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Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 7:05 pm
by Lombardi4
Stumbled across
this sutta.
Why does every Bodhisattas' mother pass away 7 days after the Buddha-to-be's birth?
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:38 pm
by DNS
Good question. Maybe the Commentaries address a reason for that? I don't have access to all of the commentaries yet.
One possibility I have heard is that the Bodhisattas are all born from their mother's side, suggesting a Caesarian section was performed. In those days, medical care was no where near the quality of today and many women died shortly thereafter.
Apparently there have been C-sections performed before modern hospitals:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarean_section#History" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 8:51 pm
by Fede
She dies, because she must bear no other being.
According to this:
http://www.viet.net/~anson/ebud/ebdha238.htm
(Scroll down to "The Emergence from Tusita heaven").
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Tue Mar 16, 2010 2:06 pm
by SDC
To add to what Fede has found...
From the notes/commentary for Acchariya-abbhuta Sutta (Sutta 123) of the MN, in the Bhikkhu Nanamoli/Bhikkhu Bodhi translation:
"(The mother's death) happened, not through a defect in the birth, but through the expiration of her lifespan; for the place (in the womb) occupied by the Bodhisatta, like the inner chamber of a cetiya, is not to be used by others."
I looked but could not find some other info you may be interested in regarding the Buddha traveling to the Tusita heaven to teach the Dhamma to his mother.
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 5:39 am
by mikenz66
Hi SDC,
Abhidhamma Pitaka
The Basket of Abhidhamma
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/abhi/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
According to tradition, the essence of the Abhidhamma was formulated by the Buddha during the fourth week after his Enlightenment.[1] Seven years later he is said to have spent three consecutive months preaching it in its entirety in one of the deva realms, before an audience of thousands of devas (including his late mother, the former Queen Maya), each day briefly commuting back to the human realm to convey to Ven. Sariputta the essence of what he had just taught.[2] Sariputta mastered the Abhidhamma and codified it into roughly its present form. Although parts of the Abhidhamma were recited at the earlier Buddhist Councils, it wasn't until the Third Council (ca. 250 BCE) that it became fixed into its present form as the third and final Pitaka of the canon.[3]
Notes
[1] Handbook of Pali Literature, by Somapala Jayawardhana (Colombo: Karunaratne, 1994), p. 1.
[2] From the Atthasalini, as described in Great Disciples of the Buddha, by Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker (Somerville: Wisdom Publications, 1997), pp. 45-46.
[3] The Katthavatthu, composed during the Third Council, was the final addition to the Abhidhamma Pitaka. See Guide Through the Abdhidhamma Pitaka, by Nyanatiloka Mahathera (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1983), p xi.
Mike
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Wed Mar 17, 2010 11:14 am
by SDC
Right on, Mike. Thanks for that.
EDIT - The reason I brought up that aspect of his mother recieving the teaching was to highlight the fact that even though she passed on from her life on earth she had a very good rebirth. Perhaps some think that she has been cut short of something, that it is a burden being the mother of the Buddha. But it is most definately not.
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 2:49 pm
by char101
Stefan wrote:Stumbled across
this sutta.
Why does every Bodhisattas' mother pass away 7 days after the Buddha-to-be's birth?
Just another opinion: delivering birth to a boddisattas is such a great kusala kamma that the kamma cuts any kamma that supports her in the human realm and send her to the Tusita heaven.
Re: Bodhisattas' mothers' short-livedness
Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2010 9:33 pm
by Cittasanto
char101 wrote:Stefan wrote:Stumbled across
this sutta.
Why does every Bodhisattas' mother pass away 7 days after the Buddha-to-be's birth?
Just another opinion: delivering birth to a boddisattas is such a great kusala kamma that the kamma cuts any kamma that supports her in the human realm and send her to the Tusita heaven.
Hi Char101,
why did the Buddha not pass away untill 45 years after he first attained enlightenment?
by your logic he would of dies imediately after, not 45 years later. wasn't his Kamma that supported his physical life extinguished?