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General Buddhism => General Buddhism => Topic started by: ratanasutra on June 29, 2012, 05:27:04 PM
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We are know that Lord Buddha have ten principal disciples and each of them played an important role in the early days of Buddhism.
I came across of some female disciples of Lord Buddha and would like to share here.
Does anyone know other female disciples of Lord Buddha?
Female Disciples of Lord Buddha
Introduction
Buddhism is one of the few spiritual beliefs that do not discriminate women. As His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa said in one of his teachings, "The Buddha explained very clearly that all beings, irregardless of male or female, have the potential to attain Buddhahood. They all possess the primordial Buddha nature, and therefore they deserve equal chance to enlightenment."
Here are the short story of a women disciples of Lord Buddha. Her story, though took place 2,500 years ago, still set a positive example for all female practitioners who aspire to attain Buddhahood.
Maha Pajapati Gotami
Maha Pajapati Gotami was the founder of the Order of Nuns. She was Lord Buddha's foster mother as well as his maternal aunt. King Suddodhana married both sisters Maya and younger sister Gotami. When queen Maha Maya died on the seventh day of the birth of Prince Siddhartha her younger sister from that day became the queen and foster mother of the prince.
She felt miserably and lonely when Prince Siddhartha who had become the Buddha, Rahula his son and her own son Nanda renounced the worldly life for the higher life by entering monkhood. King Suddhodana had also passed away on attaining Arahatship. Ordination was now foremost in her mind.
She approached the Buddha on his visit to Kapilavathu and asked for the permission of forming the Order of the Nuns. But three times the Buddha turned down the request. She was dejected and returned home. Soon 500 women gathered round her as they too, felt the urge either through bereavement or following their beloved kith and kin to seek ordination.
So she determined to make amends. She shaved her hair and donned the yellow robe. Her 500 followers followed her example. Kapilavastu was separated from Jetavana monastery by a distance of 357 miles. She covered the distance with her followers by foot although various chieftains and lords placed chariots at their disposal. The dusty roads in those days were quite unlike the roads of the present day. There were no pavements or sealed surfaces. The gentle feet of Maha Pajapati Gotami were unused to such rough conditions. At the end of the journey they were thoroughly exhausted and travel-worn. The march caused a great stir in the district through which they passed. Such a walk attracted attention and soon the crowds lined the route. She felt that in the circumstances it was not fitting that she should court a refusal by the Buddha. So she and her 500 companions lingered at the entrance of Jetavana monastery when to their great good fortune Venerable Ananda appeared. He was amazed to see his aunt in such a sorry state. He inquired whether any calamity had befallen the royal house of the Sakyans or whether there was a revolt. She assured him there was nothing of the kind but told him the purpose of her mission. Venerable Ananda was eminently fit to play the role of a mediator. Again and again Venerable Ananda entreated the Lord but only to be refused.
Finally, Venerable Ananda asked whether it was not possible for a woman to attain the bliss of sainthood. The Buddha responded by saying that a woman could attain as well as a man and then consented to the establishment of the Order for Nuns, but only on eight conditions.
These were the eight conditions:
A Bhikshuni even if she was in the order for 100 years must respect a Bhikshu even of a day's standing.
A Bhikshuni should reside within 6 hours of traveling distance to and from the monastery where Bhikshus reside for advice
On Observance days, a Bhikshuni should consult the Bhikshus
A Bhikshuni should spend the Rainy Retreat under the orders of Bhikshus and Bhikshunis
A Bhikshuni should ply her life by both the orders
A Bhikshuni should on two years obtain the higher ordination (Upasampatha) by both orders
A Bhikshuni cannot scold a Bhikshu
A Bhikshuni cannot advise a Bhikshu rather it should be the other way round
When Venerable Ananda broached the news to Maha Pajapati Gotami she was glad. She wholeheartedly accepted the conditions laid down by the Buddha. She was true to her destiny, as not long afterwards she became an Arahant. So likewise did her companions on listening to the discourse called the Nandakovada Sutta by the Buddha. The King of Lichchavis built a residence for her and her followers at Vesali.
One day the Buddha accompanied by eighty Maha Arahats and a huge concourse of Bhikshus visited Pinnacle Hall in the city of Vaishali.
At such a sight Venerable Maha Pajapati Gotami was exceedingly glad. The disciples were fully worthy of the Lord as he was of them. She saw that Anna Kondanna, Shariputra, Mogyallana, Khema, Uppalawanna, Nanda, Rahula and his mother Yasodhara (Bimba Devi) were to predecease the Lord. She was determined not to tarry but that she should be the first to go. Although she was 120 years old yet signs of old age were not visible. Her hair and teeth resemble those of a girl of 16 years. At the moment of her resolution of obtaining Parinirvana the earth trembled and quaked. The thunder in the sky rent the air. Her companions likewise sought release.
She and her companions proceeded to meet the Lord. Compliments were exchanged. Although from the seventh day the prince was reared by her the Buddha amply repaid the debt due to her by her ordination. She gave a graphic picture of the infancy of Prince Siddhartha. How she has fed and bathed the prince.
In the meantime people from far and near flocked to the scene as the news spread. Diverse deities came. Vishva Karma deity who by his psychic power came to the rescue to provide much needed accommodation.
The Buddha requested Venerable Maha Pajapati Gotami to clear doubts about her sainthood. Then she paid tribute by performing many miraculous acts and all present including the Maha Arahats marveled.
She and her companions underwent the great release — Parinirvana. At last the cremation came to pass. The Lichchavi Princes brought sandalwood for the funeral pyre and the caskets containing the remains were made ready. The whole sky was overcast with the heavenly host during the day. The stars and the moon shone brilliantly overhead as night followed. People laid carpets and the deities held a canopy overhead. It was a unique ceremony the Buddha and the Maha Arahants graced, so the pyre was lit and only the relics of Venerable Maha Pajapati Gotami remained like pearls and those of others vanished from the scene. These relics were placed in the Buddha's bowl and given to him. The Buddha extolled the virtues of this great Arahant. He himself had ordained her and been her teacher and this was said to dispel any doubts.
The Buddha had a stupa built by the Lichavi Prince and the relics enshrined and the Buddha Himself joined the funeral procession. This was a unique honour paid by the Tathagata.
The Buddha addressing the monks and laity declared that Venerable Maha Pajapati Gotami was foremost in attainments among the female Maha Arahats of the Noble Order.
www.buddhanet.net (http://www.buddhanet.net)
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Here's another one ...
Khema of Great Wisdom
Female Disciples of Lord Buddha
Just as there were two foremost disciples in the order of monks, namely Shariputra and Moggallana, likewise the Buddha named two women as foremost amongst nuns, namely Uppalavanna and Khema.
The name Khema means well-settled or composed or security and is a synonym for Nirvana. The nun Khema belonged to a royal family from the land of Magadha. When she was of marriageable age, she became one of the chief consorts of King Bimbisara. As beautiful as her appearance was, equally beautiful was her life as the wife of an Indian Maharaja.
When she heard about the Buddha from her husband, she became interested, but she had a certain reluctance to become involved with his teaching. She felt that the teaching would run counter to her life of sense-pleasures and indulgences. The king, however, knew how he could influence her to listen to the teaching. He described at length the harmony, the peace and beauty of the monastery in the Bamboo Grove, where the Buddha stayed frequently. Because she loved beauty, harmony and peace, she was persuaded to visit there.
Decked out in royal splendor with silk and sandalwood, she went to the monastery. The Exalted One spoke to her and explained the law of impermanence of all conditioned beauty to her. She penetrated this sermon fully and still dressed in royal garments, she attained to enlightenment. Just like the monk, Mahakappina — a former king — she likewise became liberated through the power of the Buddha's words while still dressed in the garments of the laity. With her husband's permission she joined the Order of Nuns. Such an attainment, almost like lightning, is only possible however where the seed of wisdom has long been ripening and virtue is fully matured.
An ordinary person, hearing Khema's story, only sees the wonder of the present happening. A Buddha can see beyond this and knows that this woman did not come to full liberation accidentally. It came about like this: In former times when a Buddha appeared in the world, then Khema in those past lives also appeared near him, or so it has been recounted. Due to her inner attraction towards the highest Truth, she always came to birth wherever the bearer and proclaimer of such Truth lived. It is said that already innumerable ages ago she had sold her beautiful hair to give alms to the Buddha Padumuttara. During the time of the Buddha Vipassi, ninety-one eons ago, she had been a teacher of Dharma. Further it is told, that during the three Buddhas of our happy eon, which were previous to our Buddha Gautama, she was a lay disciple and gained happiness through building monasteries for the Sangha.
extracted from : http://www.drukpa-nuns.org/index.php/khema-of-great-wisdom (http://www.drukpa-nuns.org/index.php/khema-of-great-wisdom)
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Interesting for women to become a Bhikkhuni 2,500 years ago. When Pajapati went to Buddha to request ordination after King Suddhodana passed away, Buddha refused her 3 times on the reason that it is very hard for women to lead monastic life. And 1 of it was when Ven. Ubonwanna Theri, who was raped by a young man whilst she was dwelling in the forest.
So when Ananda asked Buddha to ordain Pajapati, Buddha set these 8 rules which I found some
to be slightly different from yours and more informative.
The Buddha said to him, “Ananda, I will give my approval on the condition that they accept the eight Garudhammas, which are as follows:
- However old a bhikkhuni may be, she must pay respect even to a newly ordained monk and should learn and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikkhuni must not stay in a nunnery to observe the Buddhist Lent where there is no bhikkhu nearby and should learn and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikkhuni must invite a bhikkhu every fortnight to fix the date of Sabbath and the day to listen to the exhortation (Ovada) of the monks and should learn and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikkhuni must perform the ceremony of Confession and taking advice both in the bhikkhu Sangha and the bhikkhuni Sangha and should learn and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikkhuni must observe the manattna discipline first from a bhikkhu and then from a bhikkhuni and should learn
and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikkhuni, after training in six pacittiya rules of the bhikkhuni patimokkha, should seek upasampada from both bhikkhu and bhikkhuni sanghas and should learn and practice this dhamma throughout her life.
- A bhikhhuni must not admonish a bhikkhu and should learn and practice this dhamma throughout her life
- Since having become a nun, she should be receptive to learning and should learn and practise this dhamma throughout her life.
Ananda tell her that if she can abide by these rules, I will grant her ordination.”
Another disciple of Pajapati was her daughter Sundari-Nanda. Sundari in Pali means "beautiful." She was considered to be the most beautiful woman in her country. She was the daughter of Suddhodana and Pajapati and therefore a half-sister of the Buddha. She was not as interested in the fact that she was beautiful as she was in becoming awakened. She was known to have a natural ability in religious practice, and was declared by the Buddha to be foremost among the nuns in meditative power.
And another is Pajapati's nurse that took care of Pajapati since she was a child.
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Thank you Ratanasutra for opening this thread, I have never thought that there is female disciple for Gautama Buddha, I thought all disciples are male. After reading this thread, I also went online to surf to see any other female that has created a legend but never mentioned by anyone before.
This is one of the disciple of Gautama Buddha as well, please read:
Samavati was one of the chief consorts of King Udena, Kosambi. One day, her maid named Khujjuttara had the opportunity to listen to the Buddha expounding the Dhamma. She attained the first stage of the noble truths after listening to the Dhamma. Khujjuttara subsequently repeated the Dhamma to Samavati and her five hundred maids. All of them also attained the first level of Buddhist sainthood. She then continued to repeat the Buddha Dhamma to Samavati and her maids each time after listening to the Buddha from that day onwards.
King Udena also had another chief queen called Magandiya. She instigated that Samavati was not loyal to him and tried to kill him. The enraged king fitted his bow with an arrow dipped in poison and aimed at Samavati. Samavati and her ladies spread the power of goodwill (metta) to the king instead.
The arrow shot had turned back miraculously, although an arrow shot by the king would usually go through a rock even. King Udena promptly realized the innocence of Samavati.
After the initial failed attempt, the evil Magandiya plotted with her unscrupulous uncle to burn Samavati and her maids alive. As the fire ravaged on mercilessly while they were trapped in, upasika Samavati and her maids had kept on meditating. Thus, some of them progressed ahead onto the third level of noble truth while the rest attained the second level of noble truth.
As a conclusion, there are two points I would like to share. The first is that females are also capable of realizing the Noble Truths. This is just as the males, be they laities or monks if we practice the Buddha’s trodden path sincerely. The second point is that if we were to continue practicing even under unfortunate conditions/circumstances, we will attain the noble truth of Buddhism.
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Here's a touching story of a lady who became a nun during the Buddha's time.
(Part One) 28. The Story of Lady Patacara
During the Buddha's lifetime there was a rich man who had a charming daughter called Patacara. Her parents loved her so much that they kept her in the seventh storey of their mansion and did not let her go anywhere.
When she was sixteen, Patacara's parents made arrangements for her to marry the son of another wealthy man. But she had already fallen in love with her pageboy and wanted to be with him.
Just before the wedding, early in the morning, Patacara dressed up like a servant and slipped out of the mansion. She met her pageboy at an arranged place and they ran away together.
The couple traveled to a faraway place and were married. After some time Patacara was ready to give birth to their child. "Here I have no one to help me," she said to her beloved husband, "but a mother and father always have a soft spot in their heart for their child. Please take me to my parents' house so I may give birth to our child."
But her husband said, "My darling, what are you saying? If your mother and father were to see me they would torture me to death. It is out of the question for me to go." She begged him over and over again and each time he refused to go.
One day, when her husband was away, Patacara went to her neighbours and told them, "If my husband asks you where I have gone tell him that I have gone home to my parents." When he came home to find Patacara missing, her husband ran after her and soon caught up, begging her to return home. She began to refuse but right then her birth pains started and she soon gave birth to a son. She thought, "There is no point in going to my parents' home now," and returned home with her husband.
After some time she was ready to give birth to her second child and left for her parents' home again while her husband was at work. Again her husband came after her and begged her to return with him but she refused.
While this was happening a fearful storm arose. Patacara told her husband, "Dear, my birth pains have come upon me. I cannot stand it, please find me a place to shelter from this storm."
Her husband took his axe and went here and there in the heavy rain, looking for branches and leaves to make a shelter. Seeing a bush growing on an anthill he went to chop it down. As he did so a poisonous snake slithered out and bit his hand, killing him immediately.
As Patacara waited for her husband, her pains became more and more severe and soon she gave birth to another son. Weak, cold and wet she could do nothing more than place her children to her bosom, curl into the ground and wait out the night, worrying desperately after her husband and sheltering as best she could.
Early the next morning, with the newborn on her hip and holding the hand of the other child, Patacara went along the path her husband had taken and eventually found him lying dead. "All because of me my husband died on the road," she cried.
After a while she continued walking along the path until she came to the river Acirawati, which was flooded from the storm. Since she felt weak from the previous night she could not carry both children together. Patacara placed the older boy on the bank and carried the younger one across the river. She then put the baby on a bed of leaves and returned for the older child.
Hardly had she come to midstream when a hawk came down from the sky and swooped off with the young child. Patacara saw the hawk and screamed in a loud voice, "Su!, Su!" When he heard her voice across the water the older boy thought, "Mother is calling me." And, in a hurry to get to her, he slipped down the bank and was swept away by the river.
Now Patacara became very distressed and cried and cried, saying, "One of my sons has been carried away by a hawk, the other swept away by the river, and by the roadside my husband lies dead." She went off weeping until she met a man and asked him, "Sir, where do you live?"
"In Savatthi," he replied.
"In the city of Savatthi in such and such a street lives such and such a family. Do you know them, Sir?"
"Yes, my good Lady, but don't ask me about that family. Ask me about another family you know."
"Good Sir, I know only that family. Please tell me about them," said she.
"Since you insist, I cannot hide the truth," said the man. "In the heavy rains last night, the family's house collapsed, killing all of them."
"Oh no!" cried Patacara.
"Yes; can you see that fire over there?" he asked, pointing to some flames. "That is their funeral fire."
No sooner had Patacara heard this than she fell on the ground, rolling to and fro with grief. Some villagers came and took her to the Jetavana monastery, where the Buddha was teaching. The Buddha asked some ladies to wash her, clothe her and give her food, and then he consoled her in a most sweet and wonderful voice. When she recovered her senses, and having gained insight into her experiences, Patacara begged the Buddha to ordain her. Thus Patacara became a bhikkhuni (nun).
At that time the Buddha was staying at the Jeta Grove, Anathapindika's Monastery. He saw Patacara approaching from afar and recognized that in a past life she had made an earnest resolve to become a nun well versed in the Law. Therefore, he instructed his disciples not to obstruct her, but to let her enter and come near him. As soon as she was close to the Buddha, through his supernatural powers, she regained her right mind. Then she also became aware of being naked and in her shame she crouched upon the ground.
One of the lay-followers threw her a cloak and after she had wrapped herself in it, she prostrated at the feet of the Buddha. Then she recounted to him the tragedy that had befallen her.
The Teacher listened to her with compassion and then made it clear to her that these painful experiences she had gone through were only tiny drops in the ocean of impermanence in which all beings drown if they are attached to that which rises and ceases. He told her that all through many existences, she had wept more tears over the loss of dear ones than could be contained in the waters of the four oceans. He said:
But little water do the oceans four contain,
Compared with all the tears that man hath shed,
By sorrow smitten and by suffering distraught.
Woman, why heedless dost thou still remain?
This exposition of the Awakened One penetrated her mind so deeply that at that moment she could completely grasp the impermanence of all conditioned things.
When the Enlightened One had finished his teaching she had attained the certainty of future liberation by becoming a stream-winner. She practiced diligently and soon realized final deliverance. She said:
With plows the fields are plowed;
With seed the earth is sown;
Thus wives and children feed;
So young men win their wealth.
Then why do I, of virtue pure,
Doing the Master's Teaching,
Not lazy nor proud,
Nirvana not attain?
Having washed my feet,
Then I watched that water,
Noticing the foot-water
Flowing from high to low.
With that the mind was calmed
Just as a noble, thoroughbred horse.
Having taken my lamp,
I went into my hut,
Inspected the sleeping-place,
Then sat upon the couch.
Having taken a pin,
I pushed the wick right down, and
Just as the lamp went out,
So all delusion of the heart went too.
It had been enough for her to see the water trickle down the slope, to recognize the whole of existence, each life a longer or shorter trickle in the flood of craving. There were those that lived a short time like her children, those like her husband who lived a little longer, or her parents who lived longer yet. But all passed by a constant change, in a never-ending rising and ceasing. This thought-process gave her so much detachment, that she attained to total emancipation the following night.
The Buddha said about Patacara, that she was the foremost "Keeper of the Vinaya" amongst the Nuns. Patacara was thereby the female counterpart of the monk Upali. That she had chosen the "Rules of Conduct" as her central discipline is easy to understand, because the results of her former indulgences had become bitterly obvious to her.
She learned in the Sangha, that an intensive study of the rules was necessary and purifying, and brought with it the security and safety of self-discipline; she learned not to become complacent through well-being or anxious and confused through suffering. Because of her own experiences she had gained a deep understanding for the human predicament and could be of great assistance to her fellow nuns.
She was a great comfort to those who came to her in difficulties. The nun Canda said that Patacara showed her the right path out of compassion and helped her to achieve emancipation.
Another nun, Uttara II, reported how Patacara spoke to the group of nuns about conduct and discipline:
Having established mind,
One-pointed, well-developed,
Investigate formations
As other, not as self.
Uttara took Patacara's words to heart and said:
When I heard these words, —
Patacara's advice,
After washing my feet —
I sat down alone.
Thereby this nun, too, was able to attain to the three "True Knowledges" (vijja) and final liberation. In the "Verses of the Elder Nuns" we have a record of Patacara's instructions to the nuns and their resultant gains:
Having taken flails,
Young men thresh the corn.
Thus wives and children feed;
So young men win their wealth.
So likewise as to Buddha's Teachings,
From doing which there's no remorse.
Quickly cleanse your feet
And sit you down alone.
Devote yourselves to calm of mind,
And thus do Buddha's Teachings.
When they heard these words —
Patacara's instructions,
Having washed their feet,
They sat down, each one alone,
Devoted themselves to calm of mind.
And thus followed the Buddha's Teachings.
In the night's first watch
Past births were remembered;
In the middle watch of the night
The eye divine was purified;
In the night's last watch
They rent asunder the mass of gloom.
Having risen, they bowed at her feet,
Her instructions having done;
We shall live revering you
Like the thirty gods to Indra,
Undefeated in war.
We are with triple knowledge true
And gone are all the taints.
* [First watch of the night: 6-10 p.m; Middle watch: 10 p.m.-2 a.m.; Last watch: 2-6 a.m.]
Patacara was able to effect the change from a frivolous young girl to a Sangha Elder so quickly, because from previous births she had already possessed this faculty. During the previous Buddha's existence, it is said that she had been a nun and had lived the holy life for many, many years. The insights gained thereby had been hidden through her actions in subsequent lives. But when the next Buddha appeared in the world, she quickly found her way to him, the reason unbeknown to herself, spurred on by her suffering. Relentlessly attracted to the Awakened One and his doctrine, she entered into the homeless life and soon attained to eternal freedom.
It is said in the Lamrim that she had to suffer in this way because in a previous life, as the queen, out of jealousy she killed the son of one of the king's cocumbines and when confronted, she denied it many times. For every time she lied and denied her action, she was buried once. But what is amazing is that despite that she rose above the sufferings that she had and used it to accelerate her Dharma practice instead.
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Hehe, guess what? Just now during dinner time, I went on to search for other female disciple of the Buddha, I found another one, That is Kisagotami.
here lived in Savatthi a girl called Gotami, in poor circumstances, belonging to the lowest caste. Because she was very thin and haggard, a real bean-pole, everyone called her the haggard (kisa) Gotami. When one saw her walking around, tall and thin, one could not fathom her inner riches. One could truly say about her:
Her beauty was an inner one
One could not see its spark outside.
She was despondent because due to her poverty and lack of attractiveness, she was unable to find a husband. But one day it suddenly happened that a rich merchant who appreciated her inner wealth and considered that more important than her outer appearance, married her. However, the husband's family despised her because of her caste, her poverty and her looks. This animosity caused her great unhappiness, especially because of her beloved husband, who found himself in conflict between love for his parents and love for his wife.
But when Kisagotami gave birth to a baby boy, the husband's whole clan finally accepted her as the mother of the son and heir. Her relief about this changed attitude was immense and a great burden was taken from her. Now she was totally happy and contented. The boy grew up and soon started playing outside, full of energy and joy. However, one day her happiness showed itself to be based on an illusion. Her little son died suddenly. She did not know how to bear this tragedy. Beyond the usual love of a mother for her child, she had been especially attached to this child, because he was the guarantee for her marital bliss and her peace of mind.
His death made her fear that her husband's family would despise her again and that they would blame her, saying she was karmically unable to have a son. "Kisagotami must have done some very despicable deeds, to have this happen to her," people would say. And even her husband might reject her now. All such ideas and imaginings revolved in her mind and a dark cloud descended upon her. She simply refused to accept the fact that the child was dead, and became obsessed with the fantasy that her child was only sick and that she had to get medicine for him.
With the dead child in her arms, she ran away from her home and went from house to house asking for medicine for her little son. At every door she begged: "Please give me some medicine for my child," but the people replied that medicine would not help any more, the child was dead. But she did not understand what they were saying to her, because in her mind she had resolved that the child was not dead. Others laughed at her without compassion. But amongst the many selfish and unsympathetic people, she also met a wise and kind person who recognized that her mind was deranged because of grief. He advised her to visit the best physician, namely the Buddha of the ten powers, who would know the right remedy.
She immediately followed this advice and ran to Prince Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Monastery, where the Buddha was staying. She arrived in the middle of a discourse being given by the Buddha to a large congregation. Totally despairing and in tears, with the corpse of the child in her arms, she begged the Buddha, "Master, give me medicine for my son." The Awakened One interrupted his teaching and replied kindly that he knew of a medicine. Hopefully she inquired what that could be.
"Mustard seeds," the Enlightened One replied, astounding everyone present.
Joyfully, Kisagotami inquired where she should go to obtain them and what kind to get. The Buddha replied that she need only bring a very small quantity from any house where no one had died. She trusted the Blessed One's words and went to the town. At the first house, she asked whether any mustard seeds were available. "Certainly," was the reply. "Could I have a few seeds?" she inquired. "Of course," she was told, and some seeds were brought to her. But then she asked the second question, which she had not deemed quite as important: whether anyone had died in this house. "But of course," the people told her. And so it went everywhere. In one house someone; had died recently, in another house some time ago. She could not find any house where no one had died. The dead ones are more numerous than the living ones, she was told.
Towards evening she finally realized that not only she was stricken by the death of a loved one, but this was the common human fate. What no words had been able to convey to her, her own experience — going from door to door — made clear to her. She understood the law of existence, the being fettered to the always re-occurring deaths. In this way, the Buddha was able to heal her obsession and bring her to an acceptance of reality. Kisagotami no longer refused to believe that her child was dead, but understood that death is the destiny of all beings.
Such were the means by which the Buddha could heal grief-stricken people and bring them out of their overpowering delusion, in which the whole world was perceived only in the perspective of their loss. Once, when someone was lamenting the death of his father, the Buddha asked him which father he meant: the father of this life, or the last life, or the one before that. Because if one wanted to grieve, then it would be just as well not only to feel sorrow for the one father.
Another time a grief-stricken person was able to see reality when the Buddha pointed out to him that his son would be reborn and that he was only lamenting for an empty shell.
After Kisagotami had come to her senses, she took the child's lifeless body to the cemetery and returned to the Enlightened One. He asked her whether she had brought any mustard seed. She gratefully explained how she had been cured by the Blessed One. Thereupon the Master spoke the following verse to her:
In flocks and children finding delight,
with a mind clinging — just such a man
death seizes and carries away,
as a great flood, a sleeping village.
Because her mind had matured and she had won insight into reality, it was possible for her to become a stream-winner after hearing the Buddha proclaim just that one verse. She asked for admittance into the Order of Nuns.
After having spent some time as a nun, practicing and studying Dharma, she watched her lamp one evening and compared the restlessly hissing flames with the ups and downs of life and death. Thereupon the Blessed One came to her and again spoke a short verse:
Though one should live a hundred years
not seeing the Deathless State,
yet better is life for a single day,
seeing the Deathless State.
When she heard these lines, she was able to shed all fetters and became one of the arahants, the fully Enlightened Ones.
Ninety-two eons ago, in one of her former lives, she had been the wife of a Buddha-to-be, at the time of the Buddha Phussa. During the time of the last Buddha before the Sage of the Sakyas, namely Buddha Kassapa, she had been a King's daughter who became a nun.
In the collection of "Verses of the Elder Nuns" her stanzas can be found, in which she describes the great joy the Buddha imparted to her. Therefore she praises friendship with the Noble and Holy Ones:
The Sage has emphasized and praised
Noble friendship for the world.
If one stays with a Noble Friend,
even a fool will become a wise person.
Stay with them of good heart
for the wisdom of those who stay with them grows.
And while one is staying with them,
from every kind of dukkha one is freed.
Dukkha one should know well,
and how dukkha arises and ceases,
and the Eightfold Path,
and the Four Noble Truths.
The compassion of the Buddha, the most noble friend of all, had saved her from all suffering experienced in this and former lives. She used as her model, the heartrending example of the nun Patacara who had also been afflicted with temporary insanity after the death of not only husband and two sons, but also parents and brothers. Because women's longing for men is so deeply ingrained, the Buddha said, "For a man does the woman strive." From this attachment is born the torture of jealousy, the lack of self-reliance, and the despair of loneliness.
Only when one penetrates a woman's suffering in this way can one realize the full impact of Kisagotami's gratitude towards the Buddha who showed her the way. So she says:
"Woman's state is painful,"
declares the Trainer of tamable men.
"A wife with others is painful
and once having borne a child,
some even cut their throats;
others of delicate constitution
poison take, then pain again;
and then there's the baby obstructing the birth,
killing the mother too."
After she attained to arahantship, she was able to see her past lives and could now say:
Miserable woman, your kin all dead
and limitless dukkha you've known.
So many tears have you shed
in these many thousands of births.
The third part of her verses finalizes her joy in finding liberation and release from all suffering:
Wholly developed by me is
the Eightfold Noble Path going to Deathlessness,
Nirvana realized,
I looked into the Mirror of the Dharma.
With dart removed am I,
the burden laid down, done what was to be done,
The elder nun Kisagotami,
freed in mind and heart, has chanted this.
When Mara,- as he had done so often before with other nuns, came to tempt her, to distract her from meditation and asked her whether she was lusting for man now that her child was dead, she immediately replied, discerning the ruse:
* [Mara is traditionally depicted as the "tempter" or "temptation." While here it is made to appear as if "he" were an outer force, the Buddha taught that temptation arises in one's own heart and mind because of one's own defilements.]
Passed is the time of my child's death
and I have fully done with men;
I do not grieve, nor do I weep,
and I'm not afraid of you, friend.
Sensual delight in every way is dead,
for the mass of darkness is destroyed.
Defeating the soldiery of death,
I live free from every taint.
Addressing Mara as "friend," she shows her lack of fear and her equanimity. Grumbling sullenly, Mara disappeared just as before when he had tried in vain to fetter other nuns to the realm of birth and death.
The nun Kisagotami, rising to holiness from lowliest birth, was praised by the Buddha as amongst the seventy-five greatest nuns.
Kisagotami has been through a very deep grief that brought her mind to a very dangerous state, I believe anyone who told her any Dharma about life and death, about the law of impermanence, she would definitely not able to listen, but Buddha used a very skillful way to make her realize.
This is very true, for someone who has been through a very deep sorrow and grief situation, if we can skillfully make them realize the truth, they will have kind of spiritually awakened and start the journey to search for the ultimate truth. That’s why being able to born having a smooth life, it is consider bad karma, because when we are too comfortable in life, we would not truly understand Dharma and hence they will leave Dharma further and further.
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BUDDHA'S FEMALE DISCIPLES
Maha Pajapati Gotami
Queen Mallika
Khema of Great Wisdom
Bhadda Kundalakesa
Kisagotami
Sona
Nanda
Queen Samavati
Patacara
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Here's another story of a nun who was the Buddha's half sister and renowned for her beauty. The Buddha skillfully taught her impermanence as she was extremely attached to her own beauty and from there she gained the realization for liberation.
Nanda, The Half-Sister Of the Awakened One
When she was born, Nanda was lovingly welcomed by her parents — the father of the Buddha and his second wife. Her name means joy, contentment, pleasure, and was given when parents were especially joyful about the arrival of a baby.
Nanda was extremely well-bred, graceful and beautiful. To distinguish her from others by the same name, she was later called "Rupa-Nanda," "one of delightful form," or sometimes "Sundari-Nanda," "beautiful Nanda."
In due course many members of her family — the royal house of the Sakyans — left the household for the homeless life, influenced by the amazing fact that one of their clan had become the fully-enlightened Buddha. Amongst them was her brother Nanda, her cousins, and finally her mother, together with many other Sakyan ladies. Thereupon Nanda also took this step, but it is recorded that she did not do it out of confidence in the teacher and the teachings, but out of love for her relatives and a feeling of belonging with them.
One can easily imagine the love and respect accorded the graceful half-sister of the Buddha and how touched the people were by the sight of the lovely royal daughter, so near in family ties to the Blessed One, wandering amongst them in the garb of a nun.
But it soon became obvious that this was not a good basis for a nun's life. Nanda's thoughts were mainly directed towards her own beauty and her popularity with the people, traits which were resultants of former good actions. These resultants now became dangers to her, since she forgot to reinforce them with new actions. She felt that she was not living up to the high ideals the people envisioned for her, and that she was far from the goal for which so many noble-born clansmen had gone into the homeless life. She was sure that the Blessed One would censure her on account of this. Therefore she managed to evade him for a long time.
One day the Buddha requested all the nuns to come to him, one by one, to receive his teaching, but Nanda did not comply. The Master let her be called specially, and then she appeared before him, ashamed and anxious by her demeanor. The Buddha addressed her and appealed to all her positive qualities so that she listened to him willingly and delighted in his words. When the Blessed One knew that the talk had uplifted her, had made her joyful and ready to accept his teaching, he did not immediately explain absolute reality to her, as is often mentioned in other accounts, frequently resulting in noble attainment to his listener.
Because Nanda was so taken up with her physical beauty, the Buddha used his psychic powers to conjure up the vision of an even more beautiful woman, who then aged visibly and relentlessly before her very eyes. Thereby Nanda could see, compressed within a few moments, what otherwise one can only notice in people through decades — and often because of proximity and habit one does not even fully comprehend: the fading away of youth and beauty, the decay, the appearance of wrinkles and gray hair. The vision affected Nanda deeply; she was shaken to the center of her being.
After having shown her this graphic picture, the Buddha could explain the law of impermanence to her in such a way that she penetrated the truth of its completely, and thereby attained the knowledge of future liberation — stream-entry. As a meditation subject the Buddha gave her the contemplation of the impermanence and foulness of the body. She persevered for a long time with this practice "faithful and courageous day and night"; (Thig 84) as she described in her verses:
Sick, impure and foul as well,
Nanda, see this congeries
With the unlovely,
Well-composed to singleness.
As is that, thus will this likewise be.
Exhaling foulness, evil smells,
A thing it is enjoyed [**] by fools.
Diligently considering it,
By day and night thus seeing it,
With my own wisdom having seen,
I turned away, dispassionate.
With my diligence, carefully
I examined the body
And saw this as it really is —
Both within and without.
Unlusting and dispassionate
Within this body then was I:
By diligence from fetters freed,
Peaceful was I and quite cool.
— Thig 82-86
* [The meditations on seeing the body as unattractive, either as parts, or in death. See "Bag of Bones," Wheel 271/272.]
** [Play on her own name, Nanda or Joy and "abhinanditam."]
Because Nanda had been so infatuated with her physical appearance, it had been necessary for her to apply the extreme of meditations on bodily unattractiveness as a counter-measure to find equanimity as balance between the two opposites. For beauty and ugliness are just two kinds of impermanence. Nothing can disturb the cool, peaceful heart ever again.
Later the Buddha raised his half-sister as being the foremost amongst nuns who practiced Jhana.- This meant that she not only followed the analytical way of insight, but put emphasis on the experience of tranquillity. Enjoying this pure well-being, she no longer needed any lower enjoyments and soon found indestructible peace. Although she had gone into homelessness because of attachment to her relatives, she became totally free and equal to the One she venerated.
* [Jhana: Total meditative absorption.]
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I have also found the full story of Samvati although the account differs slightly than the story found in Liberation in the Palm of Your hand. This version left out the part where she realized that it was by her own karma that she had to die in this way and accepted it and no longer struggled to accept death. Also missing is what she did to Magandiya in her previous life where she set fire to Magandiya, killing her. Some of her handmaidens tried to fly but they could not due to the power of karma. That detail is also missing from this version as well.
Samavati was one of the chief consorts of King Udena, Kosambi. One day, her maid named Khujjuttara had the opportunity to listen to the Buddha expounding the Dhamma. She attained the first stage of the noble fruits after listening to the Dhamma. Khujjuttara subsequently repeated the Dhamma to Samavati and her five hundred maids. All of them also attained the first level of Buddhist sainthood. She then continued to repeat the Buddha Dhamma to Samavati and her maids each time after listening to the Buddha from that day onwards.
King Udena also had another chief queen called Magandiya. She instigated that Samavati was not loyal to him and tried to kill him. The enraged king fitted his bow with an arrow dipped in poison and aimed at Samavati. Samavati and her ladies spread the power of goodwill (metta) to the king instead.
The arrow shot had turned back miraculously, although an arrow shot by the king would usually go through a rock even. King Udena promptly realized the innocence of Samavati.
After the initial failed attempt, the evil Magandiya plotted with her unscrupulous uncle to burn Samavati and her maids alive. As the fire ravaged on mercilessly while they were trapped in, upasika Samavati and her maids had kept on meditating. Thus, some of them progressed ahead onto the third level of noble fruit while the rest attained the second level of noble fruit.
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I like this thread very much. I am not a sexist but it is just such a pleasure to learn more about nuns in Buddhism. It has always been my perception that Buddhism is one religion of complete fairness and humility. In today's times where gender discrimination still exist, it is just liberating to know that during Buddha's time, when gender discrimination was more apparent, that in Buddhism it was not present.
Here is an article with the nuns listed here plus more:
http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.ch/2008/08/notable-buddhist-nuns.html
A Nun's Life - VERY Nice Watch
A Nun's Life, part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEmyAevloow#)
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Thank you Ratanasutra for opening this thread, I have never thought that there is female disciple for Gautama Buddha, I thought all disciples are male. After reading this thread, I also went online to surf to see any other female that has created a legend but never mentioned by anyone before.
This is one of the disciple of Gautama Buddha as well, please read:
Samavati was one of the chief consorts of King Udena, Kosambi. One day, her maid named Khujjuttara had the opportunity to listen to the Buddha expounding the Dhamma. She attained the first stage of the noble truths after listening to the Dhamma. Khujjuttara subsequently repeated the Dhamma to Samavati and her five hundred maids. All of them also attained the first level of Buddhist sainthood. She then continued to repeat the Buddha Dhamma to Samavati and her maids each time after listening to the Buddha from that day onwards.
King Udena also had another chief queen called Magandiya. She instigated that Samavati was not loyal to him and tried to kill him. The enraged king fitted his bow with an arrow dipped in poison and aimed at Samavati. Samavati and her ladies spread the power of goodwill (metta) to the king instead.
The arrow shot had turned back miraculously, although an arrow shot by the king would usually go through a rock even. King Udena promptly realized the innocence of Samavati.
After the initial failed attempt, the evil Magandiya plotted with her unscrupulous uncle to burn Samavati and her maids alive. As the fire ravaged on mercilessly while they were trapped in, upasika Samavati and her maids had kept on meditating. Thus, some of them progressed ahead onto the third level of noble truth while the rest attained the second level of noble truth.
As a conclusion, there are two points I would like to share. The first is that females are also capable of realizing the Noble Truths. This is just as the males, be they laities or monks if we practice the Buddha’s trodden path sincerely. The second point is that if we were to continue practicing even under unfortunate conditions/circumstances, we will attain the noble truth of Buddhism.
WOW! Thank you for posting this up really! It had not crossed my eyes that how did it all began (i mean nun hood) and i can't believe my eyes when i read the article and it mentioned Buddha's foster mother??? I was like oh my god!! So after the truth, i came to read about her life struggle to be a nun and i have to say i really admire her passion and determination to be ordained. Especially when we are talking about those days where women generally have no right to decide on their own things and this article have really opened up my eyes!
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Here's another story I found uppalavanna. She is considered as one of the the Buddha's chief female disciples, the other being Khema.
Uppalavanna was the extraordinarily beautiful daughter of a rich merchant. Her skin was the blue-black color and texture of the calyx of the blue lotus. Because of the unusually beautiful color of her complexion, her parents named her Uppalavanna or "one with the hue of the blue lotus." When she came of age her parents had her married to a young merchant from a wealthy family. As was the custom at the time, she moved to her husband’s home in Savatthi.
Uppalavanna lived happily with her in-laws until her husband had to travel to Rajagaha for business. Neither Uppalavanna nor her husband were aware that she was pregnant when he left. When her pregnancy became noticeable, her mother-in-law accused her of misconduct. Despite her pleas of innocence, Uppalavanna was cast out of her home by her mother-in-law who now despised her. Uppalavanna, who had not done any wrong, decided that she would go to Rajagaha in search of her husband.
The journey was long and difficult. Accepting the hospitality of strangers who felt compassion for the beautiful woman who was heavy with child, she walked slowly from city to city until her labor pains started. Resting in a hut on the wayside, she gave birth to a son. Tired and weak, Uppalavanna wrapped the newborn in her robe and rested. Then, leaving the baby in the hut, she walked to the river nearby to wash.
A stranger who was passing by heard the faint cry of a baby. Seeing the little boy with no parents in sight, he decided to adopt the child. When Uppalavanna came back to the hut, she was devastated. Weeping in sorrow she ran about looking for her child, but she was unable to find her son.
Uppalavanna felt terrible. She knew she could no longer go to her husband. He would surely kill her if he found out that she had lost his son. A firstborn son would become head of the family and carry on the lineage. In India, a male-dominated society, this child was precious and his birth a celebrated event. Uppalavanna knew that she had no hope of being forgiven for her carelessness. With nowhere else to turn, she decided to go home to her parents. She was walking through a thick jungle when a robber hiding in the jungle caught sight of her. Attracted by her unusual beauty, he decided to take her as his wife. The desperate Uppalavanna agreed.
Before long she conceived again and gave birth to a baby girl. Her life, however, was not a happy, comfortable one. Her husband was often violently angry with her. He continually reminded her of her past and his gracious hospitality towards her in taking her as his wife. After one such long and furious argument, he stormed off in anger. Uppalavanna, who was furious with her husband, jumped up inadvertently tossing her baby daughter from her lap and onto the bed. The girl flew off the bed onto the floor cutting her head. Blood gushed from the wound as the baby lay unconscious. Uppalavanna was sure she had accidentally killed her daughter. She knew that her husband would never believe her that it was an accident. She feared for her life for she knew the wrath of her robber husband. So she decided to run away again.
Earning her keep by performing menial jobs, the beautiful Uppalavanna scraped together a living. Her former wealth and beauty were of no use to her. She was a fallen woman, ashamed to go back to her parents and afraid to go back to her husband. So she lived many years in great poverty. One day as she was gathering firewood, a handsome youth saw her. Attracted by the older woman’s beauty, he decided to take her as his wife. Tired of her insecure life, she agreed.
Uppalavanna and her husband lived together in harmony for some time. Then one day he had to leave home on business. When he returned he brought home a second wife – a very beautiful woman who was in the flush of youth. Uppalavanna accepted the younger woman reluctantly. (Men often had their way, and having more than one wife was a common). The two women formed a shaky friendship. Uppalavanna was grooming the second wife’s hair one day when she noticed a large, jagged scar on her head. The young woman informed her that she was the daughter of a robber who had injured her head when her mother had fought with her father and accidentally dropped her.
Like an actress, Uppalavanna's beauty shone through in spite of her shaved head.
Uppalavanna was horrified. This was her daughter whom she had left for dead years before! The thought that she and her daughter had shared a man sickened her. Unable to bear the shame of her degrading life she went to the Buddha for solace and comfort. Uppalavanna then decided to join the Order of Nuns.
Soon thereafter it was her turn to unlock and clean the assembly hall. After she had lighted the lamp and swept the hall, the flame of the lamp attracted her. Concentrating on the element of fire, she went into deep meditation and attained enlightenment together with the Analytical Knowledges.
Because of her comprehensive supernormal powers, the Buddha declared Uppalavanna the "female foremost in supernormal powers." She became his second chief female disciple. Together with Khema she helped the Buddha with the teaching and administration of the growing congregation of nuns. Uppalavanna, who had suffered greatly in her youth because of society’s treatment of women, helped other young women attain freedom from suffering. Her experience of the unique suffering faced by women made it easy for her to empathize with others in similar situations.
To understand Uppalavanna’s quick attainment of enlightenment, we need to go back many aeons to the time of Padumuttara Buddha. At the time of Padumuttara Buddha, Uppalavanna was born to a wealthy family in the City of Hannsavati. She had seen the Buddha Padumuttara appoint another nun "foremost in supernormal powers" and second female chief disciple. Inspired by that nun, Uppalavanna had provided meals and requisites to Padumuttara Buddha and his retinue for seven days. She had then made the aspiration to become the chief disciple of a buddha. Padumuttara Buddha, seeing that Uppalavanna would fulfill her aspiration, gave her a sure prediction that under the Buddha Gautama she would become second chief female disciple and foremost in supernormal powers. From this time onward Uppalavanna had performed meritorious deeds earnestly and worked towards her aspiration.
The canon documents some of Uppalavanna’s past births. At the time of Kassapa Buddha, who preceded Gautama Buddha, Uppalavanna was born to the royal family of Benares (Varanasi) as the daughter of King Kiki. She had been a devoted follower of Kassapa Buddha and had performed many meritorious deeds, including the building of a beautiful monastery for him and his disciples. When she died she was reborn in a divine realm and enjoyed heavenly bliss for an extremely long time.
Her next birth was as a poor woman. Between the time of Kassapa Buddha and Gautama Buddha, there had appeared on earth many non-teaching (pacceka) buddhas. A pacceka buddha who had been in deep meditation for seven days on Gandhamadana Mountain had descended from the mountain in search of alms. At that time Uppalavanna had just picked some blue lotus flowers and rice, which she had then made into popped rice.
On seeing that pacceka buddha, she offered him the popped rice and the beautiful blue lotus flowers. Then, full of joy, she had aspired to become as beautiful as a blue lotus. Accepting the meal and the flowers, the pacceka buddha had returned to the mountaintop, using supernormal powers. When she died Uppalavanna was reborn in a heavenly realm and enjoyed heavenly bliss for a very long time.
She then passed away from there and was born again in the human realm. The canon documents that a hermit who lived in the forest near a lake where blue lotus flowers grew had found the beautiful baby by the side of the lake, beside the flowers. The baby, who was very beautiful with skin the color of a blue lotus, was named Uppalavanna by the hermit. He then decided to adopt the helpless infant. Uppalavanna grew up to be exceedingly beautiful and resembled a celestial nymph (sky-deva). She led a sheltered life alone in the forest with the hermit.
One day, a traveler who was passing through the forest saw the unusually beautiful girl and inquired as to her origin from the hermit. When the hermit explained that she was an orphan and that he had brought her up as his own child, he went back and informed the king of the exceptionally beautiful maiden who lived in the forest. The king decided to make her his consort. Together with his courtiers, he visited the hermit and asked Uppalavanna to be his queen. She agreed. Leaving the forest, she moved into the palace and soon became his favorite.
In her next birth Uppalavanna was reborn in Rajagaha as the wife of a farmer. At this time eight pacceka buddhas had appeared in the world, and Uppalavanna had the good fortune to offer them alms. She had prepared a meal of fragrant rice and was taking it to her husband who was tilling the land when she saw the eight seeking alms. She had immediately given them the meal prepared for her husband and invited them to her home for a meal on the following day. She had then prepared fragrant food and picked eight bunches of blue lotus flowers, which she had offered them after the meal. For a second time, she aspired to be as beautiful as a blue lotus.
Her next documented birth was in Savatthi at the time of Gautama Buddha. The aspiration to be a chief disciple made at the time of Padumuttara Buddha was to bear fruit. Her degrading life -- sharing her husband with her daughter -- was too much to bear. It weighed heavily on her mind. She decided to join the Order of Buddhist Nuns under the Buddha.
Even though the canon documents two instances of Uppalavanna’s aspiration to be as beautiful as a blue lotus, it is most likely that she also renewed her original aspiration to be foremost in supernatural powers and the second chief disciple, because fulfilment of such an aspiration requires great effort and many meritorious deeds. It is likely that her unusual color and exotic beauty attracted more attention, which resulted in the preservation of this section of the text. The fact that Uppalavanna immediately agreed to be a nun under the Buddha Gautama, and the fact that she attained enlightenment shortly thereafter, indicates that there must have been many other instances when she had developed wisdom and spiritual insight and renewed her aspiration after performing meritorious deeds.
At that time it was common for nuns and monks to retreat to the woods to meditate. Uppalavanna returned from her almsround and entered her hut in the Dark Forest. An admirer named Ananda, who was infatuated with her, had entered her hut and hidden under her bed. Shortly after she had laid down to rest, he caught her by surprise, climbed on top of her, and overpowered her. Despite her pleas and protests, he sexually abused her. He then left, sneaking out just as he had slipped in.
The unskilful act of abusing an enlightened being, however, was too powerful. Tormented by his heavy karma, Ananda died burning in the fires of his desire and was reborn in the Avici Hell.
Uppalavanna composed herself and informed the nuns of her ordeal. The nuns in turn informed the Blessed One. The Buddha’s worst fears for his Order of Nuns had come to pass. Uppalavanna, his chief disciple, had been overpowered, abused, and treated with disrespect. Approaching King Pasenadi of Kosala, the Buddha requested that he build a residence for the nuns within the confines of the City. He then made it a monastic rule that nuns should not reside or go alone to meditate in the forest. From that time on, nuns resided only in the city.
Sometime later the monks assembled in the Dharma hall to discuss this incident. There arose a debate as to the needs of Arhats to gratify their passions. The Buddha then cleared up their doubts by informing them that the desire between a man and woman is quenched in those who have attained enlightenment and described an Arhat (brahmin) thus:
"One, who like water on a lotus leaf
Or mustard seed on a needle point,
Clings not to pleasures sensual –
That one I call a brahmin [Arhat]."
Uppalavanna recounts her suffering, psychic powers, and final attainment of liberation in the Verses of the Female Saints (Therigatha) as follows:
"Both of us, mother and daughter
Were co-wives
Of me there was religious excitement
Amazing hair raising.
Woe upon sensual pleasures
Impure, evil-smelling, with many troubles
Wherein we,
Mother and daughter were co-wives.
Having seen the peril in sensual pleasures
And (seeing) renunciation as firm security,
I went forth in Rajagaha from the home
To the homeless state.
I know that I have lived before
The divine-eye has been purified
And there is knowledge of the state of mind
The ear-element has been purified
Supernormal powers too have been realized by me
I have attained the anihilation of craving
(These) six supernormal powers have been realized by me
The Buddha’s teaching has been done.
Having fashioned a four-horse chariot by supernormal powers
Having paid homage to the Buddha’s feet
The glorious protector of the world
I stood on one side."
-- (Therigatha 224-229)
Uppalavanna was often desired by admirers because of her extraordinary beauty. The fact that she was a member of the Sangha (the Buddha’s Monastic Order) did not deter them. She rebukes Mara, the Tempter, over this in the following verses.
"You who are so beautiful
Seated beneath a Sal tree with blossoms crowned
Aware of your own loneliness
Do you not tremble when seducers come along?"
"Though men like you, seducers
A hundred-thousand strong should approach
Not a single hair of mine will rise
Nor will I quake with fear
And so, Tempter, coming alone
Of what effect are you?
I who possess supernormal powers
Can make my form disappear
Between your eyebrows or your belly
I could lodge and stay
How then, Mara, can you see me?
My mind I have so disciplined that
Clairvoyance I have cultivated
The fourfold path I have realized
I know the Buddha’s words and ardently I follow.
Lusts as deadly weapons, rend and tear apart
These our bodies, heirs of senses
Desires of which you speak
Lack all attraction for me.
I have conquered all desire
And rent apart
The murky gloom of ignorance
Know, Tempter, I have triumphed over you."
-- (Therigatha 230-235)
The exotically beautiful and bluish Uppalavanna, who could relate to the suffering women faced, was a great asset to the Buddha. Using her supernormal powers and her gentle and pleasing nature, she helped many thousands of women in their emancipation. Drawn by her beauty, compassion, and gentle manner, many emulated the great female Arhat and also attained enlightenment.
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Is good to know there's so many female disciple of Lord Buddha and apparently there's is one particular famous disciple called Queen Samavati.
A Famous Female Disciple of Buddha - Samavati
We normally hear of male disciples of the Buddha, be he a laity or monk. Female disciples of the Buddha are seldom mentioned in the Buddhist texts. So, as a Buddhist nun I would like to introduce Samavati, a famous female disciple of the Buddha to you.
Samavati was one of the chief consorts of King Udena, Kosambi. One day, her maid named Khujjuttara had the opportunity to listen to the Buddha expounding the Dhamma. She attained the first stage of the noble fruits after listening to the Dhamma. Khujjuttara subsequently repeated the Dhamma to Samavati and her five hundred maids. All of them also attained the first level of Buddhist sainthood. She then continued to repeat the Buddha Dhamma to Samavati and her maids each time after listening to the Buddha from that day onwards.
King Udena also had another chief queen called Magandiya. She instigated that Samavati was not loyal to him and tried to kill him. The enraged king fitted his bow with an arrow dipped in poison and aimed at Samavati. Samavati and her ladies spread the power of goodwill (metta) to the king instead.
The arrow shot had turned back miraculously, although an arrow shot by the king would usually go through a rock even. King Udena promptly realized the innocence of Samavati.
After the initial failed attempt, the evil Magandiya plotted with her unscrupulous uncle to burn Samavati and her maids alive. As the fire ravaged on mercilessly while they were trapped in, upasika Samavati and her maids had kept on meditating. Thus, some of them progressed ahead onto the third level of noble fruit while the rest attained the second level of noble fruit.
As a conclusion, there are two points I would like to share. The first is that females are also capable of realizing the Noble Truths. This is just as the males, be they laities or monks if we practice the Buddha’s trodden path sincerely. The second point is that if we were to continue practicing even under unfortunate conditions/circumstances,
we will attain the noble fruit of Buddhism.
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Here's the story of Sona, the nun who used to have many children, who became a nun anyway and attained arahatship:
There was a housewife in Savatthi who had ten children. She was always occupied with giving birth, nursing, upbringing, educating and arranging marriages for her children. Her children were her whole life. She was therefore known as "Sona with many children."
She was rather like Migara's mother of the same city, though the latter had twenty children. We may find such an abundance of offspring in one family somewhat strange today. However, this was not uncommon in Asia and even in some parts of the West.
Sona's husband was a lay follower of the Buddha. After having practiced moral conduct according to the precepts for several years while living the household life, he decided that the time had come to enter into the holy life, and so he became a monk. It was not easy for Sona to accept this decision, yet she did not waste her time with regrets and sorrow, but decided to live a more religiously dedicated life. She called her ten children and their husbands and wives together, turned her considerable wealth over to them, and asked them only for support for her necessities. For a while all went well. She had sufficient support and could spend her time in religious activities.
But soon it happened that the old woman became a burden to her children and children-in-law. They had not been in agreement with their father's decision, and even less did they agree with their mother's devout attitude and religious speech. Indeed, they thought of their parents as foolish because they would not indulge in the pleasures their wealth could purchase. They considered their parents mentally unstable, religious fanatics; this attitude made them despise their mother.
They quickly forgot that they owed all their riches to their mother, that she had lavished many years of care and attention on them. Looking only at the present moment, they considered the old woman a nuisance. The words of the Buddha, that a grateful person is as rare in the world as one who becomes a Noble One, proved true again in this case.
The increasing disdain by her children was an even greater pain for Sona than the separation from her husband. She became aware that waves of bitterness arose in her, that reproaches and accusations intermingled. She realized that what she had taken to be selfless love, pure mother's love, was in reality self love, coupled with expectations. She had been relying on her children completely and had been convinced that she would be supported by them in her old age as a tribute to her long years of solicitude for them, that gratitude, appreciation and participation in their affairs would be her reward. Had she not looked at her children as an investment then, as an insurance against the fear and loneliness of old age? In this manner, she investigated her motives and found the truth of the Enlightened One's words in herself. Namely, that it was a woman's way not to rely on possessions, power and abilities, but solely on her children, while it was the way of the ascetic to rely on virtue alone.
Her reflections brought her to the decision to enter the Order of Nuns so that she could develop the qualities of selfless love and virtue. Why should she remain in her home where she was only reluctantly accepted? She looked upon the household life as a gray existence and pictured that of a nun as brilliant, and so was ready to follow here husband's path. She became a nun, a Bhikkhuni in the order of the Buddha's followers.
But after a while she realized that she had taken her self-love along. The other nuns criticized her behavior in many small matters. She had entered the Sangha as an old woman and had dozens of habits and peculiarities which were obstacles in this new environment. She was used to doing things in a certain way, and the other nuns did them differently.
Sona soon realized that it was not easy to reach noble attainments, and that the Order of Nuns was not the paradise she had envisioned — just as she had not found security with her children. She also understood that she was still held fast by her womanly limitations. It was not enough that her weaknesses were abhorrent to her, and that she was longing for more masculine traits. She also had to know what to do to effect the change. She accepted the fact that she had to make tremendous efforts, not only because she was already advanced in years, but also because until now she had only cultivated female virtues. The masculine characteristics which she was lacking were energy and circumspection. Sona did not become discouraged, nor thought of the Path as too difficult. She had the same sincerity and steadfastness as her sister-nun-Soma, who said:
What's it to do with a woman's state
When the mind, well-composed
with knowledge after knowledge born,
sees into Perfect Dharma clear?
For who, indeed, conceives it thus:
A woman am I, a man am I,
or what, then indeed, am I?
Such a one can Mara still address.
It became clear to Sona that she had to develop courage and strength to win victory over her willfulness and her credulity. She realized that it was necessary to practice mindfulness and self-observation, and to implant into her memory those teachings which could be at her disposal when needed to counteract her emotions.
What use would be all knowledge and vows if she were carried away by her emotions, and her memory fail her when it was most needed? These were the reasons which strengthened Sona's determination and will-power to learn the Buddha's discourses. Through many a night thereby she attained the ability to memorize them. Furthermore, she took pains to serve her sister-nuns in a loving way and to apply the teachings constantly. After having practiced in this way for some time, she attained not only the assurance of non-returner, but became an arahant, fully-enlightened, a state she had hardly dared to hope for in this lifetime.
It happened without any special circumstances to herald it. After she had made a whole-hearted commitment to perfect those abilities which she lacked, no matter what the cost, she drew nearer to her goal day by day. One day she was liberated from the very last fetter. The Buddha said about her that she was foremost of the nuns who had energetic courage.
In the "Verses of the Elder Nuns" she describes her life in five verses:
Ten children having borne
from this bodily congeries,
so I, now weak and old,
approached a Bhikkhuni.
The Dharma she taught me —
groups, sense-spheres and elements,
I heard the Dharma,
and having shaved my hair, went forth.
While still a probationer
I purified the eye divine;
Former lives I knew,
and where I lived before.
One-pointed, well-composed,
the Signless [**] I developed,
immediately released,
unclinging now and quenched!
Knowing the five groups well,
they still exist; but with their roots removed.
Unmovable am I,
on a stable basis sure,
now rebirth is no more.
*[The five groups (or aggregates), the twelve sense spheres and the eighteen elements.]
**[One of the three gates to freedom the other two being the Desireless and Emptiness.]
Sona's sister-nuns, who had formerly been her severe critics, and who had thought that because of her age she would not be able to change, now apologized to her sincerely and endeavored to follow her good example.
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here is another nun story that I would like to contribute :)
Bhadda Kundalakesa
Female Disciples of Lord Buddha
In Rajgir, the capital of the kingdom of Magadha, lived a girl of good family named Bhadda. Her parents protected her very carefully, because she had a passionate nature and they were afraid that she would be hurt due to her attraction to men. One day from her window Bhadda saw how a thief was being led to the place of execution. He was the son of a Brahman (priest-caste) but had a strong tendency towards stealing.
She fell in love with him at first sight. She convinced her father that she could not live without him, and so he bribed the guards who let the condemned man escape.
Soon after the wedding the bridegroom became obsessed with the desire to get his wife's jewelry. He told her he had made a vow that he would make an offering to a certain mountain deity if he could escape execution. Through this ruse he managed to get Bhadda away from his home. He wanted to throw her down from a high cliff to gain possession of her valuable ornaments. When they came to the cliff, he brusquely told her about his intention. Bhadda, in her distress, likewise resolved to a ruse that enabled her to give him a push so that it was he who fell to his death.
Burdened by the enormity of her deed, she did not want to return to lay life. Sensual pleasures and possessions were no longer tempting for her. She became a wandering ascetic. First she entered the order of Jains and as a special penance, her hair was torn out by the roots, when she ordained. But it grew again and was very curly. Therefore she was called "Curly-hair" (Kundalakesa).
The teaching of the Jain sect did not satisfy her, so she became a solitary wanderer. For fifty years she traveled through India and visited many spiritual teachers, thereby obtaining an excellent knowledge of religious scriptures and philosophies. She became one of the most famous debaters. When she entered a town, she would make a sand-pile and stick a rose-apple branch into it and would announce that whoever would engage in discussion with her should trample upon the sand-pile.
One day she came to Savatthi and again erected her little monument. At that time, Sariputta — the disciple of the Buddha with the greatest power of analysis — was staying at the Jeta Grove. He heard of the arrival of Bhadda and as a sign of his willingness for debate, he had several children go and trample on the sand-pile. Thereupon Bhadda went to the Jeta Grove, to Anathapindika's Monastery, accompanied by a large number of people. She was certain of victory, since she had become used to being the winner in all debates.
She put a number of questions to Sariputta. He answered all of them until she found nothing more to ask. Then Sariputta questioned her. Already the first question affected Bhadda profoundly, namely, "What is the One?" She remained silent, unable to discern what the Elder could have been inquiring about. Surely he did not mean "God," or "Brahman" or "the Infinite," she pondered. But what was it then? The answer should have been "nutriment" because all beings are sustained by food.
Although she was unable to find an answer and thereby lost the debate, she knew that here was someone who had found what she had been looking; for during her pilgrimage of half a century. She chose Shariputta as her teacher, but he referred her to the Buddha. The Awakened One preached Dharma to her at Mount Vulture Peak and concluded with the following verses:
Though a thousand verses
are made of meaningless lines,
better the single meaningful line
by hearing which one is at peace.
Just as the wanderer Bahiya was foremost amongst monks who attained arahantship faster than anyone else, she was foremost amongst nuns with the same quality. Both grasped the highest Truth so quickly and so deeply that admittance to the Order followed after attainment of arahantship. Mind and emotions of both of them had long been trained and prepared, so that they could reach the highest attainment very quickly.
Bhadda's verses have been handed down to us in the collection of the "Verses of the Elder Nuns," as she summarizes her life:
I traveled before in a single cloth,
With shaven head, covered in dust,
Thinking of faults in the faultless,
While in the faulty seeing no faults.
When done was the day's abiding, [**]
I went to Mount Vulture Peak
And saw the stainless Buddha
By the Order of Bhikkhus revered.
Then before Him my hands in anjali [***]
Humbly, I bowed down on my knees.
"Come, Bhadda," He said to me:
And thus was I ordained.
Debt-free, I traveled for fifty years
In Anga, Magadha and Vajji,
In Kasi and Kosala, too,
Living on the alms of the land.
That lay-supporter ” wise man indeed”
May many merits accrue to him!
Who gave a robe to Bhadda for
Free of all ties is she.
* [Vajja: fault, can also mean "what is obstructive to spiritual progress."]
** [The daytime spent in seclusion for meditation.]
*** [anjali: hands placed palms to palm respectfully.]
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By chance I came upon this story of Queen Mallika as mentioned by Jessie.
Queen Mallika
Female Disciples of Lord Buddha
At the time of the Buddha, a daughter was born to the foreman of the guild of garland-makers in Savatthi. She was beautiful, clever and well behaved and a source of joy to her father.
One day, when she had just turned sixteen, she went to the public flower gardens with her girl-friends and took three portions of fermented rice along in her basket as the day's sustenance.
When she was just leaving by the city gate, a group of monks came along, who had come down from the monastery on the hill to obtain almsfood in town. The leader among them stood out; one whose grandeur and sublime beauty impressed her so much, that she impulsively offered him all the food in her basket.
He was the Awakened One. He let her put her offering into his alms bowl. After Mallika — without knowing to whom she had given the food — had prostrated at his feet, she walked on full of joy. The Buddha smiled. Ananda, his attendant, who knew that the fully Enlightened One does not smile without a reason, asked therefore why he was smiling. The Buddha replied that this girl would reap the benefits of her gift this very same day by becoming the Queen of Kosala.
This sounded unbelievable, because how could the Maharaja of Benares and Kosala elevate a woman of low caste to the rank of Queen? Especially in the India of those days with its very strict caste system, this seemed quite improbable.
The ruler over the United Kingdoms of Benares and Kosala in the Ganges Valley was King Pasenadi, the mightiest Maharaja of his day. At that time he was at war with his neighbor, the King of Magadha.
The latter had won a battle and King Pasenadi had been forced to retreat. He was returning to his capital on the horse that had been his battle companion. Before entering the city, he heard a girl sing in the flower gardens. It was Mallika, who was singing melodiously because of her joy in meeting the Illustrious Sage. The King was attracted by the song and rode into the gardens; Mallika did not run away from the strange warrior, but came nearer, took the horse by its reins and looked straight into the King's eyes. He asked her whether she was already married and she replied in the negative. Thereupon he dismounted, lay down with his head in her lap and let her console him about his ill-luck in battle.
After he had recovered, he let her mount his horse behind him and took her back to the house of her parents. In the evening he sent an entourage with much pomp to fetch her and made her his principal wife and Queen.
From then on she was dearly beloved by the King. She was given many loyal servants and in her beauty she resembled a goddess. It became known throughout the whole kingdom that because of her simple gift she had been elevated to the highest position in the State and this induced her subjects to be kind and generous towards their fellow men. Wherever she went, people would joyously proclaim: "That is Queen Mallika, who gave alms to the Buddha."
After she had become Queen, she soon went to visit the Enlightened One to ask him something which was puzzling her. Namely, how it came about that one woman could be beautiful, wealthy and of great ability, another be beautiful but poor and not very able, yet another although ugly, be rich and very able, and finally another be ugly, poor and possess no skills at all.
These differences can constantly be observed in daily life. But while the ordinary person is satisfied with such common place terms as fate, heredity, coincidence and so on, Queen Mallika wanted to probe deeper as she was convinced that nothing happens without a cause.
The Buddha explained to her in great detail that all attributes and living conditions of people everywhere were solely dependent on the extent of their moral purity. Beauty was caused by forgiveness and gentleness, prosperity due to generous giving, and skillfulness was caused by never envying others, but rather being joyful and supporting their abilities.
Whichever of these three virtues a person had cultivated, that would show up as their "destiny," usually in some mixture of all of them. The coming together of all three attributes would be a rarity. After Mallika had listened to this discourse of the Buddha, she resolved in her heart to be always gentle towards her subjects and never to scold them, to give alms to all monks, brahmans and the poor, and never to envy anyone who was happy.
At the end of the Enlightened One's discourse she took refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and remained a faithful disciple for the rest of her life.
She showed her great generosity not only giving regular alms, but also by building a large, ebony-lined hall for the Sangha, which was used for religious discussions.
She exhibited her gentleness by serving her husband with the five qualities of a perfect wife, namely: always rising before him, and going to bed after him, by always obeying his commands, always being polite, and using only kind words. Even the monks praised her gentleness in their discussions about virtue.
Soon she was to prove that she was also free of jealousy. The King had made up his mind to marry a second chief wife and brought a cousin of the Buddha home as his betrothed. Although it is said that it is in the nature of women not to allow a rival into her home, Mallika related to the other wife without the slightest malice. Both women lived in peace and harmony at the Court.
Even when the second wife gave birth to a son, the crown prince, and Mallika had only a daughter, she was not envious. When the King voiced disappointment about the birth of a daughter, the Buddha said to him that a woman was superior to a man if she was clever, virtuous, well-behaved and faithful. Then she could become the wife of a great King and give birth to an almighty Ruler. When the daughter, Princess Vajira, had grown up, she became Queen of Magadha and thereby the ancestress of the greatest Indian Emperor, Ashoka, who ruled Magadha 250 years later.
After Mallika had become a faithful lay devotee of the Buddha, she also won her husband over to the teaching. And that happened in this way: One night the King had a succession of sixteen perturbing dreams during which he heard gruesome, unfathomable sounds from four voices, which uttered: "Du, Sa, Na, So." When the King woke up from these dreams, great fear seized him, and sitting upright and trembling, he awaited the sunrise.
When his Brahman priests asked him whether he had slept well, he related the terror of the night and asked them what one could do to counteract such a menace. The Brahmans declared that one would have to offer great sacrifices and thereby pacify the evil spirits. In his fear the King agreed to that. The Brahmans rejoiced because of the gifts they would surely reap and busily began to make preparations for the great sacrifice. They scurried about, building a sacrificial altar and tied many animals to posts, so they could be killed.
For greater efficacy, they demanded the sacrifice of four human beings and these also awaited their death, tied to posts. When Mallika became aware of all this activity, she went to the King and asked him why the Brahmans were so busily running about full of joyous expectation. The King replied that she did not pay enough attention to him and did not know his sorrows.
Thereupon he told her of his dreams. Mallika asked the King whether he had also consulted the first and foremost of Brahmans about the meaning and interpretation. He replied that she first had to tell him who was the first and foremost of Brahmans. She explained that the Awakened One was foremost in the world of Gods and men, the first of all Brahmans. King Pasenadi decided to ask the Awakened One's advice and went to Prince Jeta's Grove, Anathapindika's Monastery.
He related to the Buddha what had taken place in his dreams and asked him what would happen to him. "Nothing," the Awakened One replied and explained the meaning to him. The sixteen dreams which he had were prophecies, showing that the living conditions on earth would deteriorate steadily, due to the increasing moral laxity of the kings. In a meditative moment, King Pasenadi had been able to see future occurrences within his sphere of interest because he was a monarch concerned with the well-being of his subjects.
The four voices which he had heard belonged to four men who had lived in Savatthi and had been seducers of married women. Because of that they were reborn in hell and for 30,000 years they drowned in red-hot cauldrons, coming nearer and nearer to the fire, which intensified their unbearable suffering. During another 30,000 years they slowly rose up in those iron cauldrons and had now come to the rim, where they could once again at least breathe the air of the human realm.
Each one wanted the speak a verse, but because of the gravity of the deed, could not get past the first syllable. Not even in sights could they voice their suffering, because they had long lost the gift of speech. The four verses, which start in Pali with "du," "sa," "na," "so," were recognized by the Awakened One as follows:
Du: Dung-like life we lived,
No willingness to give,
Although we could have given much,
We did not make our refuge thus.
Sa: Say, the end is near?
Already 60,000 years have gone
Without respite the torture is
In this hell realm.
Na: Naught, no end near, Oh, would it end!
No end in sight for us.
Who once did misdeeds here
For me, for you, for both of us.
So: So, could I only leave this place
And raise myself to human realm,
I would be kind and moral too,
And do good deeds abundantly.
After the King had heard these explanations, he became responsive to the request of the compassionate Queen and granted freedom to the imprisoned men and animals. He ordered the sacrificial altar to be destroyed.
The King, who had become a devoted lay disciple of the Buddha, visited him one day again and met a wise and well-learned layman there. The King asked him whether he could give some daily Dharma teaching to his two Queens. The layman replied that the teaching came from the Enlightened One and only one of his immediate disciples could pass it on to the Queens. The King understood this and requested the Buddha to give permission to one of his monks to teach. The Buddha appointed Ananda for this task. Queen Mallika learned easily in spite of her uneducated background, but Queen Vasabhakhattiya, cousin of the Buddha and mother of the crown-prince, was unconcentrated and learned with difficulty.
One day the royal couple looked down upon the river from the palace and saw a group of the Buddha's monks playing about in the water. The king said to Queen Mallika reproachfully: "Those playing about in the water are supposed to be Saints?" Such was namely the reputation of this group of the so-called seventeen monks, who were quite young and of good moral conduct. Mallika replied that she could only explain it thus, that either the Buddha had not made any rules with regard to bathing or that the monks were not acquainted with them, because they were not amongst the rules which were recited regularly.
Both agreed that it would not make a good impression on lay people and on those monks not yet secure, if those in higher training played about in the water and enjoyed themselves in the way of untrained worldly people. But King Pasenadi wanted to avoid blackening those monks' characters and just wanted to give the Buddha a hint, so that he could lay down a firm rule. He conceived the idea to send a special gift to the Buddha to be taken by those monks. They brought the gift and the Buddha asked them on what occasion they had met the King. Then they told him what they had done and the Buddha laid down a corresponding rule.
One day when the King was standing on the parapet of the palace with the Queen and was looking down upon the land, he asked her whether there was anyone in the world she loved more than herself. He expected her to name him, since he flattered himself to have been the one who had raised her to fame and fortune. But although she loved him, she remained truthful and replied that she know of no one dearer to herself than herself. Then she wanted to know how it was with him: Did he love anyone — possibly her — more than himself? Thereupon the King also had to admit that self-love was always predominant. But he went to the Buddha and recounted the conversation to find out how a Saint would consider this.
The Buddha confirmed his and Mallika's statements:
I visited all quarters with my mind
Nor found I any dearer than myself;
Self is likewise to every other dear;
Who loves himself may never harm another.
One day the Buddha said to a man whose child had died: "Dear ones, those who are dear, bring sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair"” the suffering that results from a clinging love. In spite of the clearly visible proof, the man could not understand this. The conversation was reported to the King and he asked his wife whether it was really true that sorrow would result from love. "If the Awakened One has said so, O King, then it is so," she replied devotedly.
The King demurred that she accepted every word of the Buddha like a disciple from a guru. Thereupon she sent a messenger to the Buddha to ask for more details and then passed the explicit answer on to her husband.
She asked him whether he loved his daughter, his second wife, the crown-prince, herself and his kingdom? Naturally he confirmed this, these five things were dear to him. But if something happened to these five, Mallika responded, would he not feel sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief or despair, which comes from loving? Then the King understood and realized how wisely the Buddha could penetrate all existence: "Very well, then Mallika, continue to venerate him." And the King rose, uncovered his shoulder, prostrated deferentially in the direction where the Blessed One was wont to stay and greeted him three times with: "Homage to the Blessed One, the Holy One, the fully Awakened One."
But their lives also did not remain quite without conflict. One day an argument arose between the couple about the duties of the Queen. For some reason the King was angry at her and treated her from then on as if she had disappeared into thin air. When the Buddha arrived at the palace the next day for his meal, he asked about the Queen, who had always been present at other times. Pasenadi scowled and said: "What about her? She has gone mad because of her fame." The Buddha replied that he, himself, had raised her up to that position quite unexpectedly and should become reconciled with her. Somewhat reluctantly the King had her called. Thereupon the Buddha praised the blessing of amity and the anger was forgotten, as if it had never happened.
But later on a new tension arose between the couple. Again the King would not look at the Queen and pretended she did not exist. When the Buddha became aware of this, he asked about her. Pasenadi said that her good fortune had gone to her head. Immediately the Awakened One told an incident from a former life:
Both were then heavenly beings, a deva couple, who loved each other dearly. One night they were separated from each other because of the flooding of a stream. They both regretted this irretrievable night, which could never be replaced during their life-span of a thousand years. And during the rest of their lives they never let go of each other's company and always remembered to use this separation as a warning so that their happiness would endure during that whole existence. The King was moved by this story, and became reconciled to the Queen. Mallika then spoke this verse to the Buddha:
With joy I heard your varied words,
Which spoken were for my well-being;
With your talk you took away my sorrow
Verily, you are the joy-bringer amongst the ascetics
May you live long!
A third time the Buddha told of an occurrence during one of the former lives of the royal couple. At that time Pasenadi was a crown-prince and Mallika his wife. When the crown-prince became afflicted with leprosy and could not become King because of that, he resolved to withdraw into the forest by himself, so as not to become a burden to anyone. But his wife did not desert him, and looked after him with touching attention. She resisted the temptation to lead a care-free life in pomp and splendor and remained faithful to her ugly and ill-smelling husband. Through the power of her virtue she was able to effect his recovery. When he ascended to the throne and she became his Queen, he promptly forgot her and enjoyed himself with various dancing girls. It is almost as difficult to find a grateful person, the Buddha said, as it is difficult to find a Holy One.
Only when the King was reminded of the good deeds of his Queen, did he change his ways, asked her forgiveness and lived together with her in harmony and virtue.
Queen Mallika committed only one deed in this life which had evil results and which led her to the worst rebirth. Immediately after her death, she was reborn in hell, though this lasted only a few days.
When she died, the King was just listening to a Dharma exhortation by the Buddha. When the news reached him there, he was deeply shaken and even the Buddha's reminder that there was nothing in the world that could escape old age, disease, death, decay and destruction could not immediately assuage his grief.
His attachment” "from love comes sorrow" was so strong, that he went to the Buddha every day to find out about the future destiny of his wife. If he had to get along without her on earth, at least he wanted to know about her rebirth. But for seven days the Buddha distracted him from his question through fascinating and moving Dharma discourses, so that he only remembered his question when he arrived home again. Only on the seventh day would the Buddha answer his question and said that Mallika had been reborn in the "Heaven of the Blissful Devas." He did not mention the seven days she had spent in hell, so as not to add to the King's sorrow. Even though it was a very short-termed sojourn in the lower realms, one can see that Mallika had not yet attained stream-entry during her life on earth, since it is one of the signs of a stream-enterer that there is no rebirth below the human state. However, this experience of hellish suffering together with her knowledge of Dharma, could have quickened Mallika's last ripening for the attainment of stream-entry.
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On Queen Malika, it seems that she did make some mistakes as documented here that shows the danger of making small mistakes and not doing anything about it. A lifetime of good deeds still brings about an existence in hell due to a one moment of negative action and and lying. It was just one lie, and it was 7 days in hell. Therefore it is very important to do confessions as much as possible especially to the people we love.
Some translation: Magga = path Pala = fruit niraya = hell
Dhammapada Verse 151
Mallikadevi Vatthu
Jiranti ve rajaratha sucitta
atho sarirampi jaram upeti
satanca dhammo1 na jaram upeti
santo have sabbhi pavedayanti.
Verse 151: The much ornamented royal carriages do wear out, the body also grows old, but the Dhamma of the Virtuous does not decay. Thus, indeed, say the Virtuous among themselves.
1. dhammo/dhamma: The nine Transcendentals, viz, the four Maggas, the four Phalas and Nibbana. (The Commentary)
The Story of Queen Mallika
While residing at the Jetavana monastery, the Buddha uttered Verse (151) of this book, with reference to Mallika, queen of King Pasenadi of Kosala.
One day, Mallika went into the bathroom to wash her face, hands and feet. Her pet dog also came in; as she was bending to wash her feet, the dog tried to have sex with her, and the queen appeared to be amused and somewhat pleased. The king saw this strange incident through the window from his bedroom. When the queen came in, he said angrily to the queen, "Oh, you wicked woman! What were you doing with that dog in the bathroom? Do not deny what I saw with my own eyes." The queen replied that she was only washing her face, her hands and her feet, and so was doing nothing wrong. Then she continued, "But, that room is very strange. If anyone went into that room, to one looking from this window there would appear to be two. If you do not believe me, O King, please go into that room and I will look through this window."
So, the king went into the bathroom. When he came out, Mallika asked the king why he misbehaved with a she-goat in that room. The king denied it, but the queen insisted that she saw them with her own eyes. The king was puzzled, but being dim-witted, he accepted the queen's explanation, and concluded that the bath room was, indeed, very strange.
From that time, the queen was full of remorse for having lied to the king and for having brazenly accused him of misbehaving with a she-goat. Thus, even when she was approaching death, she forgot to think about the great unrivalled charities she had shared with her husband and only remembered that she had been unfair to him. As a result of this, when she died she was reborn in niraya. After her burial, the king intended to ask the Buddha where she was reborn. The Buddha wished to spare his feelings, and also did not want him to lose faith in the Dhamma. So he willed that this question should not be put to him, and King Pasenadi forgot to ask the Buddha.
However, after seven days in niraya, the queen was reborn in the Tusita deva world. On that day, the Buddha went to King Pasenadi's palace for alms-food; he indicated that he wished to rest in the coach-shed where the royal carriages were kept. After offering alms-food, the king asked the Buddha where queen Mallika was reborn and the Buddha replied, "Mallika has been reborn in the Tusita deva world." Hearing this the king was very pleased, and said, 'Where else could she have been reborn? She was always thinking of doing good deeds, always thinking what to offer to the Buddha on the next day. Venerable Sir! Now that she is gone, I, your humble disciple, hardly know what to do." To him the Buddha said, "Look at these carriages of your father and your grandfather; these are all worn down and lying useless; so also is your body, which is subject to death and decay. Only the Dhamma of the Virtuous is not subject to decay."
Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:
Verse 151: The much ornamented royal carriages do wear out, the body also grows old, but the Dhamma of the Virtuous does not decay. Thus, indeed, say the Virtuous among themselves.
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Buddhism is one of the few spiritual beliefs that do not discriminate women. As His Holiness the Gyalwang Drukpa said in one of his teachings, "The Buddha explained very clearly that all beings, irregardless of male or female, have the potential to attain Buddhahood. They all possess the primordial Buddha nature, and therefore they deserve equal chance to enlightenment."
The few selected women disciples of Lord Buddha highlighted in this thread are all incredible practitioners in their lifetime. Their life stories, though took place 2,500 years ago, still set a positive example for all female practitioners who aspire to attain Buddhahood.
However, let me touch on an important disciple of Buddha which led to the "acceptance" of women practitioners in general. Among the disciples of the Buddha, Venerable Ananda had the most retentive memory. Ananda joined the Sangha when he was a child. It was said that he became a monk together with Aniruddha and Bhadra. Initially when the four Sakyas princes became monks, Ananda was the youngest of all.
The father of Ananda was King Suklodana, Buddha's greatest betrayer, Devadatta was Ananda's elder brother. Once when Buddha returned to his homeland to preach, King Suklodana was afraid that Buddha would influence Ananda so after meeting Buddha, he brought Ananda to Vaisali so that there would be less opportunity of Ananda meeting Buddha. However, later Buddha went to Vaisali too so King Suklodana again brought Ananda back to Kapilavastu.
In fact, among the princes, Buddha had the greatest hope that Ananda would leave home with him. The Buddha could foresee the future and he thought, " If Ananda leaves home, he shall spread Buddha Dharma to the future generations.
When the Buddha knew Ananda had returned to Kapilavastu, he immediately went to the palace of King Suklodana. When Ananda saw the Buddha, he paid his respects to the Buddha and used a fan to fan Him. From here we can see that little Ananda had respected Buddha even at a young age.
When the time was ripe, Ananda and prince Bhadra joined the monk's community.
Helping in the Setting up of the Order of Nuns
Growing up in the Sangha, Ananda had a gentle and compassionate disposition. He was most respected by women because he was caring towards the bhikkhunis and women followers of the Buddha.
It was due to the effort of Ananda that Buddha allowed female to become bhikkhunis.
When Buddha's foster mother Mahaprajapati saw that the Buddha had attained enlightenment, that some of the princes had taken refuge in Buddha and the king was dead, she wanted to leave home to be a bhikkhuni or nun.
Mahaprajapati begged the Buddha to permit her to stay in the Buddha's community or Sangha but the Buddha refused. To avoid the frequent begging from his foster mother, the Buddha went to preach in Namantini monastery which was not far from Vaisali.
Mahaprajapati was not deterred. She gathered five hundred women of the Sakyan clan who had similar thoughts as her, shaved their hair and walked bare-footed to catch up with the Buddha. They walked for over two thousand miles and finally reached the monastery where the Buddha stayed. Having stayed in the palace for so long and not used to walking such long distances, the women looked tired and haggard. They paced outside the monastery and dared not enter. Ananda happened to come out and when he saw Mahaprajapati and the other women wearing the robes of bhikkunis, with dust and tears on their faces, he had a shock. He asked them, "What is going on?"
Mahaprajapati replied, "We leave our loved ones and relatives and walked all the way here to become bhikkunis. If Buddha refuse us again, we shall die here and never return!"
Ananda was so touched by the words that he could not control his tears. He related the message to Buddha and begged the Buddha to grant the women their wish.
The Buddha, however, refused, "Ananda, I sympathise with them but it is not appropriate to let women enter our community."
"Lord Buddha! Are men and women different in the Buddha Dharma?" Ananda picked up the courage to ask.
"Ananda! the Dharma is the same in heaven or in the world. I do not discriminate against women, that is to say that I treat all sentient beings as equal. Women can do as the men did, follow my Dharma and practice but they need not become bhikkunis. This is the question of our system and not whether men and women are equal. Women leaving home are like wild grass in the field which will affect the harvest."
This speech of the Buddha had profound meaning. On the aspect of humanity, women should be allowed to leave home however on the aspect of Dharma logic, it s not good to allow the two sexes to practice together. Wisdom and love move opposite ways, some people might give up practice for love so Buddha refused to let women to join the Sangha. Or perhaps the Buddha felt that as compared to men, women are more vain, delicate and slower than men so he disallowed women from entering to teach them a lesson.
Although the Buddha refused, nevertheless Ananda said in tears, "Lord Buddha! Can you bear to see them die, shouldn't you show them compassion and give them a helping hand?"
The Buddha felt that at times, it was impossible to care for both Dharma and feelings at the same time, he also understood that there was no pure and unchanging Dharma. Buddha was quiet for a while and finally agreed to Ananda's request to allow women to leave home. Happily, Ananda rushed outside to announce the good news. Mahaprajapti and the other women were overjoyed with tears. The Buddha met the five hundred women and wanted them to obey eight extra rules towards the monks.
Encounter with Matanga
Ananda was young and handsome and this caused him some trouble. One day, he begged in Sravasti and on the way back he saw a well. A peasant girl was getting water from the well. Ananda was thirsty so he asked the girl to give him some water.
The girl recognised the young bhikkhu in front of her was Ananda. Very shyly she said, "Venerable! I am a lowly peasant who is not fit to offer you anything."
When Ananda heard this, he consoled her, "Young lady! I am a bhikkhu and I am equal towards the rich and poor!"
The girl was deeply attracted by Ananda's looks and his gentle speech. She even dreamed of marrying him. In actual fact, young Ananda could not forget the young lady too! Next day, when he passed by her house, the girl smiled and acknowledged him. Ananda began to feel confused. However at the moment he remembered he was the bhikkhu who had to abide by the precepts, he though of Buddha, his power engulfed him. Ananda suddenly found wisdom, as if the Buddha had turned into a gust of wind to guide him back to the Jetavana monastery.
On the second day, Ananda calmed himself then went to the city to beg. The young girl wore a new dress and had a new hairdo. She stood on the road waiting for Ananda. When she saw him, she followed him and refused to let him go. Ananda was nervous and helpless. He returned to the monastery and told the Buddha everything. The Buddha then told him to bring the girl to him.
When the girl heard that Buddha wanted to see her, she was shocked but in order to get Ananda, she picked up courage to see the Buddha. Upon seeing her, Buddha said, " Ananda is a practising monk, to be his wife you need to leave home and be a bhikkhuni for a year, are you willing?"
"I an willing, Lord Buddha!" The girl was surprised that the Buddha had so easily made her wish come true, so she answered very quickly.
"According to my system, leaving home needs approval from parents, can you get your parents to approve of it?"
The Buddha did not make things difficult for her. His conditions were not impossible and the girl immediately went home to fetch her mother. Her mother very happily agreed to let her daughter become a bhikkuni first before marrying Ananda.
In order to be Ananda's wife, the girl very happily shaved her hair to become a bhikkuni. She listened to Buddha's preachings very enthusiastically and practised according to Buddha's guidance. Her desires and emotions calmed down after each passing day and in less than half a year, she realised that in the past her pursuits for love was a shameful behaviour.
Buddha always preached that the five forms of desires were unclean Dharma and the source of sufferings. Only when the five desires were cleared could the mind become pure and the life peaceful.
The girl realised her obsession with Ananda was unclean and bad. She regretted and one day, she knelt in front of Buddha and tearfully repented, " Buddha! I am awake now, I will not be ignorant like I used to be. I am very grateful to you. In order to convert ignorant sentient beings like us, you have put in so much effort to think of various ways! From now on, I am going to be a bhikkuni forever, follow Buddha's footsteps to be a messenger of truth!"
Buddha's earnest teachings had finally awakened her to become a model bhikkhuni!
This girl was the well-known Matanga. In allowing a peasant girl to be a bhikkhuni, Buddha received a lot of criticism and opposition from people as the caste system was prevalent at that time. However, Buddha advocated equality of the four castes. The incidence of Matanga's attraction to Ananda's looks and the turning of misfortune into happiness had become a matter of great interest in the Buddhist community and a charming story through the ages.
Trouble with Females
Ananda was helpful towards bhikkhunis. As he could get along well with people, all women, especially bhikkunis had deep respect for him. Sometimes when he walked with Maha Kassapa, bhikkhunis usually asked for Ananda's advice before they asked Maha Kassapa, though Maha Kassapa was more senior than Ananda, in terms of knowledge, experience and age.
The minds of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis are constantly at war with their sensible reasonings and emotions. If sensibility win, they can become Buddha, if emotions win, they remain as ordinary people. It is difficult to expect all bhikkhus and bhikkhunis to lead a withered and dull life without any form of love of the world.
In the Jetavana monastery, there lived a young female bhikkhuni. She was deeply attracted by Ananda's outstanding features and grace and loved him secretly. However, living in the strict Buddhist community, she was not allowed to break the precepts, so she felt helpless and frustrated.
One day, this young bhikkhuni fell sick and she asked someone to pass a message to Ananda asking him to visit her. Next morning, before he went to beg for food, the kind Ananda went to visit the bhikkhuni. However she was half dressed and when Ananda walked near her, she looked at him with deep love. Ananda immediately understood and without uttering a single word, he turned and walked away. The young bhikkhuni quickly got up from bed, dressed and rushed after Ananda. She invited Ananda to sit down. When Ananda sat down, he said, " Sister! Do not use unclean things to feed your body, do not have incorrect thoughts of sexual desire. Sister! You are unwell, as long as you put your body and mind in an undemanding state, you will soon recover."
However, the young bhikkhuni still looked at Ananda with tenderness and love, she said, "I understand what you mean but no matter how hard I try, I can't control my feeling for you. People, in order to feel protected and peaceful, cannot be without demands!"
"Sister! You must not think this way. People work for clothes, food and shelter for cultivation of body. To cultivate a healthy body is to practice the way, then the mind can be peaceful. To forget the path but instead pursue the impermanent desire is incorrect. We cultivate our body and mind, cut off all desires to pursue the true path and not be lured by void and empty ways!"
The bhikkhuni was deeply touched and put off her desire for love. She received the Dharma eyes.
Actually, Ananda had no thoughts of love nor desire for women but only pure friendship. However, because of women, he encountered a lot of problems thereby causing jealousy and criticisms.
Becoming Buddha's Attendant
In Buddha's heart, Ananda was the person to spread Buddha's seeds. However, his problems with women were especially much. In order to let Ananda control himself and practice with concentration, Buddha intended to make Ananda his attendant.
In fact, ever since Buddha attained enlightenment, Sariputra, Mogallana, Kapala and others, had taken turns to serve the Buddha. We could say that within these twenty over years, the Buddha had no permanent attendant serving him.
It might be due to Buddha's old age that he needs a constant attendant. A number of bhikkhu volunteered to serve Buddha but Buddha rejected and assigned them to preach in various places. Mogallan understood the Buddha's feelings so together with Sariputra, they persuaded Ananda, "Ananda bhikkhu! The Buddha's intention is that you become his attendant. You are young, capable, intelligent and gentle, we hope you will agree."
Initially, Ananda declined giving the excuse of heavy responsibility. However, he finally agreed after much persuasion from Sariputra and Mollagana. But Ananda listed three conditions:
1. Buddha's clothing, whether new or old, he refuses to wear.
2. When devotees invite the Buddha to receive offerings, he will not go along.
3. When it is not time to see the Buddha, he will not see him. Other than these, he is willing to serve Lord Buddha.
Mogallan and Sariputra related Ananda's conditions to the Buddha. Not only was Buddha not angry, instead he happily praised,
"Ananda is really a bhikkhu with character. He listed three conditions to avoid criticisms. He does not want others to criticise that he serve Buddha because of good clothes and food. He knows how to prevent these conditions…"
From then on, Ananda became Buddha's attendant. He was only twenty over years old. During his twenty-seven years with Buddha, he acted according to Buddha's instructions and accompanied Buddha to preach at various places. He was also the mediator between Buddha and bhikkhus. In the Sangha, Ananda maintained a modest and respectful attitude. Many devotees took refuge in Buddha because of him.
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Encounter with Matanga
Ananda was young and handsome and this caused him some trouble. One day, he begged in Sravasti and on the way back he saw a well. A peasant girl was getting water from the well. Ananda was thirsty so he asked the girl to give him some water.
The girl recognised the young bhikkhu in front of her was Ananda. Very shyly she said, "Venerable! I am a lowly peasant who is not fit to offer you anything."
When Ananda heard this, he consoled her, "Young lady! I am a bhikkhu and I am equal towards the rich and poor!"
The girl was deeply attracted by Ananda's looks and his gentle speech. She even dreamed of marrying him. In actual fact, young Ananda could not forget the young lady too! Next day, when he passed by her house, the girl smiled and acknowledged him. Ananda began to feel confused. However at the moment he remembered he was the bhikkhu who had to abide by the precepts, he though of Buddha, his power engulfed him. Ananda suddenly found wisdom, as if the Buddha had turned into a gust of wind to guide him back to the Jetavana monastery.
On the second day, Ananda calmed himself then went to the city to beg. The young girl wore a new dress and had a new hairdo. She stood on the road waiting for Ananda. When she saw him, she followed him and refused to let him go. Ananda was nervous and helpless. He returned to the monastery and told the Buddha everything. The Buddha then told him to bring the girl to him.
When the girl heard that Buddha wanted to see her, she was shocked but in order to get Ananda, she picked up courage to see the Buddha. Upon seeing her, Buddha said, " Ananda is a practising monk, to be his wife you need to leave home and be a bhikkhuni for a year, are you willing?"
"I an willing, Lord Buddha!" The girl was surprised that the Buddha had so easily made her wish come true, so she answered very quickly.
"According to my system, leaving home needs approval from parents, can you get your parents to approve of it?"
The Buddha did not make things difficult for her. His conditions were not impossible and the girl immediately went home to fetch her mother. Her mother very happily agreed to let her daughter become a bhikkuni first before marrying Ananda.
In order to be Ananda's wife, the girl very happily shaved her hair to become a bhikkuni. She listened to Buddha's preachings very enthusiastically and practised according to Buddha's guidance. Her desires and emotions calmed down after each passing day and in less than half a year, she realised that in the past her pursuits for love was a shameful behaviour.
Buddha always preached that the five forms of desires were unclean Dharma and the source of sufferings. Only when the five desires were cleared could the mind become pure and the life peaceful.
The girl realised her obsession with Ananda was unclean and bad. She regretted and one day, she knelt in front of Buddha and tearfully repented, " Buddha! I am awake now, I will not be ignorant like I used to be. I am very grateful to you. In order to convert ignorant sentient beings like us, you have put in so much effort to think of various ways! From now on, I am going to be a bhikkuni forever, follow Buddha's footsteps to be a messenger of truth!"
Buddha's earnest teachings had finally awakened her to become a model bhikkhuni!
This girl was the well-known Matanga. In allowing a peasant girl to be a bhikkhuni, Buddha received a lot of criticism and opposition from people as the caste system was prevalent at that time. However, Buddha advocated equality of the four castes. The incidence of Matanga's attraction to Ananda's looks and the turning of misfortune into happiness had become a matter of great interest in the Buddhist community and a charming story through the ages.
Actually, there is another dimension to Matanga's story. It is mentioned in the Shuragama sutra.
Sutra:
At that time, because Ananda was begging in sequential order, he passed by a house of prostitution and was waylaid by a powerful artifice. By means of a mantra of the Kapila religion, formerly of the Brahma Heaven, the daughter of Matangi drew him onto an impure mat.
Commentary:
At that time Ananda was being stern and proper, honoring with propriety the method for obtaining food. Because Ananda was begging in sequential order - by going door to door, house to house - he passed by a house of prostitution and was waylaid by a powerful artifice. It was not real, but was something conjured up. The daughter of Matangi had urged her mother to make use of a mantra, which allegedly had come from the gods of the Brahma Heaven and had been brought down to the human realm. But it was phony; it was empty and false, so it is called an “artifice.”
Matangi is a Sanskrit name, interpreted to mean “Vulgar Lineage,” indicating that she was not honorable. Her daughter’s name was Prakriti, which is Sanskrit for “Basic Nature.”
Ananda was snared by a mantra of the Kapila religion, formerly of the Brahma Heaven. Matangi had learned her false mantra from members of the tawny-haired religion. In fact, the mantric device was falsely named, because it was not really a transmission from the Brahma Heaven. Its proponents just claimed it was, and in that way got people to believe in them. However, the recitation of the mantra was able to turn Ananda’s spirit and soul upside down and he fell into a stupor as if asleep, dreaming, or drunk. Without realizing what was happening he went into the house of prostitution. The mantra “which came from the Brahma Heaven,” had rendered him totally oblivious and had totally confused his self-nature.
”Basically Ananda was a sage who had been certified as having attained the first fruition. Then why was the mantra purported to have come from the Brahma Heaven able to confuse him?” you wonder.
He became confused because he had concentrated on studying the sutras and had not been attentive to samadhi-power; and so although he had attained the first fruition; his samadhi-power was still insufficient. Therefore when he encountered this kind of demon he was confused by her, and the daughter of Matangi drew him onto an impure mat.
Ananda was extremely handsome. His features were almost as perfect as the thirty-two fine marks of the Buddha. Ananda’s skin was snowy white and glistened like silver, sparkled like frost. Most Indians had dark complexions but Ananda’s skin was extremely soft, supple, smooth, and especially fair. That is why Matangi’s daughter was infatuated with Ananda the moment she laid eyes on him and went running to tell her mother that she wanted Ananda.
”He’s a disciple of the Buddha,” her mother said. “How can you want him? He’s a bhikshu and cannot marry. You can’t have him.”
”That doesn’t make any difference to me,” replied her daughter. “Mother, you’re going to have to think of a way to trap Ananda for me. If I can’t marry Ananda I won’t go on living,” she said obstinately.
Her desire was so overpowering that it was a matter of life and death.
”Ah,” thought Matangi, “She loves him so much. I’ll have to think of a way to do what cannot be done.” So she used the mantra, a deviant dharma from the Kapila religion, and recited until Ananda became hypnotized. He followed her in a daze like a drunken beggar, in such a stupor that he couldn’t tell east from west, or north from south. He went right into the house and followed Matangi’s daughter into her room and onto the bed.
Sutra:
With her licentious body she stroked and rubbed him until he was on the verge of destroying the precept-substance.
Commentary:
This was a dangerous spot to be in! With her licentious body she caressed him until he was on the verge of destroying the precept-substance. He still hadn’t broken it. This is an important point. When one receives the precepts one becomes endowed with a certain substance, which, if destroyed, is as serious as if your very life had been cut off. It is extremely important for people who have left the home-life not to break precepts. If precepts are broken, you might just as well die. As for Ananda, if the text said that his precept-substance was “already” destroyed, it would mean it would be all over for him, Ananda would have fallen, and in the future he would have had a great deal of difficulty in cultivating successfully.
Why did Matangi’s daughter have such a compelling attraction for Ananda? It stemmed from the fact that Ananda and Matangi’s daughter had been married to one another in five hundred former lives. Because they had been a married couple in so many former lives, as soon as she saw Ananda this time, her old habits took over, and she fell madly in love with him. Ananda had been her husband before and she was determined to have him for a husband again. Because of those seeds passed down life after life, she was now willing to sacrifice everything - even her very life - for the sake of her love for Ananda.
This shows the power of imprints.
D4 The Tathagata compassionately rescues him.
E1 He quickly returns and speaks the mantra.
Sutra:
The Tathagata, knowing Ananda was being taken advantage of by the indecent artifice, finished the meal and immediately began his return journey. The king, great officials, elders, and laypeople followed along after the Buddha, desiring to hear the essentials of dharma.
Commentary:
Whenever the Buddha accepted an offering he always spoke the Dharma after the meal for the sake of the vegetarian host. Only after speaking the dharma would he return to the sublime abode of the Jeta Grove. But this time there were special circumstances. The Tathagata, knowing Ananda was being taken advantage of by the indecent artifice, finished the meal and immediately began his return journey. Knowing that Ananda had met with difficulty and was on the verge of destroying the Precept-substance, the Buddha ate quickly, and as soon as he finished he immediately returned to the sublime abode of the Jeta Grove. In fact, I imagine he did not eat very much, since his beloved disciple and cousin and personal attendant was in trouble. The Buddha thought, “Ah, my attendant is being waylaid by demons. He’s been captured by demons. How can this be?”
The king, great officials, elders, and laypeople followed along after the Buddha, desiring to hear the essentials of the dharma. Everyone knew that there was some important reason why the Buddha had not spoken dharma for the vegetarian host after the meal. They thought that the reason for the hasty retreat would certainly be announced, so everyone - the king, the officials, the elders, and the laypeople - followed the Buddha back to the sublime abode of the Jeta Grove. Why? Everyone had forgotten everything else but the single-minded desire to understand whatever important principle of dharma was about to be spoken. They didn’t know what had come up that was so unusual. Everyone was anxious to hear what the Buddha would say.
Sutra:
Then the World Honored One emitted a hundred rays of jeweled and fearless light from his crown. Within the light appeared a thousand-petalled precious lotus, upon which was seated a transformation-body Buddha in full-lotus posture, proclaiming a spiritual mantra.
Commentary:
Shakyamuni Buddha, the World Honored One, emitted a hundred rays of jeweled and fearless light from his crown. The hundreds of rays can represent the hundred realms. Within the light appeared a thousand-petalled jeweled precious lotus, which can represent the Thousand Suchnesses. These meanings can be investigated gradually. Now it is enough to understand the passage in general. From his crown, the crown of his head, were emitted a hundred rays of jeweled light and from these lights radiated fearless lights. The rays of “fearless lights” showed possession of a great awesome virtue. Fearing nothing, they were able to subdue all heavenly demons and externalists. No mantra whatever could withstand them. Not even one “purported to have come from the Brahma Heaven.”
The hundred rays of jeweled light also brought forth a thousand-petalled jeweled lotus, upon which was seated a transformation-body Buddha in full-lotus posture. In “full lotus posture” you sit with your legs crossed over one another, your feet resting on the tops of opposite thighs. There is a great deal of merit and virtue involved in sitting in full lotus.
This transformation-body Buddha was proclaiming a spiritual mantra. He pronounced the Shurangama Mantra. For Shakyamuni Buddha to have a transformation-body Buddha speak the mantra represents the secret cause within the secret cause, the king of kings of mantras. The Shurangama Mantra is extremely important. If you who study the Buddhadharma can learn the Shurangama Mantra in this life, you will not have been a human being in vain. If you do not learn the Shurangama Mantra, it will be like climbing a mountain made of the seven jewels - gold, silver, crystal, lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, red pearl, and carnelian - and coming back down empty-handed. You arrive at the top of the mountain and you think about picking up some gold or perhaps some pearls, but then wonder if you should take silver instead. In the end you can’t decide which ones it would be best to take and so you come away without any at all. That is the situation of people who can’t memorize the Shurangama Mantra. So I hope that everyone will at the very least study hard enough so that they are able to recite it from memory. Not to speak of several weeks’ effort, it is worth several years’ effort if needed. It is extremely valuable. And this opportunity you have now to encounter it is extremely rare, very hard to come by. It is “the unsurpassed, profound, subtle, wonderful dharma.” There is nothing higher, nothing deeper. The Buddha used the Shurangama Mantra to save Ananda, who had already attained the first fruition of arhatship. Now, if you ordinary people do not rely on the Shurangama Mantra, how can you end birth and death? Therefore each of you should resolve to take my advice in this.
If you have not noticed, this sutra is bordering near to tantra as it talked about the Buddha emanating a lotus from his crown. This sutra actually contains all of the headings of the Lamrim, but in a different order as the emphasis is different.
This text also has the commentary of Hsuan Hua.
(source: http://www.cttbusa.org/shurangama1/shurangama1_11.asp (http://www.cttbusa.org/shurangama1/shurangama1_11.asp))
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Another of the female disciples of Buddha is Yasodhara. She was the former wife of Gautama Buddha and was chief amongst those who attained great supernormal powers.
Yasodhara was the daughter of King Suppabuddha and Pamit?, sister of the Buddha's father, King Suddhodana. Her father was a Koliya chief and her mother came from a Shakya family. The Shakya and the Koliya were branches of the ?dicca or Ik?v?ku clan of the solar dynasty. There were no other families considered equal to them in the region and therefore members of these two royal families married only among themselves.
She was wedded to her cousin, the Shakya prince Siddhartha in his 16th year when she was also 16 years of age. At the age of 29 she gave birth to their only child, a boy named R?hula. On the day of his birth the Prince left the palace. Yasodhar? was devastated and overcome with grief. Hearing that her husband was leading a holy life, she emulated him by removing her jewellery, wearing a plain yellow robe and eating only one meal a day.[5] Although relatives sent her messages to say that they would maintain her, she did not take up those offers. Several princes sought her hand but she rejected the proposals. Throughout his six year absence, Princess Yasodhar? followed the news of his actions closely.
When the Buddha visited Kapilavatthu after enlightenment, Yasodhar? did not go to see her former husband but ask Rahula to go to buddha to seek inheritence. For herself, she thought: "Surely if I have gained any virtue at all the Lord will come to my presence."
Sometime after her son R?hula became a novice Monk, Yasodhar? also entered the Order of Monks and Nuns and within time attained Arahantship. She was ordained as Bhikkhuni included among the five hundred ladies following the Pajapati Gotami to establish Bhikkhuni Order. She was declared as foremost in possessing the supernatural power among the Nuns. Amongst female disciples she was chief of those who attained great supernormal powers. She died at 78, two years before Buddha's Parinibb?na.
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Wow! Its great that so many of us did some research and found so many of Buddha's fore disciples. As I was reading some articles, I came across one more story. Her name is Nun Subha and She became Enlightened after 8 days of ordination! It is really an interesting story to read.
Subha - the Enlightened Nun
Because she had observed her precepts well as a good devotee of a former Buddha, Subha was born as the beautiful daughter of a prosperous goldsmith during the dispensation of Lord Gotama Buddha. Since her birth brought good luck to the household, her proud father named her Subha, which means "Lucky." He often thought, "This daughter of mine promises to be a perfect beauty. She reminds me of the superb royal jewellery I make!"
By the time Subha reached her sixteenth year, her father had become a rich man, receiving commissions from many rich clients. As his trade prospered, he had many goldsmiths working under him. Subha often wore the beautiful necklaces, coronets, and other ornaments he crafted for queens and princesses, parading and showing off their beauty. The parents and neighbors admired good-natured Subha, who appeared even more beautiful wearing delicate, refined ornaments. As Subha was kind, her home was a happy place, where friends and relations assembled in harmony.
Subha's neighbors often talked of a royal prince who had left his palace to lead an ascetic life. They said that the noble Sage had become a great saint, with many disciples. One day when the people of Rajgriha expected the noble sage's arrival, Subhas' father declared that day a holiday for his workmen and the maid Subha went with her parents and friends to witness the great sage's arrival. When the populace, led by King Bimbisara, heard the Lord Buddha's teachings, they were filled with joy. By evening the king, his retinue, and all the citizens of the town had accepted Buddhism as their faith. Very soon monasteries were offered to the Buddha, where some of the monks stayed, while others set forth to preach the doctrine.
Soon Buddhism was the accepted religion of the country. Many young men and women joined the Order of monks and nuns. Subha accompanied her parents to the teaching site and listened happily to the discourses. She saw the yellow-robed nuns and spoke with them. Her family became good devotees who often visited the monastery. One day, as the Lord surveyed the audience with supernormal vision, he saw that the maid Subha was experiencing last birth in samsaric existence - that she would become a nun and gain enlightenment. As the Lord preached that day, Subha listened intently and, at the end of the discourse, she attained the stage of a Stream Entrant. Thereupon she pleaded with her parents to allow her to become a nun. The parents were reluctant to part with her since, as their only child, she was slated to inherit their wealth. So, because they loved her, they tried their best to change her mind. In the end, however, they relented and, in due course, she became a nun. Her parents and relations thought that Subha would soon leave the nunnery and return to them, since she was fond of wearing fine clothes and jewellery.
Meanwhile Subha received doctrinal instructions from the nuns and observed her precepts well. She listened well when the nuns preached the Dharma and discussed doctrinal topics at length. She received instructions on meditation and meditated peacefully. Without her, the fond parents' home became a desolate place. Eventually, they talked over with friends and decided to visit the nunnery with the idea of coaxing Subha to return home. As they visited the nunnery, her mother began to weep, saying: "Dear daughter! Our home is a desolate place without you. Think of the lovely gold jewellery made specially for you by your father! These ornaments decorated your neck, ears, and arms! Once you loved to wear them! Now we have no daughter to inherit them! Dear daughter, we are rich with much wealth and many servants! Return and be the owner of all our wealth!" Her relations and friends made the same appeal while the mother cried.
Subha, determined to stop further appeals, tried to convince them that their appeals were in vain. She advised them with these words:
Listen well, my mother and relations.
Attired nicely as befitted a youth,
I listened to the teachings of the Lord.
In a wholesome state of mind,
I then realised the Truth.
So I left my parents who loved me,
My devoted friends and relations all,
All luxuries of a comfortable life,
Considerable wealth, lands and fields.
Craving for worldly comforts,
Does not suit my life now.
I left my homey comforts.
I shall not go there again,
I prefer a life of solitude,
Devoid of all craving.
Those fallen into the abyss of desire,
Often face disappointments,
Loss of their wealth,
Bodily hurt and even worse disasters.
Dear relations, listen to me.
Why do you try to tempt me
With all the troubles that I have left behind?
Dear friends, please realise that I am a homeless nun,
Who discerns no value in wealth!
My head is shaven;
I am clad in the robes of the Order.
Please realize my homeless mendicant state!
Living on whatever food others offer me,
Wearing robes that others offer me,
Living according to the precepts -
Such is the life of a nun.
Omniscient Lord Buddha,
As well as the noble Sangha,
Have shattered all bonds of desire
To attain the freedom of liberation.
They are free and happy!
Craving and desire are frightful enemies.
Like a devastating fire, they bring
All troublesome sorrows in their wake.
Like enemies, they chose to punish us.
Sensual pleasures are a terror,
Poisoning the minds of people.
Like a poisoned dart, they pierce the pure mind,
Misleading people to danger and sin.
Pleasures of the senses are frightful,
Like a snake's head about to sting.
Those ignorant people,
Who unable to cross the mire of desire,
Wallow in the pleasures of the senses.
They see no end in birth and death,
In the vast sea of existence.
Thus craving brings forth,
Rebirth in sorrowful conditions.
Their feed are as if bound
Forever in the ocean of samsaric existence.
Greed and desire create foes,
Enticing followers to danger.
Repenting their folly,
They face endless sorrows.
Partaking of sugar-coated poisoned food,
They are happy, singing at first.
As the poison works, it brings much torment.
Suffering and disaster follow in its wake.
Therefore, dear friends and relations,
For these reasons, I do not accept
Your ideas of happiness dependent on wealth.
I have found happiness in being a nun.
Never will I accept home life again!
Even as the Noble Ones,
Who followed the Noble Eightfold Path,
Were able to cross the fearful ocean of samsara,
I shall certainly follow their steps,
To gain the bliss of nibbana.
The friends and relations who listened never tempted her again. Most of them realised the truth of her words, and were happy when they listened to her.
Meditating on peace, Subha was able to attain her goal of attaining full liberation on the eighth day after her ordination. One day, as the enlightened nun was enjoying the bliss of meditation, Lord Buddha pointed her out to the nuns who came to worship him, saying: "Nuns! Look at the nun Subha! She has been well-trained by Theri Uppalavanna. Full of faith, she has maintained mindfulness and restrained her senses. By earnest endeavour, she has gained deliverance from the bonds. Her practice has culminated in the full attainment of Arahantship. She has reached the Three Higher Knowledges. It is only eight days since she received ordination. She is indeed a credit to the Order of Nuns!" When Sakra, the king of the gods, overheard the Lord's words, he came with his retinue of heavenly beings and worshipped the enlightened nun Subha.
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Here's another very devout student of the Buddha who became one of his main sponsors. She is Visakha.
Visakha was the devout and generous daughter of a millionaire. When she was only seven years old, the Buddha visited her birthplace. Her grandfather, hearing of the Buddha's visit, advised Visakha to go out and welcome him. Though she was so young, she was religious and virtuous. As such, immediately after hearing the Dharma from the Buddha, she attained the first stage of sainthood.
When she was fifteen years old, some Brahmins saw Visakha and thought she would be an ideal wife for their master Punnavaddhana, the son of a millionaire named Migara. Visakha possessed the five kinds of feminine beauty: beautiful hair, a beautiful figure, beautiful bone structure, beautiful skin which was smooth and golden in colour, and youthfulness. Accordingly, they made arrangements for Visakha to be married to Punnavaddhana.
On her wedding day, her wise father gave her some advice under these ten headings:
1. A wife should not criticise her husband and parents-in-law in front of other people. Neither should their weaknesses or household quarrels be reported elsewhere.
2. A wife should not listen to the stories or reports of other households.
3. Things should be lent to those who return them.
4. Things should not be lent to those who do not return them.
5. Poor relatives and friends should be helped even if they do not repay.
6. A wife should sit gracefully. On seeing her parents-in-law or her husband, she should respect them by rising from her seat.
7. Before taking her food, a wife should first see that her parents-in-law and husband are served. She should also make sure that his servants are well cared for.
8. Before going to sleep, a wife should see that all doors are closed, furniture is safe, servants have performed their duties, and that parents-in-law have retired. As a rule, a wife should rise early in the morning and unless she is sick, she should not sleep during the day.
9. Her parents-in-law and husband should be treated very carefully, like fire.
10. Her parents-in-law and husband should be given the respect due to devas.
From the day Visakha arrived in Savatthi, the city of her husband, she was kind and generous to everyone in the city and everyone loved her.
One day, her father-in-law was eating some sweet rice porridge from a golden bowl when a monk entered the house for alms. Although her father-in-law saw the monk, he continued to eat as if he had not. Visakha politely told the monk, "Pass on, Venerable Sir, my father-in-law is eating stale food."
For a long time Visakha's father-in-law had been unhappy at her because she was a devout follower and supporter of the Buddha while he was not. He was looking for a chance to break off the marriage between his son and Visakha, but her conduct was faultless. Now he saw his chance. Misunderstanding Visakha's words, he thought she had brought disgrace to his family.
He ordered Visakha to be expelled from the house, but she reminded him of her father's request to eight clansmen. Her father had told them, "If there be any fault in my daughter, investigate it."
The millionaire agreed to her request and summoned those eight clansmen to come and investigate whether Visakha was guilty of rudeness. When they arrived he secretly told them, "Find her guilty of this fault and expel her from the house."
Visakha proved her innocence by explaining, "Sirs, when my father-in-law ignored the monk and continued to eat his milk-rice porridge he was not making merit in his present life. He was only enjoying the merits of his past actions. Was this not like eating stale food?"
Her father-in-law had to admit that she was not guilty of being rude.
There were other misunderstandings after this, but Visakha was able to explain to her father-in-law's satisfaction. After these incidents, her father-in-law began to realise his error and to see the great wisdom of Visakha. At her suggestion, he invited the Buddha to their house to give teachings. On hearing the discourse he became a sotapanna (first stage of sainthood) .
With wisdom and patience, she succeeded in converting her husband's household to a happy Buddhist home. Visakha was also very generous and helpful to the monks. She built the Pubbarama monastery for the monks at great cost. Immense was her joy when the Buddha spent six rainy seasons there.
In one of the discourses that the Buddha delivered to Visakha, he spoke of the eight qualities in a woman that bring her welfare and happiness in this world and the next: "Herein, Visakha, a woman does her work well, she manages the servants, she respects her husband and she guards his wealth. Herein, Visakha, a woman has confidence (saddha) in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha; virtue (sila); charity (caga); and wisdom (panna)."
Being a woman who had many talents, Visakha played an important role in various activities amongst the Buddha and his followers. At times, she was given the authority by the Buddha to settle disputes that arose amongst the nuns (bhikkhunis). Some Vinaya rules of discipline were also laid down for the nuns when she was called in to settle their disputes.
Visakha died at the ripe age of one hundred and twenty.
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Here's the story of Sona, the nun who used to have many children, who became a nun anyway and attained arahatship:
There was a housewife in Savatthi who had ten children. She was always occupied with giving birth, nursing, upbringing, educating and arranging marriages for her children. Her children were her whole life. She was therefore known as "Sona with many children."
She was rather like Migara's mother of the same city, though the latter had twenty children. We may find such an abundance of offspring in one family somewhat strange today. However, this was not uncommon in Asia and even in some parts of the West.
Sona's husband was a lay follower of the Buddha. After having practiced moral conduct according to the precepts for several years while living the household life, he decided that the time had come to enter into the holy life, and so he became a monk. It was not easy for Sona to accept this decision, yet she did not waste her time with regrets and sorrow, but decided to live a more religiously dedicated life. She called her ten children and their husbands and wives together, turned her considerable wealth over to them, and asked them only for support for her necessities. For a while all went well. She had sufficient support and could spend her time in religious activities.
But soon it happened that the old woman became a burden to her children and children-in-law. They had not been in agreement with their father's decision, and even less did they agree with their mother's devout attitude and religious speech. Indeed, they thought of their parents as foolish because they would not indulge in the pleasures their wealth could purchase. They considered their parents mentally unstable, religious fanatics; this attitude made them despise their mother.
They quickly forgot that they owed all their riches to their mother, that she had lavished many years of care and attention on them. Looking only at the present moment, they considered the old woman a nuisance. The words of the Buddha, that a grateful person is as rare in the world as one who becomes a Noble One, proved true again in this case.
The increasing disdain by her children was an even greater pain for Sona than the separation from her husband. She became aware that waves of bitterness arose in her, that reproaches and accusations intermingled. She realized that what she had taken to be selfless love, pure mother's love, was in reality self love, coupled with expectations. She had been relying on her children completely and had been convinced that she would be supported by them in her old age as a tribute to her long years of solicitude for them, that gratitude, appreciation and participation in their affairs would be her reward. Had she not looked at her children as an investment then, as an insurance against the fear and loneliness of old age? In this manner, she investigated her motives and found the truth of the Enlightened One's words in herself. Namely, that it was a woman's way not to rely on possessions, power and abilities, but solely on her children, while it was the way of the ascetic to rely on virtue alone.
Her reflections brought her to the decision to enter the Order of Nuns so that she could develop the qualities of selfless love and virtue. Why should she remain in her home where she was only reluctantly accepted? She looked upon the household life as a gray existence and pictured that of a nun as brilliant, and so was ready to follow here husband's path. She became a nun, a Bhikkhuni in the order of the Buddha's followers.
But after a while she realized that she had taken her self-love along. The other nuns criticized her behavior in many small matters. She had entered the Sangha as an old woman and had dozens of habits and peculiarities which were obstacles in this new environment. She was used to doing things in a certain way, and the other nuns did them differently.
Sona soon realized that it was not easy to reach noble attainments, and that the Order of Nuns was not the paradise she had envisioned — just as she had not found security with her children. She also understood that she was still held fast by her womanly limitations. It was not enough that her weaknesses were abhorrent to her, and that she was longing for more masculine traits. She also had to know what to do to effect the change. She accepted the fact that she had to make tremendous efforts, not only because she was already advanced in years, but also because until now she had only cultivated female virtues. The masculine characteristics which she was lacking were energy and circumspection. Sona did not become discouraged, nor thought of the Path as too difficult. She had the same sincerity and steadfastness as her sister-nun-Soma, who said:
What's it to do with a woman's state
When the mind, well-composed
with knowledge after knowledge born,
sees into Perfect Dharma clear?
For who, indeed, conceives it thus:
A woman am I, a man am I,
or what, then indeed, am I?
Such a one can Mara still address.
It became clear to Sona that she had to develop courage and strength to win victory over her willfulness and her credulity. She realized that it was necessary to practice mindfulness and self-observation, and to implant into her memory those teachings which could be at her disposal when needed to counteract her emotions.
What use would be all knowledge and vows if she were carried away by her emotions, and her memory fail her when it was most needed? These were the reasons which strengthened Sona's determination and will-power to learn the Buddha's discourses. Through many a night thereby she attained the ability to memorize them. Furthermore, she took pains to serve her sister-nuns in a loving way and to apply the teachings constantly. After having practiced in this way for some time, she attained not only the assurance of non-returner, but became an arahant, fully-enlightened, a state she had hardly dared to hope for in this lifetime.
It happened without any special circumstances to herald it. After she had made a whole-hearted commitment to perfect those abilities which she lacked, no matter what the cost, she drew nearer to her goal day by day. One day she was liberated from the very last fetter. The Buddha said about her that she was foremost of the nuns who had energetic courage.
In the "Verses of the Elder Nuns" she describes her life in five verses:
Ten children having borne
from this bodily congeries,
so I, now weak and old,
approached a Bhikkhuni.
The Dharma she taught me —
groups, sense-spheres and elements,
I heard the Dharma,
and having shaved my hair, went forth.
While still a probationer
I purified the eye divine;
Former lives I knew,
and where I lived before.
One-pointed, well-composed,
the Signless [**] I developed,
immediately released,
unclinging now and quenched!
Knowing the five groups well,
they still exist; but with their roots removed.
Unmovable am I,
on a stable basis sure,
now rebirth is no more.
*[The five groups (or aggregates), the twelve sense spheres and the eighteen elements.]
**[One of the three gates to freedom the other two being the Desireless and Emptiness.]
Sona's sister-nuns, who had formerly been her severe critics, and who had thought that because of her age she would not be able to change, now apologized to her sincerely and endeavored to follow her good example.
This is a good story that every child or parent should read. Sona’s story is one from which we can all learn. Children who read this should reflect on their responsibilities to their parents. Our parents took care of us when we were too young to take care of ourselves, taught us right from wrong and showed us the Dhamma. The Buddha said that even if we carried our parents on our shoulders for our entire lifetime (shoulder the responsibility of their care and comfort) we would not be able to settle the obligation we owe them for what they have done. The effects of what one does to one’s parents have forceful results. Both the wholesome and unwholesome deeds we perform towards our parents have serious consequences.
For parents there is much to learn from Sona. We do not own our children. How can we, when we do not even own ourselves? Children should fulfill their obligations to their parents. We should show them by example. But bringing up children in Western society is even more difficult than bringing them up in the East. If our children don’t fulfil their duties we must remember that the Buddha said that we are our own saviours. Nothing is gained by reflecting on their omissions and getting bitter and angry. But much can be gained by disciplining ourselves and purifying our own minds. The cause of suffering – craving lies within us. All we can do is to ensure that we have done our best for our children. We cannot save them just as they cannot save us. In the end each of us is our own saviour.
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The order of the Nuns was founded by the foster mother and aunt of Gautama Buddha. It took numerous requests before Maha Pajapati Gotami was granted ordination. It was due to mediation from Venerable Ananda and Maha Pajapati Gotami's determination to be a member of the monastic order.
In order to protect the nuns, Gautama Buddha gave special instructions for the nuns to follow.
This article is about many of the female Buddhists who become nuns and that was 2500 years ago. Their stories are inspiring.
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All the comments above were very interesting reads. It has not occurred to me previously to find out about the female sangha of the Buddha, especially of what had become of them, their stories and whether there are still reincarnations of them currently.
It is quite logical that the female sangha nuns would have created the seeds to be planted to reincarnate again and again to show us the continuity of the dharma. The notion of being a "male" or "female" is interchangeable too. Physically, there are differences but their mind streams will be the same for sangha.