Devadatta :Chapter 12

This chapter I believe is very important for this day and age for many reasons. Firstly Devadatta was considered an evil person and was a cousin to the Buddha and the eldest brother to  Ananda who was a devoted follower . He was constantly at the Buddha's side and was able to memorise the teachings because  of his incredible memory.  Devadatta was very jealous of the Buddha because he was said to have married the woman he loved. So you can imagine there was much emotion and difficulties that had to be sorted within them to remain true to the teachings and to not allow so called karmic connections through the family to get in the way.This is happening everywhere lately, families are being split up because of different beliefs and opinions . However the Buddha was able to still keep to his mission and not to be swayed by these considerations although it must of grieved him at times . Also one of his sons plotted against him. After all that he was able to understand that he owed a lot to Devadatta and said he was a teacher to him in  a previous life. This is how we need to see relationships as we have probably been connected to people who are close family or those we eventually marry or have close partnerships with.

        I  was able to change some horrendous karma with my brother who was an alcoholic and drug addict when he was young. He use to wake me up any time in the middle of the night drunk and scream down the phone that he would shoot me with a double barrel shot gun if I  should chant for him . Also he attempted to push me down the stairs but my daughter managed to stop him . One day he came to my house and started screaming down the road (he had some lungs on him ) and then smashed the glass in my door.  Anyway I could go on .  But as you can imagine I was beside myself about what I should do. I even  one day went to try and smash the brandy bottle he was going to consume but he was so drunk he did not realise I had grabbed hold of it and hurled to the wall .It did.nt even smash and he probably drunk it later. Anyway I knew if I spoke to people they would all agree he was a pain in the neck and be very sympathetic but this would have done me no good. So I decided to do a marathon of chanting 10 hours. After several hours of chanting  I realised I must have been an alcoholic in a previous life . It is interesting when I was young  I could not take alcohol I would become very sick and this is a symptom of alcoholics who are at the end of the road. And it seemed that my present life had begun as it left off  as an intolerance of alcohol. When I realised that I was going through what I may have put him through in a previous life the anger and despair seem to go .Very soon after the relationship changed and he was unable to have access to a phone and it would have been difficult for him to just pop round also he developed Emphysema .Which was very sad. I am glad to say the last phone call I had from him was to tell me he loved me .This was a few weeks before he died after several years  of a more respectful relationship.

            Now we have the second part of the chapter which is the narrative of the Dragon kings daughter. This is also very important for this day and age. In the Buddha's  age there was much  prejudice towards women so teaching that a women can reach Buddhahood was highly revolutionary statement. For thousands of years we have been dominated by patriarchical agendas. Firstly going through the system of inheritance of wealth and through all the main religions . I believe one of the reasons the world is in such a mess is because the female principle is not truly addressed. But the time must be right now as women no longer need to depend on men to feed themselves  or to have any status. However women have bought this on themselves as looking to men to be a complete authority over them and allowing them to take the complete reins. O you may say we have women in power but half of them act like men and have been a disgrace to their own sex.

        It is an important chapter because not only was she a female but eight years old , I pondered over this and realised that we need to see that Buddhahood is not dependent on intellect or status or from a hierarchical structure . It is not a state of mind that we need to gain points along the way . It can happen instantaneously as we have Buddhahood within us .This certainly must have stretched the belief of those Buddha preached to, as it was such a progressive statement not only because of the system of class and how society was structured but also from previous religious doctrines. Women and men need to really respect each other and men will have to put aside their idea of what being a man is really all about . Also women will have to understand their roles in this world and not keep looking towards men to be their savour or path to happiness. We have both different roles but they need to  complement each other .This creates something new and progressive towards the future.It is no coincidence there is many problems going on with relationships because the ingrained perception of a man and women relationship on all levels.The established religions made sure  of that ,subjugating women .The garden of Eden gives a women a feeling of inferiority and deep down guilt and that they deserve to be treated this way. Hence why even in cases of rape the judge has taken the side of the man and said the women deserved it and in cases of sexual abuse in the family that the female must have liked it because they kept quiet about it . It is a two way street that  women need to get real power and not feel they deserve this behaviour. Also sexual relationships will improve as the idea a women needs to be pure but at the same time if they do allow themselves to be seduced she must be a whore.You can see the confusion .This is why many Italian men marry their pure Madonna sweet hearts and then run after the so called whores once they are married. This is due to the ingrained christian attitude to sex. I think that all this suppression of women was to keep them in their place and at the same time the economic structure and power. In order to inherit and pass your money down you needed to know who the father is. 

            So this must be tied up with understanding how a women would express her high states of life and Buddhahood and to express her true feminine nature in rhythm with the Law. It  just came to mind writing this about something I found very hard to understand, the abuse of children and  how it is on the increase . Maybe because women are not in situations of being entirely dependent on men and there is a revolution going on to address the equality . Some men who can not catch up with this will turn to defenceless children as they can not separate sex from the feeling of being in complete power which is evil  to use children this way. I appreciate any thoughts on what I have written.