What did the Buddha's parents protected him from experiencing and when he was a child?
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King Suddhodhana and Queen Mahamaya of Sakya engaged in the preparation of the birth of their child due to be born in the land of Koliya, east of the Sakyan kingdom of north India. While en route with her entourage, guards and servants to Koliya (the small kingdom of the Queen’s birth), Queen Mahamaya suddenly went into labour and gave birth to a baby boy under a sal tree in full blossom in the park in Lumbini on the full moon of May of 563 BC. Born into the warrior caste, Gautama had the duty to follow in his father's footsteps and become the future king as well as enforce the military, political and religious institutions of the nation state.
His mother died seven days after his birth. She lived long enough to see her son’s skin with ‘a golden hue and his blue eyes like the flax plant.’ The Queen’s younger sister, Pajapati, took responsibility for bringing up the week-old baby and his privileged upbringing in the royal household ensured isolation from the vicissitudes of the citizens of the Sakyan people.
This, at least, is the legendary account, familiar to most Buddhists. It is difficult to distinguish any historical facts of the life of Gautama, from his birth to his death, from the additional embroidery of some 2600 years of commentary on his life and teachings. Whether factual or embroidered, or probably both, facts matter little in the Indian tradition. Insights may emerge from history or mythology, thus making allowances for embellishment to make a point. The story of the Buddha’s life has the potential to shed light on our lives and the all too common dynamic of the dysfunctional family.
Various commonly held incidents in various Buddhist texts and legends indicate the positive and negative aspects of the Buddha’s upbringing. From a contemporary analysis, Gautama experienced a dysfunctional family that had repercussions for many years, before and after his awakening under the tree of awakening (bodhi) in Bodh Gaya at the age of 35. Prince Gautama could claim to be a victim of a dysfunctional family but he contributed to it when he fled in the middle of the night from his wife, Yashodhara, his week old son, Rahula, his step mother, his ageing father and other members of his family.
Gautama may not have realised at the time, the long term significance in relationship to women of apparently major and minor events in his life up until the age of 29 years when he ran away. The loss of his mother a few days after his birth must surely have had an impact. Perhaps Gautama did not have total confidence in his step mother when she wanted to join his nomadic Sangha after his awakening? Perhaps he had a general lack of confidence in the abililty of women to live the homeless life? He may have felt that it was too radical a step to endorse a Sangha of women wanderers who could be vulnerable on the road, or that a mixed Sangha would lead to suspicion among the laypeople.
Astrologers and clairvoyants predicted that Gautama would become either a great emperor or a buddha. They said that the boy displayed signs in his behaviour of a young man destined for future greatness. While the King felt proud of such predictions by the leading fortune tellers of the time, he also felt intense anxiety that his son would flee the Palace and go on a spiritual search until his became a buddha, a fully enlightened one. The King’s fears of losing his successor lead him to exercise an unhealthy control over the upbringing of his son. Unwittingly, his father ruled over a dysfunctional family which impacted on his son, his daughter-in-law, his grandson, his wife, his nephew and the entire royal household.
The story of Gautama’s upbringing reminds all of us that the problems of the dysfunctional family go far back in human history. Such issues do not just belong to the malaise of contemporary society.
I met with a 29 year old corporate lawyer for a multi-national oil company. He told me that his father had placed on him years of pressure at home and throughout his education to make a ‘real success’ of his life. For his father it meant that his son should climb the corporate ladder and by the age of 50, he could be the CEO for the oil company.
hope you understand
King Suddhodhana and Queen Mahamaya of Sakya engaged in the preparation of the birth of their child due to be born in the land of Koliya, east of the Sakyan kingdom of north India. While en route with her entourage, guards and servants to Koliya (the small kingdom of the Queen’s birth), Queen Mahamaya suddenly went into labour and gave birth to a baby boy under a sal tree in full blossom in the park in Lumbini on the full moon of May of 563 BC. Born into the warrior caste, Gautama had the duty to follow in his father's footsteps and become the future king as well as enforce the military, political and religious institutions of the nation state.
His mother died seven days after his birth. She lived long enough to see her son’s skin with ‘a golden hue and his blue eyes like the flax plant.’ The Queen’s younger sister, Pajapati, took responsibility for bringing up the week-old baby and his privileged upbringing in the royal household ensured isolation from the vicissitudes of the citizens of the Sakyan people.
This, at least, is the legendary account, familiar to most Buddhists. It is difficult to distinguish any historical facts of the life of Gautama, from his birth to his death, from the additional embroidery of some 2600 years of commentary on his life and teachings. Whether factual or embroidered, or probably both, facts matter little in the Indian tradition. Insights may emerge from history or mythology, thus making allowances for embellishment to make a point. The story of the Buddha’s life has the potential to shed light on our lives and the all too common dynamic of the dysfunctional family.
Various commonly held incidents in various Buddhist texts and legends indicate the positive and negative aspects of the Buddha’s upbringing. From a contemporary analysis, Gautama experienced a dysfunctional family that had repercussions for many years, before and after his awakening under the tree of awakening (bodhi) in Bodh Gaya at the age of 35. Prince Gautama could claim to be a victim of a dysfunctional family but he contributed to it when he fled in the middle of the night from his wife, Yashodhara, his week old son, Rahula, his step mother, his ageing father and other members of his family.
Gautama may not have realised at the time, the long term significance in relationship to women of apparently major and minor events in his life up until the age of 29 years when he ran away. The loss of his mother a few days after his birth must surely have had an impact. Perhaps Gautama did not have total confidence in his step mother when she wanted to join his nomadic Sangha after his awakening? Perhaps he had a general lack of confidence in the abililty of women to live the homeless life? He may have felt that it was too radical a step to endorse a Sangha of women wanderers who could be vulnerable on the road, or that a mixed Sangha would lead to suspicion among the laypeople.
Astrologers and clairvoyants predicted that Gautama would become either a great emperor or a buddha. They said that the boy displayed signs in his behaviour of a young man destined for future greatness. While the King felt proud of such predictions by the leading fortune tellers of the time, he also felt intense anxiety that his son would flee the Palace and go on a spiritual search until his became a buddha, a fully enlightened one. The King’s fears of losing his successor lead him to exercise an unhealthy control over the upbringing of his son. Unwittingly, his father ruled over a dysfunctional family which impacted on his son, his daughter-in-law, his grandson, his wife, his nephew and the entire royal household.
The story of Gautama’s upbringing reminds all of us that the problems of the dysfunctional family go far back in human history. Such issues do not just belong to the malaise of contemporary society.
I met with a 29 year old corporate lawyer for a multi-national oil company. He told me that his father had placed on him years of pressure at home and throughout his education to make a ‘real success’ of his life. For his father it meant that his son should climb the corporate ladder and by the age of 50, he could be the CEO for the oil company.
hope you understand
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The King took the fateful decision that his son must lead the most sheltered of existences through hiding him from him the pain facing human beings, such as sickness, ageing and death. Perhaps the King felt his son suffered over the death of his mother days after giving birth to Gautama. He wanted to protect his son from further suffering. Perhaps he believed that his son would then have no need to question life, no need to leave the Royal Family to search for an authentic reality. Gautama thus lived in a world apparently happy, secure, and exposed to the arts, religious learning, sports and intellectual development. Owing to his fears and anxieties, the King gave his son an utterly distorted picture of reality that Gautama eventually rebelled against. The King’s worst nightmare eventually came true.
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