Virgin Marys in Buddhism (video)

Biography, 3/11/22; Dhr. Seven, Crystal Quintero, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Sleigh Bells wears her love of the Goddess of Compassion on her arm, La Virgen de Guadalupe

Mary Magdalane: Jesus and his Early Followers | full documentary | Biography

Honoring the sacred feminine

(Biography) For nearly 2,000 years, she was believed to be a "prostitute" who repented and became a disciple of Jesus. But we reveal the truth about Mary Magdalene [Hebrew "Mīryām of Magdala," ancient Judea, Rome] that is finally emerging.

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In my house

Virgin Mary or Kwan Yin?

I was raised Catholic with a very Catholic mother who always had a Buddhist statue of Kwan Yin, the Buddhist Goddess (or Bodhisattva) of Compassion, in the living room even when we moved to a new house. When I discovered Buddhism as a teen, and like Lisa Simpson thought this is the greatest nonreligion in the world and slowly became a Buddhist, I thought my mother would understand. She didn't.

"You don't?" I asked. Then why do you have that Buddhist statue in the living room.

"I have no such statue," she insisted.

I walked her to the living room and pointed, "Then what's this?"

"That," she said, "is the Virgin Mary."

"And she's Chinese [Asian]?"

The Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara

"No, it's just that the Chinese [Asians] don't make her eyes right because every group makes her look like themselves. But it's the Virgin Mary."

Then I showed her a book with Kwan Yin's picture and said, "Well, I suppose now you'll be throwing her away since it's the wrong [Mother Goddess/saint] one? I'll take it." And I picked her up and brought her to my bosom.

"Nothing doing, Mister! Give it back!" She took Kwan Yin from me, dusted her off, and put her right back in her place on the windowsill in the bright Southern California sun.

"So what are you a Buddhist now?" I asked her.

"Never you mind," she answered. "Move it along."

And that's how we became a two-religion household, all thanks to this one sacred feminine figure.

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A devi with gandharvas

Origen [the Church Father who followed the Buddha Ammonius Saccas aka "Shakyamuni"] preserves a statement from Celsus that some Christians in his day followed the teachings of a woman named "Mariamme," who is almost certainly Mary Magdalene [142, 143].

Origen merely dismisses this, remarking that Celsus "pours on us a heap of names" [142]. More

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Virgin Mary appears to a Native?

What's with the iconography on the Queen of the Angels, the Queen of Heaven, the Virgin of Guadalupe (the appearance of a Mary in Mexico)? Those are bull horns under her but a crescent moon. She has a radiant aura, projecting her subtle energies all about. There's a blue cloak (the sky) spangled with stars (space, heaven, the celestial realm), where she is queen, crowned, held up by a cherubic angel in a cloud...

British Theravada Buddhist monk Ajahn Brahm explains the Buddhist

significance of the early Christian Church Father Origen and his teacher.

Taylor Swift as modern Mary?

Blossoming as Beth (wordpress.com) edited by Wisdom Quarterly

I am not a prostitute. I'm misunderstood.

Mary Magdalene, as described in the Bible, was a devoted follower of Jesus. She was present at his crucifixion and resurrection. She is often depicted as a repentant sinner and prostitute, but recent scholarship says that portrayal is wrong and was no accident. Taylor "Nazi Barbie" Swift, like Mary Magdalene, has been a powerful and influential figure in music and has faced much criticism and misunderstanding. Throughout her career, Swift has been depicted as a “serial dater” and a “manipulative celebrity,” just as Mary Magdalene was demonized as a prostitute. More

Buddhism and the Virgin Mary

Ven. John, Adrian Urias, June 10, 2020 edited by Wisdom Quarterly

Kwan Yin (Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara) is NOT Mary, but both are Goddesses of Compassion

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A Goddess emerges from a giant clamshell

(Adrian Urias) My friend "John," a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, tells me the story of why there is a statue of the Virgin Mary [looking like beloved Buddhist Goddess Kwan Yin] at a Mahayana Buddhist temple in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California, right next to the famous ship the RMS Queen Mary, in front of the shore. She is emerging from a clamshell like the famous Botticelli painting (shown above), "The Birth of Venus."

• Visit the Virgin: Long Beach Sagely Buddhist Monastery (theclio.com)
• PHOTOS: Long Beach Sagely Buddhist Monastery, 3361 E. Ocean Bl., Long Beach, California (Yelp)
• longbeachmonastery.org (562) 438-8902

Burying Marys

The baby Future-Buddha and the mother who raised him (Sri Lankan art)

Do Buddhists have a Madonna and child, the Buddha and his mother?

Mother Goddess and child

It's easy to think that the Virgin Mary refers only to Mother Mary, but the real star is usually the Apostle and Super-Disciple Mary of Magdalene. The Bible reduces all the Marys to one generic Mary, and it's not an accident. Sexism is burying the significance.

The same thing happened to Prince Siddhartha's wife, (Bimba Devi) known to the world by her descriptive title Princess Yasodhara. What happened to her after Prince Siddhartha decided to leave on a spiritual quest to find a solution to the universal problem of suffering.

He set off, leaving behind his family, friends, and future subjects, renouncing the throne and all the luxuries of the palace, including wife and son. He left to return with a solution.

We run this Church, not the people

And, indeed, seven years later, now awakened to the utmost, supremely enlightened, he returned. He ordained his 7-year-old son as a monk. Now where did this leave his son's mother? She ordained as well and became fully enlightened, a great teacher, and a remarkable debater willing and able to take on anyone anywhere. Why don't we hear about her? Why has she been forgotten to history?

• Buddhist Madonna and Child, Prince Siddhartha and Queen Pajapati Gotami

Ask the average Buddhist, and all that's likely to be remembered is that she got left behind. Nothing of the sort happened. She was remembered and saved -- as were the Buddha's adoptive mother, who raised him from the age of 7 days (when his biological mother, her sister, Queen Maya Gotami, passed away). His mother, Pajapati Gotami, became the world's first Buddhist nun.

The Buddha Gautama remembered everyone, and came back to offer them the Dharma, the Teaching that leads to deathlessness (nirvana), ultimate liberation from all suffering.

Honoring the Buddhist feminine

But his former wife, like Mary Magdalene, gets short shrift. How is she hidden and buried?

She is given many names, with a few recognizing they are all describing one single person: Bimba Devi, Princess Yasodhara, Rahulamata, Bhaddha Kaccana, Kaccana, and so on. Fortunately, scholars realized it.

Why did the men of the Christian religion bury all the Marys (Miriyams)? It seems the explanation is that it did not want to highlight the female contributions but rather bury and erase them. Mother Mary, Mary Magdalene (who, Jewish rules tell us, had to be Jesus' wife, not just his disciple otherwise he could not have been a rabbi, as he is called many times in the books of the Bible).

Then there are the Buddhist Taras

Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Juan Diego, I've come to conquer the Natives here in New Spain/Mexico. Go tell the Church.

Many colorful Tibetan Taras are honored.

Tara (Sanskrit तारा, Tārā, སྒྲོལ་མ, dölma), Ārya Tārā ("Noble Tara"), also known as Jetsün Dölma (Tibetan rje btsun sgrol ma, meaning: "venerable mother of liberation"), is an important figure in Buddhism.

She is especially revered in Himalayan Vajrayana Buddhism and the larger Mahayana school. She appears as a female bodhisattva (being bent on supreme enlightenment) in Mahayana Buddhism and is considered to be the consort or shakti ("power") of Avalokiteshvara (a Buddhist god/goddess of compassion)[1].

Tārā is also known as a savioress who hears the cries of beings in the world (saṃsāra) and saves them from wordily and spiritual dangers [2].

In the Vajrayana school, 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, future],” who is also “beyond saṃsāra and nirvāṇa” [3].

She is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana and is found in 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 Sarvatathāgatamātṛtārāviśvakarmabhavanāmatantra) and Tārā’s Fundamental Ritual Text (Tārāmūlakalpa) [5, 3].

Tārā remains a popular meditation deity (yidam) in Tibetan Buddhism, and she is also revered in Newar Buddhism in Nepal.

Many Taras

Tārā is considered to have many forms or emanations, and there are several traditions that list 21 Tārās.

Each Tara has a different color, implements, number of faces and arms, and activities such as pacifying (śānti), increasing (pauṣṭika), enthralling (vaśīkaraṇa), and assaulting (abhicāra) [2].

Feminine iconography

The green (or "blue-green," Sanskrit śyāmatārā) form of Tārā remains the most important form of the deity in the Tibetan tradition [6, 7].

A practice text entitled Praise to Tara in Twenty-One Homages is the most important text on Tara in Tibetan Buddhism and is the source for the various traditions, which list 21 forms of Tārā (one Tara, many manifestations, aside from the main green form).

The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike:

Oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā.

It is pronounced by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow the Tibetan traditions as oṃ tāre tu tāre ture soha. The literal translation is "Oṃ O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One. So Be It!" More

Theravada Buddhism's own Tara: TaraBrach.com (New book: Trusting the Gold)