Buddhist Goddesses Of India

"The Indian Buddhist world abounds with goddesses--voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, potent healers and protectors, transcendent wisdom figures, cosmic mothers of liberation, and dancing female Buddhas. Despite their importance in Buddhist thought and practice, these female deities have received relatively little scholarly attention, and no comprehensive study of the female pantheon has been available. Buddhist Goddesses of India is the essential and definitive guide to divinities that, as Miranda Shaw writes, "operate from transcendent planes of bliss and awareness for as long as their presence may benefit living beings." Beautifully illustrated, the book chronicles the histories, legends, and artistic portrayals of nineteen goddesses and several related human figures and texts. Drawing on a sweeping range of material, from devotional poetry and meditation manuals to rituals and artistic images, Shaw reveals the character, powers, and practice traditions of the female divinities. Interpretations of intriguing traits such as body color, stance, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, hand gestures, and handheld objects lend deep insight into the symbolism and roles of each goddess. In addition to being a comprehensive reference, this book traces the fascinating history of these goddesses as they evolved through the early, Mahayana, and Tantric movements in India and found a place in the pantheons of Tibet and Nepal."--Publisher's website.

Illustrations: Numerous B/w and Colour Illustrations Description: The Indian Buddhist world abounds with goddesses-voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, potent healers and protectors, transcendent wisdom figures, cosmic mothers of liberation, and dancing female Buddhas. Despite their importance in Buddhist thought and practice, these female deities have received relatively little scholarly attention, and no comprehensive study of the female pantheon has been available. Buddhist Goddesses of India is the essential and definitive guide to divinities that, as Miranda Show writes, operate from transcendent planes of bliss and awareness for as long as their presence may benefit living beings. Beautifully illustrated, the book chronicles the histories, legends, and artistic portrayals of nineteen goddesses and several related human figures and texts. Drawing on a sweeping range of material, from devotional poetry and meditation manuals to rituals and artistic images, Shaw reveals the character, powers, and practice traditions of the female divinities. Interpretations of intriguing traits such as body color, stance, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, hand gestures, and handheld objects lend deep insight into the symbolism and roles of each goddess. In addition to being a comprehensive reference, this book traces the fascinating history of these goddesses as they evolved through the early, Mahayana, and Tantric movements in India and found a place in the pantheons of Tibet and Nepal.

Queens and old crones, Buddhas and goddesses, mothers and wild women. Female deities in Buddhism take many forms to inspire, beguile, rouse and protect us. Enter the magical realm of gently compassionate Kuan Yin from China, meet the elusive golden goddess from India representing Perfect Wisdom, and tangle with the energetic embodiments of freedom, the fearless sky-dancing dakinis of Tibet. Respected Western Buddhist teacher Vessantara invites us to learn more about ourselves as women and men by reflecting on these figures, for within us lie the seeds of love, wisdom and freedom that these figures symbolise in their fullness, qualities we can nurture through contemplating the beauty of these enlightened beings. Engage not just with your head but with your heart. Follow your intuition ... enrich your life. My thanks to Vessantara for a treasure trove of fascinating information, explanation, and anecdote on the feminine divine. This is an invaluable introductory source book.Sandy Boucher, author of Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion.

The energy of the goddess fills every facet of Indian life. To her devotees, the goddess appears in myriad forms: mother, boon-giver, destroyer of evil, divine lover, protector and/or bloodthirsty ogress. The more that is discovered about her, the more teasingly complex and multivalent the Devi appears. She is both constant and changing, loved and feared, worshipped and forgotten, only to be re-discovered and worshiped again. In this book, for the first time, ten Australian researchers, working on many aspects of the Devi, have come together and offered, in a single collection, new research on the divine female. This book begins a renewed quest for the iconic Devi who continues to emerge in her many, unpredictably powerful forms.

American and Indian scholars of religion, anthropology, women's studies, and psychology look at the complex relationship between the living worship of female divinities and women in India. In keeping with the multiplicity, especially of Hinduism but also Buddhism and Jainism, the anthology presents a number of sometimes conflicting views rather than a consistent account. Only authors are indexed. c. Book News Inc.

A mixture of sex, love, coming of age, and Buddhism, "Arousing the Goddess" is filled with humor and recognition of the absurdities of life. It has been praised for its honesty and insight. Ward is the author of "What the Buddha Never Taught," which was a bestseller in Canada, and a Book of the Month selection in the United States.

The now-classic exploration of the role of women and the feminine in Buddhist Tantra The crowning cultural achievement of medieval India, Tantric Buddhism is known in the West primarily for the sexual practices of its adherents, who strive to transform erotic passion into spiritual bliss. Historians of religion have long held that this attempted enlightenment was for men only, and that women in the movement were at best marginal and subordinated and at worst degraded and exploited. In Passionate Enlightenment, Miranda Shaw argues to the contrary and presents extensive evidence of the outspoken and independent female founders of the Tantric movement and their creative role in shaping its distinctive vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality. Including a new preface by the author, this Princeton Classics edition makes an essential work available for new audiences.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Theology - Comparative Religion Studies, grade: 1.3, Ruhr-University of Bochum (Lehrstuhl für Religionswissenschaften), course: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Ritual Practices: Architectural and Pictoral Contexts, language: English, abstract: In this examination there will be the effort to examine the relation between the Buddhist and Hindu Goddess of Tārā in relation to Hindu goddesses such as Kālī, Durgā and Pārvatī. In a large view the dichotomy development of Kālī and Tārā will be the central point of this investigation, but Durgā and Pārvatī will also be mentioned in an elaborate way. It will be important to get a connection to the worship of a goddess, allowing the reader to see how specific cults are worshipped in everyday life. There will be the attempt to demonstrate the range and irreducible complexity of feminine cults in Indian tradition, because there is a need to fix older and current researches on goddesses from different regional traditions in a quite valuable way. In order to ensure this development of specific goddesses, we need to focus the attention on the appearance of particular female cults. There is a need to work with some written sources to investigate the depiction of such cults. That means the examination of several ancient Indian passages and also the delineation of elected sculptures. It needs to be clarified that this kind of operation is the only way to get countable results. But it might be difficult to find ‘early’ images of such goddesses as Kālī and Tārā in order to get a chronological overview. The establishment of a specific cult is linked with a system of some kind of a special myth building phenomenon. We must remember that we are working with legendary cults, text passages, (maybe failed) translations, images, sculptures and modern interpretations to get a survey of an ancient lifetime. In this extraordinary case it is important to understand a myth as an essential component of our (past) communication.