Dakini: the Wrathful Form of Tara

As a Buddhist, I do not view the opposite sex like my fellow sentient beings do.

Although I admit to objectifying women, I try not to make a habit of telling other men within earshot of women.

For those of you who remember the pictures of naked women, women showing cleavage, and the the picture of the shapely cosplay woman which I called "dakinis", a dakini is a celestial being, separate from Tara, who was originally an Indian goddess who vowed to be reborn as a bodhisattva in the Realm of Desire consisting of the six realms of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demons/asuras/demigods, and gods.

Am I saying that Tara walks among the sentient beings who dwell in the human realm?

Yes, that was included in her vow to be reborn in the human realm out of compassion for all sentient beings. Her task is to Help human beings to realize their purpose in life, which is to be of service to others, and to be helpful to all sentient beings, regardless of whether they are animals or human beings.

For Tara represents both the teacher and the nurse, and even the people welcoming you at Walmart.

And what are dakinis? They are the wrathful form of Tara who are able to dance high up in the sky. For they are Skywalkers.

I am sure Star Wars fans will pick on that: Luke Skywalker's last name was borrowed from the term that describes a dakini.

As well, "sky" symbolizes the freedom of space. It also suggests another freedom that Westernized people might object to, depending on their culture and upbringing. I am referring to the freedom of being unclothed and dancing naked in the sky.

Please note that I have associated a dakini with Tara, with the latter being the closest thing to a Buddha, for she is a bodhisattva out to save all sentient beings.

However, I refered to the two young women as dakinis for wearing little or no attire, as it helps me to keep my distance from lust. By keeping my distance, I hope to avoid being reborn in the hells both literally as I would rather go to the Pure Land, and figuratively i.e. by making inappropriate comments about either lady.

For having an open mind is a dedicated skill involving controlling one's secret wish to kill a person for speaking inappropriately. I am sure this is why chat features on GooglePlus are useful to privately talk with another member who is in my circle, if I so desire.

However, I have had my fill of chat using Facebook, Microsoft Messenger and Yahoochat as well as chat services on other web forums.

If I wanted to chat one-to-one with a woman, then it'd be IRC on the #sex channel of dalnet. However, there are children who would kick me off chat on dalnet, thus proving "absolute power corrupts absolutely" and confirming that most of the time, children do not have open minds.

Returning to dakinis and Tara, it is quite possible that Tara "magically" created clones of herself, as there is a White Tara, a Blue Tara and a Green Tara. There may also be yellow Tara, but I have yet to hear of a Red Tara.

In this way, she could enlighten more people than as plain vanilla Tara.

I have read in a Chinese sutras about a multitude of buddhas in their Pure Lands. So it stands to reason that there are a multitude of bodhisattvas as well as dakinis.

If even one god or demigod were to have the Buddhadharma preached to him, then it would lead to rebirth in the human realm.

Sometimes a Buddha will do that so that all sentient beings bond to the Buddha, and protect that Buddha from non-believers — an avatar of a sentient being who was non-human would be reborn as human, and might remember his life in the realm of god. However, even when an avatar of a god cannot remember her past life, she will eventually become a Buddhist.

After making a commitment to Buddhism and following the precepts, she may attain the past life samadhi. Even so, that happens after decades of mindful practice, both meditation and the works of charity, including volunteering at the Buddhist temple of which she is a member.

For the siddhi of past life memories takes a long time to be acquired since everything that happens to a devoted Buddhist practitioner is supposed to prepare you for that. If it is done within a setting that has no cultural means of such preparation, then surely we live in the age of Mappo —the degenerate age when only the Pure Land practice of Buddha Recitation is the sole means to be assured of being reborn as a bodhisattva and much later, a Buddha.

However, it is said that worship of dakinis and of Tara in any of her forms, be it spiritually/supernaturally or worldly, earns merit for the Tibetan devotee. Though, I am NEVER going to worship a woman dressed up as one, face-to-face.

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References

Tara as tantric deity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_%28Buddhism%29#T.C4.81r.C4.81_as_a_Tantric_deity

Non-Dual Reality as True Reality

From this point on you really know. This is called the pinnacle of Zen, the sovereignty of Zen. It is also called knowledge of what is knowable; it produces all the various states of meditation, and anoints the heads of all spiritual princes. In all fields of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, feeling, and phenomena, you realize complete perfect enlightenment. Inside and outside are in complete communion, without any obstruction at all.

-Pai-chang, "The Sphere of the Enlightened"

The Chinese Zen master, Pai-chang established the Zen monastic rules for Ch'an. His koans are well-known to Zen students worldwide. However, these koans give more of an insight into non-dual reality, the concept that "all phenomena exist as a species of dependent arising--dependent upon causes and conditions, whole and part, and mental designation."

The Western Cartesian viewpoint is "the core of many of our Western prejudices that impede both our philosophic and scientific understanding", where matter and mind are separate and distinct. Indeed, the error in Cartesian logic is based on the presupposition that a man is detached from the world. The religious background of Rene Descartes is Catholic, and this is steeped in much of the work in which he made his famous statement, a statement that has been misinterpreted to mean that mind and matter are two separate entities.

For in the text of Descartes' Meditation, he did not write "I think therefore I am." What he did indeed write is, "I am--I exist: this is certain; but how often?". The Latin reads: "Ego sum, ego existo; certum est. Quandiu autem?"

From the Christian sense of nondual reality, the faithful see God and Jesus as one. In contrast, the Hindu - and subsequently, the Buddhist - viewpoint focuses on the concept of advaita, nonduality, where all is one, all things and their differences, all of creation, each creature on Earth, the Earth itself, human beings, and the rest of the universe. It's very non-exclusive, all encompassing.

By logical conclusion then God encompasses not just Jesus but all things in the universe. You and me, good people and evil people, saints and sinners, demons and angels, God and Satan, man and woman, "all creatures great and small."

Thus, a careful study of advaita might lead one to panenthism, which is based on the conclusion that if God is the creator of the universe, from atoms all the way to animals, planets, stars and the whole cosmos itself, and the Creator and created are as one, then God is also in all things.

When one sees all of creation as created by God, one develops respect for oneself and the world, for the people living in it, for oneself.

In terms of the Eternal Way, non-dual reality may be expressed in terms of the Dreamer and this Dream we humans call Life or Reality as we like it to be.

For this Dreamer who dreams of me, She dreams of the world, of all other people on it, the animals, the plants, the Earth, the Sun and Moon, the planets, the stars. She also dreams of Herself, for She is the infinite consciousness. The Dreamer is a Sleeping Beauty, for Love is Her reason for Dreaming. Indeed, nondual reality is infinite consciousness.

(originally posted April 24, 2004 at 9:38 PM)

The Goddess Mantra - Maha Tripura Sundari

I bow to the Supreme Goddess
who abides in all beings
in the form of the Mother,
To that great Mother of all things,
I pay homage again and again!

Satyam shivam sundaram
'Absolute Truth is Ultimate Good is Supreme Beauty.'

Homage to Earth (poem)

O Mother Goddess! You are the earth,
and I am of the heaven,
my essence the stuff of stars.
Humbled by my fellow man,
humility leaves me;
Mother embraces me --
we dance in joy to celebrate
Her majesty on the good earth.