Ancient gold coin found in occupied Palestine

Seth Auberon, Sheldon S., Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Oren Liebermann (CNN)

Maya Devi and the birth of Prince Siddhartha, Lumbini Garden, Gandhara style Kushan period (Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History/Metropolitan Museum of Art/metmuseum.org)

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The Buddha's mother's name was Maya, but she is always called Maya Devi, which simply designates that she was royalty, a queen, a ruler. How does devi signify that?

 

It means "divine" or by decree of the devas ("shining ones," divine messengers, angels, godlings, gods, deities, royal bloodlines, stars).

A woman in modern occupied Palestine (aka Israel) found a super rare imprinted with Emperor Augustus. All it reads on the face is the Latin "Augustus Divus." The Sanskrit deva gives us our diva, related to the Latin divus and deus (deity, god).

The "divine right of kings" is the idea that space beings gave certain humans or deva-human hybrids the "right" to rule over others. Whether they were given such a privilege or not, they call claim to have it. And they use signs, symbols, emblems, and spirit animals (like the eagle) to suggest this right.

• PHOTOS: Rare coin found at site of 1503 shipwreck (March 15, 2016) The debris found there came from the long-missing ship, one of two lost in the storm from Vasco da Gama's second voyage to India.... Divers discovered an incredibly rare silver coin called an Indio, of which only one other is known to exist today, said David L. Mearns, the director of Blue Water Recoveries.
  

It was just sitting on the grass (like someone put it there to be found)

Flipside of rare coin minted by Emperor Trajan

JERUSALEM, Israel (CNN) - The shiny object was just sitting there in the grass, waiting to be found. It was a 2,000-year-old gold coin with the face of a Roman emperor, so rare that only one other such coin is known to exist.

 

Laurie Rimon discovered the gold coin while hiking in eastern Galilee recently, not far from the biblical site where it's written that Jesus walked on water and performed the miracle of the multiplication of the fish and bread. Rimon, from a kibbutz in northern Israel, turned it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. It was her own little miracle.

 

"It was not easy parting with the coin," she said. "After all, it is not every day one discovers such an amazing object, but I hope I will see it displayed in a museum in the near future."

"This coin is rare on a global level," said Dr. Danny Syon, a coin expert with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
 

The coin shows the face of Emperor Augustus, Caesar's heir and the founder of the Roman Empire.

Triple Gem Buddhist coin (Shakyan/Scythian)

Augustus ruled from 27 BC to AD 14, during the time of Jesus. In AD 107, Emperor Trajan minted a series of coins to honor the Roman emperors who came before him, according to Donald Ariel, head curator of the coin department at the Israel Antiquities Authority. This gold coin was created as a tribute to the reign of Augustus. It refers to him as "Divus Augustus," or Augustus the Divine, who Ariel says was considered a deity after his death.
 

The hiker's discovery has created a mystery: What was such a valuable coin doing around the Sea of Galilee? More + VIDEO

SUTRA: "The Devas" (absorption meditation)
Ven. Thanissaro (accesstoinsight.org) edited by Wisdom Quarterly, Deva Sutra (AN 9.39)

Vipassana: the Insight Meditation Society of Barre, Massachusetts (dharma.org)

Devas and titans battle in space/sky (akasha loka) in European art, war in heaven where Sakka is St. Michael and the titan chief Vepacitti, a Lucifer/Satan figure.

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"Once, meditators, a battle between the shining ones (devas) and the (asuras) titans [sometimes spoken of as if it were a battle between angels and demons over issues of good and evil] was in full swing.

In that battle, the titans won and the devas lost. Having lost, the devas fled while the titans, heading north, attacked them. Then the thought occurred to the devas, 'The titans are still attacking. Why not do battle a second time?'
 
"So the devas did battle with the titans a second time. And a second time, the titans won and the devas lost. Having lost, the devas fled while the titans, heading north, attacked them. Then the thought occurred to the devas, 'The titans are still attacking. Why not do battle a third time?'
 
"So the devas did battle with the titans a third time. And a third time, the titans won and the devas lost. Having lost, the devas -- afraid -- returned to the deva capital [of one particular world called Tavatimsa or the "World of the Thirty-Three"].
 
Having gone to their capital, the devas thought, 'Having come to this shelter for the fearful, we will now keep here to ourselves, having nothing to do with the titans.' And the titans also thought, 'Having gone to this shelter for the fearful, the devas will now keep here to themselves having nothing to do with us.'
 
Heading south

Sakka King of the Devas/St. Michael (Norse mythology's Thor, son of Zeus) at war with Vepacitti in heaven (akasha deva loka), Mara/Satan/Cupid (deviantart.net)

 
"Once, meditators, a battle between the devas and titans was in full swing. In that battle, the devas won and the titans lost. Having lost, the titans fled while the devas, heading south, attacked them. Then the thought occurred to the titans, 'The devas are still attacking. Why not do battle a second time?'
 
"So the titans did battle with the devas a second time....And a third time, the devas won and the titans lost. Having lost, the titans -- afraid -- returned to the titan capital. Having gone to their capital, the titans thought, 'Having come to this shelter for the fearful, we will now keep here to ourselves having nothing to do with the devas.' And the devas also thought, 'Having gone to this shelter for the fearful, the titans will now keep here to themselves having nothing to do with us.'
 
Comparison to meditation
 

"In the same way, meditators, on whatever occasion a meditator -- secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful things -- enters the first meditative absorption (jhāna or dhyana) accompanied by rapture and pleasure born of seclusion [i.e., withdrawal from sensuality and unskillful things], accompanied by applied and sustained attention -- on such an occasion the thought occurs to a meditator:

"'Having come to this shelter for the fearful, I will now keep here to myself, having nothing to do with Māra [the defilements of the mind/heart personified].'

• Who or what is "Mara," the personification of EVIL?

"And the thought occurs to Māra, the Harmful One, 'Having gone to this shelter for the fearful, the meditator will now keep here having nothing to do with me.'
 
[Similarly with the second, third, and fourth meditative absorptions.]
 
"On whatever occasion a meditator, with the complete transcending of perceptions of (physical) form, with the disappearance of perceptions of resistance, and not heeding perceptions of diversity, (perceiving,) 'Boundless space,' enters the base [dimension] of the boundlessness of space: Such a person is said to be a meditator who has put Māra in the dark.

• [Note 1: The text here has antamakāsi -- "has put an end to" -- which does not fit the context as well as the reading, andhamakāsi -- "has put in the dark" -- found in the parallel passage in MN 25, so I have followed the latter reading here.]

Having bound Māra's eyes and leaving no opening, that meditator has become invisible to the Harmful One.

• [2: The interpretation of this image here differs from that in MN 25, which states that the (meditator) puts Māra in the dark upon entering the first meditative absorption. In either case -- putting Māra in the dark beginning with the first absorption or only beginning with the base of the boundlessness of space -- the "dark" is temporary, lasting only as long as one remains in that attainment.]

[Similarly with the bases or dimensions of the boundlessness of consciousness, nothingness, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception.]
 
"On whatever occasion, with the complete transcending of the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, one enters and remains in the cessation of perception and feeling.

"And having seen [that] with wisdom, one's defilements [fetters] are completely ended: One is said to be a meditator who has put Māra in the dark. Having bound Māra's eyes and leaving no opening, one has become invisible to the Harmful One, having crossed over attachment in the universe."

• [3: This is the only one of these attainments that inherently contains the wisdom (insight or discernment) that takes one, once and for all, beyond attachments in the universe.]