Khema

Khema “senenity” (CH: chènmó 讖摩 or kǎimǎ 凱瑪) is a disciple of the Bouddha, proclaimed by him first of the nuns in row (except for the seniors Mahaprajapati Gautami and Kisa Gautami) and in wisdom. Poems of the Therigata are allotted to him.

Originating in Sagala in the kingdom of Magadha, it was of royal blood and a great beauty, with a skin color of gold. It became the first lady of gynécée of the king Bimbisara, owner of Buddhism. In love with the beauty, she always refused the invitations of the king to be gone to the sermons of the Buddha although she was tried, of fear to be there criticized by the wise one of the Shakya S which held, said one, the physical perfection in poor regard. To persuade it, Bimbisara had recourse to a trick: it made sing by its musicians the charms of wood where the monastery of the Buddha was. Intrigued, Khema went there finally. The indicator to approach by far, Gautama revealed at its sides the shape of an young girl whose beauty still exceeded his. Fascinated, she contemplated the young girl, comparing herself secretly with her. The Buddha then made gradually age the form in front of it; it became old a rachitic, then a corpse, finally a heap of bones. Khema, which had acquired many merits at the time of its former lives and made in front of the Buddha Padumuttara the wish become first nun, at the time having sold its hair to present an offering to him, was able to carry out immediately the impermanency of the conditioned phenomena. Qinze days afterwards, it became Arhat, then requested of her husband the authorization to become nun, that it granted to him readily.

Gautama proclaimed it first for wisdom. It was in load of the formation of the moniales and often preached with laic of which it was all the more appreciated that it was sympathizing. One came to find it for explanations on the doctrines. One day, king Pasedani of Kosala asked him why the Buddha had refused to give an opinion for any of the four following assertions: a being waked up continuous to exist after death; it ceases existing with its death; there exists and does not exist at the same time; there does not exist any more, but at the same time it does not cease existing. Khema explained to him in a convincing way how none of these proposals could apply to a being which had completely escaped with the conditioned materiality. Later, when Pasedani on the occasion to question the Buddha in person, it was filled with wonder by intending it to be expressed in the same terms as Khema, word for mot.

Khema often appears in the Jataka S in various forms. It is once the woman of Gautama and once her daughter-in-law, and once the woman of Sariputta.

See too

the family and disciples of the Buddha by Radhika Abeysekera
Khema Theri

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