Cundī (Sanskrit, Chinese 準提, Pinyin Zhǔntí, Japanese Juntei, Tibetan ལྷ་མོ་སྐུལ་བྱེད་མ།, Wylie lha mo skul byed ma, THL lha-mo kül-jé-ma) or Cundā (Chinese 羅馬化) is a female Indian Buddhist deity who remains popular in East Asian Buddhism.
In Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, she is associated with the practice of the well-known Cundī dharani, which is performed along with a specific mudra (hand gesture), as well as the use of a circular mirror [1, 2].
She is considered to be able to purify negative karma, provide protection, support spiritual practice that allows one to quickly attain Buddhahood [3].
This deity is also called by various other names and epithets, including:
Some depictions of Cundī share many iconographic and symbolic elements with another female Buddhist deity, PrajñāpāramitāDevi [Buddhism's Sophia, the anthropomorphic representation of the "Perfection of Wisdom" as a female deva].
As such, some images of these goddesses are difficult to identify [4, 5]. In Tibetan Buddhism she is known by the name Lhamo Cunda, Chunde, or Cundi ("Lhamo" in Tibetan is devi in Sanskrit, a term of veneration meaning "goddess") [6, 7]. More
CLASS INFO: Wednesdays 7:00–8:00 pm (EDT) with Bhikkhu Bodhi
Our Theravada JuBu teacher Bhikkhu Bodhi
Dear Dharma Students,
please join us tonight (May 6, 2026) at 7:00 pm for a meditation session over Zoom by clicking here.
Each Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a meditation session over Zoom. The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting Pali verses of homage) followed by a 45-minute guided meditation.
All are welcome to join. The texts for recitation are attached separately. Please see class page on website (BAUS.org/en) for chanting text. Miss it? Don't worry. This is a recurring meeting from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm (EDT, New York time), Wednesdays.
More activities at Chuang Yen Monastery (BAUS) for May 2026
Dates: Saturdays, May 2, 9, and 23. Time: 6:30 am to 8:30 am (PT) - 9:30 am to 11:30 am (ET) On Saturdays, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a full morning program of meditation and sutra study.
May 2nd and 9th is a "hybrid" program in-person and online. The May 23rd class online only this month. The online class can be accessed through Zoom. Please note: To participate in this class, one must register with BAUS ahead of time: Sign up for class with Bhikkhu Bodhi
The Sanctuary Within with Ven. Youmin
Instructor: Ven. Youmin Date: May 10th, time: 10:00 am-11:30 am and 1:30-3:00 pm. Place: Woo Ju Memorial Library. Lead by Ven. Youmin, we will explore the ancient mechanics of the mind through the art of breath, deconstruct the filters of our perception, and gain a definitive framework for stress management. This is more than a lecture, it is a mental operating system upgrade. THE SANCTUARY WITHIN with Ven. Youmin 4/19 & 5/10
VESAK 2026: "Buddhist Christmas" in New York: the Buddha’s Birthday Celebration
Date: Sunday, May 17, 2026, 10:00 am to 12:00 pm. Place: The Great Buddha Hall at Chuang Yen Monastery. All are invited to celebrate Vesak, commemorating the birth of the historical Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni). We will recite the Sutra on the Merit of Bathing the Baby Buddha and make a Grand Meal Offering to all the Buddhas. BAUS invites everyone to sponsor the lighting of a blessing lamp or other blessing or memorial services.
Group Meditation over Zoom, Wednesdays, 7:00 pm-8:00 pm. Platform: Zoom. Every Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads online group meditation. The session consists of a 15-minute vandana (chanting verses of homage), followed by a 45-minute guided meditation, either on loving-kindness or on mindfulness of breathing.
Temple of Enlightenment (TOE)
3070 Albany Cresent Bronx, NY 10463
TOE Meditation Class and Dharma Talk with Ven. Subodha
Instructor: Ven. Subodha, Sundays, 10:00 am to 11:30 am on Zoom and in person at TOE on Tuesdays from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Location: Temple of Enlightenment Meditation Program. In person only at the Temple of Enlightenment in the Bronx.
For years, Zen came to Pasadena through PasaDharma under the auspices of Founder Roshi Jeff Albrizze (Rev. Lotus Peace), successor Meditation Guide Seven, and PasaDharma's friends at:
perplexing riddles to help us overcome rigid and limiting habits of mind and get us thinking outside the box (koans),
questions and answers, and
an open group discussion.
Sensei completed his Hossenshiki ceremony in Japan, a necessary step for a Sotoshu novice to take toward becoming a full-fledged Zen Buddhist priest, as he became Zagen (pictured above), then Osho. He is also the author of a very helpful Guide to Zen:
With 4.3 out of 5 stars (38 reviews), this 2021 Simon & Schuster introduction to Zen is unlike any readers have ever seen — inspired by manga and graphic novels. It offers a comprehensive overview of Soto Zen Buddhism in a delightfully captivating way.
Complete with dynamic, detailed illustrations, American Soto Zen Priest Seigaku Amato uses a semi-narrative style to take readers on a visual tour of Buddhism and, using specifics to illuminate universals, dives deeply into the practices and forms of Soto Zen.
In honor of our teacher the Buddha Shakyamuni
Whether we are just taking our first step or have been practicing Zen for years, this creative and profound book can serve as a constant companion and guide on the journey as it explores topics such as:
If Buddhism has no God, who are Buddhists praying to?
(Buddha's Wisdom) 🔍 IF THERE'S NO BUDDHIST GOD, WHO GETS ALL THESE PRAYERS?
The Buddha with gods Sakka and Brahma
Buddhism famously teaches that there is no "creator God." Yet, Buddhist temples across Asia overflow with [what sounds like] prayers, chants, offerings, and devotion.
From bodhisattvas and buddhas to spirits, protectors, and ancestors, this video explores whom Buddhists are actually praying to—if anyone—and why [petitionary] prayer never disappeared from Buddhism.
Discover how Buddhist "prayer" works in the absence of a supreme deity and why this "godless" religion created one of the most elaborate spiritual support systems ever conceived.
[NOTE: Theists are sure there's a God; atheists are sure there is not; agnostics say they do not know and remain on the fence. But nontheists are different. They say, "Whether there is a God or is not a God, we must still concern ourselves with our own enlightenment and liberation/salvation." No one else, not even "God," can do it for us. We must develop calm and insight, study and practice, to awaken from this illusory samsara or Wheel of Suffering and Rebirth.]
DISCOVER:
Why Buddhism rejected [an all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent] creator God but preserved devotion
Why [Mahayana] Buddhism has multiple buddhas instead of one God...and what each one specializes in
The bodhisattvas who postponed enlightenment just to help all living beings (and millions pray to them daily)
The terrifying wrathful protectors (guardian deities) who guard Buddhism with fangs and flames
How Buddhism absorbed local spirits, gods, and ancestors without losing its core philosophy
Why the three Buddhist schools (Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna) solve this paradox differently
How this ancient system still explains modern meditation, ritual, and faith
📿 If this changed understanding of Buddhist devotion, subscribe to Buddha's Wisdom for more deep explorations into Buddhism's most fascinating mysteries and apparent contradictions.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 If Buddhism has no God
01:31 The core confusion: No God yet prayer everywhere
06:50 Chapter 1: The Buddha specialists (Shakyamuni, Amitābha, Medicine Buddha, Guanyin)
14:55 Chapter 2: The Bodhisattva Help Desk—compassion incarnate
21:53 Chapter 3: Protectors, Gods, and spiritual security
27:40 Chapter 4: Where Buddhism meets local spirits and ancestors
34:48 Chapter 5: Human bridges—the power of dead masters
41:48 Chapter 6: Theravāda, Mahāyāna, Vajrayāna Buddhism — three different solutions
50:12 Chapter 7: How all the layers work together
54:45 Chapter 8: Why this still matters today
56:17 What 'prayer' really cultivates
📚 SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Primary Buddhist texts:
The Pāli canon (Tipiṭaka) - the Buddha's final words on self-reliance
Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra) - foundation of bodhisattva devotion
Pure Land Sutras (Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras) - Amitābha Buddha and rebirth in [his western] Pure Land
Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thödol) - death and intermediate states between lifetimes
Platform Sutra - Zen Buddhism's approach to "sudden enlightenment"
Scholarly resources:
Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
The Bodhisattva Ideal in Buddhism by Sangharakshita
Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations by Paul Williams
Tantric Buddhism in East Asia by Richard Payne
The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism by Robert E. Buswell Jr. and Donald S. Lopez Jr.
Popular Buddhism in Sri Lanka by Michael Ames (folk religion integration)
The Cult of the Book of the Dead in Tibet by Bryan J. Cuevas
Academic articles:
"The Concept of the Bodhisattva in Early Buddhism" - Buddhist Studies Review
"Wrathful Deities in Vajrayana Buddhism" - Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
"Pure Land Buddhism in China" - Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Historical context:
The Buddhist Conquest of China by Erik Zürcher (syncretism examples)
Buddhism and Society in Thailand by Tambiah (spirit house integration)
(Juliana Garces Art) Nov. 29, 2025: Can we trip without external psychedelic drugs? Yes. Our own body is capable of creating mystical, visionary, DMT-like states completely on its own.
This video share ten of the most powerful natural ways to access expanded consciousness without using any substances. The final one is considered the most intense of all.
These methods have shaped my spiritual journey, my art, and my understanding of the mind. Some come from ancient traditions, some from modern science, and some from the hidden corners of consciousness itself.
Enjoy exploring mystical states, inner worlds, and the nature of reality? Make sure to subscribe for more videos like this.
Thanks for watching.
Sending love and blessings on the journey. Namaste.
ABOUT: I am [Juliana Garces is] a visionary artist and poet on a mission to raise our collective consciousness through art.
I create artworks, poems, and videos about mystical subjects to help inspire people to find the divine within themselves.
Resonate with my work? Please check out these links:
For the entire month following the Rains Retreat or Vassa, the super meritorious Kathina ceremony is performed at Theravada Buddhist temples (viharas) across Buddhist countries. Los Angeles has countless Buddhist temples from all parts of the world -- on par with the most concentrated number of different Buddhist temples on earth, Bodh Gaya ("Enlightenment Grove"), Bihar, India. But that is an anomaly with spiritual embassies sent from around the Buddhist world (Buddhadom) and only tiny communities to look after them or receive visitors during the high season when weather allows. Los Angeles, however, has Buddhist communities from all over the world and not all of them with their own temples yet built. This week, beginning Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025, the Sarathchandra Buddhist Vihara of North Hollywood, has all night paritta chanting. This is with its Mexican American monk (bhikkhu), Ven. Los Angeles Sanatha Vihari Bhikkhu. Their larger Kathina ceremony is on Sunday, with hundreds in attendance, providing free food and dana (charitable support) to the resident and visiting Theravada Buddhist monks. FREE. Wear white as is the Sri Lankan island custom. Lunch and refreshments served. There is also a big Burmese celebration in the San Gabriel Valley on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025:
Burmese Theravada tradition: Pa Auk Tawya, L.A.
The most meritorious giving for lay Buddhists
Buddhism and dana made it to ancient Greece in Gandhara, Bactria, and other outposts.
.
Kathinais a Theravada Buddhist festival that comes at the end of the Rains Retreat or "Buddhist Lent" (Vas or Vassa), the three-month rainy season intensive practice period for Theravada Buddhists in South and Southeast Asia:
Burma (Myanmar)
Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
Thailand (Siam)
India
Bangladesh (where it is known as Kaṭhina Cībar Dān)
Cambodia
Laos
Vietnam
Malaysia
Singapore [2][3].
The Rainy Season during which a monastery may hold its culminating Kathina ceremony is one month long, beginning after the full moon of the 11th month on the Lunar calendar (usually October).
It is a time of practicing letting go, generosity, giving, sharing (dana, donating), a time for lay Buddhists to express gratitude and support to Buddhist monastics (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis) [4][5].
Lay practitioners bring donations (requisites such as robes, food, medicines, necessities) to Buddhist monasteries, nunneries, and temples, especially premade new robes or cotton cloth and dyes for monastics to sew new patchwork robes.
The gift of the Eight Requisites [6] (aṭṭha parikkhārā or atapirikara in Sri Lanka) is also part of the offerings [2][4][5].
Origins at the time of the Buddha
Kaṭhina (also Kaṭina) is a Pali word referring to the sturdy wooden frame used to measure the length and width by which Buddhist monastic robes are cut [7].
As the legend goes, 30 monks were journeying with the intention of spending the Rains (Vassa) with the Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) [2]. However, the Rains began before they reached their destination and they had to stop at Saketa [2][8].
According to the Buddha's guidelines for Vassa, mendicant (wandering ascetic) monastics should not travel during the rainy season, as this may cause unintentionally harm to crops and insects during the journey [9]. This is an ancient custom that preceded the Buddha but to which the Buddha agreed.
As such, wandering Buddhist monastics had to stop [2][8]. They passed their time together without conflict, intensively practicing the Dhamma (the Buddha's Teachings). So afterwards, the Buddha rewarded them by demonstrating a way to practice sharing and generosity.
A lay Buddhist disciple had previously donated pieces of cotton cloth to the Buddha, so he gave these pieces to the group of monks and told them to make it into a sturdy outer robe then offer it as a gift to the one of them who had practiced most in line with the monastic rules.
The frame, called the Kathina, was used to hold those pieces while they were being made into one robe [2][8]. This ancient tradition continues to this day in Theravada monasteries and nunneries around the world. More
Please join us tonight at 7:00 pm Wednesday (June 4th) for a meditation session over Zoom by clicking HERE.
Each Wednesday evening, from 7:00 to 8:00 pm, Bhikkhu Bodhi leads a meditation session on Zoom.
An amazing Buddhist spectacle unfolded at the World Peace Gathering in a fancy hotel across from Disneyland in downtown Anaheim on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025. From 4:00 to 9:00 pm floors of the Anaheim Convention Center were transformed into a kind of Mahayana Buddhist Pure Land, with 300 monastics from all traditions and countries in the Southland and 1,700 or so lay participants.
We filed into a color filled hall in the diagonal, our bodies forming a mandala (sacred geometrical pattern in the Mahayana/Vedic Hindu sense) for a kind of Catholic-style repentance ceremony, inviting peace and countless light beings (devas, brahmas, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas, and buddhas).
No photography or video footage was allowed by participants, though there were official cameras on the perimeter and some people couldn't help but pull out their cellphones for a quick snap or two. However, here is old footage of this event from 2013 and 2018 before it evolved into the spectacle we experienced for Earth Day 2025.
World Peace Gathering 2013: Mandala Ceremony (2 of 4)
(CompaSS) Jan. 6, 2014: This Mandala Ceremony was held on Dec. 22nd, 2013, at the Long Beach Convention Center during Compassionate Service Society's 5th Annual World Peace Gathering. Approximately 1,500 people attended this mandala.
What happened in 2025?
Wisdom Quarterly 2025
It started off as a normal convention of Buddhists at a convention center in OC. But it became profound with Vedic/Brahminical magic -- mantras and mudras, intentions and emotions. It made an impression.
First, everything was color coded. There are Sanskrit letter, bija mantras or "seed sounds" we were uttering once in formation. When 1,700 get in a room with 300 monastics, whatever happens is bound to be special.
There is the Soka Gakkai Buddhist cult, and they have that chant for material manifestation that may encourage greed in the name of "spirituality." One could understand how nice it might be to chant a repetitive set of meaningful sounds one doesn't know the meaning of. Somethings are only meant to be vibrational utterances, not sensible concepts. But there were translations, too. It was not mindless.
One would have wished to be videotaping the goings on so the outside world could see it. Once, at the Lu Mountain Chan Monastery in Rosemead, San Gabriel Valley, Los Angeles County, California, there was the ordinary sermon by Chan Master, as he had us call him. Then a short meditation. Then a great vegan meal of homemade Vietnamese delicacies by elderly expert cooks in the temple kitchen. Then socializing and talking, people hanging around and eventually dispersing.
Wanting to get some real meditation in, something silent and unguided, free of visualizations and interruptions, I went into the empty meditation hall and took a seat. To my surprise, people came back in dressed in robes, the same people from the morning sit. But there was no special occasion announced.
They began to chant and do hand movements (mudras) with a secret book they had, turning the pages. It went on and on. I remained still and silent, going unnoticed. That was their mistake, which they tried to play off when I began to ask questions afterward. I had seen the secret ceremony, the ritual Hindu-influenced Mahayana practices that really aided their Chan ("Zen") and samadhi, surrounded by countless alleged sariras (sacred relic beads and crematory remains). This was like that, and it may go on in every Vietnamese Zen temple in the county. The OC is full of them, particularly in the small city of Westminster.
I picked up a color diagram explaining the five elemental colors (white at the perimeter, yellow, blue, red, green, and white at the center). There is a siddham or character that looks like a four (4) in Japanese/Chinese script interpreting Sanskrit. A Vietnamese speaker is needed to decipher the explanation: Quan he giua pham tru ca the va tap the khi tu tap phap Lien Hoa Thu Nhan va Mandala Lien Hoa, which may not make sense without the diacritical marks.
The magic spells (mantras)
A color booklet with pictures of lotuses titled So tay Lien Hoa Bo Tat ("Lotus Bodhisattva Handbook"), Ban Cap Nhat 2025, on the cover also came to hand.
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