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The Birth of the Buddha
1. The Conception of the Buddha
The earliest Buddhist sources state that the future Buddha Shakyamuni was born
SiddharthaGautama, the son of a local king in Kapilavastu on what is now the
Indian-Nepalese border around the fifth century BCE. He was thus a member of a
relatively privileged and wealthy family, and enjoyed a comfortable upbringing.
Buddhist world-view, however, views his birth not as a onetime event so much as
a grand finale of a long series of countless previous lives as an enthusiastic
seeker of religious truth.
The story goes back incalculable numbers of aeons ago to when there lived an
ascetic called Sumedha (the future Buddha Shakyamuni) who encountered the
buddhaDipamkara. This meeting affected Sumedha in such a way that he too aspired
to becoming a buddha. Sumedha thus set out on the path of the cultivation of the
"Ten Perfections."
(Nepalese image of Dimpankara from Patan Museum)
The Bodhisattva cultivated these perfections over many lifetimes. The life in
which he becomes the Buddha Shakyamuni some time in the fifth century BCE,
represents the fruition of Sumedha's distant aspiration and tireless endeavors.
An old tradition tells us that shortly before his final rebirth the Bodhisattva
spent his life as a god in Tusita (the Heaven of the Contented). Surveying the
world from Tusita, the Bodhisattva saw the time had come for him to take a human
birth and at last become a buddha; he saw that the "Middle Country" of the great
continent of Jambudvipa (India) was the place in which to take birth, for its
inhabitants would be receptive to his message. The Bodhisattva was conceived on
the full moon night in July; that night his mother, Maya, dreamt that a white
elephant carrying a white lotus in its trunk came and entered her womb through
her right flank.
Figure 1 and 2 depict the scene of the Boddhisatva's descent into earth and
entry into her mother's womb.
Figure 1, the
sculpture from the stupa of Bharhut, took on the task of illustrating the
above-mentioned story in a simple manner. Maya is shown reclining, her head to
the left of the spectator, on a four-legged bed. A water pitcher and a lighted
lamp (indicating that the scene took place at night) complete the furnishings.
Maidservants at the bottom watch over their mistress' sleep, one holding a fly
whisk and the other being startled to see the entry of the white elephant into
Maya. Above the medallion there are inscribed the words "the descent of the
Blessed One." The white elephant here symbolizes perfect wisdom and royal power;
in India, an elephant is accounted the most sacred animal on earth. As a matter
of fact, prior to the descent, the Bodhisattva in the Tusita heaven consulted
with other gods about what guise he should take to enter his mother's womb. The
gods suggested all the divine forms imaginable, but one of them, who knew the
writings of the brahmins better because of his recent birth, closed the
discussion by stating, "In the form of a white elephant having six tusks."
Now the Bodhisattva enters his mother's womb in the form of a white elephant,
but here we encounter a little problem in that we are not informed at what
moment he exchanges his animal form for a human one. The Chinese thought they
solved this problem by showing the Bodhisattva as entering his mother's womb
"mounted on an elephant" as shown in
Figure 2, the
Chinese painting of the same scene. One more point that attracts our attention
is that at this decisive moment of conception Maya is always shown alone on her
couch; her husband is always absent. This restraint can be attributed to the
religious belief of the time that everything having to do with the birth of the
Buddha be physically and morally pure. This preoccupation with moral purity is
carried over to the second act, the birth of the Buddha.
The Birth of the Buddha 2. The Birth of the
Buddha
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