At first, the Buddhist concept that all beings have been our mothers may seem unbelievable, or just an interesting metaphor. By thinking about the continuity of mind however, that each thought is preceded by a previous thought, each moment a previous moment, we can begin to appreciate the logic of this belief. We can track back throughout the day, through our dreams to yesterday’s awareness, back to last week, last year, to early childhood and even into the womb to the point of conception and beyond. There is no beginning to our mind. Due to the ignorance grasping at existence we crave embodiment and so need a mother, we’ll be drawn to that mother depending on the state of mind, or karma activated at the time. This has been a never ending, infinite process of being embodied, being born, and dying ad infinitum. From that perspective we can see that we have required infinite numbers of mothers within all the realms of existence within samsara; that in fact all beings have been our mothers, countless times. Thinking in this way motivates us to improve our selves as best we can so as to be of ultimate benefit to others who have been our mothers (human & non-human alike) and to certainly not harm them.
