Wisdom Quarterly: American Buddhist Journal: greek gods

Showing posts with label greek gods. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Worship the Goddess of Youth for Juice?

Hebe giving drink to Jupiter's eagle (Gavin Hamilton, 1767)

First, what is "Juice"? - That is explained below as the sort of nectar that gives the goddess her power to bestow youth on those whom she serves or those who win her favor. So we ask...

QUESTION: How shall we worship Youth?

ANSWER: Maybe the ancient Greek way? First, what is "worship"? We need to petition her for more youth of our own. Oh, please, Great Goddess, make us young! Make us healthy! Make us pretty and long-lived!

Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity or God. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition of a God. An act of worship may be performed individually, in an informal or formal group, or by a designated leader. Such acts may involve honoring [1, 2, 3].

ETYMOLOGY: The word is derived from the Old English weorþscipe, meaning to venerate "worship, honor shown to an object or deity [4]," which has been etymologized as "worthiness" or "worth-ship" — at its simplest, to give worth to something.

The Eastern ideal of devas (gods, lit. "shining ones")

I'm the Western version of Sakka/Indra: Zeus

Hebe, the daughter of Zeus [deus] and Hera, served ambrosia (amrita) and nectar to the gods of the Olympian pantheon. She later married Heracles, with whom she had two children, Alexiares and Anicetus.

Her name comes from the Greek word for youth because it she has the power to restore youth (by serving someone ambrosia).

Iolaus (left), the Love God Eros (center), Heracles (right), 4th century Etruscan ritual vessel

"Juice"? What is this deathless drink of the gods?

Hebe on garuda mount (Carolus-Duran)

Sanskrit amrita (Hindi amrit, Pali amata, "deathless," also sudha, amiy, and ami) is the word for "immortality," a central concept in Dharmic religions, often referred to in ancient Indian texts as an elixir [1]. Its first occurrence is in the Rig Veda, where it is considered one of several synonyms for soma, the drink of the celestial devas [2]. Amrita plays a significant role in the Samudra Manthana and is the cause of the conflict between devas (gods) and asuras (anti-gods), each competing for it to obtain longevity or immortality [3]. It has varying significance in different Indian religions. In Buddhism, it is a synonym for nirvana ("the deathless").

The Goddess of Justice Themis

The masculine word Amrit, feminine Amritā, is also a common first name for Hindus and Sikhs [4]. It is cognate to and shares many similarities with Greek ambrosia, both originating from a common Proto-Indo-European source [5, 6].

Hebe by Jean Coulon, circa 1886 (David Monniaux)

ETYMOLOGY: Amrita is composed of the negative prefix a- (अ, Sanskrit for "not") + mṛtyu (Sanskrit for "death"), therefore "not death," "deathless," or "immortal." The concept of a drink for immortality is attested in at least two Indo-European languages, Ancient Greek and Sanskrit. The Greek ἀμβροσία (ambrosia, from ἀ- “not” + βροτός “mortal”) is semantically linked to the Sanskrit अमृत (amṛta), both denoting a drink or food that "gods" (devas) use to achieve longevity and immortality. The two words appear to be derived from the same Indo-European form *ṇ-mṛ-tós, "un-dying" [7] (n-: negative prefix from which the prefix a- in both Greek and Sanskrit are derived + mṛ: zero grade of *mer-, "to die" + -to-: adjectival suffix). A semantically similar etymology exists for Greek (νέκταρ, néktar) "nectar," the beverage of the gods, a compound of the PIE roots *nek-, "death," and -*tar, "overcoming." More

Alabaster Shiva in white marble, triune God of India

Heracles, father of Hebe

Hebe in Dijon (Francois Rude)

When Heracles' nephew and charioteer Iolaus was about to fight Eurystheus, he asked Hebe to make him young again for one day.

Hebe was initially reluctant, but the Goddess of Justice Themis told her it was a fair and just thing to do. Hebe granted Iolaus' wish, and he emerged victorious in battle.

Eventually Hebe lost her job as a cupbearer of the gods (a nectar server) when she tripped and her dress came undone, exposing her breasts.

Apollo dismissed her, and she was replaced by Prince Ganymede, Zeus' pederastic homosexual lover and protege (sugar baby).

The Buddhist Goddess of Youth: Kwan Yin

Avalokita transformed into a female

If Early (pre-sectarian) Buddhism had gods and goddesses (personifications) for everything, there would surely be one for youth, vitality, health, and beauty. The Buddha was not out to found a "religion" and therefore had no need to personify and mythologize everything like a pantheistic or polytheistic tradition might. But so powerful was the influence of Hinduism (Vedic Brahmanism) on Chinese Mahayana and Tibetan Vajrayana that these later Buddhist traditions did just that, with the all-lovable Goddess of Compassion Guanyin (Chenrezig) Bodhisattva becoming the ever youthful, ever-beautiful, ever delightful "Mother Mary" and "Mary Magdalene" of Buddhism. Theravada loves her, too, as ancient Sri Lankan statuary reveals that she was venerated far and wide.

Youthful Buddhist fairy Kwan Yin rides a dragon

Prajnaparamita of Java

Of course, we at Wisdom Quarterly prefer the personification of Perfect Wisdom (Prajnaparamita of Java), but that's just our silliness. The historical Buddha could not turn the attention of the monastics of his day from lovable Ananda to wise Sariputra, try as he might. Ananda just had that sort of Scythian (Indo-Sakan) charm, friendliness (metta), and warm, nonjudgmental nature. What is the root of "friendship," of agape given to others? Is it loving-kindness, compassion, happiness in the happiness of others, or unbiased looking on (the Four Divine Abidings)? Or is the core of the kalayana-mitta ideal, the ability to announce the path-of-practice that leads to spiritual liberation, the Dhamma? What is so great about wisdom (panna, prajna) anyway, and why isn't this publication called Compassion Quarterly?

What is the ideal of beauty?

That's a good question. Karuna is great. We love it and need more of it. But all the compassion in the world would not lead one to vimutti, moksha, liberation-by-wisdom. What a friend can do for one in the utmost is share the Dharma, the Dhamma, that which the historical Buddha himself taught to a benighted world hungry for light and the alleviation of suffering, disappointment, and samsara.

The Bhutanese, Nepalese, Tibetans, Russians, and Mongolians have many Vajrayana goddesses, like the multihued Taras and personifications for all kinds of popular desires -- riches, powers, magic...love and lust deities.

Good thing the West never followed ancient Greece down this road

Sandro Botticelli's La nascita di Venere (The Birth of Venus, list of love and lust deities)

Thirty-six? You're over the hill, Irene. Go back to Kiev to Vlad Zelenski's Ukraine

AD: Korean skincare that works for anti-aging?

SOURCES

greekmythology.com
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Buddhist Dictionary of Terms

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Greeks and other ancients used 'drugs'?

Roman emperors list: Complete timeline and chronology of rulers for coin buying

Stopping the DMN (default mode network)

(WATIVY) Ancient humans got high on purpose: Scientific evidence is everywhere across continents and has been for a long time. They just didn't want to talk about it.

(Professor Historian) Every drug used in ancient civilizations

The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization

Greco-Roman Culture Explained: How Ancient
Greece and Rome Shaped Our World

Dr. D. C. Ammon Hillman has 4.6 out of 5 stars (with 154 reviews). [It's] "The last wild frontier of classical studies," says The Times (UK).

The Chemical Muse uncovers decades of intentional academic misdirection and obfuscation (cover up) to reveal the long history of the widespread drug use in ancient Greece and Rome.

Greco-Roman Mystery Schools used entheogens as their sacraments during pre- and Christian rites to meet and converse with the God and the many ancient gods

My eyes are red from weeping.

In the city-states that gave birth to Western civilization, drugs were an everyday element of a free society. Often, they were not just available, but vitally necessary for use in spiritual and religious ceremonies, medicine and healing, and war and violence campaigns.

Their proponents and casual users existed in all socioeconomic classes, from the common foot soldier to the emperor.

Citing examples in sacred myths, medicine, and literature, Dr. Hillman shows how drugs (psychedelic gateways to potential creativity or breakdowns) have influenced and inspired artists, philosophers, and politicians whose ideas have formed the basis for civilization as we know it.

Many of these ancient texts may seem well-known, but Dr. Hillman shows how timid, prudish translations have left biblical scholars and readers of the classics in the dark about the reality of drug use in the Classical world.

Dr. Hillman's argument is not simply "pro-drug." Instead, he appeals for an intellectual honesty that acknowledges the use of drugs in ancient societies despite today's conflicting social mores about them.

In our modern world, where academia and university life often get politically charged, The Chemical Muse offers a unique and long overdue perspective on the contentious topic of drug use and freedom of thought. More

Pamir Plateau
Tassili n'Ajjer Plateau, Mushroom Cave, Algeria, Africa
Ethnobotany
Stoned Ape Theory/Hypothesis
Eleusinian Mysteries (psychedelic Greek cult)
Ritual psychedelic use: peyote cave of SW Texas
Peyote (buttons growing on small cactus plant)
Entheogens
Default Mode Network

Friday, May 30, 2025

WeHo Pride '25, ancient Greek LGBTQ?

(NBC 4) West Hollywood (WeHo) Gay Pride Fest is a three-day festival in West LA

Can we be more accepting of uncloseted gay pride rather than repressive and full of bias?

WeHo Pride 2025 kicks off tonight | FOX 11

Happy Pride Month: June

(LAFOX 11 Los Angeles) May 30, 2025: West Hollywood (Los Angeles) is gearing up for its annual three-day Pride Weekend, kicking off tonight, Friday evening, with a free music festival. The celebration promises a packed schedule of events, including headline musical acts, a street fair, a women's freedom festival, a dyk* march, and the grand Pride Parade on Sunday.

LGBTQ new or older than ancient Greece?

The pandakas of Pakistan

Do all molested boys in Pakistan grow up to be trans (pandaka) outcastes?

Modern pandaka is a menace to Dave Chappelle

Wednesday, September 18, 2024

ET visitors left mystic tech (Zen)

Fairies (mystic devas, "shining ones") are ETs or extradimensionals of Celtic and Irish lore.

Irish "Divine Tribe of Danu" with Reptilian Naga

What is the mystic technology strange heavenly, hellish, extraterrestrial, and extradimensional deva ("shining one") beings seem to have left behind or gotten giants to erect? They are strange kurgans, tumuli, barrows, what in Buddhism are stupas, pagodas, cetiyas, and chortans (stone structures built atop anomalous energy vortices or lines). The US is full of them in the Northeast, where America's Stonehenge sits in Salem, New Hampshire.

The deva or "shining one" Lord Shiva said he

came from a rocky planet and brought some of it.

Ancient Aliens: Galactic visitors leave mystic technology | full episode

(HISTORY) Sept. 18, 2024: Did ancient Druids travel to New England and New York's Hudson Valley centuries ago, bringing with them the beliefs and technologies of their alien mentors, the "Shining Ones" [devas involved in the Buddhist Scythian/Shakyian tradition of tumuli and kurgan-pagodas, cetiyas, and chortans, Irish Aos sidhe, fay, Tuatha de Danann] of Irish mythology? See more in Season 14, Episode 7, "The Druid Connection." #ancientaliens

Tumulus (burial mound and kurgan) culture

COMMENTARY: Korean Zen

Bhante, why do you suppose this was built with tons of stone in ancient times? - To look nice?

The Zen Monastic Experience (Robert E. Buswell)

One of the most striking features of Buddhism, which began in Central Asia and proto-India, are the architectural features known as stupas -- which bear a striking similarity to the much older tradition the Buddha was following from Central and North Asia: tumuli, kurgans, barrows, burial mounds. Where they are place, what is put in them, and what they were used for is mysterious.

Long ago, our UCLA Professor of Buddhism Dr. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. told the class an amazing story. He had been a Zen monk in Korea (at Songgwang-sa, Cholla Namdo), living an austere life, and a Theravada Thai Buddhist monk in Thailand then disrobed and went on to become a doctoral student and professor. He detailed the long hours of meditation sesshins, how little they ate, how they slept on straw mats in the hall, which were then rolled up for a day of sitting zazen. It was the real thing, not our silly notions of Zen as wandering about navel gazing and pondering koans. One day he was surprised that to break the monotony of this season of intensive practice, when half of the monks went on extra duty cooking, warming, cleaning, and providing support, and the other half did nothing but meditate. Perhaps not understanding Korean as fluidly as he would go on to do, the monks were laughing -- if memory serves, and memory of old college lectures is not the most reliable source of information -- as they attempted to stick a straw from the broom in his scalp. Why? There was nowhere for it to go. He tried many times. They all smiled or laughed.

Zen austerities during sesshin included these things that left us rapt in class, particularly one aspiring Angeleno wanting nothing more than to move to India and become an extreme ascetic to gain the path and win enlightenment right away:
They would wake up at 3:00 or 4:00 in morning
Go to a water pump, dip two fingers in salt to brush their teeth
Go sit on reed mats and stiff cushions for the morning sit
Eat a meal of boiled rice, daikon radish they grew, a slice of ginger, and if they were lucky a sprinkle of sesame seed
Then go to meditate more, for 18 hours a day
If someone started to nod off, the Zen master might bring out swords for meditators to lean their chins on (and no one would ever fall asleep)
It was cold outside, and the zendo was warmed from the wooden floor by some creative technology from the kitchen or furnace room circulating heat under the boards.
Sesshin is, of course, an intensive, so it wasn't always like this. During the rest of the year they might chop wood, carry water, grow vegetables (mainly daikon), go on alms, rake leaves, and be mindful all day long.
(Prof. Buswell's great insight was that the Zen monastic experience is not a bunch of iconoclastic Beat poets sitting around, drinking tea, puffing pipes, writing haiku, pondering koans, and playing the flute under cherry blossom trees. They were all very learned in the texts and other studies and were in this monastery to practice beyond words. As Americans we think Zen is the easiest of all the Buddhisms because it's just "whatever," anything we want it to be. But that is not how it is in serious Asia, where this tradition is the way of "meditation" (which is what jhana, dhyana, Chan, and Zen, or Seon in Korean, mean). So with all this meditating, it's no wonder one would be more sensitive to subtle energies and architectural emanations:

Famous Sanchi Stupa torana, India, north gateway

When they went on their walking tour, they were headed for a stupa (솔도파, soldopha, a stone burial mound housing the Buddha's and other enlightened individuals' sacred relics or sharira). When they arrived, he reported that meditation went much better, more plunging into "Zen," which literally means jhana or "meditative absorption." His meditation was disturbed when the monks gathered around him, handed him the straw, and now it went into a pore in his scalp. The pore opened large enough to stand the straw on end. He was surprised as there had been no way to do it, to stand it, previously. The class asked, "Why, what changed, what does it mean?"

Discussing this story just now, it occurs that the "pore opening" was an assumption. The straw may have stood on end all by itself without sitting into an enlarged pore. It was just necessary, hearing the story, to imagine that it went into a little hole that opened like a third eye. But imagine an electrified field buzzing with static cling raising the straw. That makes more sense for such a strange tale. Who knows? Someone, ask Prof. Buswell: buswell@humnet.ucla.edu
"Casual Conversation with a Zen Master" (Sept. 20-21, 2024, 7:00 pm) will feature a talk by Ven. Pomnyun, a Zen Buddhist monk, peace activist, humanitarian assistance expert, and environmentalist: international.ucla.edu

Director Diana Winston (MARC at UCLA)

He didn't seem to know other than it was just a tiny paranormal proof that meditation near these ancient Buddhist stone structures is different. Being near sharira (remains, ashes, colorful silica, glassy beads, gems from the sacred pyre) is different, and that's why they are honored. Maybe stupas (circumambulation mounds) are built on ley lines, over vortices, near portals? Maybe building them creates a portal or energy anomaly?

Buddhism at UCLA? Mindfulness Ed Center

Sure, it could have been psychosomatic, but that seems unlikely since he didn't know what the straw was meant to do or represent in the first place. Imagine, as a hypothetical example, that it is impossible for you to get into full lotus. You just can't, never have been to from too much sitting in chairs and not doing yoga. Then you go to a stupa and suddenly slip into the posture without much effort. What changed? You weren't trying to get into it. It just came naturally. These are trivial things, but they're concrete.

UCLA with Prof. Buswell's office on upper left

Those Korean Zen Buddhist monks knew meditation would be different around the kurgan/stupa. Surely anyone who hangs around these ancient structures will eventually experience something odd. We dash in during the day, laughing and horsing around with friends, body hair rise and tingle, we giggle, run out, take a picture, and wonder why and how they were built. And we think we know the first thing about them? It's like going to Lake Titicaca to the portal rock with a doorframe carved in it for no apparent reason. Slapping the rock, taking a picture, and going away we think we know anything about what that place can do and why it was built.

Watch all new episodes of Ancient Aliens, Fridays at 9/8c, and stay up to date on all favorite shows on The HISTORY Channel website at http://history.com/schedule.

Monday, July 29, 2024

Gods, aliens, secret behind all world religions

Why do Buddhists and Hindu go so far out of their way to represent the devas and asuras?

We are superhumans (humanoids with advantages) versus those ET villains the Asuras.

God, Aliens, and the Secret Behind All World Religions | Dr. Jason Jorjani

The Vril Society survives, with ET contact from off-planet and undersea sources

We can ask Stewart Swerdlow about all the various kinds of humanoid ETs on Earth

Ask Stewart Swerdlow about all the kinds of ETs

(Danny Jones) July 8, 2024: Danny Jones Podcast. Watch the after-show on Patreon: dannyjones. Dr. Jason Jorjani is a philosopher and author who received his BA, MA, and PhD at SUNY (the State University of New York at Stony Brook). Dr. Jorjani has taught courses on comparative religion, Ethics, political theory, and the history of philosophy at the SUNY. [The Bible in Genesis, a god of the Elohim, mandates genocides, and Christians today fear, worship, loves, and do His bidding to kill and kill again, from diverse polytheism to unquestioning monotheism.]

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