A Buddhist Goddess: Prajna ("Wisdom")

Dhr. Seven, Amber Dorrian, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Sabrina, GoddessaDay.com

Prajna Paramita, the feminine embodiment of the Dharma, the Perfection of Wisdom (a gift to Ayya Anandabodhi's Hermitage/AwakeningTruth.org)

  

There is a "Buddhist Goddess," a Sophia of the East, the embodiment and personification of perfect wisdom: Prajna-Paramita.

There are ten "perfections" (paramis or paramitas) a bodhisattva (being-striving-for-enlightenment) cultivates if s/he wishes to forgo a disciple's enlightenment for the supreme enlightenment of a non-teaching (pacceka) buddha or enlightenment with the ability to effectively teach and establish the true wheel of the Dharma to a world that has lost its way, a samma-sam-buddha.

The culmination of transcendental knowledge -- liberating insight that has transcended ego, suffering, and flux -- Prajna Paramita is the feminine “Perfection of Wisdom,” who gives birth to all buddhas. Interestingly, the Goddess of Compassion, Kwan Yin, is much more famous. But both are essential elements of a supremely enlightened teacher's attainment.

Her face is serene, having attained the freedom of enlightenment. Like Kwan Yin, she is sometimes depicted as having the many arms of a Hindu goddess (devi), which is likely the largest influence on the rise of "goddesses" as prominent subjects of reverence. For the Vedas and later Hinduism promote mono- and polytheism as ways of talking about ineffable subjects directly. There is just one GOD, Brahman, which finds expression in many gods and goddesses. And so the root of all buddhas, in this way of thinking, is no ordinary deva but a superlative one: impersonal wisdom.
 
The strange back story of the tantric Taras suggests that "goddess" is more honorific -- a divine-human hybrid suitable for ruling -- than specific to any distinction in knowledge-and-vision worthy of the Noble Ones.

These goddess-figures are usually shown holding symbols illustrating their role. Prajna Paramita is a teacher, so she is often depicted holding meditation beads (emblematic of the eternal cycles of time), a rope or Magic Lasso (like Wonder Woman's, to retrieve those who have strayed from the Path), fruit (for prosperity or path-and-fruition), a lotus (purity), a vase (abundance) and, most importantly, a book (knowledge or wisdom). 

 

Uppalavanna (frank.itlab.us)

Free hands are held in a hand-yoga gesture (mudra) signifying "teaching."

The Perfection of Wisdom sutras (prajnaparamita) are a collection of sacred texts that declare the path to liberating-insight or transcendent-wisdom (bodhi, vipassana, nyana/ñana). In the Heart Sutra, the possessor of such wisdom is Avalokiteshvara, "the one looks down upon [and hears the cries of] the world." He is taken to be or later become merciful Kwan Yin (Earth Goddess, Mother Mary, a new Saraswati or Lakshmi), but the wisdom itself is Prajna.

What came first, the sacred texts or the goddess embodying them?

Khema, foremost in wisdom (iwilliam/flickr)

Sadly, for all this talk of Prajna Paramita and Avalokita (Kwan Yin), we are deprived of knowledge of the Buddha's real-life "wisdom goddesses," as embodied in his rarely discussed chief female disciples -- KHEMA and UPPALAVANNA. And little is said about the Buddha's two mothers, Maha Pajapati (Prajābatī, who became the first Buddhist nun in history) and Maha Maya Devi.

Why are they rarely discussed? Likely due to sexism and neglect, the ancient Nun's Order (Bhikkhuni Sangha) the Buddha began as an essential element of his mission became defunct. And with that loss so went knowledge of discourses delivered to nuns -- one never reads, "O, bhikkhunis!" as the opening of any sutra when it is certain the Buddha started many discourses this way -- and delivered by these two nuns, who were as important as the wonderful chief male disciples, Sariputra and Maha Moggallana, we read about all the time.

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Nuns: an afterthought forced on the Buddha? 

That is what we have all been taught as the history (his story) of the Sangha. But what did the Buddha have to say about it? In the "Great Final-Nirvana Sutra" (DN 16), Mara Namuci quotes the Buddha to the Buddha, who agrees:

 

"For the Blessed One, O venerable sir, spoke these words to me: 'I shall not come to my final passing away, Namuci, until my bhikkhus and bhikkhunis (monks and nuns or male and female ascetics), as well aslaymen and laywomen, have come to be true disciples -- wise, well disciplined, apt and learned, preservers of the Dharma, living according to the Dharma, abiding by the appropriate conduct, and having learned the Master's word, are able to expound it, preach it, proclaim it, establish it, reveal it, explain it in detail, and make it clear; until, when adverse opinions arise, they shall be able to refute them thoroughly and well, and to preach this convincing and liberating Dharma'" (Verse 7).

• ñána: "knowledge, comprehension, intelligence, insight," a synonym for paññá (Sanskrit, prajna); see also vipassaná.
• ñána-dassana-visuddhi: "purification of knowledge and vision" [knowing and seeing], the last of the seven purifications and a name for path-knowledge (magga-ñána), i.e., the penetrating realization of the path of Stream-winning, Once-returning, Non-returning, or Arhatship [full enlightenment]. The Path of Purification (XXII) furnishes a detailed explanation of it; (see visuddhi, VII).

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The death of dear children (sutra)

Wisdom Quarterly translation of Visakha Sutra, Inspired Utterances (Udana 8.8)

The Buddha fearless mudra (Saksit_s/flickr.com)

This have I heard. On one occasion the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī at the Eastern Monastery, in the palace of Migāra's mother. 

A dear and beloved grandson of Visākhā, Migāra's mother, had died. So Visākhā went to visit the Buddha with hair and clothes wet [marks of mourning].

Grief stricken she went in the middle of the day, bowed, and sat down. The Buddha said to Migāra's mother:

"Visākhā, why have you come here with wet hair and clothes in the middle of the day?"

Going to the Buddha (Nevil Zaveri/flickr)

"My dear and beloved grandson has died," she explained.
 
"Visākhā, would you like to many children?"
 
"Yes, venerable sir, I would like to have as many children and grandchildren as there are people in [the city of] Sāvatthī."
 
"But how many people in Sāvatthī die in the course of a day?"
 
"Sometimes ten people die in Sāvatthī in the course of a day, sometimes nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... Sometimes just one person dies in Sāvatthī in the course of a day. Sāvatthī is never without people dying."
 
"Then, Visākhā, what do you think: Would you ever be free of wet clothes and hair?"

"No, venerable sir. Enough of my having so many children!"
 
"Visākhā, those who have 100 dear ones have 100 sufferings. Those who have 90 dear ones have 90 sufferings. Those who have 80... 70... 60... 50... 40... 30...20 ... ten... nine... eight... seven... six... five... four... three... two... Those who have one dear one have one suffering.

"Those who have no dear ones have no sufferings. They are free from sorrow, free from stain, free from lamentation, I tell you."
 

Blissful and blameless (health.com)

Realizing the significance, the Buddha exclaimed: "The sorrow, weeping, and many similar kinds of suffering exist in the world, exist dependent on something dear. They do not exist when there is nothing dear.

"Blissful and sorrowless are those for whom nothing in the world is anywhere perceived as dear. Therefore, one who aspires to attain the stainless and sorrowless (nirvana) should not seek to make anything anywhere in the world dear.

• More: MN 87; Psalms of the Nuns 3.5; 6.1.

Cold world? No, the warmest!

Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

The Buddha, like all arhats, reclines into final bliss of nirvana (Saksit_s/flickr)

 

But how could anyone avoid becoming attached to dear things in the world? In fact, on reflection, nothing is dear except that we make it so.

 

The proof? Something is called "dear" only because it is dear to someone, not because of anything it intrinsically possesses. IF this were not so, THEN there would be no release from attachment to the dear.  No one would be freed from grasping and clinging or what we refer to as "attachment."

Of course, for most people this is not the problem. The problem the idea that anyone would recommend that we not be attached to things so dear as children, as relatives, as friends.

 

Most people, most of the time, ARE going to be attached. And rightly so. The Buddha promoted and persuaded multitudes to care for one another, to cultivate loving-kindness (metta, love, friendliness, warmth for others) and compassion (karuna, actively helping relieve the suffering of others).

 

But he went further. He taught that to be happy, one should also cultivate joyful-appreciation (mudita) and after all three of these are developed, equanimity (upekkha).

 

This is where people stop understanding. Equanimity is misinterpreted as "indifference." But it really means non-bias. That is, those three beautiful karmic impulses are sent to ALL without distinction. This is how the practice is brought to fulfillment, perfection, fruition. The goal is more than social. But it is social.

"Enlightened" society? Progressive but not enlightened.

The world will not be enlightened, societies will not be, not cities, towns, or villages. Individuals, pairs, small groups of practitioners see the light (nimitta), develop the eight attainments (absorptions), make their way skyward to the deva-worlds, or go beyond ALL suffering to the supreme goal of nirvana.

 

With us, with our attachments, we FEAR nirvana as cold "nothingness," as annihilation, as "emptiness," as oblivion. And we do not see it, we do not strive for it, we turn away toward the world and pat ourselves on the back for choosing the eternal bodhisattva path. The work of a "savior-martyr" is never done, for there are too many beings to save for it to ever be done. 

 

That is why the historical Buddha never spoke of anyone abandoning the goal in favor of becoming another Maitreya (Messiah). It is one sure way not to cultivate the path, not to develop the necessary factors to make the best use of a human life, which is to directly know-and-see the truth. Then one could really be useful, could raise a hand in fearless-mudra and allay the suffering of others.

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