Khema

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Khema was one of the two chief female disciples of Buddha (the other being Uppalavanna).

The name Khema means well-composed and she was quite beautiful. The nun belonged to the royal family of Magadha and was one of the chief queens of King Bimbisara.

She didn't want to meet the Buddha as she knew he didn't care much about beauty, and she was very self conscious about hers. She heard about the Buddha from her husband who encouraged her to hear his sermons and told her how beautiful Buddha's monastery was. Very interested in seeing beautiful things, decked out in royal splendor, she went to the monastery of Lord Buddha. There Buddha saw her approaching and created with his psychic powers an exceptionally beautiful maiden by his side, whose beauty surpassed her own. Khema was captivated, seeing this, Buddha slowly aged the maiden :

Khema saw the maiden’s beautiful skin wrinkle, her hair change to gray and her body age. She then saw the body collapse with age and pass away, leaving behind just a corpse, which in turn changed to a heap of bones. Understanding that all conditioned phenomena were impermanent, Khema realized that the same would happen to her. How could she retain her beauty when this exquisite vision aged and decomposed before her very eyes?

Khema was finally willing to listen to Buddha, after his sermons, she attained full enlightenment, she became an arahant. With her husband's permission, she joined the order of nuns.

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