THE LOTUS PATH

After exactly ten lunar months, Queen Maya decided that she would like to visit her parents in a neighbouring city. On the way there, she passed a pleasure garden of sal trees, called the Lumbini Grove. The grove had flowers from the ground up to the top branches. It was a paradise of birdsong and brightly-coloured insects.

The Queen and her attendants went into the grove to frolic. She reached up and grabbed hold of a branch of the largest sal tree. Immediately, she went into labour. Grasping the branch, Queen Maya gave birth to the future Buddha while standing up.

Unlike other babies, the Bodhisatta was born shiny and clean, like a jewel on the finest cloth. Two torrents of rain poured from the sky, blessing him and his mother.

The Bodhisatta was immediately able to walk, so he stood up and looked in each direction. Seeing no one his equal, he faced the East, where a great many gods (devas) and mortals were offering him perfumes, garlands, and other tributes. He strode towards them, followed by Maya-Brahma with the white umbrella, Suyama bearing the fan, and other divinities holding symbols of royalty.

He took seven paces. At each step, a white lotus emerged to receive him. At the seventh lotus, he stopped, and proclaimed in a noble voice: “I am the chief in all the world. This is my last birth.“

After seven days, his mother died and was reborn in Tusita heaven, her womb a temple to never again be occupied. There, she was attended to by devas.