In Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, femininity is related to transcendental or primordial wisdom. The concept of feminine wisdom can be found in the Buddhist tradition but also in Western schools of thought in philosophy and science. There are profound representatives of the sacred feminine in Buddhism that share parallels, for example, in the applied science […]
Lyudmila Klasanova
Women as Spiritual Partners in Vajrayana Buddhism
From the perspective of Vajrayana, if a woman has a strong aspiration and the necessary karmic prerequisites to overcome the instinctive need for procreation, her capacity for higher awareness is greater than that of a man. But even if she does choose to be a mother, she still has a chance to use her karmic […]
Mindful Birth, Mindful Motherhood
“This existence of ours is as transient as autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky, rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain.” – The Buddha Buddha Shakyamuni gave 84,000 different teachings […]
Homage to Kurukulla, Goddess of Love
In Vajrayana Buddhism, Kurukulla is a goddess of enchantment, magnetism, and love. In the Tibetan language, she is known as Rigjema, or the Mistress of knowledge. Kurukulla is a dakini, an embodiment of the ultimate wisdom that removes ignorance and turns negative emotions into pure awareness. She is related to the four enlightened activities (Tib. […]
The Offering Goddesses: In Praise of Divine Beauty
Homage to you, the Eight Auspicious Goddesses—Beauty, Garlands, Song, Dance, Flowers, Incense, Light and Perfume—merely thinking of you makes success grow more and more! From The Verses of the Eight Noble Auspicious Ones, by Mipham Rinpoche
The Extraordinary Conceptions of Mary and Maya
Conceiving a child without a man’s involvement is, at its heart, a miraculous phenomenon because pregnancy cannot occur without sexual activity and the fertilization of the egg by the sperm. Among some animals and insects we can witness asexual reproduction in which embryos grow without fertilization, or parthenogenesis (from the Greek “virgin creation”). According to […]
Mystery of Dakini’s Skull Cup
According to tantra, the human body is perceived as a sacred temple in which all higher forces and the whole truth about existence are present. One of those truths, fundamental to Vajrayana Buddhism, is impermanence (Skt. anitya, Tib. mitagpa). The visual representation of the transience of the human body, and hence the Buddhist idea of […]
Homage to Prajnaparamita
Prajnaparamita is the Buddhist goddess of wisdom, a personification of knowledge, revealed in the Prajnaparamita Sutras that laid the foundations of Mahayana Buddhism. The term combines the Sanskrit words prajna (wisdom) and paramita (perfection). Paramita is interpreted as having reached the opposite shore of samsara, and prajnaparamita is translated as “perfection of wisdom” or “transcendental […]
Spontaneous Union
Everything in nature is conditioned by the fundamental principle expressed in the unity of opposites: yin-yang. The fusion of the male and the female is a creative act and the source of life. Even though Buddha Nature is beyond genders, Buddhist iconography uses sexual polarity to symbolize the Mahayana and Vajrayana concept of the union […]
The Middle Way in Love
The doctrine of the Middle Way (Skt. madhyama-pratipad, Tib. ume lam) is one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism. According to Theravada Buddhism, the term “Middle Way” is used for the first time in Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which is perceived as the first teaching that Buddha Shakyamuni delivered after his awakening. In this text the Buddha […]