Sex, Marriage and Family in World Religions (74 page)

It is the rule that when the Bodhisatta issues from his mother’s womb there appears in this world . . . an immeasurable, splendid light. . . . This is the rule.

Monks, when Prince Vipassı¯ was born, they showed him to King Bandhuma¯

and said: ‘Your Majesty, a son has been born to you. Deign, Sire, to look at him.’ The king looked at the prince and then said to the Brahmins skilled in signs: ‘You gentlemen are skilled in signs, examine the prince.’ The Brahmins examined the prince, and said to King Bandhuma¯: ‘Sire, rejoice, for a mighty son has been born to you. It is a gain for you, Sire, it is a great profit for you, Sire, that such a son has been born into your family. Sire, this prince is endowed with the thirty-two marks of a Great Man. To such, only two courses are open.

If he lives the household life he will become a ruler, a wheel-turning righteous monarch of the law, conqueror of the four quarters, who has established the security of his realm and is possessed of the seven treasures. These are: the Wheel Treasure, the Elephant Treasure, the Horse Treasure, the Jewel Treasure, the Woman Treasure, the Householder Treasure, and, as seventh, the Counsellor Treasure. He has more than a thousand sons who are heroes, of 350

heroic stature, conquerors of the hostile army. He dwells having conquered this sea-girt land without stick or sword, by the law. But if he goes forth from the household life into homelessness, then he will become an Arahant, a fully-enlightened Buddha, one who draws back the veil from the world.’

‘And what, Sire, are these thirty-two marks . . . ? (1) He has feet with level tread. (2) On the soles of his feet are wheels with a thousand spokes. (3) He has projecting heels. (4) He has long fingers and toes. (5) He has soft and tender hands and feet. (6) His hands and feet are net-like. (7) He has high-raised ankles.

(8) His legs are like an antelope’s. (9) Standing and without bending, he can touch and rub his knees with either hand. (10) His male organs are enclosed in a sheath. (11) His complexion is bright, the colour of gold. (12) His skin is delicate and so smooth that no dust adheres to it. (13) His body-hairs are separate, one to each pore. (14) They grow upwards, bluish-black like collyrium, growing in rings to the right. (15) His body is divinely straight. (16) He has the seven convex surfaces. (17) The front part of his body is like a lion’s. (18) There is no hollow between his shoulders. (19) He is proportioned like a banyan-tree: his height is as the span of his arms. (20) His bust is evenly rounded. (21) He has a perfect sense of taste. (22) He has jaws like a lion’s. (23) He has forty teeth.

(24) His teeth are even. (25) There are no spaces between his teeth. (26) His canine teeth are very bright. (27) His tongue is very long. (28) He has a Brahma¯-

like voice, like that of the bird. (29) His eyes are deep blue. (30) He has eyelashes like a cow’s. (31) The hair between his eyebrows is white, and soft like cotton-down. (32) His head is like a royal turban.’

‘Sire, this prince is endowed with the thirty-two marks of a Great Man. To such, only two courses are open. If he lives the household life he will become a ruler, a wheel-turning righteous monarch of the law. . . . But if he goes forth from the household life into homelessness, then he will become an Arahant, a fully-enlightened Buddha, one who draws back the veil from the world.’

Then King Bandhuma¯, having clothed those Brahmins in fresh clothes, satisfied all their wishes.

And King Bandhuma¯ appointed nurses for Prince Vipassı¯. Some suckled him, some bathed him, some carried him, some dandled him. A white umbrella was held over him night and day, that he might not be harmed by cold or heat or grass or dust. And Prince Vipassı¯ was much beloved of the people. Just as everybody loves a blue, yellow or white lotus, so they all loved Prince Vipassı¯.

Thus he was borne from lap to lap.

And Prince Vipassı¯ had a sweet voice, a beautiful voice, charming and delightful. Just as in the Hima¯laya mountains the
karavı¯ka
-bird has a voice sweeter, more beautiful, charming and delightful than all other birds, so too was Prince Vipassı¯’s voice the finest of all.

And owing to the results of past kamma, the divine eye was present to Prince Vipassı¯, with which he could see for a league day and night alike.

And Prince Vipassı¯ was unblinkingly watchful, like the Thirty-Three Gods.

Buddhism
351

And because it was said that he was unblinkingly watchful, the prince came to be called “Vipassı¯”. When King Bandhuma¯ was trying a case, he took Prince Vipassı¯ on his knee and instructed him in the case. Then, putting him down from his knee, his father would carefully explain the issues to him. And for this reason he was all the more called Vipassı¯.

Then King Bandhuma¯ caused three palaces to be built for Prince Vipassı¯, one for the rainy season, one for the cold season, and one for the hot season, to cater for all the fivefold sense-pleasures. There Prince Vipassı¯ stayed in the rainy-season palace for the four months of the rainy season, with no male attendants, surrounded by female musicians, and he never left that palace.

[Translated in
Long Discourses,
pp. 199–207]

EAST ASIAN BUDDHISM: AN OVERVIEW

All the above selections are found in Indian sources in Sanskrit, Pali, and other Indic languages. These narratives were translated into Chinese, often more than once, and in various permutations, during the slow migration of Buddhism to China, which began in the first century and more or less ceased in the ninth or tenth century, though the bulk of the translation work was done before the eighth century. While most of the above narratives seem to have been known, and to have circulated in China, they were in many ways displaced, and in some cases, surpassed, by a crop of indigenous Buddhist texts, written by the Chinese in the borrowed form of the Indian sutra-format, and circulated widely as though they were translations deriving from Indian sources. These home-grown sutras were terribly important for defining the emerging content and contours of Chinese Buddhism. In the selections that follow, I have selected writings related to family mores that we know to have been important and which clearly also gave rise to other works that picked up these themes and developed them in further directions. In fact, though these works were all written in the medieval period, with the earliest probably dating to fifth century, they are still in circulation in Taiwan. While I can’t prove that each of these works has enjoyed an uninterrupted history of circulation since its inception, I do have some confidence in identifying them as being regularly in circulation and often pointed to as “proof-texts” for Buddhist family values in China.

This work,
The Sutra on the Difficulty of Repaying the Kindness of Parents,
is probably one of the oldest statements of Buddhist family values in Chinese sources and is first mentioned in an encyclopedia dated to 518. Pieces of this text seem to have been drawn from works translated from Indic texts, but nothing resembling this text has been found in Indic sources, and with the Confucian-styled rhetoric framing the intro and conclusion there is good reason to see it as a Chinese construction. For the purpose of thinking about the evolution of Buddhist mores in China, the text offers three important elements. First, it explains that simply caring for parents in a physical manner—as demonstrated 352

by the trope of carrying them around on one’s shoulders—is not enough, and this explanation is presumably tendered to persuade readers that Confucian-styled filial piety is insufficient, a charge that will be made in many other period pieces. According to this text, real filial piety is to be understood as converting one’s parents to Buddhism and thereby leading them to what is called “a safe and secure place,” an ambiguous phrase which nonetheless has postmortem overtones. The third trope is already present in the second point but warrants singling out: Buddhism is being identified as an element that is to be transacted within the family, and between generations. Thus the text is premised on the understanding that children, sons in particular, need to reciprocate their parent’s kindness as explained by Confucian forms of filial repayment, and yet this repayment imperative is now to be fulfilled by converting them to Buddhism.

In short, this text works to tuck Buddhism into the normal, at-home flow of life production by borrowing the form of Confucianism and inserting Buddhist-styled concerns as the content. This clever engineering is made all the clearer with the final play on words in which the monk
qua
son is invited to see himself as one with two children: his mother and father.

Document 5–12

f u m o e n n a n b a o j i n g : t h e s u t r a o n t h e d i f fi c u l t y o f

Thus I heard. Once, when the Buddha was at Sŕa¯vastı¯ in Ana¯thapin.d.aka grove he said to the monks, “Father and mother have been of immense benefit to their sons
(zi)
by breastfeeding them and long nurturing them and educating them in accordance with their development. So when the four elements have become complete [in the son’s person], if he were to carry his father on his right shoulder and his mother on his left shoulder for 1,000 years without any resentment, even if he was urinated on for this time, then he still would not have done enough to repay the kindness
(en)
of his father and mother.”

[Therefore,] if father and mother do not believe [in Buddhism], make them believe so that they may achieve a safe and secure stele. If they are without the [Buddhist] precepts, make them accept them so that they may achieve a safe and secure state. If they do not listen [to the dharma], make them listen so that they may achieve a safe and secure state. If they are stingy and greedy, make them love to give and encourage them to be happy so that they may achieve a safe and secure state. If they are without wisdom, make them light [the fire of]

wisdom and encourage them to be happy so that they may achieve a safe and secure state.

Thus [they should] believe in the Tatha¯gata who achieved true reality and complete enlightenment, practicing the good and renouncing the world and achieving peerless liberation, the great master, the instructor of heaven and earth called Buddha, the World Honored One.

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If they do not believe in the dharma, make them believe so that they may achieve a safe and secure state. The various dharmas are ever so profound. The import of receiving the karmic effect of this present body is ever so profound.

Those that have awakened to this know well this practice, so make [your parents]

believe in the holy [Buddhist] community. The Tatha¯gata and the holy community practice in complete purity, are upright, unperverted and in harmony.

Numerous dharmas they have achieved, samadhis [too] they have achieved, wisdom [also] they have achieved, liberation they have achieved, liberation and seeing wisdom they also have achieved and that is why they are called the “holy community.” Multiply this by two, by four, by eight and that is what is called the “holy community of Tatha¯gatas” who are the most worthy of respect and the most precious. [Therefore,] everyone should respect, honor, and trust in this merit field
(futian)
which is without peer in the world.

Thus all must teach their fathers and mothers to practice compassion. [Ac-tually,] all monks have two children/disciples
(zi):
the child/ disciple that produced
(sheng)
them [refers to the father] and the child/disciple that nurtured them [the mother], therefore they are called “monks who have two children/

disciples.” Hence every monk must imitate
(xue)
those who produced
(sheng)
him by speaking of the dharma essence [in order to turn them into Buddhist “adults”]. It is in this way that all monks should consider [Buddhist] practice.

At this time all the monks, having heard what the Buddha taught, were happy and made prostrations.

[
Taisho¯ shinshu¯ daizo¯kyo¯,
translated by Alan Cole]4

THE SUTRA ON THE FILIAL SON

While the above sutra on the theme of “profound kindness of parents” is gentle and unassuming in its presentation, the following selection is pitched in a much more aggressive tone. Too, the scope of this version of Buddhist family values is much wider and clearly sets out to explain the value of Buddhist filial piety in a manner that situates it squarely in the midst of family life. Building on the trope that physical care for parents, presumably in accord with Confucian dic-tates, is insufficient, the text launches into a harangue about the lengths to which a son should go to get his parents to convert to Buddhism, including taking them to execution grounds to show them a facsimile of their hellish future should they fail to convert. Of particular interest in the second major section of the text is the explanation that converting parents to Buddhism will lead to the strengthening of the family lineage. In brief, the text makes no qualms about advertising Buddhism, or more exactly, its own version of Buddhism, as that which fortifies and increases the well-being and security of the family. Ironically, then, Buddhism as a supposedly transcendental effort to escape the family is here being redirected back to the family sphere to secure and promote it. The text also, in the later sections, seems to be focusing on “milk-354

debt” as the primary element in motivating a son to lead his parents to Buddhism. This theme, developed in other works presented below, has led me to conclude that part of the evolving content of Chinese Buddhism involved generating a new form of filial piety defined by focusing on what sons owed their mothers, with the normal items including a debt for the pain caused during birth and then this “milk-debt,” though the list grew in other directions as well.

Key to note is that though the Buddhists seemed to have given a lot of thought toward generating this sense of indebtedness to one’s mother, this new form of filial responsibility in no way disrupted the standard forms of patriarchal family reproduction. In fact, I would argue that by emphasizing what Margery Wolf would call “uterine family” connections, the Buddhists found a way to strengthen the patriarchal family, even as they found a more vigorous and presumably enticing way to draw a son and his resources out into the public sphere of things Buddhist.