True-Love Promise

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yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

True-Love Promise

Post by yawares »

Dear Members,

I got inspiration from a Dhamma Wheel member "hanzze_" who emailed this story to me. This lovely Friday morning I proudly present "Udayabhadda Jataka" the complete story Translated from the Pali, to you all.

Pledging My Love
: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4XhLuXFJpQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Here it may be told of the most loving and happy lives that Prince Siddhartha and his wife Yasodhara led together from the time of Dipankara Buddha to his final enlightenment as a Buddha that in almost every rebirth they lived together in a very happy and peaceful state.
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Udayabhadda Jataka: True-Love Promise
[From The Dhamma Encyclopedia]

Once upon a time, when king Kasi was reigning over the realm of Kasi, in Surundha his city, neither son nor daughter had he. So he bade his queens offer prayer for sons. Then the Bodhisatta, passing out of Brahma’a world, was conceived in the womb of his chief queen. And because by his birth he cheered the hearts of a great multitude, he received the name of Udayabhadda, or Welcome. At the time when the lad could walk upon his feet, another being came into this world from the world of Brahma, and became a girl child in the womb of another of this king’s wives, and she was named with the same name, Udayabhadda.

When the Prince came of years, he attained mastery in all branches of education: more, he was chaste to a degree and knew nothing of the deeds of the flesh, not even in dream, nor was his heart bent on sinfulness. The king desired to make his son king, with the solemn sprinkling, and to arrange plays for his pleasure; and gave command accordingly. But the Bodhisatta replied, “I do not want the kingdom, and my heart is not bent on sinfulness.” Again and again he was entreated, but his reply was to have made a woman’s image of red gold, which he sent to his parents, with the message, “When I find such a woman as this, I will accept the kingdom.” This golden image they dispatched over all India. One day they saw princess Udayabhadda so beautiful just like 'the image'. Then the Bodhisatta agreed to marry Princess Udayabhadda, his own sister , born of a different mother, and sprinkled him to be king.

These two lived together a life of chastity. In course of time, when his parents were dead, the Bodhisatta ruled the realm. The two dwelt together in one chamber, yet denied their senses, and never so much as looked upon one another in the way of desire; nay, a promise they even made, that which of them soever should first die, he should return to the other from his place of new birth, and say, ‘In such a place am I born again.

Now from the time of his sprinkling the Bodhisatta lived very long life, and then he died. Other king there was none, the commands of Udayabhadda were promulgated, the courtiers administered the kingdom. The Bodhisatta had become Sakka in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, remembered his promise, and said to himself, “To the king’s daughter Udayabhadda I will go, and I will test her with riches, I will discourse, and will fulfil my promise!”

Now at that time, it being the time of night, the palace doors were fast closed, and the guard set, and the king’s daughter was sitting quiet and alone, in a magnificent chamber upon the fine terrace of her seven-storeyed mansion, meditating upon her own virtue. Then Sakka took a golden dish filled with coins all of gold, and in her very sleeping-chamber appeared before her; and standing on one side, began speech with her by reciting the first stanza:

Thee flawless in thy beauty, pure and bright,

Thee sitting lonely on this terrace-height,

In pose most graceful, eyed like nymphs of heaven,

I pray thee; let me spend with thee this night”


And then he offered the golden dish of coins to the princess. The princess replied:

“I ask for none, since Udaya has died,

Nor god nor goblin, no nor man, beside:

Therefore, I mighty Goblin, get thee gone,

Come no more hither, but far off abide.”

Hearing her, Sakka disappeared.

Next day at the same hour, he took a silver bowl filled with golden coins and offered to the princess. Then the princess began to think, “If I allow him to talk and prate, he will come again and again. I will have nothing to say to him now.” So she said nothing at all. Sakka finding that she had nothing to say, he disappeared.

Next day, at the same time, he took an iron bowl full of coins, and said, “Lady, if you will bless me with your love, I will give this iron bowl full of coins to you.” When she saw him, the princess asked why first he offered gold dish filled with coins, next a silver dish and now an iron bowl.

The Sakka replied, “Lady Princess, I am a wary trader, and I waste not my substance for nought. If you were increasing in youth or beauty, I would also increase the present I offer you; but you are fading, and so I make the offering dwindle also.” So saying, he repeated three stanzas:

“O woman! Youthful bloom and beauty fade

Within this world of men, thou fair-limbed maid.

And thou to-day art older grown than erst,

So dwindles less the sum I would have paid.

“Thus, glorious daughter of a king, before my gazing eyes

As goes the flight of day and night thy beauty fades and dies.

“But if, O daughter of a king most wise, it pleases thee

Holy and pure to aye endure, more lovely shalt thou be!”
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Then the princess said:

“The gods are not like men, they grow not old;

Upon their flesh is seen no wrinkled fold.

How is’t the gods have no corporeal frame?

This, mighty Goblin, I would now be told!”

Then Sakka explained the matter by repeating another stanza:

“The gods are not like men: they grow not old;

Upon their flesh is seen no wrinkled fold:

To-morrow and to-morrow ever more

Celestial beauty grows, and bliss untold.”

When she heard the beauty of the world of gods, she asked the way to be there.Then Sakka explained the matter in another stanza:

“Who keeps in due control both voice and mind,

Who with the body loves not sin to do,

Within whose house much food and drink we find,

Large-handed, bounteous, in all faith all true,

Of favours free, soft-tongued, of kindly cheer–

He that so walks to heaven need nothing fear.”

When the princess had heard his words, she thanked him:

“Like a mother, like a father, you admonish me:

Mighty one, O beauteous being, tell me, tell me who you be?”


Then the Bodhisatta repeated another stanza:

“I am Udayabhaddha, fair lady, for my promise come to thee:

Now I go, for I have spoken; from the promise I am free.”

The princess drew a deep breath, and said, “You are King Udayabhadda, my lord!” then burst into a fold of tears, and added, “Without you I cannot live! Instruct me, that I may live with you always!”. Then Sakka having thus discoursed to her, and he went back to his heaven.

The princess next day entrusted her courtiers with the government; and in that very city of hers, in a delightsome park, she became a recluse. There she lived righteously, until at the end of her days she was born again in the Heaven of the Thirty-three, as the Bodhisatta’s handmaiden.
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When the Buddha had ended this discourse, he declared the Truths and identified the Birth: “At that time Rahula’s mother was the Princess, and Sakka was I myself.”
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Note***
Matali a deva, asked Sakkadevaraja a question that being a king himself of the sakka world, what kind of a virtue in am man would he respect. “I pay homage to the layman whose ordinary life is one of purity and wholesomeness; is a strict preceptor and a lover of truth; is charitable with regard to his outlook of the suffering world and one who performs his duty well to his family,” was the answer given.


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Love Buddha's dhamma,
yawares/sirikanya
:heart:
User avatar
hanzze_
Posts: 261
Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 4:30 am

Re: True-Love Promise

Post by hanzze_ »

You didn't read the second story (link) I posted, did you? *smile*

Actually love (tanha or craving) is the cause of suffering, it's ok to see it as a worldly thing which can be useful to some extend, but it's not so good to think that the Buddha taught love as something one should crave for.
In Southeast Asia, most monks teach love and put much sneha (sineha) into the religion, to catch people.
From One Who Is Dear

... "That's the way it is, householder. That's the way it is — for sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are born from one who is dear, come springing from one who is dear."

"But lord, who would ever think that sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress, & despair are born from one who is dear, come springing from one who is dear? Happiness & joy are born from one who is dear, come springing from one who is dear." So the householder, not delighting in the Blessed One's words, rejecting the Blessed One's words, got up from his seat and left. ...
How ever, your love could grow to real love. There is a great quote:
"How few understand what love really is, and how it arises in the human heart. It is so frequently equated with good feelings toward others, with benevolence or nonviolence or service. But these things in themselves are not love. Love springs from awareness. It is only inasmuch as you see someone as he or she is really here, and not how they are in your memory or your desire or in your imagination or projection that you can truly love them; otherwise it is not the person that you love but the idea that you have formed of this person, or this person as the object of your desire not as he or she is in themselves.

The first act of love is to see this person or this object, this reality as it truly is. And this involves the enormous discipline of dropping your desires, your prejudices, your memories, your projections, your selective way of looking ...a discipline so great that most people would rather plunge headlong into good actions and service than submit to the burning fire of this asceticism. When you set out to serve someone whom you have not taken the trouble to see, are you meeting that person's need or your own?"

---

"You see persons and things not as they are but as you are. If you wish to see them as they are you must attend to your attachments and the fears that your attachments generate. Because when you look at life it is these attachments and fears that will decide what you will notice and what you block out. Whatever you notice then commands your attention. And since your looking has been selective you have an illusory version of the things and people around you. The more you live with this distorted version the more you become convinced that it is the only true picture of the world because your attachments and fears continue to process incoming data in a way that will reinforce your picture."

The Way to Love--- Father Anthony de Mello
After his enlightenment Buddha taught based on much experiences, a secure way to heaven and even a shortcut to release. Don't forget, heaven is not lasting.
User avatar
yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Re: True-Love Promise

Post by yawares »

[quote="hanzze_"]You didn't read the second story (link) I posted, did you? *smile*

Dear "hanzze",

I think you 're pretty much like my husband who loves abhidhamma/sutta, loves to discuss dhammas with members.
I'm defferent, I'm just like a todler in abhidhamma/Sutta. I try to keep 5 precepts everyday and 8 precepts on Uposatha Days.
I think I should concentrate on basic things(silas) and try to perfect them bit by bit everyday using 5 precepts/8 precepts /dhammapada/jataka stories as my magic maps to be on the long long long highway to Nirvana. I might achieve going to heaven(not permanent) but I'll take it as part of my learning. I know I can climb to higher and higher heaven once I land in heaven somewhere.

Dear "hanzz_" I don't like to discuss dhamma because my English is bad....that's why I choose to be a story-teller, copy and post at 5 websites: SD/JTN/MULT/DHAMMA WHEEL/DSG, easy for me. I know that if my husband achieve something big, he'll try to teach me and take me with him, he's my best friend/kalayanamit.

Truly appreciate,
yawares
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hanzze_
Posts: 261
Joined: Fri May 25, 2012 4:30 am

Re: True-Love Promise

Post by hanzze_ »

Discussing to much is not good, you are right. But it into action is much better. Your husband is fortunate to have you and I guess you are as well. Do not spend to much time with others and take well care of him. :thumbsup:
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yawares
Posts: 1531
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 3:23 pm

Re: True-Love Promise

Post by yawares »

hanzze_ wrote:Discussing to much is not good, you are right. But it into action is much better. Your husband is fortunate to have you and I guess you are as well. Do not spend to much time with others and take well care of him. :thumbsup:
Dear "hanzze_",

Thank you very much for your kind words.

yawares
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