Buddha opens to the nature of the Divine Feminine reality

[Guest guest]

Out of the Buddha's Enlightenment in Bodh Gaya in c. 480 B.C. arose a vision and

a vast and glorious body of spiritual teachings that were to transform the face

of Asia and have immense and still unfolding consequences for millions of

individuals as well as the history of the world. Both in its original Hinayana

(or " Lesser Vehicle " ) form and in its later Mahayana ( " Greater Vehicle " )

development, the religion of Buddhism came to offer a philosophy of living that

a large part of Asia could take to its heart - a philosophy at once fierce and

compassionate, unsentimental and soberly ecstatic, practical and metaphysical.

Everything - the ethics, spiritual techniques, and art of a whole continent -

was to be profoundly changed by the Buddha's great teaching and the example of

his holy life.

 

At first glance there are aspects of Buddhism that do not seem especially

favorable to the restoration of the Divine Feminine. The teachings of the

Buddha, as handed down to us in the Dhammapada, are sometimes chillingly

ascetic; the Buddha himself left his wife and son to pursue the spiritual life

and seems to have viewed the world and its relationships, and the body itself,

as unsatisfactory and a burden. From the beginning, Buddhism's relationship with

women was problematical; the Buddha only reluctantly allowed women to be

ordained and then claimed that their ordination would halve the life of the

Dharma. Traditional Buddhism, like most religions, is dominated by men, in

imagery, practice, institutions, income, and prestige, and this " male bias "

extends also to the language and some of the major philosophical emphases of the

teachings. Nevertheless, if Buddhism and its teachings are looked at deeply, it

can be seen that there is a core of teaching of the Divine Feminine running

through and often transforming the harsher " masculine " aspects of the Dharma.

 

The Buddha himself was " saved " and instructed by the Divine Feminine at two

crucial moments in his journey. The first came when he was engaged in ruthless

ascetic practices that were threatening his health and sanity. A woman named

Sugata came with a bowl of curds, and instead of continuing with this

" discipline " , the Buddha accepted and ate them. From this gesture of a woman

came the Buddha's realization of the necessity of a Middle Way that did not

extinguish the body entirely, but honoured balance in all its form, and

recognized a wise " feminine " balance between all extremes as essential to the

enlightened life.

 

The second meeting with the Divine Feminine occurs near the end of the Buddha's

journey into enlightenment. Assaulted by Mara, the King of Demons, who threw

against Buddha every illusion and fantasy in his armory, the Buddha put his

right hand down and touched the earth and begged the divine Mother of Earth,

Rani, to come to his aid. She did so, and a flood from her hair erased and wiped

out all the " powers " that had been thrown against him. This calling of the earth

to witness his inner truth was a crucial step for the Buddha; it was a choice to

ground his awakening, to enter reality and not escape from it. By opening his

entire being to the nature of Divine Feminine reality, the Buddha achieved in

himself the sacred marriage between heaven and earth, masculine and feminine,

wisdom and compassion.

 

The Divine Feminine

Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

Berkeley, CA

ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

Pgs. 134, 136-37