A Goddess a Day

Amber Dorrian, Seth Auberon, TEAM BHUMI DEVA, Wisdom Quarterly; GoddessADay.org

Amatheia (pronounced ah-ma-THEE-uh) is an ancient Greek devi -- a daughter of Nereus, one of the goddesses of the sea or Nereids. "God and goddesses"? In Buddhist terms these are terrestrial and celestial (space) devas. They are born of Doris, an Okeanid. Sea nymphs are water elementals who care for bodies of water, the ocean, and its inhabitants. Ancients explained water-related phenomena and its functions as the activity of these powerful entities. Amathea (“nourisher”) was thought of as the devi or mermaid who looked after the development of young fishes (various species of fish).

 

Goddess of Mercy (elfwood)

Are there Buddhist goddesses? There are! The most famous is the bodhisattva of compassion Kwan Yin, often shown as a sea goddess riding a sea serpent (naga). The imagery symbolizes the power of compassion to soothe and smooth out samsara, frequently depicted as a flood, deluge, or ocean to cross over. Wisdom, a goddess called Prajna Paramita ("Perfection of Wisdom") or Khema (the Buddha's chief nun disciple "foremost in wisdom"), transcends samsara. 
 

Other "Buddhist goddesses" may not be devas at all but simply famous women honored with the title devi (queen, ruler, or stunning beauty): Taras (Buddhist Goddesses of India), Tibetan deities, Dharma guardians, particularly those from the realm of the Four Great Sky Rulers of the quadrants, Ven. Uppalavanna Theri (a Buddhist Lakshmi/Saraswati), princesses and female warriors of non-human tribes, Bhumi (Mother Earth), who saved Siddhartha when he outdid Mara the killer and obstacle to enlightenment.

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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.

• Sex and the Rape of a Buddhist nun
• Women and fruits of Buddhist recluseship
• Meet the Buddha's SISTER and other enlightened relatives
• VIDEO: Extra rules to subordinate women? (Ayya Tathaaloka)
  

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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KOAN: Nanyo's Wash Basin (Vairocana)

Koan Study Group, Roshi Albrizze, Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Book of Equanimity (BN)

A wash basin is a base thing. Today, it would be as if a master asked one to fetch a roll of toilet paper in answer to a question about the nature of the Great Illuminator.

  

Case 42: Nanyo’s Wash Basin

PREFACE TO THE ASSEMBLY 

Vairocana (users.skynet.be)

Washing bowls and filling the wash basin are both Dharma gates and Buddha's affair.

Carrying firewood and drawing water are nothing but marvelous activity and supernatural power.

Why can't one obtain liberating radiant splendor [releasing effulgence like splitting the atom] in shaking the earth?

MAIN CASE

Attention!

A monk asked Zen Master [Chu of] Nanyo, "What is the original body of the Cosmic Buddha Vairocana?"

Master Nanyo replied, "Go and fetch me the wash basin."

The monk brought the wash basin to him.

Master Nanyo said, "Now, go put it back."

The monk asked again, "What is the original body of the Cosmic Buddha Vairocana?"

Master Nanyo remarked, "The old Buddha is long gone."

APPRECIATORY VERSE

A bird soaring in air.

A fish dwelling in water.

Rivers and lakes both forgotten, one aspires to clouds and heaven.

A thread of doubting mind, and they're facing ten-thousand miles apart.

How many people understand and repay such unselfish kindness?

Who is Vairocana?

Buddha and Bodhisattva Directory (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

Vii-ro-cha-na means "one who is like the sun" or "the radiating one." In Chinese Vairocana is called Pe-Ru-Gher-Na or Da-Ze-Zu-Lai ("Great Sun Buddha"), in Japanese, Dainichi Nyorai or Roshana, in Tibetan, Rnam-par-snang-mdzad or Rnam-snang ("Maker of Brilliant Light").

  

Maha Vairocana ("Great Illuminator") in Hinduism-influenced Mahayana Buddhism is conceived of as the "Supreme Buddha." This is how this deified figure is regarded by many Mahayana Buddhists in Far East Asia, Tibet, Nepal, and Java. 

  

In the devotional Mi-tsung sect of China and the Shingon sect of Japan, Vairocana is the chief object of reverence and is regarded as the source of the entire universe -- a Maha Brahma ("Great Supremo" or powerful creator) figure made completely Buddhist.

  

Tibetan (manjushri.com)

The characteristic hand gesture displayed throughout these two regions is the mudra of the six elements, with the index finger of the left hand clasped by the five fingers of the right. This pose symbolizes the uniting of the five elements of the material world (earth, water, fire, air, and ether or separating space) with the spiritual (consciousness, prana, ch'i). 

  

The other gesture popular in Vairocana statues is in the Dharma-chakra-mudra ("teaching gesture").

As the supreme Buddha, Vairocana is usually located in the center of mandalas of the five tantric Dhyani Buddhas.

  

(A possible explanation)

In paintings, Vairocana is colored white to symbolize a pure consciousness.

 

Vairocana represents either the integration or origin of the Dhyani Buddhas. His wisdom is the Wisdom of the Dharmadhatu ("realm of phenomena"). The Dharmadhatu is the Realm of Truth, in which all things exist as they really are.

  

Vairocana's wisdom is also referred to as the All-Pervading Wisdom of the Dharmakaya ("Body of the Dharma"), the absolute Buddha nature. Therefore, Vairocana's symbol is the dharmachakra, the "Wheel of the Buddha's Teaching." It denotes the teaching of the Buddha. Its eight spokes represent the Noble Eightfold Path. More

Vairocana in Brief
Wikipedia entry edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Tibetan Vairocana (Dharmaflower.net)

Vairocana is a celestial buddha often interpreted, in Mahayana texts like the Flower Garland Sutra, as the Bliss Body of the historical Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama). In Chinese and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of emptiness. In the conception of the Five Wisdom Buddhas of Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the center. His "consort" (a popular Hindu concept about gods) in Tibetan Buddhism is White Tara. (In the Tibetan tradition, there is an affiliated female figure for every one of the Five Wisdom Buddhas.) This glorious figure is not to be confused with Virocana, who appears in the eighth chapter of Hinduism's Chandogya Upanishad as the king of the Titans (asuras). More

• How and why to recite the Vairocana Mantra

PHOTOS: ANGKOR WAT (Cambodia) in its state of preservation is unrivaled. Its mightiness and magnificence bespeak a pomp and luxury surpassing that of a Pharaoh or a Shah Jahan, an impressiveness greater than that of the pyramids, an artistic distinctiveness as fine as that of the Taj Mahal.

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Overcoming difficulties: Let it R.A.I.N.

Tara Brach [adapted from her book True Refuge (Bantam, 2013)]; Wisdom Quarterly

 

Tara Brach (examiner.com)

Years ago some American Buddhist teachers began to share a new mindfulness tool that offers in-the-trenches support for working with intense and difficult emotions. 

  

Called RAIN (an acronym for the four steps of the process), it can be accessed in almost any place or situation. It directs our attention in a clear, systematic way that cuts through confusion and stress. 

The steps give us somewhere to turn in a painful moment. And as we call on them more regularly, they strengthen our capacity to come home to our deepest truth. Like the clear sky and clean air after a cooling rain, this mindfulness practice brings a new openness and calm to our daily lives. 

I have now taught RAIN to thousands of students, clients, and mental health professionals, adapting and expanding it into [True Refuge]. I’ve also made it a core practice in my own life. Here are the four steps of RAIN presented in the way I’ve found most helpful:

• R Recognize what is happening
• A Allow life to be just as it is
• I Investigate inner experience with kindness
• N Non-Identification.

RAIN directly de-conditions the habitual ways in which we resist moment-to-moment experience. It doesn’t matter whether we resist “what is” by lashing out in anger, by having a cigarette, [by sex, drugs, rock 'n roll or rap], or by getting immersed in obsessive thinking.

Our attempt to control the life within and around us actually cuts us off from our own heart and from this living world. RAIN begins to undo these unconscious patterns as soon as we take the first step.  

  

Recognize what is, accept that it is, investigate what's going on inside, and realize that there's no reason to identify with situations. More

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The Green Tara Mantra (video)

Buddhist Light

   

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

  

Green Tara (Leighton Cooke)

OM represents Tara's sanctified body, speech, and mind.

TARE means liberating from suffering, the disappointment and pain of samsara, the Five Aggregates of Clinging (skandhas, heaps, groups, constituent factors) under the control of delusion and karma.

TUTTARE means liberating from the eight fears, the external and internal dangers, delusion, and karma.

TURE means liberating from the ignorance of the true nature for the ego, self, soul. It shows the way to the real cessation of suffering.

SVAHA means "May the meaning of this mantra take root in my mind."

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