Māyā: Buddha's biological mother in Indo-Iran

Prof. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Names (palikanon.com); Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Queen Maya, living in the crossroads of East and West, as the future-Buddha takes birth. Siddhartha is born with blue eyes, golden skin, and black curly hair.

 

Māyā: ("illusion," vision of beauty) or Mahāmāyā ("Great Maya") Devi (Queen, "shining one," deva, goddess). 

Maya was the biological mother of the Buddha (D.ii.52; see Thomas: op. cit., 25). 

Her father was the Shākyan Añjana of Devadaha, son of Devadahasakka. Her mother was Yasodharā, daughter of Jayasena. [Mhv.ii.17ff.; elsewhere her father is called Mahā Suppabuddha (ThigA.141), while the Apadāna (ii.538) gives the name of her mother as Sulakkhanā) quite like the Persian Sulakhan].

• AUDIO SLIDESHOW: Indo-Aryan Afghan women
• The unbelievable truth: Siddhartha born in Northwest India, now Iran
• Dr. Ranajit Pal places Buddha in Seistan Balochistan

The Buddha had blue eyes (CP)

Dandapāni and Suppabuddha were her brothers, and Mahā Pajāpatī her sister. Both sisters were married to King Suddhodana in their youth, but it was not until Māyā was between 40 and 50 that Siddhartha was born (Vibhā.278).

She had all the qualities necessary for one who was to bear the exalted rank of being the mother of the Buddha: she was not too passionate, she did not take intoxicants, she had practiced the pāramīs for 100,000 aeons, and had not since her birth violated the Five Precepts.

Sistan and Baluchistan, Iran/Afghanistan/Pakistan, ancient Northwest India (Maha Bharat)

   

Maya had a dream, a comforting dream that a magnificent event was in the offing.

 
Maya's Dream
On the day of her conception she fasted. And in her sleep that night she had the following dream: the Four Great Sky Kings (Catu Mahārājas) took her in her bed to Himavā and placed her under a Sal tree on Manosilātala. Then their wives came and bathed her in Anotatta Lake and clad her in deva robes. They then led her into a golden [space or ethereal] palace [craft, mansion, platform] and laid her on a deva couch; there the Bodhisat (the Buddha-to-be), in the form of a white elephant, holding a white lotus in his gleaming trunk, entered into her right side. This was on the day of the Uttar-āsālha-nakkhatta, after a festival lasting seven days, in which she had already taken part.

Maya returns to Tusita, awaits the arising of the fully awakened teacher down on Earth

 
From the day of her conception she was guarded by the Four Great Sky Kings; she felt no desire for men, and the child in her womb could be seen from outside.
  
At the end of the tenth lunar month, she wished to return to her parents' home in Devadaha to give birth as was the Indian custom. But on her way there, she stopped at the Sal tree grove in Lumbinī [exact location disputed, likely in Northwest India, toward Iran, which became part of Persia].

The child was born as Maya stood holding the branch of a Sāla tree (J.i.49ff) -- the imagery here being that of a particular kind of Indian tree goddess: Salabhanjika.
  
Seven days later Māyā died and was reborn as a male in the Tusita world in space, under the name of Māyādevaputta (Thag.vss.533f.; ThagA.i.502) or "Maya-born-among-devas."

  

Buddha visits Tavatimsa to teach

After Siddhartha became the Buddha he visited Tāvatimsa ("The Space World of the Thirty-Three") immediately after the performance of the Twin Miracle in Kapilavastu at the foot of the Gandamba tree, on the full moon day of the month of āsālha. That is where, for the three months of the rainy season, the Buddha taught the Collection of "Higher Teachings" (Abhidharma Pitaka) to his former mother, who came down from the Tusita world to listen to him.

The Buddha sat on King Sakka's royal seat (pandukambalasilāsana) at the foot of the Pāricchattaka tree. It is said that during this time, at certain intervals, the Buddha would return to Earth, leaving a seated image of himself (a division body in Mahayana terms) in Tāvatimsa to continue teaching while he attended to his human bodily needs, searching for alms in Uttarakuru and eating his meals on the banks of Lake Anotatta, where Sāriputra waited on him and learned what he had been telling the devas (DhSA.i.15; DhA.iii.216f); Ananda was not yet his attendant.

  

Visiting Tavatimsa to hear the liberating Higher Teaching (theindiespiritualist.com)

  
The commentaries (UdA.276f) state the view, still held by some, that had Māyā been alive the Buddha would not have been reluctant to bestow monastic ordination on women. This view, says Dhammapāla is erroneous. It would have made no difference. Why? It is the dhammatā of all buddhas that women receive ordination. Monks argue that while this may be true, ordination is subject to certain important restrictions.
 
It happens that the mothers of all buddhas die very soon after the birth of a bodhisattva because no other child is fit to be conceived in the same womb as a future buddha.
 

Māyā is mentioned in several "Rebirth Tales" (Jātakas) as the mother of the Bodhisat:

• the Alīnacitta
• the Katthahāri
• the Kurudhamma
• the Kosambī
• the Khandahāla
• the Dasarath
• the Bandhanāgāra
• the Mahāummagga
• the Mātuposaka
• the Vessantara
• the Susīma
• the Somanassa
• the Hatthipāla

According to some contexts, after her birth as Phusatī in the Vessantara Jātaka, Māyā became one of the daughters of King Kikī.
 

Māyā's resolve to be the mother of a buddha was formed 91 aeons ago in the time of Vipassī Buddha (J.vi.480f). She was then the elder daughter of King Bandhumā. One of the king's vassals sent him a piece of priceless sandalwood and a golden wreath worth 100,000 units of money. The sandalwood the king gave to his elder daughter and the wreath to the younger.
 
The elder daughter powdered the sandalwood and took it in a golden casket to the Buddha Vipassī. Some of the powder she offered to the Buddha to be rubbed on his body, the rest she scattered in his living quarters. It was the sight of the Buddha's golden body that inspired her with the desire to be the mother of such a being. Her sister later became Uracchadā.

A Question of Race
Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Indo-Aryan (Iranian) Buddhism reaches Island of Sri Lanka (NH53/flickr)

 
Unfortunately, living in the very implicitly racist West (not that anyone will admit it), the question of race comes up. Was the Buddha white, yellow, brown, or black?  

(What about biblically black Jesus or sacrosanct Mohammad?)
 
Those are the only four color choices modern Americans recognize (our British forbears and European may have more), although we are slowly warming to the idea of "mixed." What about white geopolitical Middle Easterners? No one calls them white; Jews aren't allowed in the club; even some of the whitest people on the planet only recently got to use the mantle (those people being the Gingers of Ireland). Often the whitest people are not considered "white" at all.
 

The Buddha's golden body (TB)

But this is not how "race" has been reckoned in the past -- not in America and certainly not in ancient India -- nor is it how the world does it now. More usual is the three shade distinction: light, medium, dark. In the Buddha's day those lighter skinned individuals were called golden. He was golden. He had curly black ringlet and blue eyes. He was not dark like so many of his followers in non-frontier India [called Bharat or Maha (Great) Bharat, as in the epic Mahabharata, since it was an expansive "empire," later re/united by Asoka, of affiliated family-centered rulers with dynamic territorials boundaries called janapadas or "holdings," literally "foothold of a tribe"].
 
A prophetic dream mentions that in the future he would have many very dark-faced followers wrapped in white garments, as happened in Magadha, India, where throngs of citizens interested in the Buddha-Dharma and this wise teacher wore white when visiting monastic centers.
 
We would like it all to be clean and like our own time. But it simply is not. There were no "countries" or "races" as such. These social constructs are categories that evolve and are greatly affected by politics, economics, and circumstances so much so as to be misleading. It is very hard to judge the past, given that we assume our standards are universal and absolute. It is not even possible to objectively judge other geographical regions at present, given that standards, terminology, customs, and judgments are neither universal nor absolute. The Bodhisattva was brilliant to choose neither East nor West but the conflux of the two. The same wise choice was made as to where to attain final nirvana (the nirvana entered into as one passes away as distinct from glimpsing or re-experiencing nirvana during one's lifetime).

Ananda asked, "Why have you chosen this Podunk town!?" (Kusinara/Kushinagar, thought to be near modern Gorakhpur, India, but possibly much farther west). The Buddha explained that it was between powerful kingdoms/republics (janapadas) of followers. This way they would not fight for the relics or be able to claim them as the property of one ruler to hoard. Indeed, the cremation remains were amicably distributed with at least one portion going into space (as hard as that may be to believe, so hard that history quaintly imagines "heaven" got a portion. But records state that an actual lower world in the sky -- in the akasha deva loka, maybe just somewhere flown to the equivalent of Mt. Olympus/Mt. Sumeru -- near enough to visit from Earth).

What do his parents or where he was born matter?
 
Four Places of Pilgrimage
Sister Vajira and Francis Story, Last Days of the Buddha (DN 16)

Buddhist pilgrimage sites across India (Buddhisttraintour)

  
...16. "There are four places, Ananda, that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence.[Note 42] What are the four?
 
17. "'Here the Tathagata was born!'[43] This, Ananda, is a place that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence.
 
18. "'Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment!'[44] This, Ananda...
 
19. "'Here the Tathagata set rolling the unexcelled Wheel of the Dharma!'[45] This, Ananda...

20. "'Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of nirvana in which no element of clinging remains!' This, Ananda...
 
21. "These, Ananda, are the four places that a pious person should visit and look upon with feelings of reverence. And truly there will come to these places, Ananda, pious male and female recluses, laymen and laywomen, reflecting: 'Here the Tathagata was born! Here the Tathagata became fully enlightened in unsurpassed, supreme enlightenment! Here the Tathagata set rolling the unexcelled Wheel of the Dharma! Here the Tathagata passed away into the state of nirvana in which no element of clinging remains!'
 
22. "And whoever, Ananda, should die on such a pilgrimage with his heart established in confidence/faith/conviction (saddha), at the breaking up of the body, after death, will be reborn in a realm of heavenly happiness" (DN 16).

• Does all of this hold true if we go to the wrong locations? Some argue that it does, saying that the intention is what matters. So why not make these sights in my own back yard? No, there is something important about the place, the geography, the fact that the Buddha really was there. Just as it mattered to him and was important that he choose these places, so too it will matter to some of us to find those exact places rather than geopolitically and economically advantageous places. Sorry, Nepal, one of the most beautiful countries on Earth. And sorry, too, modern India. But the real locations have been appropriated, forged, been made the subject of political and economic advantage. Allow those sights to remain and the visitors to enjoy themselves. But some of us want to see the real thing even if nothing (excavated) is left.

The Past Glory of Kusinara
Sister Vajira and Francis Story, Last Days of the Buddha (DN 16)

Statue of the Buddha reclining into final nirvana, Kusinagar, India (tripadvisor.com)

  
41. When this had been said, Ven. Ananda spoke to the Blessed One, saying: "Let it not be, venerable sir, that the Blessed One should pass away in this mean place, this uncivilized township in the midst of the jungle, a mere outpost of the province. There are great cities, venerable sir, such as Campa, Rajagaha, Savatthi, Saketa, Kosambi, and Benares -- let the Blessed One have his final passing away in one of those. For in those cities dwell many wealthy nobles (warrior caste royals or kshatriya's) and Brahmins and householders who are devotees of the Tathagata, and they will render due honor to the remains of the Tathagata."
  
42. "Do not say so, Ananda! Do not say: 'This mean place, this uncivilized township in the midst of the jungle, a mere outpost of the province.' In times long past, Ananda, there was a king by the name of Maha Sudassana, who was a universal monarch, a king of righteousness, a conqueror of the four quarters of the Earth, whose realm was established in security, and who was endowed with the seven jewels.[53] And that King Maha Sudassana, Ananda, had his royal residence here at Kusinara (Kushinagar), which was then called Kusavati, and it extended 12 yojanas from east to west, and seven from north to south.

43. "And mighty, Ananda, was Kusavati, the capital, prosperous and well populated, much frequented by people, and abundantly provided with food. Just as the royal residence of the devas, Alakamanda, is mighty, prosperous, and well populated, much frequented by devas [from space] and abundantly provided with food, so was the royal capital of Kusavati.
  

The culmination of the Relics Tour, the proposed future Buddha monument at Kusinara

 
44. "Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds -- the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabors, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of 'Eat, drink, and be merry!'..." (DN 16).

•  Surely it will happen in the future that the West and whites will claim the Buddha. Now they say it is just a Greco-Roman influence on the art depicting the Buddha. But when it comes out that Mes Aynak and Tepe Naranj, Afghanistan are storehouses of splendor and that lost treasures buried and hidden in Iran (ancient Indo-Persia) and maybe even Iraq, and Gandhara (Pakistan and Afghanistan), as well as Central Asia (Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, other 'stans, and Russia at least up to Kalmykia, Europe) are recovered -- then the world will see Dr. Pal was right. The pieces of the puzzle fit together to match the texts. And what we have been presenting for years is not motivated by self-interest or any hope of doing to the Buddha what was done to the Christ -- turning him from an African (as recorded in the only physical description of him not cut out of the Bible), to a Middle Eastern Jew, to a tall Nordic blond suitable for European consumption.

• PHOTOS: Afghan women (LA Times)
• China, to spite India, helps Nepal develop Buddha's "birthplace"  
• The race and physical appearance of Jesus (St. Issa)
• "Girls" better than ever, enlightened TV review
• Seeds of Enlightenment (architecture and neuroscience)

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Discovery of 42 alien planets

Elizabeth Howell (Space.com, Jan. 12, 2013); Wisdom Quarterly on Buddhist Cosmology

A team of amateurs has discovered evidence for 42 alien planets, including a Jupiter-size world that could potentially be habitable, by sifting through data from a NASA spacecraft.
 

Forty volunteers with the crowd-sourcing Planet Hunters project discovered the new planet candidates, which include 15 potentially habitable worlds and PH2 b, a Jupiter-size planet that the team confirmed to be in the habitable zone of its parent star.
 

This is the second time Planet Hunters project, which is overseen by Zooniverse, has confirmed a new exoplanet discovery. What's more, several candidate planets found by the project may be in the habitable zones of their parent stars. These candidates are awaiting confirmation by professional astronomers.
 

The Buddha teaching in Tavatimsa, "Space World of the Thirty-Three" (mettarefuge)

  

Researchers suggested this bonanza of planets in the so-called Goldilocks zone around a star, a habitable zone in which conditions are liquid water to exist on a planet’s surface and potentially supportlife, could mean there is a "traffic jam" of worlds where life could exist, project officials said.

  

"These are planet candidates that slipped through the net, being missed by professional astronomers and rescued by volunteers in front of their web browsers,” said the University of Oxford's Chris Lintott, who helms the Zooniverse, in a statement. “It's remarkable to think that absolutely anyone can discover a planet.”

  

Life on an "Avatar"-like moon

The planet PH2 b was found using data from NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope and confirmed with 99.9 percent confidence by observations at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. More

The Buddha taught in Space?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, monks of the Los Angeles Buddhist Vihara

  

Yes. The Buddha and many of his monastic disciples frequently visited space. There are many such worlds described. Two spheres of planes are material, one dense and sensual the other fine and ethereal, and those worlds can be reached from here.

Not only were their various forms of conveyance (vimanas) in space (akasha, limitless sky) at the time of the Buddha, but there had been overt extraterrestrial contact many times in the ancient prehistoric past of the planet. (There are long-lived beings who visit and reside on this planet as well as on nearby sectors in space who told the Buddha of the past; however, he was capable of discerning the past independent of their reports).

Mother Maya dreams of conceiving a baby

One spectacular case of the Buddha visiting space is when he went to go visit his biological mother, Maya Devi. She died seven days after his birth and was reborn in space. As Buddhism is divided into three sections (sutras, disciplinary code, and "higher teachings") a question arises as to who formulated the ultimate-teachings known as the Abhidharma.

In the commentaries of the oldest existing Buddhist school, the Theravada ("Teaching of the first generation Elder Disciples of the Buddha"), it is held that the Abhidharma was first taught by the Buddha himself.

Other traditions argue that it was a later addition by monastic commentators systematizing the Teachings. According to legend, shortly after his great enlightenment the Buddha spent a long time in meditation. 

  

During this time he formulated the Abhidharma, a very systematic way of presenting the highest truths or ultimate realities that lead to liberation from ignorance and suffering in this very life.

He later traveled into space -- by his own means (roughly speaking by, for lack of a better term, astral projection that produces a physical counterpart body appropriate to the realm being visited) -- to teach the "heavenly" space beings dwelling there the Abhidharma. This included his deceased mother Māyā, who had been reborn as a male by the name of Maya-deva-putta (which is more description than name, "Maya born among the devas") in a higher "celestial" or akashic (space) world known as Tusita. 

Buddhist depiction of space worlds

Tradition holds that the Buddha gave daily summaries of the teachings delivered in space to his chief male disciple "foremost in wisdom," Shariputra, who then passed them on to the other monastics (Red Pine, The Heart Sutra: The Womb of the Buddhas, 2004).

The Abhidharma is presented as a pure and undiluted form of the Dharma that was usually too difficult for most (earthling) practitioners of the Buddha's time to grasp. Instead, the Buddha taught by the method related in the various sutras, giving appropriate, immediately-applicable teachings as each situation arose, rather than attempting to set forth the complete Abhidharma in all its complexity.

 

There is a similarity between the Theravada tradition of the Adhidharma and that of the later and larger Mahayana school, which also claimed to be too difficult for the people living in the Buddha's time.

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The Light of Asia (and the World)

Sir Edwin Arnold (BuddhaNet.net); Wisdom Quarterly

Book The First

The Scripture of the Saviour of the World,

Lord Buddha--Prince Siddartha styled on earth

In Earth and Heavens and Hells Incomparable,

All-honoured, Wisest, Best, most Pitiful;

The Teacher of Nirvana and the Law [Dharma].

Then came he to be born again for [humans].

Setaketu, Tusita world, high in Sense Sphere

Below the highest sphere four Regents sit

Who rule our world, and under them are zones

Nearer, but high, where saintliest spirits dead

Wait thrice ten thousand years, then live again;

And on Lord Buddha, waiting in that sky,

Came for our sakes the five sure signs of birth

So that the Devas knew the signs, and said

"Buddha will go again to help the World."

"Yea!" spake He, "now I go to help the World.

This last of many times; for birth and death

End hence for me and those who learn my Law.

I will go down among the Sakyas,

Under the southward snows of Himalay,

Where pious people live and a just King."

That night the wife of King Suddhodana,

Maya the Queen, asleep beside her Lord,

Dreamed a strange dream; dreamed that a star

from heaven--

Splendid, six-rayed, in colour rosy-pearl,

Whereof the token was an Elephant

Six-tusked and whiter than Vahuka's milk--

Shot through the void and, shining into her,

Entered her womb upon the right. Awaked,

Bliss beyond mortal mother's filled her breast,

And over half the earth a lovely light

Forewent the morn. The strong hills shook; the waves

Sank lulled; all flowers that blow by day came forth

As 't were high noon; down to the farthest hells

Passed the Queen's joy, as when warm sunshine thrills

Wood-glooms to gold, and into all the deeps

A tender whisper pierced. "Oh ye," it said,

"The dead that are to live, the live who die,

 

Setaketu ("White Banner") reborn as Siddhartha ("Wish-Fulfilled") finally awakened.

 

Uprise, and hear, and hope! Buddha is come!"

Whereat in Limbos numberless much peace

Spread, and the world's heart throbbed, and a wind blew

With unknown freshness over lands and seas.

And when the morning dawned, and this was told,

The grey dream-readers said "The dream is good!

The Crab is in conjunction with the Sun;

The Queen shall bear a boy, a holy child

Of wondrous wisdom, profiting all flesh,

Who shall deliver men from ignorance,

Or rule the world, if he will deign to rule." More

• Project Gutenberg: Light of Asia (online reader)

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The Story of Setaketu (Bodhisat)

"The Great Chronicle of The Buddhas" (Maha Buddhavamsa), Tipitakadhara Mingun Sayadaw, edited and translated by U Ko Lay and U Tin Lwi; further intensive editing Wisdom Quarterly

Setaketu (Santusita) in Tusita world

The deva Setaketu, the future Buddha, enjoyed the supreme deva bliss in the [space] abode of Tusita for 4,000 years according to deva-time reckoning (which is equivalent to 576,000,000 years in the human world).

 

Then 1,000 human years before the end of his life-span in the Tusita world, divinities (brahmas) of the Pure Abodes (suddhavasa) proclaimed:

"Friends, 1,000 years from today there will appear in the human world an omniscient buddha!"
 

Because of this proclamation from the vault of the deva world, the uproar (buddha kolahala) announcing the appearance of a buddha, "An omniscient buddha will be appearing! An omniscient buddha will be appearing!" reverberated across the entire human world 1,000 years ahead of the event [Note 1].

The Devas' Request

On hearing the uproar announcing the advent of a buddha, the deva kings of the 10,000 world-systems -- such as the Four Great Sky Kings (near earth orbit rulers), Sakka, Suyama, Santusita (6th Heaven, Para-nimmita-vasavatti), Sunimmita, Vasavatti, and all Great-Brahmas congregated in a certain [galaxy or world-system] to hold a discussion on the Bodhisat (Bodhisattva) whose deva life-span had only seven days remaining, by human reckoning, and whose approaching end of life had become manifest through five predictive signs. 

 

Then they all approached the deva Setaketu with their hands joined in adoration and made this request:

 

"O deva Bodhisat [Buddha-to-be], you have completely fulfilled the Ten Perfections, not with the desire to gain the bliss of Sakka [Michael or Thor, Lord of Lords (of Tavatimsa) and King of Kings (in the Realm of the Four Great Kings], of Mara (in Brahma's Retinue or 7th Heaven), of Brahma (in the Maha Brahma deva loka), or of a Universal Monarch (on Earth). You have fulfilled these perfections aspiring for all-knowing buddhahood in order to acquire for yourself freedom from the three worlds (spheres) as well as to liberate the multitudes of humans, devas ["shining ones"], and brahmas ["creative divinities," supremos].
 
"O deva Bodhisat, this is the most propitious time for you to become an omniscient awakened teacher! This is truly the right moment to become an omniscient awakened teacher! Therefore, take conception in the womb of the human world. And after attaining the supreme enlightenment of a teacher, liberate humans, devas, and brahmas from the round of suffering/rebirth (samsara) by teaching the Dharma of deathlessness: nirvana."

The Five Great Investigations

The deva Bodhisat Setaketu did not hastily consent to the supplication of the devas and brahmas who had come together from the 10,000 world-systems. Instead, in line with the tradition of previous bodhisattas, he made five great investigations:

(1) Is it the appropriate time for the appearance of a buddha?

(2) Is there an appropriate world (dipa, island, continent, planet, light) for the appearance of a buddha?

(3) Is there an appropriate land for the appearance of a buddha?

(4) Is there an appropriate family into which to be reborn (in a final existence)?

(5) Is it the appropriate span of life of a bodhisatta's mother. More

NOTE: With reference to the name of the Buddha-to-be as a deva, it was Santusita according to the chapter on Ratanasankama, Buddhavamsa which in Pali reads: Yada'ham tusite kaye santusito nama'ham tada. Also in the commentary to the Buddhavamsa and Jinalankara Tika the same name is mentioned. But in the exposition of the Pubbenivasa-katha, Veranja-kanda of the Parajika commentary, and in the exposition of the Bhayabherava Sutra of the Mulapanasa commentary, his name is given as Setaketu ["White Banner"]. Moreover, successive authors of Burmese chronicles or Buddhavamsas such as the Tathagata-Udana Dipani, Malalankara Vatthu, Jinatthapakasani, etc., give Setaketu as the name of the deva. Therefore, it has been explained by various teachers that Santusita was a common name derived from Tusita -- the name of the celestial abode (space world) -- whereas Setaketu was the proper name that specifically refers to the deva who would become Prince Siddhartha the Buddha Gautama.

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Would the Buddha carry an iPad? (Yes, if...)

Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly; Bangkok Post via John Brownlee (cultofmac.com), Nov. 9, 2012

What is it with Thailand, the Apple Corporation, and Buddhist temples lately? First, abbot of the Dhammakaya temple said that former Apple CEO Steve Jobs is kickin’ it in the afterlife as a mid-level deva with his own celestial palace in space. Now a temple in Thailand’s Chom Phra district has decided that the Buddha carries around an iPad with him wherever he goes.

  

Ban Jabok-Ban Nong Leg temple in Thailand’s northeastern Surin province is now trying to send a message by making the Buddha hold an iPad in their next statue, says The Bangkok Post:

Traditionally, Phra Sivali, a pose of the Buddha, carries a walking stick, an umbrella, and a bowl, and is worshipped for those seeking love, luck, and prosperity.

But the one to be built by the temple will have one hand carrying the umbrella -- and the other one clutches one of the innovative bestsellers launched by the late Steve Jobs instead of the stick.

[WQ: This is quite incorrect. Venerable (Phra) Sivali is not "a pose"; he was a famous enlightened Buddhist monk, now a popular and powerful source of veneration because of his incredibly good karma and resultant good luck. He easily obtained all he wanted. Many Thai good luck charms and amulets are based on him as a well known arahant. Theravada Buddhism does not have many such prosperity figures, so Southeast Asia loves Great Sivali. Therefore, this entire Bangkok Post story is misleading: It will not be "the Buddha" holding a posh iPad, a modern symbol of abundance and cool, but Sivali.]

This might seem like an attention-grabbing gimmick, and maybe it kind of is. But the message the temple wants to send is good and forward-facing. They want to stress that monks need to embrace the technology of the modern world in getting their message across:
  

“Monks have to catch up with the changes and use those gadgets, such as the iPad, to lure the [younger] generation to the temple. Monks can use them to teach Dhamma to those who live their life with new communication technologies,” a temple spokesman said.

Apple CEO reborn in space?
Seven Dharmachari and Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Bright golden complexion of the Buddha entering nirvana, Thailand (Luped/flickr.com)

  
Would a Buddha statue carry an iPad? Yes, if... it were in Thailand. The Buddha himself, not so much. In his day he delighted in letting go of those things which are powerful sources of grasping and clinging in the world.

In his day he instructed his disciples in pursuing the joy and liberation that comes from letting go of impermanent, unsatisfactory, impersonal things and, moreover, the personal phenomena we cling to as ourselves. That can only be let go of through wisdom, as insight uproots what is otherwise impossible to drop.

But Thailand's massive lay meditation movement, known as Dhammakaya ("body of the Dharma"), is kidding about Steve Jobs in "heaven," right?

Buddhism is atheistic? No There is no all-producing creator God; there are many gods (brahmas), many of whom are creative and powerful. Buddhism is scientific? Maybe. It is certainly the spiritual tradition most consistent and amenable to science. Buddhism is nihilistic? No.
  
Unlike modern nerds who think or hope or fear everything ends at death, that's not what happens. Conventionally speaking, life carries on like nothing happened. Ultimately speaking, "we" are dying from moment to moment and do not need to wait for bodily collapse/death to start crying about it or feeling relieved.

"Everything (all conditioned phenomena) is hurtling towards destruction; work out your liberation with diligence," the historical Buddha is reputed to have said (Mahaparinibbana Sutra, DN 16). These were his last words before passing into final nirvana. The fully enlightened do not die, because "death" entails being reborn (as well as currently existing in some ultimate sense). But we do die, conventionally speaking. And Steve Jobs has. With the coming together of the aggregates, there is renewed-becoming an instant later.
  
And there are many worlds in space to be reborn in. "Space" (akasha) to the ancients was called "sky." That "celestial" world above is the endless blue that goes to black nightly. There are many levels superior to the human plane. It is not too difficult to be reborn into these worlds of devas ("shining ones"), which are increasingly more subtle and refined, brilliant and long-lived. The first two "heavens" are far more advanced technologically and closely related to this world. The proof, the scientific evidence?

They can be seen now before dying. Because the knowledge is filtered and kept from us does not mean it is concealed form all scientists. And when they become whistleblowers telling us what they've seen and worked on, the knowledge-filterers tell us they're bonkers and not to be listened to. There are two ways to see, internally and externally. The first is harder but more convincing; the second is tough but will leave one feeling bonkers.
  
(What is it? Get a job in a scientific field in academia or the private sector then get recruited to work on black budget project, top secret stuff. Go to Washington through underground highspeed trains through tunnels beneath this country and scattered around the planet, or to Area 51, or Dreamland, or the Skunkworks, or any other secret site).

The first is developing insight (vipassana) and wisdom (prajna). This does not come from studying and thinking, but from intensive serenity-concentration and mindfulness-contemplation. Good luck. It takes effort. So for everyone who would rather study, the texts are there. Drink deep, for a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

We won't like the answer we see; it's too much like the Christianity we laugh at as moronic and senseless. The truth is more mystic than systematic. But Buddhist practice is great for being systematic resulting in mysticism, rather than mysticism resulting in confusion.

(Dhammakaya International)

All religious traditions teach something worthwhile. It is not their fault if we do not understand what they are trying to say. The shamans were right, the mystics were onto something. But how do we get from here to there? There's an eightfold path that lays out the basics. And there is a very detailed 37 Requisites of Enlightenment that lays bare all the Buddha taught as necessary for seeing and experiencing enlightenment in this very life.

Steve Jobs in a heaven (akasha deva world)? It could be, but we doubt it. After selling millions of human beings out to the monsters on the planet who would spy on everyone, control us, damage our DNA, entrance us, lull us into sleep, enslave us, wipe us out? If he was a man caught up in his work, obsessed with innovation, okay. Great.

But if he was a man who sold the world for earthly success and fame, then... It doesn't look good for him. A "bad" person can go to a heaven. Christianity understands this, but Christians don't. It is not by being forgiven or absolved for our karma. It is by being fortunate at the moment of passing from this life to the next, by having a skillful, useful, lovely act (deed, karma, intention, will, fruition, impulsion) come up for us.

That will be a lot easier to do if we begin to calm our minds/hearts now and store up many more beneficial acts than detrimental ones. Why do harm when it only comes back around to us to harm us? What did Jobs do? What else did he do? He surely did terrible things (just ask the FBI and CIA and NSA). But all his hands toting iProducts love him, too. Look, there's a Buddha statue holding one!

So if he did acts motivated by nongreed, nonhatred/fear, nondelusion, then he is quite possibly in a better place. These heavens are not permanent, but they are much longer-lived than this human realm. There are other human and human-like realms, too. Here is a simplification that sounds an awful lot like Christianity and even Islam, like what shamans see and rabbis teach. Rather than laugh, ask: In what way is this true, too? More (with insert photos explained for those activating Google Translate)

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