Classicist and Christian theologian Dr. Ammon Hillman says the historical Jesus took many entheogenic drugs as part of the mystery cult he formed with his very young apostles. This was in keeping with a long imperial Greek and Roman practice of mystery school initiations, like the famous Eleusinian Mysteries many great Western thinkers like Aristotle participated in for mystic visions, divine knowledge, and esoteric understanding.
So Jesus got high in Gethsemane and other places around ancient Palestine?
The Secret Eleusinian Mystery Cult (School) for drug initiation
The Eleusinian rites, ceremonies, and beliefs, like those of other "mystery schools," were kept secret on pain of death and consistently preserved from antiquity [6].
For the initiated, the rebirth of the Greek Goddess Persephone symbolized the eternity of life that flows from generation to generation, and they believed that they would have a reward in the afterlife [7, 8].
There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of these Mysteries. Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some modern scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries -- a consistent set of rites, ceremonies, and experiences that spanned two millennia -- came from psychedelic/entheogenic drugs [9, 10].
The name of the town, Eleusis, seems to be pre-Greek and is likely a counterpart with Elysium and the Goddess Eileithyia [11].
Drug-induced mysticism
ETYMOLOGY: Eleusinian Mysteries (Greek Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) was the name of the "mysteries" [occult, esoteric knowledges] of the City of Eleusis.
The name of the City Eleusis was established before ancient Greece, likely related to the Goddess Eileithyia [12]. Her name Ἐλυσία ("Elysia") in Laconia and Messene probably relates her with the month Eleusinios and Eleusis [13], but this is debated [14].
The Ancient Greek word from which English "mystery" derives, mystḗrion (μυστήριον), means "mystery or secret rite" [15] and is related to the verb myéō (μυέω), which means "(I) teach, initiate into the mysteries" [16], and the noun mýstēs (μύστης), which means "one initiated" [17].
The word mystikós (μυστικός), source of the English word "mystic," means "connected with the mysteries" or "private," "secret" (as in Modern Greek) [18]. More
Did the 14th Dalai Lama really ask an underage little boy, a minor, to "suck my tongue" in front of cameras (unlike how he must usually do it, in private and behind closed doors)? - Yes. Is that a problem? It's a cultural thing! He has a right to make out with minors. Who are we to judge?
Tara (Sanskrit तारा, tārā, Standard Tibetan སྒྲོལ་མ, dölma), Ārya Tārā ("Noble Tara") is also known as Jetsün Dölma (Tibetan rje btsun sgrol ma, "Venerable Mother of Liberation"). She is an important female buddha in Vajrayana and Mahayana Buddhism.
Our reading of Mahayana Buddhism, of which Vajrayana is a sub-school, suggests that the MOST powerful Buddhist goddess is actually Kwan Yin (Guanyin, a female manifestation of Avalokiteśvara) Bodhisattva. She is queen or in any case certainly the most powerful, for she looks on and hears the cries of the world with utmost compassion, a kind of Virg Yin Mary(not Jewish or Essene Miriam so much as the ultimate goddess in Gnostic Christianity, Mary Magdalene).
If Theravada Buddhism made much of personifying qualities through transcendent goddesses (devis), our vote for the Ultimate Goddess right alongside Kwan Yin (Guanyin) would certainly be the glorious Prajnaparamita of Java, Gnostic Sophia, the personification of the Perfection of Wisdom. And we wouldn't stop there. Maha Pajapati Gotami, Yasodhara (aka Bimba Devi, Rahulamata, Bhaddha Kaccana, Sundari Kaccana, etc.), Khema Theri, Uppalavanna Theri, and Queen of [Tusita] Heaven Maya would serve as the raw basis for building up goddesses, venerable enlightened Buddhist women in history.
[Earlier traditions hold to the view, one of five niyamas, that while females are of course equally capable of arahantship, full enlightenment, as well as many other accomplishments, literal buddhas only arise as males. Why this would be, or why any of the niyamas are true in and of themselves, is not explained. 5. dhamma-niyāma "the constraint of dhammas (things, phenomena)," namely, such events as the quaking of the 10,000 world-systems at the conception of a bodhisatta conception in his mother's womb and again at his birth (partition from that womb). At the end of the discussion Sumaṅgalavilāsinī passage, the Commentary states that dhamma-niyāma explains the term dhammatā in the text of the Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN ii.12) (Cf. S 12.20 for a discussion of the use of the word dhamma-niyamatā in the Pali canon sutras.
It should always be borne in mind that no individual is an actual sex but fluid because one can be reborn as any of the three genders -- male, female, pandaka. How many genders are there? The answer could easily be more than three because pandaka can be variously defined as pervert, eunuch (pansexual as the word is understood in the East not as we use it in the West), hermaphrodite, bi, gay, asexual, intersex, transgender, transsexual, crossdresser, etc.)
The Dalai Lama, who is Tibetan Vajrayana joked about this in one of his PR movies, declaring something like: "Of course a woman can become a buddha...she just has to be reborn as a man first" then laughing. People popularly regard him as the "Pope of Vajrayana Buddhism," though he is not; he's not even the pope of Tibetan Buddhism because the non-Gelug schools do not regard him as the pontiff but rather a useful political leader, a kind of temporal king who made it to the world stage with more than a little help from the CIA. This topic of gender should be questioned, debated, and explored as it seems awfully unfair and denigrating to femalehood, but might it be the case, as a Hindu priest once told our college Comparative Religion class that the reason a being, a gandhabba seeking rebirth in a human body, is reborn as a female rather than a male at any given rebirth is due to the level of attachment, affection, and clinging present in that relinking moment. If that is the case, we have all been and will all be females, so placing femininity one down from masculinity is a bad strategy that will turn around and bite us. Likewise, all females reborn as humans, as rare and difficult as it is to ever secure a human rebirth, will also experience what it's like to be a male. And we say with no confusion, it's not all it's cracked up to be.]
Humans love to carve ideal attributes in stone.
She may appear as a female bodhisattva (a "being bent on full or supreme enlightenment," the two not being the same thing, one being an arhat, the other a buddha) in Mahayana Buddhism [1].
In Vajrayana Buddhism, Green Tara is a female buddha who is a consort of the Cosmic Buddha Amoghasiddhi.
Tārā is also known as a savioress who hears the cries of beings in saṃsāra (the interminable round of rebirth and suffering) and saves them from worldly and spiritual danger [2].
In Vajrayana, she is considered to be a buddha, and the Tārā Tantra describes her as "a mother who gives birth to the buddhas of the three times [past, present, and future]" who is also "beyond saṃsāra and nirvāṇa" [3].
Earlier tradition distinguishes nirvana as being nothing like samsara, and since all we have ever known is the latter, anything else could be considered nirvana. Some do not like this definition as it seems to define nirvana, which many feel is ineffable, indescribable, and incomparable even though the historical Buddha Siddhartha Gautama did indeed define and describe it.
Tārā is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana (Esoteric Buddhism) and is found in apocryphal sources like the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa and the Guhyasamāja Tantra [4].
Key Indic Vajrayana texts that focus on Tārā include the Tantra Which Is the Source for All the Functions of Tārā, Mother of All the Tathagatas (Sanskrit Sarva-tathāgata-mātṛtārā-viśva-karma-bhavanāma-tantra) and Tārā's Fundamental Ritual Text (Tārāmūlakalpa) [5, 3].
Both Green and White Tārā remain popular meditation deities or yidams in Tibetan Buddhism, and Tara is also revered in Newar Buddhism.
Tārā is considered to take on many forms or emanations, while Green Tara emanates 21 Tārās, each with different attributes—colors, implements, and activities such as pacifying (śānti), increasing (pauṣṭika), enthralling (vaśīkaraṇa), and wrathful (abhicāra) [2].
Green Tara (or "blue-green," Sanskrit Samayatara or śyāmatārā) remains the most important form of the deity in Tibetan Buddhism [6, 7].
A practice text entitled Praises to the 21 Taras is a well known text on Tara in Tibetan Buddhism within Tibet, recited by children and adults, and is the textual source for the 21 forms of Green Tārā.
The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus: oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā. It is uttered by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow Tibetan culture as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. The literal translation would be "Oṃ O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One, So Be It!" More
Vajrayāna (Sanskrit वज्रयान, lit. "Diamond Vehicle" or "Thunderbolt Vehicle"), otherwise known as Mantra-yāna ("Mantra Vehicle"), Guhya-mantra-yāna ("Secret Mantra Vehicle"), Tantra-yāna ("Tantra Vehicle"), Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, and Esoteric Buddhism, is a vehicle (yāna) in the larger Mahāyāna Buddhist tradition.
It emphasizes esoteric practices and rituals aimed at rapid spiritual awakening. Emerging between the 5th and 7th centuries CE in medieval India [1, 2], Vajrayāna Buddhism incorporates a range of techniques.
These include the use of mantras (sacred sounds), dhāraṇīs (mnemonic codes), mudrās (symbolic hand gestures), mandalās (spiritual diagrams), [yoga asanas (spiritual positions, "seats," postures)], and the visualization of deities (devas) and buddhas. More
Yeshe Tsogyal (circa 757 or 777–817 CE) [1], also known as "Victorious Ocean of Knowledge," "Knowledge Lake Empress" (ཡེ་ཤེས་མཚོ་རྒྱལ), or by her Sanskrit name Jñānasāgarā "Knowledge Ocean," or her clan name "Lady Kharchen" [2], attained enlightenment in her lifetime and is considered the Mother of Tibetan Buddhism. She is the highest woman in the Nyingma Vajrayana lineage. Some sources say, as Princess of Karchen, she was either a wife or consort of the Emperor Tri Songdetsen of Tibet [3], when she began studying Vajrayana Buddhism with Padmasambhava, who became her main karmamudrā consort. Padmasambhava is a founder-figure of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and is considered the second buddha of our era [4], an idea that is anathema to Theravada Buddhist accounts of what the historical Buddha taught.
(Tibetan Nuns) Esoteric Buddhism in Tibet takes from Bon shamanism (Himalayan sorcery), Hindu tantra and yoga, and Mahayana Buddhism to form a unique expression of the Dharma so far removed from the historical Buddha's doctrine (Teachings, Dharma) that one might mistake it for Vedic Hinduism with names changed from the traditional Hindu pantheon to Tibetan and Indian figures that rose to importance in history.
KŪKAI is a visually stunning documentary that brings to the screen the remarkable story of Kūkai, one of the most influential figures in Japanese cultural history. In 804 AD, he traveled from Japan to Tang China in search of knowledge, beginning a journey that would leave a lasting mark on art, learning, and cultural life across East Asia.
REVIEW: No. This is the worst kind of hagiography. We saw it in Beverly Hills on Sunday as part of its pre-release screening. It is as faith-based as it gets, and Japan is already infamous for its uber faith (bhakti) path Nichiren Buddhism. In the struggle between tariki and jiriki, it goes over the top that magic, mantra, and mumbo-jumbo are the path. It's not the Path the historical Buddha taught, and anyone could see that with the slightest amount of study. Faith (saddha, confidence, conviction) is an important step in walking the Path, but blind faith or an overdependence on some other force in the universe being invoked to come save us, it's not what the Buddha taught. It seems the antithesis of his message to a suffering world. The Dharma (Dhamma) is all about taking a good look at reality and our responsibility for ourselves. We're in this mess, we're keeping ourselves in this mess, and we have to make the effort (with help) to awaken ourselves. This is not a do-it-yourself project, but it is certainly not a Brahminical tantric secret of hocus pocus and everything working out. There were six "heretical" teachers and popular pernicious wrong views at the time of the historical Buddha. And he taught the Net of All-Embracing Views (Brahmajala Sutta) to counter those wrong views and bring about right view, the first factor or limb of the Ennobling Eightfold Path. What's wrong with this movie? What's right with it? Create a mechanical looking lead who never speaks, use a thundering "God voice" in classical Chinese with untranslated Sanskrit terms when they could easily be shown in English in parentheses, leave females out of 99% of the story, only including them as a footnote of grateful praying sycophants. Use AI to make the whole historical tale seem like a bad, one-sided fiction.
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