Reading Notes: The Life of Buddha, Part A

'(Left) King Suddhodana asks brahmins to intertret the Queen's' .

Credit: Wellcome Collection. CC BY

Queen Maya decided to seclude herself at the top of the palace away from all ugliness and live an austere and celibate life.

She had a dream on the night before the first day of spring of a six tusked, white elephant entering her womb. Then many gods sang to her.

She summoned King Suddhodana to meet her in the forest outside the castle and shared what she had seen.

On his way to the forest the king was overcome by anxiety that he couldn't explain, but a god called down to him to say that Queen Maya would bear him a son who seeks supreme knowledge.

Maya asked the king to have his Brahmans interpret the dream to know if it was a good or bad omen.

The Brahmans explain that it is indeed a good omen. They say that Maya's child will have intense compassion for every thing in the world and leave the castle to roam the earth as a monk. Finally, they say that their son will be  a Buddha.

After this Maya wanders the city performing miracles and healing the sick.

When Maya decided it was time to give birth, she asked the king to let her go outside the castle and wander in a beautiful garden so her child could be born around beauty and innocence. The king agreed and she was carried in a lavish palanquin to the garden.

In the garden she wandered happily, and found a tree so full of blossoms its branches drooped. When she took hold of one of the branches her child was born.

The birth of the Buddha sent waves of kindness and love around the world and all living creatures trembled with happiness.

Bibliography.
The Life of Buddha by Andre Ferdinand Herold Translator Paul C. Blum, Parts 1-3. Source