5. Ven. Dhammadinnā
Aspiration in the Past
The future Dhammadinnā was born into a poor working class family in the city of Haṁsavatī, during the time of Buddha Padumuttara. She was wise and virtuous. One day, when Ven. Sujāta, the chief disciple of Buddha Padumuttara, went on his alms round, she met him in the course of carrying water and personally offered him a share of her cake for the day. Ven. Sujāta, as a mark of appreciation for her devotion, and intending to bestow welfare on her due to her meritorious deed, sat down and ate the cake immediately. Ven. Sujāta had just arisen from dwelling in the attainment of cessation, a condition which is conducive to immediate fruition of the merit made.
The devotion in the slave girl grew by leaps and bounds so much that she cut her hair and sold it for whatever little price it could fetch. With that meagre but well-earned money, she bought a meal and offered it to Ven. Sujāta at her house. When the master of the slave girl heard this news, he was so pleased with her noble conduct that he gave his son in marriage to her and she became the rich man’s daughter-in-law.
One day she visited the Buddha’s monastery together with her mother-in-law. When listening to the Buddha’s discourse, she saw the Buddha naming a nun as the foremost in expounding the doctrine. She had a great desire to be honoured with the same title in some future time. So, she made an extraordinary offering to the Buddha and his Saṅgha and aspired to that position. Buddha Padumuttara predicted that her wish would be fulfilled during the time of Buddha Gotama.
Her Existence as Royal Treasurer
The future elder nun Dhammadinnā lived a meritorious life and after her lifespan had ended, she passed away and was reborn in the Deva realm. Thereafter, she was reborn only in the human world or the Deva realm. Ninety-two aeons ago, she was reborn as the wife of a rich man, who was the official royal treasurer to three princes who were half brothers of the Buddha. She had a very generous mind so that when someone asked for one she would give two. Regarding the story of the treasurer and his wife see chapter 15.
One of the Seven Daughters of King Kikī
The rich man’s wife had a life full of meritorious deeds. When she passed away, she was reborn in the Deva realm. During Buddha Kassapa’s time, she was reborn as Princess Sudhammā, the sixth of the seven daughters of King Kikī of Bārāṇasī. Along with the other sisters, she remained unmarried, leading a noble chaste life for the whole lifespan of 20,000 years, and was a joint supporter, with her sisters, of a great monastic complex to the Saṅgha.
Ascetic Life in Her Final Existence
Princess Sudhammā spent the whole of her life doing meritorious deeds and at her death she was reborn in the Deva realm. Subsequently, for innumerable years, she was reborn either in the Deva realm or the human world. During the time of Buddha Gotama, she was reborn into the family of a rich man in Rājagaha. When she was of marriageable age, she married a rich man named Visākha and she was called Dhammadinnā, the rich man’s wife.
Visākha and Dhammadinnā, 92 aeons ago, were also a rich couple, as the royal treasurer and wife during Buddha Phussa’s time, and were noted for their liberality. Visākha, the rich man, was one of the 101 disciples of the Buddha, who gained Stream-entry knowledge on the day the Buddha arrived in Rājagaha, on the full moon in the month of January (Phussa) in the year 528 BCE. He was a close friend of King Bimbisāra.
After having become a noble one (ariya) as a Stream-enterer, Visākha, on a later occasion, listened to
His wife Dhammadinnā was, as usual, looking through the window with a long motif carved at the sill, awaiting his return. When she saw the sedate attitude of her husband coming home, it struck her as strange. “What has gone wrong?” she thought. She went down the stairs and stretched out her hand to him at the landing. Although it was his custom to take hold of his wife’s welcoming hand and go up the stairs and speak amiably together, on that day, he withdrew his hand instead of holding hers. “Perhaps I shall find out about this at the table,” she thought to herself. But at the morning meal, he did not sit at table together with his wife as usual, but took his meal alone in silence, like an elderly monastic engaged in meditation. “Perhaps I shall find out about this in the evening,” she thought to herself.
But when evening came, Visākha did not go into their inner chamber, instead, he had a separate room prepared for himself with a wooden cot on which he slept alone. His wife now started worrying. “Is my husband in love with another woman? Or has someone tried to cause some misunderstanding between us? Or has he seen some fault in me?” These wild unfounded speculations gnawed at her innocent heart. After two or three days she could not bear it any further, so silently and standing by his side meekly, her joined palms raised in salutation to her husband, she waited to learn how he would respond. Then he said:
“Why do you come near me at this untimely hour?”
“Untimely, yes, my lord, but you have changed now. What’s the matter with you? Is there another woman beside me?”
“No, Dhammadinnā, there is none.”
“Then, has someone put a wedge between us?”
“No, there is nothing of the sort.”
“In that case, do you see any fault in me?”
“No, Dhammadinnā, you have no fault whatever.”
“If so, why do you stay aloof from me as though we were total strangers and not husband and wife? You have not spoken to me much these few days.”
When confronted thus by his wife, Visākhā pondered: “The supermundane Dhamma is a profound thing, not easy to explain like mundane matters. If possible, it is better kept to oneself. But now, if I did not talk about it Dhammadinnā would certainly take it amiss and will be broken hearted.”
Thinking in this way, Visākhā said to her: “Dhammadinnā, after I listened to the Buddha’s discourses, I have comprehended the supermundane Dhamma. One who comprehends the supermundane finds mundane affairs incompatible with him. If you would agree, there are 400 million worth of treasures that your parents have endowed us with, and another 400 million worth of treasures that my parents have endowed us with, these 800 million worth of treasures, I would bequeath to you as sole owner, just be as a mother or an elder sister to me. I shall be content with whatever manner you might look after me. Or, if you so choose, you may take all this wealth with you and go back to your parents’ house. If you have no other man to give your heart to, I shall look after you as my younger sister or as my daughter.”
On hearing these momentous and frank words from her husband, Dhammadinnā was deeply satisfied. She thought to herself: “It is no ordinary man to say such things. My husband surely must have comprehended the supermundane Dhamma. But is the supermundane solely for men? Is it possible for a woman to understand it?” Pondering thus, she said to her husband: “My lord, is the supermundane Dhamma solely for men? Are women also capable of understanding it?”
“Why, Dhammadinnā, anyone, male or female, who practices the Dhamma according to the doctrine, with due diligence can become heirs to the Buddha, in the matter of the Dhamma. If one has sufficing conditions, an accumulation of past merit for attaining path-knowledge, the supermundane is realisable.” answered Visākha.
“If so, my lord, please give me permission to become a nun.”
“Very well, my dear, I am glad you aspire for the supermundane. I have not suggested it to you only because I did not know your aptitude.”
Visākha then immediately went to see King Bimbisāra who asked him: “Rich man, what is your purpose in seeing me at this untimely hour?”
“Great King,” Visākha said, “Dhammadinnā wishes to become a nun.”
“What shall I provide Dhammadinnā with?”
“Great King, I want just two things: the golden palanquin and the tidying up of the city.” The king complied with these two requests.
Dhammadinnā Becomes a Nun
Visākha had Dhammadinnā bathed in scented water, fitted out gorgeously, and seated her in the palanquin. Then, surrounded by all her relatives, and the husband’s relatives, she was carried to the nunnery through the city whose environment was rich with the fragrance of incense and flowers. At the nunnery, Visākha requested the female elders to admit his wife Dhammadinnā into the Saṅgha of female monastics. “Rich man,” they said, thinking that Visākhā was forsaking his wife, “forbear if she has been at fault once or twice.”
“Venerable,” Visākha replied, “my wife has no fault whatsoever, she is taking up the monastic life of her own accord.”
Thereupon, a nun who was adept at the Vinaya gave Dhammadinnā instructions to reflect on the loathsomeness of the body, beginning with reflecting on the group of five constituent parts: head hair, body hair, nails, teeth, and skin. Then she shaved Dhammadinnā’s hair, and donned her with robes. Visākha then made obeisance to Ven. Dhammadinnā and said: “Venerable, be happy in the monastic life in the teaching of the Buddha. The Buddha has taught us the doctrine which is superb in the beginning, in the middle, and in the end.” Then he went home.
From the day Ven. Dhammadinnā became a nun, she received much respect and many gifts from the people. In seeing so many visitors, she had little time left to meditate alone.
This much of the account of Dhammadinnā, is taken from the commentary on the Short Discourse giving an Elaboration (Cūḷa-vedalla-sutta, MN 44).
Ven. Dhammadinnā considered thus: “Visākhā has made an end of suffering (dukkha) even while remaining in the household life. I as a nun, must make an end of suffering.” She went to her preceptor and said: “Venerable, I am tired of living in this place which is full of the five kinds of sense pleasures. I would like to go and live in a nunnery in a small village.” The preceptors knew well that Ven. Dhammadinnā’s wish could not be ignored as she came of a high class family, and so they took her to a nunnery at a small village.
Due to her meditative exercises in her many past existences in seeing through the nature of conditioned phenomena Ven. Dhammadinnā did not take long to gain insight and became an Arahat together with the four analytic knowledges. Then knowing her own attainment, she considered which place would suit her to help others attain Awakening. There was nothing much she could do in the small village whereas in Rājagaha she could help her own kith and kin. So she decided to return to Rājagaha and, requesting her preceptors to accompany her, she returned to Rājagaha.
Visākhā’s Questions on the Doctrine
When Visākhā learnt that Ven. Dhammadinnā had returned to Rājagaha, he was eager to
[See the Short Discourse giving an Elaboration (Cūḷa-vedalla-sutta, MN 44.)]
Ven. Dhammadinnā answered all the questions put to her by Visākhā as promptly as a racing horse gallops away, and so precisely as though lotus stems were cut down by a sharp blade. Visākha realized the high intellect of Dhammadinnā and proceeded from matters relating to the three lower path-knowledges which was the limit of his knowledge. He then proceeded to matters relating to the Arahat path (Arahatta-magga) which he had not attained himself but about which he had hearsay knowledge.
Ven. Dhammadinnā knew that Visākha could properly ask about matters pertaining to the Non-returner (Anāgāmi-phala), and that he had exceeded his limitation of knowledge when he asked: “Venerable, what is the counterpart of Nibbāna?” She answered: “Friend Visākha, your question has gone too far. It is not possible for you to reach the limit of such a question. Nibbāna is unique and has no counterpart. Indeed, friend Visākhā, the noble practice of purity consisting of three kinds of training tends to Nibbāna, has its ultimate goal in Nibbāna, and ends in Nibbāna. Friend Visākha, if you so desire, go to the Fortunate One and ask him to explain this matter. And bear in mind the explanation of the Fortunate One.”
Then Visākha approached the Buddha and related to the Buddha all that had been said between him and Ven. Dhammadinnā. When the Buddha heard the details of the questions and answers that took place between them, he said: “Dhammadinnā is free of all forms of craving for the aggregates (khandha), either of the past, or the future, or the present.” Then the Buddha spoke in verse thus (Dhp 421):
“Visākha, he who does not cling to the aggregates that are past, future, or present, who is free from the pollutants and attachment, him I call a Brahmin.”
By the end of the discourse, many in the audience attained Awakening at the various levels.
Then the Buddha praised Ven. Dhammadinnā: “Visākha, layman devotee, the nun Dhammadinnā is wise. Visākha, she is of great knowledge. Visākha, had you asked me the answers to those questions I, too, would have answered them in the same way Dhammadinnā answered. These are the answers to the questions. Bear in mind the answers given by Dhammadinnā.”
This event was an immediate cause of Dhammadinnā being designated as the foremost female monastic in expounding the doctrine. Herein, it should be remembered that the discourse given by Ven. Dhammadinnā, when endorsed by the Buddha in those clear terms, becomes a discourse of the Buddha himself. It is like in the case of a message written by a writer properly endorsed and sealed by the king’s seal, becomes the king’s message. Other discourses by other disciples that have the Buddha’s endorsement also became the Buddha’s discourses.
Foremost Title Achieved
On one occasion, when the Buddha was staying at the Jetavana monastery in Sāvatthī, and naming distinguished nuns, he declared:
Etad-aggaṁ bhikkhave mama sāvikānaṁ bhikkhunīnaṁ
Dhamma-kathikānaṁ yad-idaṁ Dhammadinnā.
Monastics, among my female monastic disciples who are skilled in expounding the Dhamma, Dhammadinnā is the foremost (etad-agga).