Buddhism, mothers and earthworms My first exposure to Buddhism was watching Seven Years in Tibet in my German childhood. Most memorable were the following two scenes of Buddhist monks in orange robes.

In the one scene, some monks were carefully making a large picture out of coloured sand in a room with large windows. Upon completion (after one year of labour), the monks would simply open the window to let the wind carry the picture away.

In the other scene, monks were very carefully turning soil. Apparently the monks had to be especially careful not to harm any earthworms, because, according to their belief, their mothers would be reincarnated as earthworms.

Needless to say, I found it very arbitrary at best that mothers should be reincarnated as earthworms and was troubled by this first impressions for the next decade or so. Unfortunately, I still haven't been able to solve this mystery.

So my question is, as it has been for many years, is there any connection between mothers and earthworms in Buddhism?
I'm pretty sure the belief is not that earthworms become mothers, it's that every earthworm has most likely been your mother at some point in the past, as per the mata sutta (SN 15.14-19):

At Savatthi. There the Blessed One said: &quot;From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating &amp; wandering on. A being who has not been your mother at one time in the past is not easy to find... A being who has not been your father... your brother... your sister... your son... your daughter at one time in the past is not easy to find.
&quot;Why is that? From an inconstruable beginning comes transmigration. A beginning point is not evident, though beings hindered by ignorance and fettered by craving are transmigrating &amp; wandering on. Long have you thus experienced stress, experienced pain, experienced loss, swelling the cemeteries — enough to become disenchanted with all fabricated things, enough to become dispassionate, enough to be released.&quot;

So, the point is that the love and care we have for our mothers should really extend to all beings, since we are all intimately related - a corollary is that your boy/girlfriend has also probably been both your mother and your father at one point :)