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Tathālokā Therī
February 14, 2020


Upāsikā Khemiyā Denise Morrison's beautiful painting of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī

‘‘‘You are surrounded by us all with loving hearts.'"

~~~ Asmābhi pariciṇṇosi mettacittāhi ~~~


“We have attended on you with thoughts of loving kindness, O Leader" "O guide, you are surrounded by us all with loving hearts. Great sage, now give us your consent" "Permit us all [to attain] quenching, O Great Sage.”


230. ‘‘‘Asmābhi pariciṇṇosi, mettacittāhi nāyaka;

Anujānāhi sabbāsaṃ [sabbāyo (syā. pī.)], nibbānāya mahāmune’. {{Mahāpajāpatigotamītheriyāpadānaṃ, Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana Tipitaka-Pāli}}


-- the Buddha's mother Bhikkhunī Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī together with 500 Arahantī Bhikkhunīs, as she completes her announcement of her immanent Parinibbāna, final Nirvāna, to her son, the Buddha, and the rest of her children, family, monastic community, disciples, students and supporters

(as translated by William Pruitt in Commentary on the Verses of the Theris and Jonathan Walters' "Voice from the Silence: the Buddha's Mother's Story")



 

We keep on learning.

Friends, according to what we've just learned and at long last come to properly understand, this lunar quarter--the eighth day after the Magha full moon--is the real lunar anniversary day of the founding mother of our Buddhist women's monastic community's final Nirvāna according to long unknown only recently-translated early Buddhist texts.


I will explain -

This week, offering reading and and thoughts on Wendy Garling's forthcoming book on "Mahaprajapati Gotami - Mother of the Buddha," I learned something new about Mahā Gotamī's story -- the actual date of her final Nirvāna.


Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life by Wendy Garling

At first, reading only the Pāli-text canon's Gotamī Therī Apadāna, we learned that her extraordinary Parinibbāna was sometime before the Buddha's.*


Then a few years ago, from Shoba Rani Dash's book,** we learned that it was on or around three months before the Buddha's own Parinibbāna, according to Early Buddhist Chinese-text parallels to her Pāli-text Apadāna (sacred biography).


And now, this year, thanks to the research and publications of fine monastic scholar-practitioners Ven Bhikkhuni Dhammadinna*** and Ven Bhikkhu Analayo****, we now understand when it was (or when the texts say it was); which is -- today: the lunar quarter following the February Magha Full Moon.


This is the Uposatha of the Eighth Day of the Dark Half of the Month of Magha. In Pāli, the Māghamāsaṁ Kaṇhapakkhaṁ Aṭṭhamī Uposatha. In contemporary Hindi: the Magha Masam Krishna Paksha Asthami Upavasath or Uposath.


In Buddhism, this Eight-day Uposatha is the Day of the Final Nirvāna of Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī together with her Five Hundred Great Arahantī Bhikkhunī Companions


In Pāli: the Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī saddhiṃ Mahārahantī Pañcasatabhikkuṇīparivārehi Parinibbāṇaṃ Aṭṭhamī


In Sanskrit: the Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī Mahārhatī Pañcasatabhikṣuṇīparivāraiḥ sārdhaṃ Parinirvāṇaṃ Aṣṭhamī


(If anyone spots any errors to the Pāli or especially the Sanskrit here, please let me know via Messenger or comments below.)


Here in Northern California this year that means Feb 14-15, 2020, which has already started in Mahāpajāpatī Gotamīs old homeland in "Middle Earth" -- India's Majjhadesa -- at the time of my writing.


My sincere thanks and commendation to Ven Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā for her groundbreaking translations of these early Buddhist texts (her work is linked to below). To Ven Anandajoti Bhikkhu for his advice and publication of the Three Discourses Concerning Mahapajapati Gotami along with a complete translation of the Pāli-text commentaries published on Ancient Buddhist Texts. And to Wendy Garling; for it is through connection with her soon-to-be-published book on the life story of Mahāprajāpatī Gotamī that i have finally come to understand the actual date of our great awakened foremother's(') Parinibbāna.



Mettā to Wendy Garling, author of "Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha's Life" and "Mahapajapati - Mother of the Buddha"

The dates on our Buddhist lunar calendar going forward are:

  • 12-13 February 2023

  • 2-3 March 2024

  • 20 February 2025


Footnotes:

* From the Pāli-text Tipitaka: the Heroic Biography of Mahā Gotamī and story of her Parinibbāna from the Khuddaka Nikāya Therī Apadāna as translated by Jonathan Walters:


**Prof. Dr. Shobha Rani Dash's groundbreaking translation work on comparative analysis on the life of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī as expressed in the Pāli and Chinese Early Buddhist texts in Mahāpajāpatī: The First Bhikkhunī.


*** Venerable Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā's research and translations



Venerable Bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā's research and translation of "The Parinirvāṇa of Mahāprajāpatī Gautamī and Her Followers in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya"

**** Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo's research and translation in Ekottarika-āgama Studies, Gotamī-apadāna (Ap 17) chapter, pp 367-378


Venerable Bhikkhu Anālayo's research and translation in Ekottarika-āgama Studies

 

And a few images from Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī's life:


Holding her sister Mahā Māyā who gave birth to the Buddha (then still an unawakened Bodhisatta in his own words)

Gotamī holds her elder sister Mayā Devī, and with them standing together, Mahā Mayā gives birth to the baby Bodhisatta, Buddha to be, in the Sal grove, Lumbini. (Noting, many contemporary images and paintings do not include Mahā Pajāpatī in images of the scene in this way.)


This image, which appears similar to many from ancient Gandhara, is from the Harvard Divinity School Bulletin article "The Death of The Buddha’s Mother: Silence surrounds maternal death, in Maya’s time and in ours" by Kim Gutschow.


Her sister's early death seven days later after which she became the Bodhisatta's foster mother

Anicca vata sankhara! ~ Truly all conditions are impermanent!


Mahāprajāpatī Gotamī sits with her elder sister queen Māyādevī on her deathbed, together with their husband king Suddhodana.


Ivory roundel carving from Museum of New Delhi, Wikipedia Commons.


Her going with her husband to meet the Buddha when he first returned home after his great awakening

"The Miracle at Kapilavastu" -- from the earlier "aniconic" phase of Buddhist iconography -- according to the analysis of scholars, the Buddha is portrayed here by the Bodhi tree, and his miracle upon first return to his home town of Sravasti, of which walking up and down in the air was part, is portrayed by the stone walking path above the Bo tree.


Mahā Pajāpatī stands nearest to the Buddha with her daughter Nanda in front of her and her husband, the Buddha's father Suddhodana, at her side with palms folded in reverence. More of the Sakyan people are behind them, with heavenly beings above.


This photo is from the Great Stupa at Sanchi's, the third panel of the Northern Gateway, thanks to Wikipedia Commons.



Her requesting ordination from the Buddha, with the Bhikkhunī Sangha of leading Arahantīs

Thanks to the Buddha's own founding intentions for his monastic Sangha (as expressed twice in the Long Discourses Mahāparinibbāna Sutta) together with the Most Venerable Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī's initiative, leadership, support and dedication, the two-fold Bhikkhu and Bhikkhunī Mahā Sangha is established. In Pali-language, the Dual Monastic Sangha is called the "Ubhato Sangha," and in Sanskrit "Ubhaya Sangha."


Photo thanks to the photography of Nils Oeynhausen at Wat Doi Suthep, Thailand.


Her final blessings, her final teachings, and her final Nirvāna - on the lunar quarter following the Magha February Full Moon.

'Painting of the Venerable Lady Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī - and the Arahant Bhikkhunīs at Jetiya Temple "Sulamani" (Sulamani Phaya, Chulamanī Phraya)

created during the reign of King Narotisinthu of the Bagan Kingdom early 18th century [Burma/Myanmar]'



"Fear Not": Awakened Blessings from the Mother of the Buddha

Mahapajapati Gotami Theri image by Ho Chi Min City's Buddhism Artt at Sunnata Bhikkhuni Arama Vietnam, thanks to Ven Bhikkhuni Lieu Phap Viditadhamma Theri.


Re-emerging with the Sangha

Bhikkhunī Mahāpajāpatī Gautamī, founding mother of the global Bhikkhunī Sangha, found with fifty-two bhikkhunī statuary images at Wat Thepthidaram "Monastery of the Heavenly Daughter" in Bangkok, Thailand.



Lunar Quarter after the Magha Full Moon Parinibbāna of Arahantī Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī

Image* of the Parinibbāna of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Therī tile frescos encircling the inner dome of the Queen's Cetiya Nabhapolbhumisiri Chedi pagoda

on the roof of the world, Doi Inthanon

*image 16452_50328.jpg from EZyTrip.com


~~~

I don't know, for an Arahantī, a fully awakened one: does their life pass before their eyes before their great final passing into timeless perfect peace and happiness? With great appreciation for this path and heritage, i share these "snapshots".

We keep on learning.



 

More on Mahā Gotamī

Known as the "founding mother" of the global Buddhist Bhikkhunī Sangha, maternal aunt and foster mother of the Buddha, together with his senior-most leading woman (bhikkhunī) disiciple, she is the "great woman leader" (Mahā Pajāpatī) Gotamī (of the Gotama clan) Therī (a women elder established in the Buddhist Path through her direct realization and awakening).


According to the Sri Lanka Theravāda traditions, at age 80 she and a large cohort of her kinswomen left home and entered monastic life as the founding Bhikkhunī Sangha on the September full moon five years after the Buddha began teaching.


Through practicing the Buddha's teaching well, she became an etadaggā bhikkhunī savīkā buddhā arahantā: a fully-awakened leading woman monastic disciple of the Buddha.


According to the Early Buddhist teachings recorded in the Taisho Tipitaka parallel to the Pāli-text Gotamī Therī Apadana, at the age of 120, on the February full moon, upon the Buddha's announcement of his impending Mahāparinibbāna after three months, she herself decided to enter final Nibbāna at that time (the February full moon) with a large number of her original cohort of bhikkhunīs.


Their founding mission was established, as confirmed by the Buddha in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta of the Dīgha Nikāya Long Discourses of the Buddha. The story of Mahā Gotamī's Parinibbāna is told in the Pali-text Khuddhaka Nikāya's Gotamī Therī Apadana, linked to below.


A Lanna-Thai chant for Blessings to the Nation

based upon the Anguttara Nikāya's Book of Ones:


"Among bhikkhunis of long standing is Gotamī, maternal aunt of the Buddha.

Attained to the supreme state, may the power of her qualities always be a blessing to us."


Rattaññūnaṃ bhikkhunīnaṃ Gotamī jinamātuchā

Ṭhapitā aggaṭṭhānamhi sadā sotthiṁ karotu no


~~~



~~~



~~~

To learn more about her life and the lives and practice of more of our awakened foremothers in Buddhism, you may enjoy reading:


"Lasting Inspiration: A Look into the Guiding and Determining Mental and Emotional States of Liberated Arahant Women in Their Path of Practice and its Fulfillment as Expressed in the Sacred Biographies of the Therī Apadāna”


~~~


Aññā bhikkhuniyo sabbā nānāguṇadharā bahū

Pālentu no sabbabhayā sokarogādisambhavā


May these and all the other qualities of the bhikkhunis

Dispel all fear, sorrow, and illness.


Sotapannādayo sekkhā saddhāpaññāsīlādikā

Bhāgaso kilesadahanā sadā sotthiṃ karotu no.


Those who are stream-enterers and all others in training, endowed with faith, wisdom, and virtue,

With impurities partially burnt away, may the power of their qualities always be a blessing to us.

--


💐💐💐✨✨✨💐💐💐

The full photo album of "The Parinibbāna of Arahant Therī Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī Bhikkhunī" can be found here.


 

Anumodana, with much appreciation to Dhammadharini's HerStory initiative, which has provided me with the time and support to be able to research, learn and share.


Final Nirvāna of Mahā Pajāpatī Gotamī

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