Prajna Paramita: Mother of the Buddhas

The path of the paramitas leads to the shore of freedom, of liberation / love.

OM ! Gate, gate, para gate, parasum gate, bodhi svaha

Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone to the other shore–Svaha! Oh what a realization!

The zen buddhist path is a path of mystery as much as it is a path of awakening, when we speak of awakening, we usually invoke a sense of realization, understanding, wisdom, knowing—enlightenment.

The path of mystery invokes the dark, unknowing, the hidden, the secret

Prajna Paramita is translated as wisdom beyond wisdom, wisdom beyond understanding

To talk about it inherently limits what can not be named, or grasped, or bound or contained

Sometimes we invoke prajna paramita as emptiness, pure potential energy, the womb of the great mother—pregnant nothingness, where anything, everything has the potential to emerge

But also, the mother of all manifest, of all life. The spacious, unconditional acceptance of things as they are, great love or great compassion.

Listen to the Podcast for more!

Also, I am excited to announce that I will be leading an online class series on Awakening the Sacred Feminine: The Practices and Teachings of the Women Ancestors

You can learn more here.

February 2 - April 26, 2024

Fridays 9:30A - 11A PT

An Online Class Series Meeting Every Other Week for a total of 7 Weeks 

What is the sacred feminine? A zen student may ask. And for good reason, aren’t we taught in Zen to transcend duality? 

Chozen Roshi would often say: Zen practice invites us to become completely male, completely female, both and neither.

Still, cast under the cloud of patriarchy, for millennia the sacred feminine and the women ancestors have remained hidden and obscured within the Zen Buddhist tradition.

Or have they? What if their hidden-ness is itself an invitation to descend into the depths? To encounter the mystery? To share in the open secret?

In this spirit, this class series is a descent, an endarkenment, an underworld journey. For to awaken what is historically hidden and obscured one must be willing to enter the mysterious womb of Prajna Paramita, to carry the sacred embryo, to dream, to lose things, to fall down, to gaze into the empty mirror, to shapeshift, to love.

Each week we will encounter one or more of the great women ancestors, beginning with the archetypal Mother of the Buddhas, Prajna Paramita. Each class will include a teaching and story from these wise women  and a guided practice based on their teaching. There will be opportunities each week for further study and ways to deepen one’s home practice.

This class is open to all genders and to any one who is interested in encountering the hidden, the veiled, the mysterious—just know, you may be transformed in the process.

What’s included:

* 7-Live Weekly Class Meetings (Meeting every other Friday)

* Recordings of teaching/practices from each class

* Home Study material

* Weekly Practice Encouragements

* Optional Journaling or Creative Prompts to help integrate the learning

DATES:

Week 1 – Feb 2

Week 2 – Feb 16

Week 3 – Mar 1

Week 4 – Mar 15

Week 5 – Mar 29

Week 6 – April 12

Week 7 – April 26

A note from Kisei Sensei: Encountering the Women Ancestors and practicing with their teachings has been an ongoing part of my practice. I remember the waves of delight when I would discover a new (to me) ancestor, learn about her life and begin putting her teachings into practice. I sat with and lived into the poems of the Terigatha, gazed into the clear mirror, sat in the dark womb of Prajna paramita. The women ancestors really helped me see that my life is my practice and my offering. It is with great respect, joy and wonderment that I am offering this class. May your life be as enriched and transformed by their wisdom and compassion, as mine is.

Weekly Themes

Week 1 : In the Womb of the Great Mother: Awakening Prajna Paramita 

Darkness is the home from which we come.

Emptiness is pure potential energy, spacious and wakeful— Prajna Paramita wisdom beyond wisdom. Words fail. To encounter Great Mother Spaciousness, we must be willing to un-know, to darken further and let the mystery guide us home. This week we will meet the mysterious mother of the Buddhas.

Week 2 : Giving Birth in the Night: Yasodhara and Maya

A stone woman gives birth to a child at night.

Yasodhara is the Buddha’s wife and Maya is the Buddha’s birth mother, both of these women’s paths to awakening involved premonitory dreams, pregnancy and giving birth. This week we will explore the wisdom of the dharma teachings of the night, dreams, pregnancy and birth as both metaphors and lived experience (for some).

Week 3 : Loss and Being Found: The Path of Heartbreak and Love

A coin that is lost in the river, is found in the river. 

What happens when you lose everyone and everything that is dear to you? Or that one precious person, your child, your love? This week we will explore grief and heartbreak as a path, through the stories of Patacara, Kisagotami, Ubbiri and Kannon.

Week 4 : Falling Down : The practice of touching the Earth

Until a person has fallen down, the earth can’t help her arise.

Dhamma was awakened upon literally falling to the Earth, the Earth Goddess rose up to affirm the Buddha’s awakening. This week we will explore: what happens when we fall–whether it’s falling apart, falling down or falling in love, falling, touching the earth– is a gesture towards intimacy, humility and transformation. 

Week 5 : Mirror Zen: The Koans of Tokeiji

As night falls, no more reflections in the mirror,

Yet in this heart they are clearly seen. –Shotaku

The Mirror Koans of Tokeiji are one of the longest recorded examples of an unbroken women’s lineage that extended for at least eight generations. This unique lineage developed their own koan curriculum based around insights the nuns had while gazing into a mirror in the buddha hall. This week we will explore the practice of Mirror Zen.

Week 6 : Shapeshifting: The Goddess of Great Compassion

What is the enlightened aspect of shapeshifting? Perhaps the skillful means of great compassion, trickster feminism, spontaneous freedom, creative play. This week we will meet the shapeshifting goddess from the Vimalakirti Sutra and the many manifestations of The Bodhisattva of Great Compassion.

Week 7: Awakening Together: Exploring the Therigatha

I attain the meditations on emptiness

and signlessness whenever I want.

I am the Buddha’s rightful daughter,

always delighting in Nirvana.–Uttama

This week we will meet some of the earliest women ancestors through their awakening poems. We will learn a practice for working with their awakening poems as a koan or contemplation in our own practice and lives. And perhaps write our own poems of awakening.

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