For a man of science, to study Buddhism is not an easy task; there are many things said that are out of an ordinary’s man knowledge. In Abhidhamma, there are things like the modes of birth: some are born from moisture, some from flowers, some from fruit and some from spontaneous birth. These are out of the ordinary that men need to accept the concept of births in this Universe. Since most of them were written in Pali Canon, revealed to us by our Lord Buddha, we are taking it as absolute truth.
Human being can be born from fruit (Mae Lamu -Mangrove fruit), some from Lotus flower (Upalavana Theri), some taking rebirth in Deva world are spontaneous born, and now I will present to you Ambapali Theri who was born from the Mango fruit. A gardener found the baby under a Mango fruit tree. Some interpreted as born from a tree trunk, nut we have to take this Ambapali Theri case as born from mango fruit.
This is the story of a courtesan who later took ordination as Bhikkhuni and had attained the highest holiness of arahatship. When you present the case to today’s monks, they will surely see it in disbelief, because even they could not attain the preliminary stage of Sotapanna. You can very well assess their ability whether they could communicate with Gods – the spiritual world. Many of them could not; though they are learned Pali scholars.
The life story of Ambapali Theri, Bhikkhuni.
The beautiful Ambapali was found in the King's gardens in Vesali , at the foot of a mango tree. Being a miraculous girl, the King’s gardener brought her to the city, where she was known as the Mango guardian's girl. She grew up and became extremely lovely, with such grace and charm that many young princes contended for her favors.
Finally, the king of Rajagaha got into the contention for her favor too. To end their quarrels, they all agreed to appoint her as a courtesan; a courtesan is no more than a woman of easy virtue. .She on her part, agreed on five conditions, one of which was that her charge should be 500 kahapana. Many rich and famous came to her for companionship. With so many admirers she made so much money for herself as well as collecting taxes for the king. She thus made Vesali very rich with the king of Rajagaha as one of her patrons as well as father of her child, Vimala Kondanna. King Bimbisara of Rajagaha was inspired by the prosperity of Vesali to appoint a courtesan to his own city as well.
One day, she went to an assembly where the Lord Buddha was giving a discourse. When she heard the Buddha's teachings in Vesali, she became converted and saw the path to insight. So impressed and fulfilled was she by his teachings that she built a Vihara in her lovely gardens and offered it to the Buddha and the order. Her own son, who was later the Elder Vimala Kondanna, left the world to enter the order, and some time after that she herself became ordained a Bhikkhuni. The Elder Vimala Kondanna preached to her, and she, studying the alterations as illustrated by her own ageing body, son found the path to her liberation.
Instead of being ashamed or frightened of her decreasing beauty and decadent body and trying to disguise or hide it, the notorious beauty of yore calmly accepts the fact, and in experiencing it, she saw impermanence, unhappiness, and its causes. Comprehending the cycle of life, seeing things as they really were, her insight was clear and she attained Arahatship.
Again, after all she was living her final existence when she met the Buddha who was ready to preach her the Dhamma and her son who finally put her on the path to liberation. Enlightenment can be attained by one who is living his/her final existence; it is not that we could attain enlightenment because we work hard for it. There are three critical conditions that must be met:
One must live in an era when there appeared in the world, the teaching BuddhaOne must be living his/her final existenceOne must meet with the teaching Buddha – who could lead you the way.
When all three conditions are met, we could for certain attain our liberation. In an era devoid of teaching Buddha, we could only aspire for the liberation; but we could never attain arahatship in that era. Doing merits are the only good kamma we could accrue that will help us to further our goal. If a Dhamma teacher could tell you, whether you are living your last existence, now, and then you should hold on to this Dhamma teacher, he/she is a true Dhamma teacher.
In this Gotama dispensation, we are now, we only have met – one condition – within the active Buddha dispensation; but no one could tell us whether we are living our last existence or not? We are also living outside the Jambudipa and most of all we cannot meet the teaching Buddha, he could never meet him. Think carefully.
Topic: Ambapali Theri born from Mango Fruit (Read 3664 times)