Allow me to share my experience with a goddess that is not a goddess and which I know nothing about because there is nothing to know. Her name is Prajnaparamita.
Prajnaparamita means “the Perfection of Wisdom” in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a concept that refers to the perfected way of seeing the nature of reality and a body of sutras (texts). Prajnaparamita is also personified or embodied by a female figure known as the Great Mother.
I began learning about Prajnaparamita in January 2021 when I joined the Mt Shasta Goddess Temple, also known by its Tibetan name, Tsogyal Lhamo Drayang Ling, or the Melodious Tsogyal Lhamo Temple. I am not a Buddhist, and I don’t have a strong interest in it. It’s hard to wrap my little brain around some of its philosophies, and I reject some beliefs, teaching, and practices altogether, but I also find value in others. The Tibetan Buddhist teachings at Mt Shasta slip effortlessly into its other esoteric teachings. Devotion to Prajnaparamita is also a way for me to honour the Temple, its lineage, work, and teachers.
I’ve spent this January with Prajnaparamita again. I read a couple of books and some articles, which I’ll link below. Here are some basic ideas I’ve been exploring. Maybe you’ll find value in them too.
The Perfection of Wisdom
As a Great Mother, I find Prajnaparamita to be a calming presence. I enjoy the holidays, but they bring frenetic energy. Just as my morning practice helps set the stage for my day and keeps me calm and balanced, I try to have a slow and quiet January. I’m a fiery Sagittarius, a loud Cuban, and a daughter of Ogun, a warrior orisha. Being cool, patient, and gentle takes effort. Still, its practice results in happier and more productive engagement in all my relationships, mundane work, hobbies, and service as a Priestess.
Dependent origination
"Looking into a flower, we can see that it is full of life. It contains soil, rain, and sunshine. It is also full of clouds, oceans, and minerals. It is even full of space and time. In fact, the whole cosmos is present in this one little flower. If we took out just one of these "nonflower" elements, the flower would not be there. Without the soil's nutrients, the flower could not grow. Without rain and sunshine, the flower would die. And if we removed all the non-flower elements, there would be nothing substantive left that we could call a "flower". So our observation tells us that the flower is full of the whole cosmos, while at the same time it is empty of a separate self-existence. The flower cannot exist by itself alone."
Pratityasamutpada, commonly translated as dependent origination, or dependent arising, is a Buddhist doctrine that states that all dharmas (phenomena) arise in dependence upon other dharmas.
We see similar ideas in contemporary, Western Paganism–we are part of a web, every action causes a reaction, ripple effects, and so forth. The Buddhist doctrine is much bigger, deeper, and connected to lifetimes and the moment-to-moment of the everyday.
In The Central Concept of Buddhism: The Teaching of Interdependent Co-arising, Dr Alfred Bloom uses the automobile as an analogy. A car is made up of various parts, and each piece can be further analysed down to its components–its metals, elements, atoms, and so forth.
“Interdependence also points to the mutuality necessary for fruitful and positive human relations. We are all interconnected. Buddhist teaching provides a foundation for social living and community, connecting the past, present and future. This process undergirds the reverence for ancestors and concern for future generations.”
The Heart Sutra
Let’s return to Dr Bloom’s car analogy for a moment. When you begin to break things down, you will reach a point where you can’t break them down anymore.
“Finally, the mind comes to a mystery as we are unable to penetrate the cosmic sources of the world of experience.
“However, the conclusion of Buddhism is that nothing possesses its own irreducible self-nature but everything depends on something else for its existence. Therefore, all things are empty, empty of intrinsic reality and intrinsic value; all existence is relational. Whatever the ultimate reality of things, it is inexpressible and inconceivable; therefore Empty. All things arise through the co-working of many causes and conditions.”
The Heart Sutra is the distillation of the essence of Prajnaparamita writings. It’s short and goes right to the heart of the doctrine it summarises. The Heart Sutra is about emptiness, and it is bonkers.
In The Heart Attack Sutra, Buddhist translator and teacher Karl Brunnhölzl writes:
“When we read it, it sounds nuts, but that is actually where the wisdom part comes in. What the Heart Sutra (like all Prajnaparamita Sutras) does is to cut through, deconstruct, and demolish all our usual conceptual frameworks, all our rigid ideas, all our belief systems, all our reference points, including any with regard to our spiritual path. It does so on a very fundamental level, not just in terms of thinking and concepts, but also in terms of our perception, how we see the world, how we hear, how we smell, taste, touch, how we regard and emotionally react to ourselves and others, and so on. This sutra pulls the rug out from underneath our feet and does not leave anything intact that we can think of, nor even a lot of things that we cannot think of. This is called ‘crazy wisdom.'”
Read the full excerpt.
I recited the Heart Sutra every morning in January last year and contemplated it more this year. My grasp of it is like the flash of a dream you know you had but can’t remember. That’s to be expected; people spend their lives studying the Heart Sutra.
There are various translations of the Heart Sutra. Here’s one translation of the Heart Sutra by Adam Pearcey, a Buddhist translator and founder of Lotsawa House, a virtual library of translations from Tibet.
Tonglen
Tonglen is Tibetan for giving and receiving. It refers to a meditation practice in which the practitioner breathes in the suffering of others and breathes out compassion and support.
Tonglen is not about burdening yourself with the misery of the world. It is about, among other things, cultivating compassion, expanding loving-kindness, and perhaps also the doctrine of dependent origination, that another person’s pain is our pain, that we create reality. It’s another level in the magick of manifestation.
If it sounds dangerous or scary to take in the sufferings of others into our body, in Mind Training, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche says Tonglen subdues our fears and strengthens us.
“It would not be possible to give out such positive energy unless we felt positive ourselves, and the more we exchange good things for bad, the better we feel. We are the source of healing and happiness. Our generosity and concern pacify every negative situation. As we send out kindness, we grow accustomed to being strong and kind. In this way, our positive feelings are constantly renewed and can never be exhausted.”
Read the full excerpt.
You can also practice Tonglen to clear your blockages. In Tonglen, The Path of Transformation, Pema Chödrön explains:
“For example, you see a homeless person on the street who is asking you for money and seems to be an alcoholic. In spite of your desire to be compassionate, you can’t help but turn away and feel disgust or resentment. At that point, you can start doing Tonglen for yourself and all the other people who want to be open but are basically shut down. You breathe in the feeling of shut-downness, your own and everybody else’s. Then you send out a sense of space or relaxation or letting go. When you feel blocked, that’s not an obstacle to Tonglen; it’s part of the practice. You work with what feels like blockage as the seed of awakening in your heart and as connection with other people.”
Watch her perform Tonglen meditation below.
More resources
- Prajnaparamita Series (Lotsawa House)
- Prajnaparamita – The Great Mother
- What is dependent origination? (Tricycle)
- Paticcasamuppada: Practical Dependent Origination
- Dependent Origination: the Buddhist Law of Conditionality
- Mother of the Buddhas: Meditations on the Prajnaparamita Sutra by Lex Hixon
- Start Where You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living by Pema Chödrön
This is, of course, a vast body of work, a thousand years worth. My knowledge and understanding grow very slowly, but I begin to see how honouring Prajnaparamita refines my beliefs and practices and strengthens my Priestesshood.
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This is a beautiful post. 🙏🏼
Thank you!
Thank you Cosette – this is a truly lovely post. How wonderful we still have the Prajnaparamita sutras available to us in a time and place so very far from when they were first shared.
“like the flash of a dream you know you had but can’t remember” – this is very resonant. The place that this comes from can’t be grasped by the conceptual mind, but we know when we have been touched by it.
If I may be so bold, I wrote a devotional piece to Prajnaparamita on my blog a while back:
https://luminousemptiness.co.uk/devotion-to-prajnaparamita/
I hope it may be of interest. It was nice reading your post and the feeling of devotion that you shared.
take good care …
Thank you, Chodpa, for reading and leaving a link. I will be sure to visit.