Buddhist view of motherhood

Buddhist view of motherhood

The Buddha raised the status of women in India despite criticism levelled against Him. Generally speaking, during the time of the Buddha, due to brahminical influence, women were not given much recognition. Sometimes, they were held in contempt, although there were solitary cases of their showing erudition in matters of philosophy, and so on.

There will be no Fully Awakened. One on this earth without a mother. There will be no sons and daughters on this earth without mothers. Motherhood was greatly admired and honoured by the Buddha. The most Enlightened One admonished His followers to treat their mothers similar to that of the Fully - Awakened One. So, we can understand how respectfully and nobly. He treated motherhood.

Queen Maha Maya, the mother of Prince Siddhartha passed away when the prince was only seven days old.

After passing away of Queen Maha Maya King Suddhodana married the princess Prajapathi, the sister of Queen Maya to look after and foster the motherless Prince Siddhartha. After passing away of King Suddhodana, Queen Prajapathi decided to be a Buddhist nun. With much effort and determination, she was able to become a nun at last.

Prince Siddhartha left the royal palace at the age of 29 and strove immensely to attain the Enlightenment for six years. Ultimately, he was able to be the Fully-Awakened One.

After attaining the Buddhahood, He visited His mother reborn in the heaven known as Thusitha as Mother God. The Buddha preached the profound Dhamma known as “Abhidarma” to her and made her realize the noble doctrine. She ultimately became an heir to the supreme bliss of Nibbana.

That is how He paid His gratitude to His mother who helped Him to be born into this world for His final birth.

The Buddha raised the status of women in India despite criticism levelled against Him. Generally speaking, during the time of the Buddha, due to brahminical influence, women were not given much recognition. Sometimes, they were held in contempt, although there were solitary cases of their showing erudition in matters of philosophy, and so on.

In his large-heartedness and magnanimity, the Buddha treated women with consideration and civility, and paved the way to them, too, for peace, purity and sanctity. The Buddha established the Order of Nuns (Bhikkuni Sasana) for the first time in history; for never before this had been there.

Women from all walks of life joined the Order. The lives of quite a number of these noble nuns, their strenuous endeavours to win the goal of freedom, and their paeans of joy at Deliverance of mind are graphically described in the “psalms of sisters” (Theri-Gatha).

While the dead body of Theri Prajapathi Gotami was being taken to the cemetery in a procession, it is said that the Buddha too followed (went behind) the cortege to pay His last respects to His foster mother who breast fed Him. That is how The Buddha showed his gratitude to the motherhood. The Buddha never belittled the motherhood and women’s wisdom. He guided women to develop their insight and to put an end to this samsaric journey (the process of births and deaths) Kisa Gotamee and Patacara went mad due to unbearable sorrow of losing their beloved children.

But ultimately, they became Bhikkunis of perfect wisdom and virtues. We should not forget that the sacred Bo-tree planted in Maha Meuna Park in Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka was brought to this island by a woman. She was Theri Sangamittha, the daughter of Emperor Asoka of India. The Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha which is now enshrined in the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, too was brought here by a woman. She was princess Hemamala from India. Queen Visakha was the chief laywoman disciple (devotee) of the Buddha during those days of the Buddha Theri Patacara became the chief female disciple of discipline in the Order of Buddhist nuns during the time of the Buddha.

Queen Vihara Maha Devi, the beloved mother of King Dutugemunu in Sri Lanka pioneered in protecting Buddhism in Sri Lanka when Buddhism and Buddhists were at the risk of destruction due to misguided non-Buddhist rulers.

The first lesson that the Buddha gave to the world was gratitude. He showed that lesson by example. He honoured the Sacred - Bo tree which supported Him to meditate by glancing at it with open eyes for a week. The Buddha always practised what he preached.

So, all of us should start practising the perfect way shown by the Buddha without further delay to enjoy the bliss of deliverance. Perfect wisdom will never come to us without dedicated efforts. Since we are presently blessed with the noble humanity, we should attempt to reap the maximum benefits of it. How can we believe that we would be blessed with the form of humanity in our next birth? Who gives us that guarantee? The power of kammic energy is unimaginable and incomprehensible.

Although our beloved parents can provide us with almost all our material requirements for the welfare of this very life here on earth, they are unable to open the doors of the next world that is filled with joy and delight. It is our well-directed mind that brings us eternal bliss of Nibbana. We should honour and respect our parents through day and night as they have brought us up with sound physical fitness. It is the sole benefit that we are presently capable of performing meritorious deeds.

Let’s pay our highest homage to the motherhood as long as we live on this earth. Under these circumstances, we should be humble enough to pay our great honour to the womenkind. Not only that, we should also protect and foster them with loving-kindness.

To re-pay for the breast-milk of our mothers that we have sucked from them to survive, we must use our all possible strength to make our mothers to tread on the path of purification as shown by the Buddha. Then only we can be satisfied that we have paid fully for the debt of her blood that she turned into white milk to feed us.

The noblest words of the Enlightened One

We should not consider a slight wrong deed as “small evil”. When the Enlightened One advised us,” Cease to do evil,” He did not mean only big mis-deeds, but also all evil. When we cease to do evil, we must try to cultivate wholesome thoughts for the benefit of ourselves and others. Then, such noble thoughts must be put into practice and thus, we naturally harbour the power of meritorious deeds and words in our hearts.

Followers of religions admit that to be born as human beings into this world, we all have been greatly fortunate. It is due to our wholesome deeds, thoughts and words during our past life-times.

Therefore, we all should strive to tread on the path as shown by the Buddha who preached the noblest doctrine through His perfect wisdom.

As Buddhists, our aim in this present life should be to assimilate the maximum amount of noble teachings of the Buddha and to put his precious teachings into practice in our day-to-day life. Then only we will become real heirs to this noble religion, or the meaningful way of life. We must always remember the great verse in Dhammapada that is given below.

Sabbapapassa akaranam
Kusalassa upasampada
Sacitta partiyodapanam
Etam Buddhana sasanam

When we think of its deep meaning, we must know that it contains the whole perfect doctrine of the Buddha whose ultimate aim was to liberate the suffering beings from the never-ending process of birth and death.

“Cease to do evil, do good;
Purify the heart and mind;
This is the teaching of all
the Buddhas”

As Buddhists, we understand the difference between right and wrong. We should not commit any act if it is harmful to others. If it is unfit or disadvantageous to ourselves too, we should not perform that act. Birds and animals too should not be harmed. We have no right or privilege to harass or harm any other being that is desirous of happiness and living in peace.

We must refrain from speaking harsh and unkind words or fabricate untrue stories about anyone. We must try not to do anything wrong even by mistake or by our own carelessness. For example, we forget to fill the dog’s water-bowl and to give it food. Consequently, the poor dog suffers a lot from thirst and hunger.

There are many ways to cause suffering simply due to our carelessness. When we have caused unhappiness to others by any act or word of ours, or by failing to do what we know is right, then we are certainly guilty of doing evil.

We should not consider a slight wrong deed as “small evil”. When the Enlightened One advised us,” Cease to do evil,” He did not mean only big mis-deeds, but also all evil.

When we cease to do evil, we must try to cultivate wholesome thoughts for the benefit of ourselves and others. Then, such noble thoughts must be put into practice and thus, we naturally harbour the power of meritorious deeds and words in our hearts.

When we do good, we bring happiness to ourselves and others, Doing wrong often brings excitement or some degree of false joy, but genuine happiness never comes from doing wrong.

So, from the very inception of the time when we begin to think of ourselves, we must attempt to have the correct balance in our lives by clearing away all wrong thinking (negative thoughts), wrong speech and wrong actions. Instead, we must replace them with wholesome thoughts, pleasant speech and good actions.

Everyone wants to be joyous, but nobody can succeed in being exactly and truly happy until he ceases to do evil and attempts much to do good genuinely according to his conscience.

Purify heart and mind

This is the most important factor for which we must pay our serious attention. When the heart is pure, then there is no desire to do evil. When the mind is pure, we don’t even think of evil. This type of mental state is very essential for concentrating on committing good. In this way, we are naturally tempted in committing beneficial acts for others.

Therefore, the gist of Gauthama Buddha’s noble doctrine is contained in this very noble stanza. It is said that all the Buddhas who were born into this human world have preached this noble stanza to convince the ordinary beings with their profound teachings through boundless compassion and loving-kindness.

Long ago, there was a very famous monk who was widely known all over the country for his virtues and wisdom. This great monk was so famous that even the Emperor wished to have a chat with him.

Therefore, a special envoy was sent from the imperial palace to the forest-monastery that was situated on a distant mountain top where this wise monk lived. The envoy went and conveyed the message of the emperor respectfully to the monk. That was to asked the monk to visit the capital of the empire as the emperor was interested in seeing him in person.

After three months, the monk arrived at the emperor’s palace and was received with great honour. That particular day was the sixty-fifth birthday of the emperor. So, the emperor wished to do something holy in honour of the occasion.

Hence, he decided to see the monk in person and to listen to his sermon. The emperor and the empress and all the members of the imperial household went into a large assembly hall of the palace and invited the monk respectfully to deliver a talk. The monk asked them what was the topic on which they would like him to talk.

The emperor replied “Venerable Sir, kindly tell us about the deepest teaching of Buddhism.”

The wise old monk bowed to the emperor and answered, “Cease to do evil, do good, purify heart and mind; This is the teaching of all the Buddhas”.

The emperor was not pleased and satisfied at all with this answer. He said, “This is not a deep teaching - even a child of five years can understand it”.

Then, the wise monk replied, “Ah, yes, a child of five years can certainly understand this teaching, but even an old man of sixty-five years may find it difficult to put its meaning into practice and achieve its noble results that lead to supreme bliss of Nibbana”