Mom: Awakening the Sleeping Goddess (video)

Kwan Yin (Kannon, Mother Goddess, Virg Yin Mari, embodiment of patriarchs' feminine ideal

(Wisdom Quarterly) The greatest mother in Buddhism was not one of the Buddha's three* mothers but rather his wife -- Princess Yasodhara, Bimba Devi, Bhaddha Kaccana, Rahula Mata -- his son Rahula's mother.

She became an enlightened Buddhist nun and a fierce disputant able to beat any and everyone in the land in philosophical argument.

We never hear of her, except as an abandoned wife of 29 year-old left to fend for herself in three giant palaces with all her needs taken care of, in the company of good friends and relatives, fellow royals/nobles, raising Shakya Land's next king or regional ruler, while her former husband is on a spiritual quest to save his people and the world from suffering.

Prince Siddhartha's a great teacher!

We never of the Buddha's sister, the enlightened nun Sundari Nanda. We can hardly distinguish his birth mother, Queen Maya, from the woman who raised him from the time he was a week only, her sister, Maha Prajapati, who went on to become history's first Buddhist nun, an enlightened disciple, and founder of the Order of Nuns or Bhikkhuni Sangha.

Nor do we hear of all the enlightened Buddhist nuns that followed, who wandered in the company of the Buddha just as monks did, who listened, who questioned, who practiced, and who came to know for themselves that unsurpassable liberation from ignorance, clinging, and aversion/fear to become arhats and fully liberated (nirvanered) beings.

• The Buddha had three mothers? We can count Maya (biological, coming down from Tusita to birth him), Prajapati (maternal, who raises him when her sister returns), and an unnamed one (historical, who raised him so many times in past lives that when she calls him "son," he does not correct her).

(Zrinka Jančić) The quest for recognition and improved education for Tibetan Buddhist nuns in exile today is the subject of this short documentary.

Director: Zrinka Jančić. Production: Mahamudra Buddhist Society Croatia 2012. Donate to and support Buddhist nuns. These monastics need our help. Geden Choeling Nunnery (gedenchoelingnunnery.org) and Dongyu Gatsal Ling (tenzinpalmo.com).

UPDATE: In July 2016. the first 20 Tibetan nuns in history passed the Geshema exam. The makers of this documentary are overjoyed to have contributed to such fortunate developments that make a huge difference for the nuns' future. The problem of excluding women from full-ordination, which would make nuns equal to monks, still remains (tnp.org/geshema).