reborn in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three [Tavatimsa, where Sakka, king of the devas is our divine king] as a deva."

Brahmin: "We have never known you to give a small or large gift in charity. We have never known you to observe the Five Precepts or Eight Precepts. What kind of meritorious action did you do to go to [this lowly] heaven?"

Deva: "Do you remember when I was very sick and lying sadly on a bed outside our house? One day, all of a sudden, I saw the Supreme Buddha who had great wisdom and a pure mind, who had realized everything about this world.

"I was very happy and had confidence [faith] when I saw him. I quickly honored him. That was the only meritorious action (kusala karma) I did that as a result I was reborn in this heavenly place."

Brahmin: "It is wonderful! Just mere honoring has resulted in a great happiness. Without delay, on this very day, I happily place confidence [faith, belief] in the Buddha. I go for guidance to the Buddha."

Deva: "That is exactly what you should do! From this very day, go for guidance to the Supreme Buddha, the Supreme Dharma [Teaching], and the Supreme Sangha [community of noble practitioners] with a confident mind. Follow the Five Precepts honestly without breaking any of them.

"Stop killing any living beings, never steal, never drink alcohol, never lie, never commit sexual misconduct but be content with your own spouse."

Brahmin: "Oh Deva, you really wish for my wellbeing. You have been very helpful to me. From today onward, you are my teacher. I will do all the things you advised me to do. With a confident mind I go for guidance to the Supreme Buddha, the excellent Dharma, and the [noble = aryan = enlightened] disciples of the Great Teacher — the Noble Sangha. I will stop killing living beings, never steal anything, never drink alcohol, never lie, and never commit sexual misconduct but be content with my own spouse."

Source: Pv 17: Maṭṭhakuṇḍalī Petavatthu (suttacentral.net)

Bliss without exertion and striving? (sutra)

Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.), SuttaCentral.net (11.1. Suvira) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Sakka (Indra in the Vedas) atop a white elephant battle a titan (asura) in a minor heaven (VF).

Who sits atop mythical Mt. Sumeru as the shining ones and titan battle endlessly?

.

Sutras: Book of Protection (Bhante G)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (the Buddha) was dwelling at Savatthī in Jeta’s Grove, in Anathapiṇḍika’s Park. There he addressed the meditators: “Meditators!”

“Venerable sir!” those meditators replied. The Blessed One then said:

“Meditators, once in the past the titans (asuras) marched against the shining ones (devas). Then Sakka, lord of the shining ones, addressed [General] Suvīra, a young shining one:

“‘Dear Suvīra, these titans are marching against the shining ones. Go, dear Suvīra, launch a counter-march against the titans.’ — ‘Yes, your lordship,’ Suvīra replied, but he became negligent.

“A second time Sakka addressed Suvīra…but a second time Suvīra became negligent. A third time Sakka addressed Suvīra…but a third time Suvīra became negligent (sn.i.217).

The Power Within: Black Asuras and White Devas (Manojbaitha)

.

“Then, meditators, Sakka addressed Suvīra in verse:

“‘Where one need not exert and strive

Yet still may attain to bliss:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Suvīra:

“‘That a lazy person who does not exert

Nor attend to duties

Might still have all desires fulfilled:

Grant me that, Sakka, as a boon.’

Sakka:

“‘Where a lazy person who does not exert

Might achieve unending bliss:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Suvīra:

“‘The bliss, supreme shining one, we might find

Without doing work, O Sakka,

The sorrowless state without despair:

Grant me that, Sakka, as a boon.’

Sakka:

“‘If there exists any place anywhere

Where without work one will not decline,

That is indeed nirvana’s path:

Go there, Suvīra,

And take me along with you.’

Right effort is the path to bliss.

“So, meditators, if Sakka, lord of the shining ones, subsisting on the fruit of his own merit, exercising supreme sovereignty and ruler over the Heaven of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa) shining ones, will be one who speaks in praise of initiative and energy then how much more would it be fitting here for you, who have gone forth (renounced worldly ways) in such a well-expounded Doctrine and Discipline, to exert, make effort, and strive for the attainment of the as-yet-unattained, for the achievement of the as-yet-unachieved, for the realization of the as-yet-unrealized?”

• SN 11.1: Suvīra Sutta — Bhikkhu Bodhi (suttacentral.net)

Mother's Day: The Buddha's Three Mothers

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly (AN 2.32) UPDATED

Mother's Day in America in 12 comics from The New Yorker (newyorker.com)

 

The birth of Siddhartha with Mother Maya

The historical Buddha Prince Siddhartha Gautama had three mothers in his final rebirth when he made an end of all further rebirth and suffering.

Most people will have heard of Prince Siddhartha's second mother, his biological mother, Maha Maya Devi ("Great Queen Maya"). She was a queen among the Scythians/Shakyians, the first wife of his father [the rich Gandharan/Afghan chieftain] King Suddhodana, whose riches derived from the Silk Road Route through Kabul/Bamiyan that brought wealth, merchants, and spiritual travelers to the ancient faraway capital of Kapilavastu, the Buddha's hometown.

Birth mother: Queen Maha Maya Devi

Maya's beauty was like a "dream" or "magical illusion"; in fact, the name maya derives from the Sanskrit and Pali word for "illusion" (taken in Mahayana-Hinduism as māyā, two religions that so influenced one another as to be the same thing with different names for the same deities, one buddhas and the other avatars].

The Buddha goes up to Tavatimsa or the celestial World of the Thirty-Three to see his deceased mother, Maya, who descends with others from Tusita (the "Contented Heaven") to hear him teach.

.

We had a son! - Now the drama really begins.

Any illusion, of course, is fleeting. Queen Maya passed away seven days after giving birth to her only son Prince Siddhartha. It was no accident. There are reasons given for this in the back story -- the most spiritual being that she only volunteered for a human birth to give birth to him.

That motherly task done, Maya Devi returned to a more comfortable existence in the Tusita World. She benefitted greatly for this act (karma) in the World of the Thirty-Three, where the Buddha went to preach to her until she and the other beings present were awakened and freed from suffering. The Buddha was able to repay her for her generosity and help. As it turns out, we enter life knowing, on some deeper level, those individuals who play the role of parents, partners, relatives, friends, and enemies. But this is a truth bigger than most of us can easily digest or would be willing to accept. So the drama (lila) goes on.

• 

  Buddhism reached the Maya of Mesoamerica.

  The words "Maya" -- the Mexican Native Americans from Mesoamerica and Central America who crafted the Mayan Calendar -- and "Guatemala" both derive from the name of the Buddha's mother, whose surname is Gautama and mala (garland).
• Reference: American Rick Fields' How the Swan Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America where these and many more connections are drawn showing Buddhism's arrival in the Americas long before the Conquistadors, Catholicism, and European Christianity.

Maya, Mariah (Mary), a queen in heaven

Mother Maya was reborn as a devaputra ("deva-offspring" or "reborn among devas") back in the Tusita World. Her former son, Prince Siddhartha, who years later became the Buddha, thanked and repaid her for her help in this very life by teaching her the liberating-Dharma, in the legendary narrative account of how the Abhidharma ("Higher Teaching") came to be.

Other devas from Tusita and elsewhere who were present in Sakka's celestial realm in space also got to hear the teaching. King Sakka, a stream-enterer and therefore a devoted follower of the Buddha, was most happy to host, the legend goes.

Our parents do so much for us that, according to the Buddha, the only way we can ever repay them is by teaching or leading them to the ennobling Dharma.

The Other Mothers

Foster mother: Maha Pajapati Gotami

Many will also have heard of the Buddha's foster or stepmother related by blood, Queen Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami (Sanskrit Gautami). As Mother Number 3, she was Queen Maya's sister and co-wife. She is famous because she became the world's first Buddhist nun then an enlightened one.

Both sisters were married to King Suddhodana. Pajapati stepped forward to care for the newborn Siddhartha to the detriment of her own two children -- her son, Nanda, the Buddha's brother (who shared a father, with sister-mothers, who nursed and adopted Siddhartha at the age of 7 days, which would seem to make her a little more than a foster mother or Nanda and Sundari Nanda half-siblings) and daughter, the Buddha's rarely mentioned half-sister, Beautifuld (Sundari) Nanda.

Queen Pajapati was the mother of these two royals, but it is said she gave up primary care of her biological children to nurse, care for, and raise Prince Siddhartha (the future Buddha), the firstborn heir to the Scythian throne in Kapilavastu.

 

Mother of his child: Princess Bimba (Yasodhara)

She is much more famous in this world than Maya because Pajapati (Sanskrit Prajapati) went on to become the first Buddhist nun. The Buddha's brother and sister also ordained and became enlightened.

This was in addition to Siddhartha's wife, Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Princess Bimba Devi, much more popularly known as Yasodhara.

Rahula, Bimba, and Siddhartha

What we are never told as we hear the story of the Buddha's life repeated is the fact that Prince Siddhartha did not "abandon" his family.

Far from becoming a deadbeat dad, taking up a good ol' time in the wilderness as an extreme ascetic, he actually saved his family the only way he could: He first had to go off in search of enlightenment then come back awakened with answers and a solution to the problem of suffering. Then he led and encouraged his

• biological mother (Maya),
• biological father (Suddhodana),
• cousin-wife (Princess Yasodhara/Bimba Devi),
• second-son (Rahula [Ananda being the first, as some Buddhist traditions record]),
• half-brother (Nanda),
• half-sister (Sundari Nanda),
• foster mother (Pajapati),
• cousins (Scythian relatives referred to as Shakyian princes),
• extended family members (other Scythians in the palace compound of King Suddhodana) to liberation (moksha), to enlightenment or full awakening, and nirvana (complete freedom).

He remembered his biological mother and visited her where she was reborn. Such was the reverence of the Buddha for his parents, and many monastics followed suit. For example, there is the famous case of one of the Buddha's chief male disciples, the Brahmin Maha Moggallana, visiting his mother in hell to help her. The other chief male disciple, the Brahmin Ven. Sariputta, also had a whale of a time convincing his unbelieving mother who placed no faith in the Buddha.

The Buddha's former wife became an enlightened Buddhist nun and famous disputant called by various names to disguise her greatness: Rahula-mata, Bhaddakaccānā, and so on. is not the Buddha's mother. How could she be the Buddha's mother? She was their son Ven. Rahula's mother.

The First Mother: Nakulamata

Questionable quote (Lotusing/Flickr)

The Buddha's "first mother," Nakulamata, is a strange story of rebirth. One day the Buddha was walking down a road with his monastic disciples when he passed an elderly couple. The man, Nakulapita, called out to him, "Son! Your mother and I have been missing you! It has been a long time since you visited us!"

Kwan Yin as Mother Goddess (D)

The monastics thought this was very strange. Stranger still, the Buddha approached them and spoke to them in a very kindly way like a son full of gratitude. The monastics were confused.

Why is the teacher letting these strangers talk to him this way, addressing him as "son"?

The Buddha later explained that for 500 (which actually just means "many") lives this couple had indeed been his parents. Over and over, the karma of the three being such, they were born together. This woman raised him over and again. And here she was in his last life running into him apparently by chance but not really. This meeting was no accident; it was brought about by the force of karma.

The nuns and monks may have been surprised to hear who this couple was but, in fact, the Buddha taught something far more mindboggling:

So long is this "continued wandering on" through births and deaths called samsara that it is difficult to ever meet anyone with whom one has not already shared all relationships.

• Nakulamata ("Nakula's mother") was the wife of Nakulapitā ("Nakula's father"), householders from Suṁsumāragiri in the Bhagga country. When the Buddha visited their village and stayed at Bhesakalāvana (the forest grove nearby), they went to see him. They immediately fell at his feet, calling him “son,” asking why he had been away so long. It is said that they had been the Bodhisatta’s parents for 500 (which is figurative for "many") rebirths and his close relatives for many more. The Buddha taught them, and they became stream enters (the first stage of enlightenment, sotāpannas). The Buddha visited their village once more when they were old. They entertained him, speaking of their devotion to one another in this life and asking for a teaching to keep them likewise together (in a loving relationship) in the afterlife (in future lives). The Buddha referred to this in the assembly of the Monastic Saṅgha, declaring them to be the foremost in intimate companionship among his disciples. AN.i.26, AN.ii.61… (G.P. Malalasekera rom Pali Proper Names, edited by Wisdom Quarterly).
• Wisdomlib.org definition: Nakulapita
• Happily ever after and even after that (dharmatown.org)

Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin (pinterest.com)

Look around; all those people have already been one's mother, father, and so on... How much gratitude do we have for them? How much do we owe them?

While this seems preposterous, it seems so only because we do not fathom or comprehend how long an aeon (kalpa) is, how many there have been, or how many times we have already been reborn, how many existences we have already lived and are yet to live, and how much we have already suffered as we yearn for more and more rebirth.

We have no idea what has been. For if we knew, we would not be so eager to continue to cycle and revolve in ignorance again and again.

In that final existence, the Bodhisattva (or Buddha-to-be) had taken rebirth in a special way to accomplish his goal of becoming a world-teacher, a Supremely Enlightened Teaching Buddha, and Maya had volunteered to serve this world-system in the capacity of giving birth to such a great being.

Chinese Madonna and child (Macao)

But here in the world, already existing, was the Bodhisattva's long-time mother, his mother many times over, and now she had again found him. Our mothers, even when they do not give birth to us this time, are all around (fathers, too).

Our nurturers are here, and still they nurture us -- sometimes they attack us perhaps due to their lack of understanding or our lack of gratitude -- and stranger still we, too, are former mothers and fathers of countless others. Such is the incomprehensible working out of karma (deeds), an imponderable (acinteyya) thing.
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms -- and we mean ALL of them including YOU, you dummy, from from Wisdom Quarterly. (You, yes you, male and female readers. We have all been a mom countless times!)