if we consider the Buddha’s hagiography, romantic love proves to be a significant feature of the story.

Although she is abandoned by the Bodhisatta as he makes his Great Departure, the Yasodhara of South Asian hagiography cannot be defined by her abandonment. She is regularly represented as a powerful character with a voice of her own — one who challenges, cries, speaks, and commands. But above all else, the Yasodhara of many of these sources is regularly described as the Buddha’s match.

Compare to the Pāli version.

Yuishin, however, chooses to present Rāhula’s six-year gestation period as a “miraculous sign” (霊瑞), a decision that is in keeping with the kōshiki’s broader goal of praising Rāhula as a divine being.

How a thirteenth-century Japanese sect sought to revive “original Buddhism” as they understood it.

This paper presents an annotated English translation of the story of the nun Dharmadinnā, translated here for the first time from the Tibetan translation of the Kṣudrakavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. The protagonist is not able to enter the religious life because of her prenatal engagement and is finally ordained by an exceptional style of ordination ceremony performed through a messenger.

The story ends with the Buddha telling of her past life as a nun and teacher under the Buddha Kāśyapa.

For most of the women who became foremost leading disciples, or etadagga sāvikā, of the Buddha Gotama, it was not only their meeting with a past buddha, but also their seeing the Buddha together with an awakened woman, a leading bhikkhunī disciple of the Buddha, that truly stimulated their inspiration and galvanized their aspiration.

This article explores the mental and emotional states of awakened women disciples of the Buddha, as recorded in the Therī Apadāna. It examines words expressing their aspiration to awakening, the resolve supporting it, and the intention’s character, drawing parallels with the Pali Canon’s equivalent of bodhicitta development.

What is interesting about Ajātaśatru is that he is not only a committer of an ānantarya crime, but also an eminent lay disciple of the Buddha. […] Given his transformation, the salvation of Ajātaśatru provides a convenient platform for Buddhist authors to express their ideas on how to balance the workings of karma…

The narrative of Devadatta’s early monastic life should be understood as a literary device that shows him as fulfilling the prerequisites for being a schismatic.

How is it possible that my husband detests me?

I used to pay homage to constellations,
worshiping fire in the forest…

to the Buddha, Dhamma, & Saṅgha I go…

… right by my child’s half-eaten flesh.

Having been the greatest worldly ruler, her final and enlightened form is of a female ascetic by choice

This article delves into the story of Bhikkhunī Uppalavaṇṇā and the growth and complexities her story took over the centuries in different Buddhist traditions, texts, and artworks.

Mendicants, do you see Sāriputta walking together with several mendicants? … All of those mendicants have great wisdom.

Beings come together because of a common element.

I cleared my divine eye and divine ear element to communicate with the Blessed One.

Moggallāna tells Sāriputta about his day’s practice.

A faithful laywoman with a dear and beloved only son would rightly appeal to him: …

Someone who had not established mindfulness of the body might well attack one of their spiritual companions and leave without saying sorry.

When another monk falsely accuses Sāriputta of hitting him, the Buddha calls Sāriputta to respond to the allegation.

Venerable Vaṅgīsa thought, ‘This Venerable Sāriputta is educating the mendicants…’

Just now, reverend, as I was descending from Vulture’s Peak Mountain I saw a skeleton flying through the air.

While walking for alms down Vulture’s Peak, Venerable Moggallāna smiled at something invisible. The Buddha confirmed that the man he had seen had been a butcher in his past life.

Again & again farmers plow the fields.
Again & again grain comes to the kingdom.

The Buddha is invited to return home after his enlightenment.

Devadatta,
–regarded as wise, composed,
incandescent with honor–
in the thrall of heedlessness
assaulted the Tathāgata…

Conquered by three forms of false Dhamma, Devadatta was incurably doomed to hell.

Walking together, dwelling as one,
the knowledge master mixes with foolish folk.

One of the Buddha’s attendants learns to listen to the Buddha’s advice.

Evil, for the evil, is easy to do.

Devadatta announces that he will cause a split in the Sangha.

A wise man in the world of the living should avoid bad deeds.

Reflection Questions:

1. What was the cause of this man’s leprosy?
2. How does the Buddha treat him?
3. What attitude towards lepers does this sutta encourage us to have?

The emergence of a new type of sūtra emphasizing motherly love seems to reflect a powerful current of filial sentimentality conspicuous in Indian Buddhism

Friends, even though a noble disciple has abandoned the five lower fetters, still, in relation to the five aggregates subject to clinging, there lingers in him a residual conceit ‘I am,’ a desire ‘I am,’ an underlying tendency ‘I am’ that has not yet been uprooted.

Venerable Khemaka is ill, and some senior mendicants ask Dāsaka to convey their concern to him. There follows a series of exchanges mediated by Dāsaka until eventually Khemaka, despite his illness, goes to see the other mendicants himself.

‘Your outer robe of patches is soft, Kassapa.’–‘Venerable sir, let the Blessed One accept my outer robe of patches, out of compassion.’–‘Then will you wear my worn-out hempen rag-robes? ’–‘I will, venerable sir.’ Thus I offered the Blessed One my outer robe of patches and received from him his worn-out hempen rag-robes.

When several of Ānanda’s students disrobe, Kassapa admonishes him, calling him “boy”. The nun Thullanandā hears of this and criticizes Kassapa, claiming he formerly followed another teacher. But Kassapa refutes this, and gives an account of his going forth and encounter with the Buddha.

They’d look because of grasping, not by not grasping. In the same way, the notion “I am” occurs because of grasping form, feeling, perception, choices, and consciousness, not by not grasping.

Ānanda praises Venerable Puṇṇa Mantāniputta, and says that it was when hearing his teaching on the aggregates that he broke through to the Dhamma.

As a result of his theft of soma, Vedic Namuci is said to be “wicked”…

A possible Vedic origin for the Buddhist “devil.”

In a dramatic continuation of the story, Ven. Vakkali is then taken to the Black Rock on Isigili, where he declares that he has no attachment to the aggregates and proceeds to take his own life.

Percipient in this way, too, one is not sensitive to that dimension.

Ānanda exclaims how amazing it is that the Buddha has found a way to freedom while still experiencing the world.

Questioned by the monk Udāyī, Ānanda elucidates that he’s referring to the formless attainments and then goes on to recount a fascinating discussion on the meditation of the enlightened which he had had with the nun Jaṭilagāhiyā.

King Pasenadi entered the dwelling. He prostrated himself at the Blessed One’s feet, and then he covered the Blessed One’s feet with kisses, caressing them with his hands and pronouncing his name…

King Pasenadi, near the end of his life, visits the Buddha, and pronounces the reasons for his devotion.

When a bhikkhu dwells thus, he overwhelms forms; forms do not overwhelm him. He overwhelms sounds; sounds do not overwhelm him…

The Buddha is invited to teach in a new hall in Kapilavatthu. Late at night, after teaching the Sakyans, the Buddha invites Moggallāna to teach the monks, so he explains how to conquer Māra.

indriyopasamo nande mānastabdhe ca saṃnatih |
kṣamitvaṃ cāṅgulīmāle kaṃ na vismayam ānayet ||
Tranquillity of the senses in a Nanda, humility in a Mānastabdha, mercy in an Aṅgulimāla — whom would not these amaze?

A transcription of one leaf of a Sanskrit fragment and an introduction to early Buddhist textual scholarship.

A faithful laywoman with a dear and beloved only daughter would rightly appeal to her, ‘My darling, please be like the laywomen Khujjuttarā and Veḷukaṇṭakī, Nanda’s mother.’

Neither laywomen nor nuns should wish for possessions, honor, or fame.

You’re right, brahmin, I don’t have
fourteen oxen
missing …

A brahmin is searching for his lost oxen when he sees the Buddha meditating peacefully in the forest. He laments the many sorrows of his life, celebrating the Buddha’s happiness and freedom from worldly sorrows.

I had an only son called Nanda who I loved dearly. The rulers forcibly abducted him on some pretext and had him executed. But I can’t recall getting upset …

Sāriputta and Moggallāna are on tour in the southern hills. A deity informs the laywoman Veḷukaṇṭakī that they are approaching. When Sāriputta expresses his amazement that she speaks with the gods, she goes on to list her other amazing qualities.

Not to be confused with the 1988 Snow Lion book about Sakyadhītā nor the 2015 book about contemporary nuns which both share a similar title.

Allow me, venerable sir, to answer Citta the householder’s question.

Discussion questions:

1. What does this sutta reveal about (Theravāda) monastic etiquette?
2. Why do you think the sutta ends the way it does?

Sāriputta, see this
young boy coming,
carrying a water pot,
serene inside himself…

Oh, what bliss! Oh, what bliss!

A former king, now a monk, talks to himself.

Learn the recitation passage and analysis of One Fine Night, mendicant, memorize it, and remember it. It is beneficial and relates to the fundamentals of the spiritual life.

The verses from MN 131 are explained in a different way by Venerable Mahakaccāna.

But because, Master Gotama, monks, nuns, celibate laymen, laymen enjoying sensual pleasures, celibate laywomen, and laywomen enjoying sensual pleasures have all succeeded in this teaching, this spiritual path is complete in that respect.

Vacchagotta finally lets go of his obsession with meaningless speculation and asks directly about spiritual practice.

… the limbs are flabby & wrinkled; the back, bent forward

When Ānanda sees the Buddha’s sense faculties fading, the Buddha speaks on the decrepitude of old age.

… why did you get up from your seat and leave while there was still more left to do?

A corrupt tax-collector is (partially) redeemed by an encounter with Venerable Sāriputta.

I used to break off reed grass with my hands and make my hut…

… near Kallavāḷamutta Village, Venerable Mahāmoggallāna was nodding off while meditating…

Seven methods for overcoming drowsiness in your meditation.

… when people put clean things, unclean things, excrement, urine, saliva, pus, or blood on the earth, the earth is not bothered, humiliated, or disgusted, in the same way, Rāhula, practice ‘peacefulness of earth’ meditation.

Then Venerable Rāhula, thinking “How could one who has been personally advised by the Blessed One enter a village for alms?” turned back, sat at the base of a tree, crossed his legs, set his body upright, and established mindfulness.

The Buddha tells Rāhula to meditate on not-self, which he immediately puts into practice. Seeing him, Venerable Sāriputta advises him to develop breath meditation, but the Buddha suggests a wide range of different practices first.

Unlike others in the [Vessantara Jātaka], [Yasodharā] never breaks precepts, or puts her own wishes, however noble, before the needs and requirements that the beings in the immediate situation demand: she provides the true moral compass of the tale. […] Maddī, like Vessantara, has to give up everything, but, unlike him, she never lets go of her sense of interconnectedness with other beings: whether her husband, her family, her environment, or, perhaps, her vow

This paper discusses the role of the Buddha’s wife, Yasodharā/Rāhulamūtā, in Pāli Jātakas. Noting her continued popularity in South and Southeast Asian Buddhism, it considers her path to liberation seen as a composite whole, through many lifetimes, and considers some of the literary implications of this multiple depiction.

Having these six qualities the householder Tapussa is certain

Where dreadful serpents slither,
where the lightning flashes and the sky thunders
in the dark of the night;
there meditates a mendicant

Brahmā Sahampati appears to the Buddha and speaks in praise of the renunciates staying fearless in the deep forest, and celebrates the many who have found freedom.

… the god Kāmada said to the Buddha, “It’s too hard, Blessed One! It’s just too hard!”

The deity Kāmada addresses the Buddha with a series of cryptic statements lamenting the difficulty of spiritual practice. The Buddha agrees, but points out that true practitioners do it even though it’s hard.

This is indeed that Jeta’s Grove,
frequented by the Saṅgha of hermits…

A deity who had been the Buddha’s supporter Anāthapiṇḍika in his former life comes to the Buddha and speaks verses in celebration of the Jeta’s Grove, good deeds, the Dhamma, and Venerable Sāriputta.

But Mahākassapa refused those deities…

A deva-king disguises himself to give alms to Ven. Mahā Kassapa.

… mendicants, live as your own island, your own refuge, with no other refuge. Let the teaching be your island and your refuge

After the passing of Sāriputta and Moggallāna (whose actual death is unrecorded in the canon), the Buddha says the Saṅgha looks empty; yet he is not sad.

You can hear the pronunciation of some of these names over at ReadingFaithfully.org.

A noble disciple who has these four things is a stream-enterer

One of the few suttas in the Canon where the Buddha directly teaches Bhikkhunīs.

Even if a thousand mighty princes and great archers,
well trained, with strong bows,
were to completely surround me;
I would never flee.

The early Saṅgha’s foremost poet praises the Buddha, Dhamma and Saṅgha and rouses us to practice.

… past-life accounts of women as disciples of former buddhas add a new dimension to the notion of female discipleship in early Buddhism. Gotama was not alone in having a fourfold community

Then Māra came up out of Moggallāna’s mouth and stood against the door

Venerable Mahāmoggallāna confronts the evil one with a surprising tale.

… dwell with yourselves as your own island, with yourselves as your own refuge

For the conclusion, read the very next sutta: SN 47.14.

It’s incredible, sir, it’s amazing! How the Buddha tames those who are wild

One of the most beloved stories in the Pāli Canon.

The Pali account of the physician Jīvaka illustrates a well-established āyurvedic medical tradition and preserves at least one practice not found in classical āyurveda.

Comparing Jīvaka’s story to the old āyurvedic texts.

Māra was largely a way to differentiate Buddhism from Hindu competitors by drawing on a number of Hindu stories and then subverting and redeploying their symbolism.

Not only is there no mention of a wife or child in the Buddha’s recounting of his renunciation, he seems to suggest that he was still living at home with [both] his parents

The ability of a lineage to carry a particular association is of great benefit to the narratives, for it provides both weight and flexibility.

The Buddhist tradition has tended to associate Moggallāna with concentration or serenity, and Sāriputta with wisdom or insight, and to characterize the former figure along with his outstanding faculty as inferior to the latter.

That nuns did participate in the transmission and explication of the sacred texts is, however, proven by both literary and epigraphic records.

A well-written overview of what the historical record says about early Buddhist women.

Women are often the main upholders and supporters of a religion or faith or movement. This was certainly so with Buddhism when it was at its beginnings

A brief sketch of gender roles in ancient India at the time of the Buddha.

Reginald Ray has ar­gued for a rad­i­cal re­assess­ment of Devadatta as a for­est saint who was un­fairly ma­ligned in later monas­tic Buddhism. His work has been in­flu­en­tial, but it re­lies on omis­sions and mis­taken read­ings

“It would not be appropriate for me to give the Buddha a powerful laxative.”

The first few sections of the Robe Chapter tells of the origins and exploits of the Buddha’s personal physician.

Note that, while the treatments described in this tale remain undeniably dramatic, they nevertheless present an accurate account of ancient Indian medicine.

See also: the version of this story preserved in T553.

… the queerness of the figure of Ānanda, whose name can be variously translated as “joy,” “bliss,” or “happiness,” fairly lept off the pages at me

… one of the most outstanding testimonies to the Buddha’s capability as a teacher is the conversion of the killer Aṅgulimāla.

I have seen the Blessed One;
This is my last body,
And I will not go
From birth to birth again

… in neither case do the terms function as indicators that the address or the detail of the teaching is solely for monks

A note on the apparent lack of Bhikkhunis in the audience of many suttas.

… individual Brahmās (Sahāṃpati, Baka and an unnamed Brahmā) have different characters … lower than the Buddha and his great disciples[, their] individual names are a new design, not shared in the Vedic tradition of Brahmanism.

Ananda, Upali and Devadatta act out a theoretical quarrel about Buddhist attitudes to law

An interesting allegorical reading of three prominent characters in the Theravāda Vinaya.

They do not know bliss
Who have not seen Nandana

A deva thinks his pleasures are supreme.

… the Theravāda version of events in the Nandakovāda-sutta conveys an attitude towards nuns that is considerably less favorable than the attitude underlying the parallel versions

How the Theravāda elders managed to make the suttas sound misogynistic through small redactions.

You can find part two of the video here.

… revised versions of previously published articles. Each study builds around a partial or complete translation of an Ekottarika-āgama discourse, followed by an examination of aspects that I felt to be of further interest.

One to whom it might occur,
‘I’m a woman’ or ‘I’m a man’
Or ‘I’m anything at all’–
Is fit for Māra to address.

Just as the sun is valued not only for its own intrinsic radiance but also for its ability to illuminate the world, so the brilliance of the Buddha is determined not only by the clarity of his Teaching but by his ability to illuminate those who came to him for refuge

The Buddha’s first generation of followers established the traditions and values of the early Sangha. Indeed, it is nearly impossible to understand Buddhism without understanding the lives of the early Buddhist saints. This rich and inspiring series of biographies edited by Bhikkhu Bodhi mainly draws from the traditional commentaries of the Theravāda tradition and so provides an excellent balance between readability and faithfulness to the source material. A must read for all students of Buddhism.

There’s a huge amount of it that’s positive! I’m not so surprised that there are negative attitudes towards women depicted in early Buddhist literature, because this is an ancient civilization with traditional values. So, the negativity doesn’t surprise me. But all the positivity does.

A fascinating conversation about the lives of a few of the earliest Bhikkhunis and what their biographies can tell us about life in ancient India.

If someone gives up this body to continue with another body, I say that this is indeed a serious fault. If someone has given up this body and does not continue with another body, I do not say that this is a serious fault.

Interesting to note: one of the methods mentioned was tried recently, with results exactly as reported.

Thought is the source of desire.

A fairy sings a love song for the Buddha, and Sakka asks a few deep questions.

… sensual pleasures are time-consuming, full of suffering and despair, and the danger in them is greater still

A deva tried to convince a young monk to enjoy sensual pleasures and the Buddha rebukes the angel with a series of verses explaining that this young monk is already an arahant.

I did not delight in the contemplative Gotama’s speech; I condemned it, rose from my seat, and left!

A grieving father is having none of the Buddha’s nonsense, and King Pasenadi gets a damma talk from his wife, Queen Mallikā, on the dangers of affection in this entertaining sutta.

Then, not receiving his parents’ permission to go forth, the clansman Raṭṭhapāla lay down there on the bare floor, saying: “Right here I shall either die or receive the going forth.”

This long sutta tells the story of Raṭṭhapāla’s going forth: a model of monastic behavior for Theravādins even today.

An alternate translation can be found here.

… for a long time I have paid homage to the Buddha and the esteemed mendicants. Yet I have never before heard such a Dhamma talk

As the great lay disciple Anāthapiṇḍika lies dying, Venerable Sāriputta visits him and gives a powerful teaching on non-attachment.

What kind of bhikkhu, friend Ānanda, could illuminate the Gosinga Sāla-tree Wood?

A number of the Buddha’s greatest disciples gather together and discuss the qualities they admire.