GREAT MOTHER BUDDHISM

Tantra

Taking Refuge in the Mother

THE GREAT LEARNING

1. The origin of Great Mother Buddhism is the Buddha himself who not only proclaimed his Awakening, but subsequently referred it to something beyond: Nirvana. According to the Buddha Enlightenment has to be put into the context of Emptiness, the Void. The latter, not the former has to be considered the Ultimate. In the Sukhavativyuhasutra ("Land of Bliss") for instance, the Buddha is asking Maitreya: "Did you see any being in the Land of Bliss, that has been originating from the lap?" Few realize that with this the Buddha acknowledged "Darkness" to be the Origin of Light - a memory of "the old times" - a hierarchy that under the influence of patriarchal developments within Buddhism was soon "forgotten". Not surprisingly, knowing that Buddhism originally was an enterprise entirely aimed at overcoming "the cycle of birth and death" - the feminine aspect of life - after all, a fact even not fully acknowledged by renowned feminist scholars*. "Buddhahood" became a dimension for itself and on its own. The "organic" relationship with the Void was pushed to the background. It was the Yogacara school that re-opened the discussion though. It emphasized "tathagathagarbha", the Womb from which Buddhahood arises. This school not only restored the original lineage ("Light born out of Darkness"), but had no problems with feminine connotations of the Origin. A tendency which later - in a weakened and deviated form - was to be continued by Vajrayana Buddhism.

* R.Gross "Buddhism after patriarchy", 1993 State University of New York Press

2. This is confirmed by insights of those who suffered the Great Death* (Tibetan: delog) as well as by modern physics. The Ultimate - the dimension beyond Enlightenment and death - appears to be a Vacuum. In the old times this was described as the Abyss of the universe, the Womb or the Great Mother. In recent times quantum physics assumes a "zero-point energy ocean" beyond the tangible universe. The foundation of life is a Vacuum "in which everything without exception continuously dies and is being reborn in the selfsame eternal moment". Which leads to the concept of the Void as the destroyer and creator of all life: both of the absolute (Light, Being) and the relative world. Thus Buddhahood is born out of the Womb! The difference between the Great Mother and Nirvana is that the first includes the dynamic aspect of "birth and death", while the second excludes this. (Apart from the "formal" recognition that "Nirvana is samsara"). It points at a fundamental difference between the official (patriarchal) religion (with the masculine fear of life) and the more down to earth common people, who instead kept an inclusive (matricentral, feminine) attitude. "Nirvana" is the attempt of stripping the Mother of Her dynamic aspects. The consequence of this is far reaching: do you accept "birth and death" as belonging to reality or are you trying to escape from it? It is turning point in contemporary Buddhism.

See: www.originaltrad.faithweb.com chapter "Rebirth"

3. From the beginning of Buddhism there was a notion of the underlying feminine principle though. The Prajnaparamita is said to be "The Mother of the Buddha's" or "The Womb of the Tathagatas". Existence is bottomless, hence all dharmas have no self-existing identity. The primary matrix of existence is "Nothingness beyond Nothingness", hence called "Mother of Creation". The Great Mother principle is the space that gives birth both to the Light (all Buddha's) and to the phenomenal world. It is an ongoing process. Especially in Tibetan Buddhism the insight in the true nature of existence is widespread, e.g. in the biography of Machig Lapdron, an enlightened female (1055-1145). There Tara said:

4. "Listen, yogini, your past is cleared from your heart but I will explain it to you. The Great Mother is the void state of all the dharmas which we call Mother of all Creation. The Mother is the Mother of the Buddhas of the Three Times, the Dharmata of the Absolute State, beyond all obstructions, the pure essence of egoless voidness-Prajna".*

* T.Allione "Women of Wisdom", 1986 Arkana

Trungpa Rinpoche describes the primordial feminine in this way:

5. "In phenominal experience, whether pleasure or pain, birth or death, sanity or insanity, good or bad, it is necessary to have a basic ground. This basic ground is known in Buddhist literature as the mother principle. Prajnaparamita (the perfection of wisdom) is called the mother-consort of all the Buddhas*...As a principle of cosmic structure, the all-accomodating basic ground is neither male nor female. One might call it hermaphroditic, but due to its quality of fertility or potentiality, it is regarded as feminine".

Chögyam Trungpa "Maitreya IV", pp. 23-4

* Here the original Mother-principle is already abandoned (e.g. misunderstood!) in favor of a "consort" of the Buddhas. How different this being from pre-buddhist times in Tibet - called "Zan-zun" - in which the Ultimate was called "Sa-trig er-sans" or "Great Mother of Space", confirming that originally She alone was the Source of all life.

6. Anne C. Klein in her book "The Great Bliss Queen" talks about the biography of Yeshey Tsogyel, a Tibetan female Enlightened One. She seems to coming close to the Truth when she is stating, that "in Nyingma Great Completeness traditions, the womb imagery associated with Yeshey Tsogyel suggests a Buddha nature (...) that is "not merely empty, but has the nature of clear light" and "Here the ultimate empty nature itself is filled with positive potential".* The confusion is about the identity of Emptiness ("birthless" origin) and awareness, because eventually the "primordial emptiness proves to be nothing but the internal clear light", e.g. Enlightenment"**. Not surprisingly though, that she subsequently describes how to realize this innermost essence.***, probably not realizing that this is the very core of patriarchal spirituality. She does this in a feminist disguise, since she is talking about "how to become a Great Bliss Queen". Unfortunately, the primordial Origin (the Womb, Absolute Emptiness) is mixed up here with Her offspring: the Light e.g. Buddhahood. What has been overlooked here is the hierarchy of "Mother and Son" (or Daughter). In reality the Ultimate is Emptiness beyond Emptiness (the "Womb of the Tathagathas"); it is the Great Vacuum and cannot be identified with Buddhanature. It appears the be the Ultimate Bottomlessness. The Womb is beyond every Realization, hence, It ("She") cannot be possessed, only worshipped. Buddhanature - the Light - has to be understood as Her Lightbody, her cosmic Son (Daughter). Conclusion: The above mentioned is typically an example of "stealing of the female secret", the replacement of the Realm of the Mother (Darkness) by masculine values (Light). It parallels the transition between the original pre-buddhist feminine world and early patriarchy in historical times. Again, it proves how difficult it is, to really overcome the hurdles of patriarchy.

* A.C.Klein "Meeting the Great Bliss Queen", 1995 Beacon Press, p. 160

** This is the core of the confusion. It arises with identifying "Buddhahood" with "Emptiness". To the ego Enlightenment is "Emptiness", because in Enlightenment the ego (self) has disappeared. In its turn Enlightenment (Buddhanature) dies and is being reborn in the Beyond though, in "Emptiness beyond Emptiness". Hence, the latter and not Buddhanature being the Ultimate Reality (which I call the Womb, e.g. the Great Mother). 

*** ibid. p. 170

Amida Buddha sitting on/emerging from the LotusWomb

7. The object of ultimate reverence thus being the Womb! In Asia, from time immemorial, the Great Mother has been symbolized by a Lotus flower. "Om mani padme hum" - the jewel in the lotus - means Being emerging from the Cosmic Womb. A closer look at almost all images of the Buddha, e.g. celestial Buddhas, Kuan Yin etc. reveals, that he (she) is sitting on a Lotus. It symbolizes the essence of (Great Mother) Buddhism. The Lotus is the Womb from which Buddhahood arises! This way the "memory" of the Great Mother has been preserved throughout the Buddhist world in millions of images. Hence, Great Mother followers both revering the Mother (Matrix) and the Buddha in the selfsame images. They may whisper "Womb of the Tathagatha" or a similar mantra, while prostrating themselves. In  Japanese Tantrism (Shingon) images could be very direct and concrete - a Buddha born out of the vulva - as a picture shows.* Furthermore the supreme all-embracing Matrix is called the World of the Mother-lap there. It is described in the Dainichi-kyo/Mahavairocana sutra. Furthermore huge mandala's - with 428 different figures - have been painted in which the Mother-lap World has been visualized. Even in Nestorian Christianity, the "sect" that had penetrated China in the first centuries ACE, the key symbol is a cross emerging from a lotus! It is an indication of the same - deeply hidden in the archaic layers of consciousness - wisdom: Christ as the Son of the Mother.

* See: Taking Refuge in the Mother

8. Even from an angle, where one would expect to find nothing but "masculine purity", namely Theravada Buddhism, reminiscences of the Great Mother can still be found. In his excellent essay "The Great Goddess Today in Burma and Thailand: An Exploration of Her Symbolic Relevance to Monastic and Female Roles"*, John P. Ferguson makes it clear that "Theravada Buddhism, it would seem, built its religious edifice upon a preexisting structure in which worship of the Goddess was fundamental". One of his main thesis is that Buddhism is a reaction to the power of the Mother. "To the Buddhists the Great Goddess is a veritable matron of suffering (because of the inability to resist Her attractions), the primal cause to all mankind's troubles. She makes us love Her more than we should". Hence, nonattachment to be the core of Buddhist teachings. The interesting nuance, however is, that the Buddha did not renounce the world because of hatred, but because he loved it too much. That means, that there is "a positive valorization of the world of the Great Goddess at the very moment the Theravada Buddhist rejects it". Furthermore it is stated, that the Goddess appears at crucial moments in (Theravada) Buddhist life. First of all, the Buddha's Enlightenment would not have been possible, without the Goddess' interference under the Bodhi tree**, in which She at a crucial moment, after the Buddha touched the Earth (Goddess) as a  cry for help - which ever since became one of the main mudra's - "made such a fearful sound, that Mara (the god of desire and illusion, trying to distract the Buddha) fled. "The Buddha's Enlightenment is thereby assured by the timely intervention of the Great Goddess Herself".

* In: James J.Preston "Mother Worship", 1982 Chapel Hill   

** Pali sources, found mainly in Burma.

9. The second very interesting phenomenon is that of the seasonal retreat of young Buddhist novices. "It may be merely coincidental with slack labor periods that males who choose to become temporarily monks pick the period when the rains fall upon the newly planted rice and come out of the monasteries again at harvest time when labor demands are greatest. Such an explanation is traditional. Yet there is reason to see the timing as part of a much deeper and more meaningful statement. In the whole of southern Asia, the fertility of the crops was often ensured by sacrifice of things dear to the people. Vegetation rituals were developed that included human sacrifice and dismemberment for burial in the fields, animal sacrifice with blood poured into the ground for the Earth Goddess, and various planting and harvesting dramas to please the Goddess with gifts and kind words.* Theravada Buddhism evolved in the midst of such ancient beliefs and practices. It is not impossible that the self-denying monks sequestered in their compounds for the growing season were a revolutionary substitute for the ancient sacrifices to the Goddess. If such a hypothesis is correct, then the monks of Theravada Buddhism can be seen as silently but dramatically sacrificing, not their bodies or their blood, but their desires".**   

* These rituals were an important part of almost all prehistoric Mother-oriented cultures, both in Africa, Europe, India, China and South America.

** Ibid. p. 289

10. The "Laughing Hotei Buddha", this popular image of Chinese lay people typically incorporates motherly characteristics. He reminds us of the Great Mother: "feminine appearance", the images with many children on his/her lap and arms. He is often portrayed with the symbols of the "raised arms" (pre-historic origin) supporting the boat with the cosmic egg, which in Chinese mythology symbolizes the "Yüanbao" or Original Treasure, which stands for the overflowing Emptiness, the Womb with Her offspring, e.g. Buddhahood. His historic background can be traced to the Great Mother of the Middle East. In the Indus-Valley Culture She was transformed to a fertility goddess, who much later became part - as the goddess Hariti - of Buddhism. A Chinese pilgrim "took her" to China, where she was transformed into a man: our Hotei (Maitreya) Buddha. A clear example how feminine myths were changed into masculine ones! As is often the case, male redefinitions upgraded his status: from servant to being "a God".  However, the name Maitreya still reminds us of the original situation. It could very well mean "servant of the Mother", from Maitri or Matri ("Mother").

11. The striking thing about Borobudur, the "mysterious" Buddhist temple in Central Java, near Yogyakarta, dating the 9th century, is its huge Main Stupa, together with its 72 Buddha statues, each equally surrounded by a stupa-like structure. While countless reports are describing the various mudra positions, held by the Buddha's, almost none seem to be focussing on the stupa's the Buddha's are sitting in. The most unique features of those Buddha's are not the various mudra's - the latter to be found at countless other places - but the stupa-like structures covering them, the latter emphasizing Buddhahood being covered by the Womb! Generally - as we know - the stupa is a later development of pre-buddhist burial tumuli, dating from archaic e.g. matriarchal times. It was considered a symbol of the Cosmic Womb ("Egg"), out of which everything alive was (re)born and to which everything returned: indeed an object of ancestor (mother) worship. Terms like Void, Emptiness, Nothingness and Nirvana are corresponding with those early notions. Add to it a typical feature of those times, in which the burial tumulus was protected by various guards or warriors, positioned around the site, all with their faces looking to all directions, considering the same feature in Borobudur, in which the Buddha's are forming a circle around the Great Stupa, thus being located at the periphery, rather than the center as it is commonly the case*, thus confirming our hypothesis of Borobudur being a relic of matriarchal times**.

12. Because the womb imagery of Borobudur - in fact the whole monument is like a big burial hill - is most prominent, not only the origin certainly has to be located in pre-historic times, but the lineage has become more clear as well, revealing the secret of Borobudur for the first time! Our discovery is the Yogacara-school being the source of inspiration on which the Borobudur has been built. Terms like "Matrix World" (together with "Diamond World", symbolizing the God-Son/Buddahood being born out of the Cosmic Womb) representing the Ultimate Reality (Dharmadhatu), together with concepts like "Womb of the Tatagatha" ("Tatagathagarbha") were greatly emphasized at that time, later to be found both in Tibetan as well as in Japanese Esoteric Buddhism (Shingon). Mythology is giving us even more clues. Borobudur was built by a royal family, called the Sailendra's, who emphasized to be "Kings of the Mountains", something usually claimed by God-Sons of matriarchal times. Moreover, a queen - Sri Kahulunan - is said to have played a major role, which is very uncommon in the history of Buddhism. Rather than being the accomplice of her husband, she might very well have been a central object of veneration and inspiration. Add to it the countless sculptures emphasizing a life-affirmative attitude - which again characterizes the Yogacara period in India - very much corresponding also with the indigenous Javanese lifestyle - logically susceptible to similar influences - the conclusion Borobudur being a center of Womb worship maybe not far from the truth. Hence, Great Mother Buddhism is considering Borobudur - of course sharing it joyfully with all other Buddhist denominations worldwide - as the main earthly Center of its universal worship. Devotees are being recommended to at least undertake one pilgrimage to Borobudur once in a lifetime.

* Consider also a huge Buddha, again not as the center of worship, but sitting as a guard (!) in a small complex - the famous Mendut temple - at the entrance of Borobudur...

** Together with the fact, that Borobudur has been built as a lotus-mandala, the lotus, as we have seen being a symbol of the Womb in her own right!

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