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
"Opening Your Heart to Bhutan" is a registered UK charity, whose work is providing education, medicine, and shelter to children facing the greatest challenges in Bhutan.
In this episode, Lopen Ani Pema Deki (Ven. Emma Slade) — a former London investment banker who left after a near-death experience in Jakarta (Indonesia) to ordain as a Buddhist nun high in the Himalayas of Bhutan — explores what it means to widen the heart and become truly unbreakable.
She contrasts fleeting, manufactured happiness with the effortless joy that arises from practice, explains how small acts of kindness build resilience, and reflects on faith, karma, and why some people in Bhutan seem less vulnerable to life's ups and downs.
Perfect for listeners curious about practical spirituality, courage, and living with greater purpose.
Key Takeaways:
🧭 Choose Liberation, Not Comfort — Why training the mind matters, and how practice aims for freedom from samsara rather than temporary ease.
💫 Real Joy vs. Manufactured Bliss — The difference between practice-born joy (stable, effortless) and short-lived worldly pleasures.
🤝 Small Acts, Big Heart — Two-minute kindnesses, widening our circle of care, and the role of faith/teacher in sustaining practice.
⏱Timestamps:
(00:00) – Introduction to Lopen Ani Pema Deki (Ven. Emma Slade), former banker turned Buddhist nun
(01:00) – The challenge of practicing Dharma in a busy modern life
(02:31) – Are we seeking comfort in samsara or liberation?
(02:51) – What happiness really means from a Buddhist perspective
(03:40) – Joy and bliss: natural results of Dharma practice vs. worldly joy
(05:28) – Reflections on Bhutan and why happiness can’t be measured easily
(06:20) – Mental resilience and faith in Bhutanese life
(07:17) – Small daily acts of kindness in a busy life
(07:53) – Expanding motivation beyond yourself and loved ones
(08:52) – Why bother about anyone else besides your loved ones?
(09:20) – Why widening your heart supports resilience
(10:24) – The Bodhisattva path: stretching beyond your comfort zone
(11:14) – How British Lopen Ani Pema Deki (Ven. Emma Slade) became a Buddhist and later a Buddhist nun
(11:40) – Meeting her teacher in Bhutan
(12:24) – Moments of clarity and deep spiritual connection
(14:27) – Karma and how Lopen Ani Pema Deki (Ven. Emma Slade)’s path ripened in Bhutan
(15:18) – Sneak preview of Part 2
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
👤 Lopen Ani Pema Deki (Venerable Emma Slade) was born in Kent, England, and was educated at Cambridge University and the University of London, where she gained a First-Class degree. She is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and worked in Fund Management in London, New York, and Hong Kong.
A deep-seated yearning to enquire into the deeper aspects of humanity arose following a life-changing business trip to Jakarta, where she was held hostage at gunpoint. She resigned from her financial career and began exploring yoga and meditation and methods of wellbeing with the ultimate aim of turning a traumatic episode into wisdom and conditions for thriving.
She qualified as a British Wheel of Yoga teacher in 2003 and, over the last 19 years, has run numerous yoga workshops and retreats.
Her interest in Buddhism as a science of the mind strengthened after meeting a Buddhist lama (teacher) on her first visit to Bhutan in 2011.
This crucial chance meeting led to her studying Buddhism with this lama and, eventually, led to her becoming the first and only Western woman to be ordained in the last Himalayan [Buddhist] Kingdom of Bhutan as a Buddhist nun. #OpeningYourHeart #BuddhistWisdom #MindfulLiving #FaithAndPractice
Buddhist Youth Network, Lim Soon Kiat, Alvin Chan, Tan Key Seng, Soh Hwee Hoon, Geraldine Tay, Venerable You Guang, Wilson Ng, Diga, Joyce, Tan Jia Yee, Joanne, Suñña, Shuo Mei, Arif, Bernice, Wee Teck, Andrew Yam, Kan Rong Hui, Wei Li Quek, Shirley Shen, Ezra, Joanne Chan, Hsien Li Siaw, Gillian Ang, Wang Shiow Mei, Ong Chye Chye, Melvin, Yoke Kuen, Nai Kai Lee, Amelia Toh, Hannah Law, Shin Hui Chong, Dennis Lee
(Aron Kiss) Discovering a hidden hermitage of Buddhist monks at a peaceful meditation center in the Himalayas of Tibet (which the Chinese authorities insist is part of China).
Jetsun Milarepa (རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ་) was a Tibetan siddha, who was famously known as a mass murderer when he was a young man before turning to Buddhism and allegedly becoming a highly accomplished Tibetan Buddhist (Bon-infused Vajrayana) disciple.
He is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and spiritual poets, whose teachings are known among several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism [1]. He is also famous for the feat of climbing Mount Kailash. More
Mount Kailash (also Kailasa [a], Gang Tise [b], and Gang Rinpoche or Kangrinboqê [c]) is a mountain in Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It lies in the Gangdise Shan Mountain Range of the Trans-Himalaya, in the western part of the Tibetan Plateau. The peak of Mount Kailash is located at an elevation of 21,778 feet (6,638 m), near the western tri-junction between China, India, and Nepal. More
Buddhist Wisdom, Sept. 23, 2025; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly
The story of MILAREPA: The great yogi and his Buddhist legacy (Part 4)
(Buddha's Wisdom) Sept. 14, 2025: 🔍 THE GREAT YOGI WHO CHANGED TIBET
What happens when enlightenment doesn’t lead to temples, titles, or power but to caves, songs, and a revolution that reshaped Tibetan [Vajrayana] Buddhism?
After achieving [Hinduism/Vajrayana's version of] enlightenment, Milarepa faced an impossible choice: build impressive institutions or trust awakening to spread through direct contact.
What he did next would create Buddhism's most influential lineage without a single formal temple. But ancient powers were watching and preparing to strike back.
There is such a mass murderer who became a "saint" (a fully-enlightened individual, an arhat) at the time of the historical Buddha. He is remembered by the nickname Anguli-mala ("Finger-garland"). How could it be? How could a murderer become a saint? That is perhaps best answered with the Christian saying, "Every saint has a past; every sinner a future."
That means WE have hope so long as we have not killed too many victims in the past, IF we also have the skillful karma and ripening good fortune (vipaka, phala) to come across a teacher able to see our potential to awaken and teach us in such a way that we fulfill our potential.
[Crazy] Milarepa: The mass murderer who became enlightened in Tibetan Buddhism
(Asangoham) July 27, 2024: Milarepa, the Lord of Yogis, is today recognized as one of Tibet’s great masters and an accomplished meditation teacher and practitioner, admired for his tenacity, courage, and discipline. [This is odd given his crimes, which no one disputes, like those of reformed Angulimala.]
He is celebrated as “the most renowned figure in Tibetan culture, the
quintessential Tibetan folk hero.”
However, his life began with considerable hardship. Like this metaphor, his path was a journey of facing and integrating his own demons, transitioning from confusion to awakening.
Initially caught in samsara, the cycle of mundane existence, like we are, he committed to the practice of the Dharma, the way of wisdom.
His story is not that of a saint; on the contrary, it is a deeply human story. It shows us that even a great master has to deal with immense challenges such as loss and revenge.
"Every saint has a past,
every sinner a future."
It narrates the transition from a murderer to one of Tibet’s most famous yogis.
Today's video is about the extraordinary life and teachings of Jetsun Milarepa, Tibet's most revered yogi and poet.
This inspiring story explores the remarkable life of Milarepa, from his tumultuous childhood to his attainment of enlightenment through intense meditation and devotion.
Learn about Milarepa's profound teachings on the nature of reality, the importance of compassion, and the path to achieving spiritual liberation. Delve into his remarkable songs of realization, which have inspired generations of Tibetan Buddhist practitioners.
This video is a must-watch for anyone interested in Tibetan Buddhism, yoga, and Himalayan spirituality. Whether one is a seasoned practitioner or just starting a spiritual journey, Milarepa's life and teachings offer valuable insight and inspiration for living a more meaningful and fulfilling life.
As a young American Buddhist, not knowing that there was more than one Buddhism, I would a converted church building near the Sino-American Center on 6th Street near Chinatown in Downtown LA. It was a Chinese Mahayana church/temple run by nuns, but I didn't know. There were Japanese Soto Zen temples nearby. (This way the state of Buddhism back the Eighties). It was as creepy as a Catholic mass, but nicer things were being said. Eventually, I attended similar services in Maywood (a tiny city in LA County) which bought land and built the massive Hacienda Heights temple (arcgis.com). Through years of struggle, one temple morphed into the other as Maywood realized its dream of building Hsi Lai Temple ("Going West" Monastery and Nunnery). Back in those early days, there was a great master (Ven. Hsing Yun) of which they spoke. He was in Taiwan, touring the world, or at Master Hsuan Hua's City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which kindly donated some of its rural land for the setting up of a Thai Theravada Buddhist Abbey (wat or vihara) called Abhayagiri Buddhist Monasteryin Redwood Valley, where Americans train to be monks in the Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah and other Buddhist meditation masters. In one such Buddhist service, I remember a Chinese nun presenting what might have been her thesis or research as a nun. It was a pamphlet all about Milarepa's crimes, showing that he could not have been a Buddhist monk or anyone to look up to given his biography. (This means his misdeeds after ordination disqualified him and meant he was not attained to sainthood/enlightenment, regardless of his popularity among average Tibetans). But that's mainstream Mahayana thinking (which was in line with Theravada monasticism), and Milarepa belongs to Bon-heavy Esoteric Himalayan Buddhism from Tibet, which is a school known as Vajrayana. It aligns itself with the massive Mahayana Buddhist school, but it is distinct in many ways. The indigenous Bon tradition is all about black magic, shamanism, necromancy, and vengeance.
DISCLAIMER 1: All ideas expressed on this channel are for entertainment and general information purposes only. There is no advice on what an individual should or should not do. Any response made by anyone after hearing this communication is their interpretation and is their responsibility. Ideas expressed by this channel should not be treated as a substitute for medical advice or professional help. If expert assistance or counselling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Overlooking Pelgyeling Gompa, Milarepa's Cave, Tibet
Jetsun Milarepa (Tibetan རྗེ་བཙུན་མི་ལ་རས་པ, Wylie rje btsun mi la ras pa) [1] was a Tibetan siddha, who was famously a murderer when he was a young man, before turning to Buddhism and becoming a highly accomplished Buddhist disciple.
The nine-story tower Milarepa built alone, Sekhar Gutok, Lhodrag, Tibet
He is generally considered one of Tibet's most famous yogis and spiritual poets, whose teachings are known among several schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a major figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism [1].
Milarepa's life-story is famous in Tibetan culture and retold many times. The best-known hagiography, The Life of Milarepa, written by Tsangnyön Heruka (1452–1507) in the 15th century and drawing from older biographies, is still very popular... More
Before the arrival of Buddhism to the rooftop of the world, the empire (the massive extent of lands that now cover 25% of China) practiced Bon or witchcraft and indigenous shamanism, as so many countries did before the arrival of a missionary religion. Like every other country in history, the missionary religion did not really replace the traditional "pagan" beliefs and practices but merely augmented, blended, or covered for them with a new name. Every place has its own ghosts, demons, gods, and fantastical (shapeshifting) creatures, and they need to be dealt with. This is how early practices form and take root.
Waiting, making out with boys not OK?
They are not easily brushed aside even by the introduction of a more powerful or systematic set of practices. The hodgepodge of shamanism, magic, black magic, exorcisms, curses, clearings, and more are too appealing to be easily let go of. So we find with Tibetan religion. It is not pure Vajrayana (itself a mishmash of Hinduism, yoga, Brahmanism, and Mahayana Buddhism) but rather a blend of old discarded practices and new practices that serve to reinterpret the old ways. How Tibetans got through the bitter cold winters, the wilderness hauntings, the appearance of ETs or unseen beings and monsters (pretas, rakshasas, asuras, kumbhandas, suparnas, nagas, spirits, etc.) only the shamans know. Therefore, when one hears of odd or aberrant beliefs in modern Tibet, one should not dismiss the ongoing influence of Bon (just as modern Japan, thought to be all Buddhist, is in fact very much influenced by Shinto and the kami they specialize in dealing with).
The Bizarre Life of an [un-]Enlightened Person [who thinks himself enlightened]
You taste so good, Boy. Suck me, my tongue.
(Asangoham) #dalailama #enlightenment. If there were anyone who knew how to cultivate compassion, it was Milarepa.
Milarepa was an "enlightened" Tibetan spiritual master full of "crazy wisdom." He was born in 1452 and is considered one of the greatest Tibetan [Bon and] Buddhist masters who ever lived.
During his lifetime, Milarepa was a murderer who established the lineage of the Kagyu sect; however, he is very highly venerated to this day by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism, a unique form of Himalayan Vajrayana emulated by Nepalese, Bhutanese, Northern Indian, Mongolian, and Russian Esoteric Buddhist schools.
Sorry, but Pope do the same, yes?
Today as we go through this school of life, we shall try to understand how an "enlightened" person lives. In our pursuit of wonder, we shall borrow knowledge from the following traditions: Buddhism (Tibetan and Zen), Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism derived from the ancient Vedas), Taoism (yin-yang rooted in the teachings of Lao Tzu), Confucianism (Chinese etiquette), and other schools of philosophy.
In the West, the intuition of "emptiness" (the impersonal nature of all phenomena, often misunderstood and poorly expressed in Western philosophy as nihilism) is conceived as lack.
This inherent sense of lack, according to the scholar David R. Loy, is seen as needing to be overcome or obsessively filled. This explains the West's hyper-consumerism, narcissism, and obsession with things and status.
We obsessively spend our days in the desperate attempt to fill the "void" with consumer goods to appease the emptiness intuited at the center of our existence.
The East (even though it is becoming more and more Westernized) has traditionally seen "emptiness" (shunyata) not as lack, but as pure potential.
That is to say, emptiness is seen as pure allowing. Out of nothing can spring anything, as everything comes from nothing. Think of a blank or empty canvas.
It is that which allows anything at all to exist.
Emptiness is seen as the generative ground from which anything at all can arise. Consider the vast emptiness that was the universe prior to the imaginary Big Bang of yet another maha-kalpa-long cycle of world expansion and contraction.
#enlightenment #buddhism #confucius #dalailama #zen
Thumbnail: Mark Bryan
Script: Matt Mackane
Voiceover: Surjit Singh
Music: Motion array
DISCLAIMER 01: All ideas expressed on this channel are for entertainment and general information purposes only. There is no advice on what an individual should or should not do. Any response made by anyone after hearing this communication is their interpretation and is their responsibility. Ideas expressed by this channel should not be treated as a substitute for medical advice or professional help. If expert assistance or counselling is needed, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Report alleges sexual misconduct by leader of Shambhala... Buddhist "Project Sunshine" [to shed disinfectant light and add transparency] released its second report today, containing allegations of sexual assault and clergy sexual misconduct by Sakyong...
The Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche of cultish"Shambhala Buddhism" is coming to Pasadena on Sunday, March 25th, as the Los Angeles leg of his tour:
Workshop and panel discussion with radical black Zen Reverend angel Kyodo
williams and special guests exploring how "conversation can help us
build bridges in these challenging times."
Am I enlightened or an egomaniac? You decide
He is the son of
Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, the outed alcohol-guzzling sex guru (who as an adult married a rich, 16-year-old kid in England) in the documentary
"Crazy Wisdom" (clips on YouTube).
Tickets from $300 down to $50 for the panel
His outrageous behavior
as an abusive "enlightened" Tibetan man in the West (perhaps the source of part of the conversation in My Dinner With Andre) made him popular with U.S. hippies desperately looking for spirituality. He finally crashed a sports car, nearly killed someone, and crippled himself.
It worked for world-famous American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron and the Naropa Institute but few others. Tickets are not cheap. More
Phil Borges; Ashley Wells, Seth Auberon, Dhr. Seven (eds.) Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit
TED Talk: "Psychosis or Spiritual Awakening" by speaker Phil Borges at TEDxUMKC
Filmmaker and photographer Phil Borges has been documenting indigenous and tribal cultures for over 25 years. His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and his award-winning books have been published in four languages. His recent project, "Inner Worlds," explores cultural differences with respect to consciousness and mental illness.
The strange case of Milarepa
Bhutanese Vajrayana thanka of Milarepa (1052-1135), Dhodeydrag Gonpa, Thimphu, Bhutan
You just don't get Vajrayana. Ask His Holiness!
There once was a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist nun who wrote a book on Milarepa's crimes and Monastic Code violations. This was meant to counter the Tibetan Vajrayana (a Mahayana school) adoration of this "spiritual madman." There's a crazy wisdom* (divine madness) that is often confused with holiness, sainthood, or enlightenment.
It seems clear that Milarepa was not enlightened, nowhere near actual Buddhist enlightenment, but try to tell that to a follower of Tibetan Buddhism and watch the eyes roll.
He was something, touched perhaps, and very wise. He may well have been "enlightened" in Brahmanism or Hindu terms. That is not the same as Buddhist enlightenment called bodhi. There are different definitions for the same concepts and words across religious traditions and even between Buddhist schools.
Depression and spiritual awakening -- two sides of one door (Lisa Miller)
Divine madness, also known as theia mania, refers to unconventional, outrageous, unexpected, or unpredictable antinomian behavior linked to religious or spiritual pursuits. Examples of divine madness can be found in Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, and shamanism.
It is usually explained as a manifestation of enlightened behavior by persons who have transcended societal norms, or as a means of spiritual practice or teaching among mendicants and teachers. These behaviors may seem to be symptoms of mental illness to mainstream society, but are a form of religious ecstasy, or deliberate "strategic, purposeful activity" (DiValerio 2011, p. ii.), "by highly self-aware individuals making strategic use of the theme of madness in the construction of their public personas" (Ibid., p. iii.). More
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