Lauren Rochholz
16 November 2004
HRS 220
Word Count: 1775
“Gotami’s Story” Reading Analysis
I.
Selective Summary
A. Introduction
B. Secondary Analysis: Jonathan S. Walters
i. Role of “Gotami’s Story” in the Apadana and post-Asokan period
ii. Gotami as a combatant of misogyny
C. Primary Analysis: “Gotami’s Story”
i. Gotami’s preparation for “going out” and request for Buddha’s
permission
ii. Others’ reluctance about Gotami’s “going out”
iii. Gotami’s final attainment of nirvana
D. Conclusion
II.
Evaluation
A. Effectiveness of “Gotami’s Story” as influence on other Buddhists
B. Gotami and Buddha as proponents of female capability
III.
Wider Relevance
1
Selective Summary
“Gotami’s Story” is a two-part work containing a short history and analysis of a
Buddhist story followed by a translation of the story itself. Jonathan S. Walters
introduces the story with a short recounting of significant events in Indian history,
thereby giving some background information to which the reader can relate the
narrative. He intersperses this account with commentary on the role of Gotami in the
Buddhist faith and the telling of her story as an example of female potential in a possibly
misunderstood religion.
The Apadana is a collection of “moral biographies” written in the two centuries
before the Common Era. “Gotami’s Story” is a single tale from this compilation, one of
the many composed by forty Buddhist nuns and over five hundred Buddhist monks.
The “unification of the Indian subcontinent in the third century B.C.E.” by Asoka Maurya
instigated a change in the cultural perception of Buddhism; that is, the religion became
more universal in its perceived application to normal, everyday lives:
The early paradigms – saints who renounce the world and attain nirvana – were
not immediately appropriate for the bulk of society newly included within
Buddhism’s post-Asokan universal embrace, who would not renounce the world
in the present life but would instead continue to produce karma and,
consequently, future existence (113).
The Apadana stories, likely a consequence of this strain of thought, aspired to depict
monks and nuns in their incarnations as commoners and became “a virtual blueprint” for
“every occupation and station in life, every age, every caste, every type of being (male
and female, animals and deities, as well as humans)” (114).
“Gotami’s Story” and the biographies of the other nuns did much to further this
cause of universality. Problems inherent in Buddhist customs were addressed by these
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stories, working to “combat misogynist attitudes that continued among Indian Buddhists
despite the Buddha’s own apparent egalitarianism” (114). Walters contends that
“Gotami’s Story” is directed at all Buddhist women, nuns, laywomen, and goddess alike.
The main character, Gotami, the “female counterpart of the Buddha, the founder and
leader of the nuns’ order,” through a series of directives, parodies, and clarifications,
advises women “they should follow her in following the Buddha’s path.” Furthermore,
as evidence of her belief in female potential, Gotami “affirms that even children females
have attained the most exalted states...and puts on her show of miracles to
demonstrate how much a woman can achieve” (116).
Gotami’s “going out” is her reward after several incarnations and many years of
preparation. Before and after requesting and obtaining the Buddha’s permission for this
act (Verse 48), she relates bits of wisdom and “mini-apadanas” to various audiences as
testament to her readiness. Gotami cites her devout worship of the Buddha (Verse 22),
her surrender of her home to seek enlightenment (Verse 23), her loathing of her body
as a “sick house like a serpent’s lair...pastured for old age and death, and covered with
suffering’s slime” (Verses 56-57), and her peacefulness in ultimate devotion to the
Buddha (Verse 73) as evidence of the completeness needed for nirvana. She also
recounts her ascendancy to sainthood, beginning with her birth “one hundred thousand
eons ago” at the time of the Buddha Padumuttara (Verse 95). After her pursuit of him,
the Buddha Padumuttara allowed Gotami to see her future “preeminence among the
senior nuns” (Verse 105). Her first rebirth was “among the highest gods who lived in
Tavatisma [“Thirty-Three”],” where she “shone, attaining supreme power” (Verse 109).
Following that existence, she was reborn into a “slaves’ village” (Verse 110), and,
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finally, into her present life as the “Victor’s nurse” (Verse 116). In each manifestation
Gotami grasped more in depth the qualities necessary for “going out.”
Although Gotami believes herself ready to pass out of existence, others mourn at
the thought of losing her on earth. The five hundred nuns who eventually accompany
her to nirvana are the first to lament Gotami’s “going out.” As devout Buddhists,
however, they quickly change their attitudes: “If this is what you want, sister – the
unsurpassed pure going out – then, pious one, with his assent, we all will go out too”
(Verse 100). Gotami’s announcement of her decision to Nanda, Rahula, and Ananda
prompts a mixed reaction; that is, Nanda and Rahula, “fully detached from worldly ties,
are unmoved, but Ananda, still in training, weeps at the news” (115). Nanda and
Rahula consider Gotami’s position as preferable to the “impermanence” of the things of
this world, while Ananda “sheds tears” and “wails” at the thought of the “going out” of
Gotami and the Buddha (Verse 61). Indeed, he seems to put a negative spin on the
concept of nirvana as “nonexistence” and a “fire without fuel” (Verse 62). Gotami
consoles Ananda, advising him that if he is truly “intent on serving the Buddha,” then he
should rather “laugh” and celebrate her passing out of existence (Verses 63-65).
At the Buddha’s urging, Gotami begins her “going out” in a spectacular fashion,
displaying various physical feats of impossibility to the astonished masses. She
appears cloned, disappears, walks through walls and the sky, sinks into the earth, walks
on water, flies “like a bird,” “controls the space right up to God’s own home,” makes the
earth into her parasol, emanates the glow of “six suns,” “garland[s] the earth in flames,”
holds mountains in her hands, and creates “torrential rains” (Verses 81-90). After this
display, she says a final goodbye to the Buddha and the laypeople, urging them to
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follow her path and give up the world’s tangibles for nirvana. Alone, she enters and reenters the various levels of altered states, permanently leaving the earth rather
conspicuously: “There was a great earthquake; lightening fell from the sky. The thunder
rumbled loudly, the deities there wailed; a shower of flowers from the sky rained down
upon the earth” (Verses 148-149). Ananda and the other monks honor her with an
extensive funeral.
Evaluation
Walters argues that “Gotami’s Story” “addresses itself to Buddhist women, from
nuns striving for nirvana here and now to laywomen and goddesses for whom the goal
remains more remote” (116). He contends that Gotami is “the female counterpart of the
Buddha, the founder and leader of the nuns’ order who parallels (though does not
supersede) Gotama, the founder and leader of the monks’ order. Gotami is represented
as the Buddha for women” (117). With “Gotami’s Story” as one’s only frame of
reference, this assertion is hard to dispute. Gotami does, indeed, appear to be more
spiritually awake than every other character besides the Buddha himself.
In addition to Gotami’s preeminence prior to her “going out,” though, Walters
asserts that her story has lasting affects on female Buddhists in another way:
In the karmically black and white world of the Apadana, males and females tread
parallel yet distinct paths. Men were always male in previous lives; women
always female. This is the reason that the monks’ biographies were not suitable
paradigms for that half of universal society which is not male (117).
In other words, Walters believes that women, Buddhists in particular, can relate better to
a woman (Gotami) who has experienced many different social statuses than a man who
has had the same history. For Walters, therein lies much of the story’s importance.
5
This contention seems reasonable; however, one might challenge that Gotami’s four
incarnations – as a woman in a rich clan of ministers with many servants (Verse 96), as
a goddess among the “highest gods” (Verse 107), as a slave (Verse 110), and as the
foster mother of the Buddha (Verse 116) – hardly constitute “average” existences,
thereby potentially limiting the applicability of her story to the common woman.
Walters argues that this representation of the Buddha depicts the deity as an
advocate of woman’s ability to triumph over the tedium of rebirth. The Buddha is,
indeed, supportive of Gotami and her powers: he gives her permission to attain
“parinirvana,” he remarks upon her going out that “yet there are these fools who doubt
that women too can grasp the truth. Gotami, show miracles, that they might give up
their false views” (Verse 79), he complements her as “wise,” a “master of great powers”
with a “divine-ear,” a “divine-eye,” and “purified knowledge of meaning” (Verses 183186). However, this story in itself is not conclusive evidence of the Buddha’s
“egalitarianism;” it is fairly irrefutable that the Buddha admires Gotami, but without
further substantiation (which may, and probably does, exist) it does not indicate a
respect for all women. Additionally, as Walters himself points out, this story was written
by women for women; an adversarial Buddha would not further the attempt to create a
model story for female Buddhists.
Wider Relevance
Walters represents the power of Gotami in the Buddhist faith as substantial. For
somebody with very little exposure to this religion, Gotami does, indeed, appear to be a
true role model. The Buddha’s apparent respect for her accomplishments furthers this
6
claim. As compared with female figures in the other traditions we have studied, Gotami
is unique in her status among her counterparts. Although women have certainly
occupied significant positions within other rituals and religions (the monastic nuns of the
medieval Christian period, the Anastenarias, the wives in the Hindu rituals), Gotami
appears to be the only one who is truly free to worship and gain knowledge as she sees
fit within the boundaries of the faith. She does not need to ask permission of a husband
to participate in any rites; she is not required by social or religious law to even have a
husband. Gotami espouses her beliefs to men and gains their respect, the Buddha
foremost among these admirers. The Christian mystics, who also share their visions
with other believers, experience this as well; however, the acceptance of their
revelations is based mostly on the nuns’ non-threatening social standing. Yet, Gotami
is, as represented by Walters, potentially a threat to the Buddha; her funeral is “better
than the Buddha’s own, [and] she appears to be the very center of the universe” (117).
But the Buddha not only reveres Gotami, he encourages others to do the same.
7
Kathryn Williams
HRS 220/ Dubois
November 14, 2004
Word Count: 2124
Outline: Analysis of “Gotami’s Story”
Introduction
Selective Summary
A. Walter’s Article
 History and purpose of Apadana literature
 Gotami’s Story as part of Apadana genre
 Gotami as role-model and women’s advocate
 Gotami as Buddha for women
B. Gotami-apadana
 Gotami: “Mother of the Buddha”
 Gotami: Devotee of the Buddha
 Gotami: Role-model for Buddhists
C. Conclusions
Evaluation
A. Gotami: Role-Model or Buddhi?
Wider Relevance
A. Feminine relationship with the divine
B. Gotami as conduit to “the other.”
8
Reading Analysis: Gotami’s Story
In his article, “Gotami’s Story,” Jonathan S. Walters acquaints modern readers with some
of the social and religious ideals of third-century Theravada Buddhists, most particularly the
themes that concern “women’s religiosity.” The main inspiration for his article is the Gotamiapadana (Gotami’s Story) and he builds most of his claims around certain passages in the story.
His central argument is that Gotami is the Buddha figure for Buddhist women. Walters also
includes Gotami’s Story itself, allowing readers to appreciate the artistic and spiritual beauty of
the original story separate from his commentary. Due to the “dual-nature” of this reading
selection, I will first summarize Walter’s article, then proceed to a selective summary of the
primary source, Gotami-apadana.
Walter’s Article: Selective Summary
The Gotami-apadana is the story of Mahapajapati Gotami, maternal aunt and fostermother to the Buddha and, as Walters proposes, the female spiritual counterpart to the Buddha
(Walters, 113, 117). Her story is included in a collection of moral biographies, Apadana, which
is part of a larger canon, Khud-daka-nikaya (Walters, 113). The Apadana was written during a
period of social change and political expansion in Buddhist history, approximately 200-100 BCE
(Walters, 113). The biographies in the Apanada are elaborated accounts of earlier collections of
Pali verses (gatha), which may have originated during the time of the Buddha himself. Many
Buddhists believe these stories were originally spoken by the Buddha’s most famous disciples
9
after they became saints; the stories are known as Monk’s Verses (Theragatha) and Nun’s
Verses (Therigatha) and are ascribed to about five hundred and fifty monks and forty nuns
(Walters, 113).
After the changes in post-Asokan society, the stories of ascetic monks and nuns
renouncing the world and attaining nirvana did not possess the traditional appeal for a new group
of followers who did not plan to renounce the world (Walters, 114). The challenge for Buddhist
leaders was to find something meaningful in these early stories that would help guide postAsokan Buddhist followers to understand appropriate behaviors — in other words, a new set of
role models was needed. It was determined that this new era of readers would benefit most by
knowing what the monks and nuns did in their previous lives when they were just beginning to
travel their path. The Apadana was born to meet this need, and the stories contained therein
became models of and for the person at the beginning of the path, a “virtual blueprint for a new
universal society” (Walters, 114). Though the nuances of individual stories varied, each monk or
nun illustrated the piety necessary to achieve the rewards of heavenly bliss and nirvana in the
time of the coming Buddha, Maitreya (Love)” (Walters, 114).
In addition to meeting the universal needs expressed above Gotami-apadana, along with
the other moral biographies of nuns, addressed certain problematic issues that had surfaced
concerning the role of women in Buddhist practice (Walters, 114). These stories, which were
probably composed by women, serve not only as a gender-specific moral compass for the female
spiritual devotee, but also as a means to combat misogynist attitudes that had developed among
Indian Buddhists despite the Buddha’s ideal of egalitarianism (Walters, 114).
While Gotami-apadana is a good example of the Apadana genre as a whole, it is also
unique in its complexity and in the fact that it focuses not on Gotami’s life but on her death
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(Walters, 115). While this emphasis on death may seem odd in contrast to the other stories in the
Apadana, it makes perfect sense when one understands that Gotami’s extraordinary “religious
death” (the “great going out”) was her ultimate achievement (Walters, 116). Moreover, Gotamiapadana addresses themes of women’s religiosity while being perfectly unique in its answer to a
persistent need for Buddhist women: If the Buddha’s (a male) “great going out” opened to door
to arhatship, guaranteeing the finality of the monks’ (male’s) nirvana, who would guarantee that
nuns’ (female’s) nirvana would be final as well? The answer: Gotami (Walters, 117). As the
female counterpart of the Buddha (linguistically and spiritually), Gotami is the founder and
leader of the nun’s order and her life parallels, without superseding, that of the Buddha (Walters,
117). What Gotama (the Buddha) was for men, Gotami (the Buddhi, or feminine Buddha) was
for women: “the spiritual center of their universe” (Walters, 117).
Gotami-apadana: Selective Summary
While biographical information about Gotami’s birth and heritage can be found in
“Gotami’s Story,” I will focus on the passages in the story that illuminate Gotami’s spiritual
significance for the “women’s religiosity” of post-Asokan Theravada Buddhism. I should note
that, in my attempt to focus specifically on this primary source material, I am summarizing the
story irrespective of Walter’s interpretation. I will address the link between Walter’s article and
Gotami-apadana in my conclusion and evaluation.
Gotami is portrayed a powerful figure, both spiritually and socially. I believe it is the
primary goal of the Gotami-apadana to glorify Gotami as a role-model for Buddhists. However,
I think the overarching message is that it is the Buddha himself who is the most significant figure
in Buddhist spirituality, and that readers of Gotami-apadana are to keep this in mind at all times.
11
Gotami’s power stems, in part, from the very “feminine” role of mothering the Buddha.
That Gotami is not the Buddha’s biological mother does not seem to detract from her role as
“Mother of the Buddha:”
Women can obtain with ease
the names “Chief Queen,” “King’s Mother”
The hardest name of all to get
is the “Mother of the Buddha.” (36)
It may be argued that it was Gotami’s karma from past lives that ultimately prepared her
to be born into the role of the Buddha’s mother, so she had some control over obtaining her
ultimate power. Yet it seems clear that Gotami is only powerful because of her relationship (first
that of mother-to-son, then that of devotee-to-deity) with the Buddha:
Well-gone-one, I am your mother;
you’re my father, O wise one.
Lord, you give the truth’s pure pleasure!
Gotama, I’m born from you! (31)
It was I, O well-gone one,
who reared you, flesh and bones.
But by your nurturing was reared
my flawless dharma-body (32).
Thus, though she is powerful and greatly honored, Gotami herself makes clear that the
Buddha is more important that she. Indeed, she must ask his permission before she can begin to
enact those desires dearest to her heart.
Gotami’s “great going out” is more spectacular than that of the Buddha himself. While
her amazing death certainly awards Gotami a superior honor among the worshippers of the
12
Buddha, it does not make her superior to the Buddha. Indeed, Gotami must ask the Buddha’s to
allow her to achieve nirvana:
I wish to go out totally,
abandoning this body;
Grant me permission, hero, guide,
O ender of dis-ease. (38)
It is clear that Gotami took the initiative to become a powerful activist for gender equality
and as a spiritual leader of the nuns. Yet it seems that Gotami was ultimately empowered to do
these things by the Buddha. She could not have done these things against, or without, his will.
I begged you (Buddha) over and again,
for women’s ordination.
If that is somehow fault in me,
forgive it, bull of men. (45)
Having gotten your permission
I taught and I instructed nuns.
If I have given bad advice,
forgive it, lord forgiveness. (46)
In one of the most passages most clearly illustrating the spiritual worthiness of women,
Gotami performs miracles, at the Buddha’s request, to show that women, too, can understand the
Buddha’s truth. Again, however, it is clear that the Buddha permitted Gotami to use her powers.
The Buddha: Yet there are these fools who doubt
that women too can grasp the truth.
Gotami, show miracles,
that they might give up their false views. (79)
13
Narrator: Gotami bowed to the lord
then leaped into the sky.
Permitted by the Buddha, she
displayed her special powers. (80)
Gotami is a role-model for the nuns, but we also see that the nuns regard the Buddha as
their ultimate spiritual leader. While Gotami may model the appropriate behavior, they must ask
the Buddha for ultimate knowledge and to grant them entrance to nirvana:
We understand meanings and doctrinal things,
etymology and how to preach.
Great hero, it was in your presence
that our knowledge was produced. (130)
O guide, you are surrounded by
us all with loving hearts.
Great sage, now give us your consent
to go and reach nirvana. (131)
After her “great going out,” Gotami is honored and worshipped by both gods and
humans, and we are told that even the Buddha’s great nirvana was not as good as Gotami’s
“positively stellar” one (161-173). Yet there never seems any doubt, either in Gotami’s mind, or
in the mind(s) of the author(s) of Gotami-apadana that the Buddha is the overarching Divine
who should be worshipped and obeyed above all others. While it is logical that after Gotami
achieves her great going out she can no longer “speak” in the story, there seems a more spiritual,
rather than logistical, reason that the Buddha is the one who speaks the final words in the story.
Though the Buddha clearly presents Gotami as an exemplary Buddhist (perhaps the most
exemplary Buddhist?), as one who led a life worthy of honor and imitation, the very fact that the
Buddha is the one who speaks these final blessings seems an indication of his ultimate power.
Never-the-less, the fact that the Buddha “allowed” Gotami, a woman, to cultivate such inspiring
14
spirituality, to guide nuns along their path, to correct false notions about women’s inferiority,
must have had extreme influence on the women’s religiosity of the day.
Know this, O monks, she (Gotami) was most wise,
with wisdom vast and wide.
She was a nun of great renown,
a master of great powers.
She cultivated “divine-ear”
and knew what others thought. (183)
Conclusions
Based upon my reading of Gotami-apadana, I formed the impression that no one, man or
woman, can be equal to the Buddha himself. Gotami is a marvelous role-model for those
following the path toward nirvana; but the Buddha is the ultimate spiritual power capable of
allowing monks and nuns to achieve nirvana.
Walters’ article, on the other hand, gave me the impression that Gotami was the central
spiritual figure to the Theravada Buddhist nuns; that she had become “the center of the
universe,” the “female Buddha (Buddhi)” to these nuns.
Evaluation
As evidenced in my Conclusion, if I had read Walter’s conclusions alone and not
Gotami-apadana, I would have had a very different concept of Gotami. I did not get the
impression from Gotami-apadana that Gotami was “the very center of the universe” or the
“Buddha for women” as Walters suggested (117). Perhaps Walters’ other scholarship led him to
form the conclusions he did, but I did not feel they were totally supportable by Gotami-apadana
itself. I believe Walters’ essay would have been more convincing in its summary of the themes
15
in Gotami-apadana if he had concluded his argument with his paragraph on page 116,
emphasizing Gotami’s importance as a role-model for nuns and as a champion for the spiritual
equality of women. I felt that, in Walters’ admirable desire to present a strong, powerful female
spiritual leader, he perhaps went a bit too far in stating that she was more important than the
Buddha in the eyes of the nuns (117). I see nothing “androcentric” about the nuns believing the
Buddha is the supreme deity. It is simply the reality of Theravada Buddhism that their spiritual
leader was a man (Gotama) when he walked on earth, and then became their supreme god (the
Buddha). Walters’ article did an excellent job of summarizing the primary events of Gotamiapadana and especially in presenting the historical background for the story, but I felt he
interpolated a bit too much about Gotami’s status in relation to the Buddha in his final
paragraphs.
Wider Relevance
Based upon my reading of “Gotami’s Story,” I was struck with the similarities between
Gotami and the Virgin Mary. Each is the “mother” of god, each nurtured her son in his infancy
yet he later became their spiritual father, each is the model of an ideal woman whom both men
and women can look to for guidance — yet neither supersedes the supremacy of their god. The
uniquely powerful relationship between women and deity was also evidenced in Bynum’s book
on the mystical experiences of the medieval nuns. On a more universal spectrum, however, I
see Gotami’s Story as expressing yet another facet of the yearning for “the other” which
Danforth so eloquently expressed in his “Conclusion.” Gotami provided an example of how to
behave on a human level to connect with the “divine other” on a spiritual level.
16
Joan Howell
HRS 220/Dubois
November 16, 2004
Word Count: 2298
Outline for Reading Analysis
“The Great Bliss Queen” by Anne Klein
I. Selective Summary
A. Biography of Yeshey Tsogyal
1. Human and/or Divine
a. Identities
b. Characteristics
c. Achievements
B. Samples of Hagiographical Literature on the Great Bliss Queen
1. Selection from Notes. . .
a. Yeshey as one part of her Trinity
2. Selection from the Ra Tik
a. Five Element Theory
b. The Divine Womb
c. Visualizing Yeshey in Great Bliss Queen Form
II. Evaluation
A. Simpler Biography vs. Complex Literature
B. Klein’s Perspective
III. Wider Relevance
A. Through Comparative Religion Study
l. Christian/Buddhist Similarities
a. three-in-one deities
b. Jesus/Yeshey parallels
2. Christian/Buddhist Differences
a. original sin
b. gender issues
Works Cited, In Addition to Anne C. Klein’s Chapter 10, “The Great Bliss Queen”
Brown, Judith C. Immodest Acts. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Gross, Rita M. Feminism and Religion. Boston: Beacon Press, l996.
17
The Great Bliss Queen
In Anne Klein’s “Chapter 10” study of the Great Bliss Queen, she presents her material in
three sections of unequal length. Beginning with her brief biography of Yeshey Tsogyal, Klein
proceeds to the second and third sections of her chapter which focus on Yeshey as the Great
Bliss Queen in Buddhist texts.
Klein’s biography of Yeshey Tsogyal, based on Great Bliss Queen hagiographical
literature, is both entertaining and educational; Yeshey’s life story involves a “hero” of highest
degree as well as some exposure to Tibetan Buddhist culture (139). Yeshey Tsogyal, queen of an
eighth-century Tibetan king, was seen by Tibetans “as a fully enlightened buddha who appeared
as an ordinary Tibetan girl” so that her people could relate to her, visualize her, and reach
enlightenment through connecting their visualization with the Nyingma Great Completeness
teachings which Yeshey Tsogyal has preserved (Klein 139). Yeshey has several identities; she
appears as a daughter in the Karchen family
for the sake of those who, for the time being, do not see her Vajravarahi form as a fully
perfected deity. Among the practices of the guru [Padmasambhava] especially intended for
Tibetans there are many whose chief deity is [the Great Bliss Queen] Yeshey Tsogyal. (Dodrup-chen III. . .) (139).
In her Vajravarahi form, Yeshey seems too majestically distant for an ordinary person to reach
her and feel connected to her; thus, her several identities afford different degrees of her
accessibility.
The Nyingma tradition of Buddhism, the only Tibetan tradition which bestows the title of Great
Bliss Queen upon Yeshey Tsogyal, also identifies her with the Indian goddess of sound, learning
and literature, Sarasvati. Additionally, Yeshey is identified with the female bodhisattva, Tara, as
well as with the Buddha’s own mother. For Yeshey is a Divine Mother; commonly more
18
accessible in daughter and Mother form than in resplendent Divine form, she is venerated in
hagiographical literature for two different reasons, one of them paralleling her human-like
appearance and one paralleling her heavenly appearance. Yeshey’s divinity makes her the
preserver of the Nyingma tradition, and in her humanness “she is an exemplary religious seeker
who triumphs over the most difficult challenges in accomplishing her goal of demonstrating a
path to enlightenment” (139).
Characteristic of hero stories, Yeshey’s birth is impressively miraculous, featuring her
mother’s experience of painless childbirth and a nearby lake vastly increasing in size -- “hence,
perhaps, the name ‘Queen’ (gyal) of the Lake (tso) of Primordial Wisdom (yeshey)” (139-40).
Through Klein’s brief overview of Yeshey’s life story, she provides anecdotes reflecting aspects
of her human and goddess identities. In Yeshey’s attempts at taking a stand (“to move me was
like trying to move a mountain”) against unwanted marriage suitors, she is depicted in “the
quintessential narrative of an abused woman”; in another story, Yeshey is safe from all harm
while being attacked with diverse weapons (140-1). In the latter anecdote, Klein’s hagiographical
literature establishes Yeshey’s divinity by clarifying that she “did not passively endure
degradation and worse,” rather “she was beyond danger or discomfort precisely because of her
actively cultivated realization” (141). Thus, Yeshey’s advanced stage of enlightenment
(“realization”) offers an incentive to religious seekers, inspired by her “model of zestful energy,
courage, and perseverance” (140). Classic elements in all Buddhist liberation stories, the three
most prominent achievements of Yeshey’s life are: (1) “preserver of the Great Completeness
traditions,” (2) “arduous ascetic practices,” and (3) “bringing enlightenment to others through
personal instruction and example” (141). Within the generally male context of Buddhist
liberation stories, her female presence emerges through her role of “preserver,” paralleling the
19
naturally feminine role of “housekeeper”; however, Yeshey’s job as “sublime housekeeper” is
one that both includes and transcends the role of Tibetan housewife (140). While assuming
exquisitely female characteristics, Yeshey Tsogyal’s central identity stands utterly equal to the
commonly male role of “enlightened buddha” (141). As the Great Bliss Queen, she “has for
centuries been a major figure among [the Tibetan Buddhist] Nyingma practitioners” (141).
Following this brief biography, the first of the three main sections of her chapter, Klein’s
second section presents “a sample of the hagiographical literature on the Great Bliss Queen”
(142).
This section begins with excerpts from The Collected Works of Do-drup-chen, translated from
the third Do Drup Chen Rinboche; the title of Klein’s second section reflects the full title of the
text from which excerpts were taken, “Notes on the Basic Text for Emulating the Mother
Knowledge Bearer, the Great Bliss Queen: A Lamp Clarifying the Good Path of Great Bliss”
(142). This hagiographical literature tells of “an accumulation of auspicious circumstances”
surrounding the arrival of wise and holy spiritual Masters; among the women (yoginis) of this
honorable group was “the one who came to be like the topmost ornament of a victory banner,. . .
the noblewoman, Yeshey Tsogyal:
She is the venerable superior Lady Tara, the ruler of all the lotus and action lineages, a sky
woman, the actual Vajravarahi, mother of all the buddhas, the basis of emanation who is the
source of [other] sky women equal in number to the dust particles of Mount Meru. . . (143).
Yeshey’s identity and power once established, the text further reveals events which
unfold out of her compassion for Tibetans; in a prayer petition to the great Lotus Master, she
collects and preserves “the doctrine of the secret mantra” in such a way that it cannot be
“damaged by humans,
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nonhumans, demons, or the elements” (143). Through an excerpt from another Buddhist text,
the point is beautifully made in support of Great Bliss Queen Yeshey’s work in preservation and
protection; her role may be extended to women’s roles in general, as we observe “that in the
world it is the man who seeks wealth and the woman who keeps it safely, both activities being
required if wealth is to increase” (140). The idea of sustaining, nourishing feminine power,
symbolized by
what is held in the womb, is an idea which receives more development in the third section of
Klein’s chapter. Texts of her second section continue to perceive power within a female context;
“when taking empowerment” on the path to enlightenment, “one will simultaneously complete
all three empowerments [of the three deities. . .], the external [Tsogyal], the internal [Tara], and
the secret [Vajravarahi]. Such a phenomenal three-in-one completion “within a single rite” is
declared in the Empowerment Text, Blessings of the Mother (144).
Klein’s third section of her chapter consists of passages from the Ra Tik, exemplifying
“the Tibetan understanding of . . . [the Great Bliss Queen’s]. . .symbolism and ritual importance:
They are translated from Ngawang Denzin Dorje (. . . 18th century). . . “Commentary on the
Practice Emulating the Sky Woman, the Great Bliss Queen, from the Great Spacious Sphere
Heart Essence Tradition of Long-chen-ba”, also known as The Ra Commentary (142).
Klein further subdivides her third section into three subsections, “select portions from the ritual”
which follow commentary on “the refuge prayer of the Yeshey Tsogyal liturgy” (145). The first
subsection, “Explanation of the World Vessel, The Environment, as the Spacious Sphere of Five
Mother-Consorts,” is a description of Five Element Theory, describing the five elements -- earth,
water, fire, wind, space -- as “five families of mother-consorts” (145). This part of the text
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explains how “all appearances are the expanse of the five mother-consorts,” thus infusing all
creation with the presence of feminine energy functioning as source and container.
In Klein’s second subsection of Ra Tik translation, the poetically “spacious sphere” of
this feminine energy is developed further into symbology of “the female organ [bhaga] of the
Vajra Queen [the Great Bliss Queen]” (146). This “female organ” is the womb, and it is referred
to in terms of “the mansion, the sphere of reality,” “the source of phenomena,” “the expanse of
reality that is without limits or center,” “the excellent abode,” the source of all buddhas,” “the
basis of all coming and going,” “the place of arising of all existents” (146-7). Proportionately
minuscule attention is placed upon the male aspect of creation, mentioned only in an explanation
of “the glorious wisdom drop [of semen] . . .enlightened in this womb of the mother-consort”
(147). Finally, Klein’s second subsection ends with symbology of the most compassionate being
-- “sky woman Yeshey Tsogyal, the Great Bliss Queen” -- as free of the flaws incurred from
cyclic existence [samsara], just as “the lotus . . . dwells in mud without bearing the faults of
mud” (147).
Following a focus on symbolism, the third and final Ra Tik excerpt focuses on the ritual
of “Visualizing the Chief Sky Woman/. . . the emanation body [of] Yeshey Tsogyal” (147). The
text offers yet another name for Yeshey, one that has been mentioned before but not in reference
to the direct statement that “The chief sky wisdom woman/ In the sphere of the truth dimension
[is] Samantabhadri. . ., reality, the natural state of the youthful vase body, the internal clear light,
the great bliss which possesses the excellence of all aspects” (148-9). Exactly as Klein
introduces Yeshey at the beginning of the chapter, this text excerpt emphasizes a threefold path
of relationship with and visualization of Yeshey -- in “whatever emanation body will tame any
given [person]” -- producing final outcome of enlightenment (148). For the purpose of
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performing visualization ritual, the text discusses Yeshey’s “pristine” appearance in great detail;
rich symbolism is applied to her legs, hands, breasts, face, eyes, jewelry, and absence of clothing
(149). Although she has severed all ordinary sense of desire, the expression on her youthful,
beautiful face is one of “very great desire, due to the force of her compassion for all living beings
who” have not yet awakened into their true selves of enlightened buddhas (148). However,
Yeshey is also shown smiling and laughing because she knows the true nature of humans, the
true nature which does not include “miserable, mistaken, cyclic existence as its own . . .
characteristic” (148). Yeshey’s right hand holds a knife, representing “the generation of blissful
wisdom which is the quick path of secret mantra” (149). The words “quick” and “secret” are
significant; this is the third time they have appeared in the translated texts chosen by Klein, and
they are indicative of an efficient and protected path to enlightenment for Yeshey/The Great
Bliss Queen’s disciples. Conclusion of this Ra Tik excerpt emphasizes, above all other parts of
her body, Yeshey’s heart; however, as the text becomes increasingly more abstract in majestic
description, Yeshey is now in her fully perfected deity form, and “the natural condition of the
mind. . . is enlightened, is on the vajra seat of the doctrine wheel in her [the Great Bliss Queen’s]
heart” (150). The placing of “mind” in “heart” is the wonderfully Buddhist way of enriching
wisdom with love, much the same as “the glorious wisdom drop [of semen is] enlightened” in
the “womb” of a compassionate, “mother-consort. . . expanse of reality” (147).
II. Evaluation
Anne Klein’s writing begins with the relatively simple, fascinating biography of a
female Buddhist deity but, by the end of the chapter’s primary source presentations, readers may
feel overwhelmed by their plunge into a dense thicket of words and concepts. Because “The
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Great Bliss Queen” is a chapter written by and for those with above-average awareness of
Buddhism, the rest of us must fill in multiple gaps of confusion and ignorance as best we can.
Although this chapter is filled with poetry, majesty, and incentive to emulate a model of
Buddhist perfection, readers risk more frustration than inspiration if they do not have a good
grasp on the meanings of voluminous key words. In fact, at least one whole semester could be
spent studying the partially and totally unfamiliar words, phrases, and ideas collected from this
chapter by a meticulous class. A short list of their collection might include:
Buddhism, Nyingma Great Completeness teachings, Mahayana, Sakyamuni, tathagata,
nirvana, samsara, mandala, tantra, dakini, Amitabha, the Adamantine Sow, the Great Lotus
Master, Sky Woman, refuge prayer, liturgy, five element theory, enlightenment, liberation,
realization, meditation, the middle eye, primordial, emptiness, bliss, pure land, emanation,
immutable, aggregates, constituents, the turning of limitless wheels of the doctrine of secret
mantra, the 2,002 buddhas of the three times [of this eon] (139-150).
To Klein’s credit, she inserts many bracketed words and several word definitions for helpful
clarification; however, without a solid foundation in her subject, even close reading of a sentence
may not produce understanding.
III. Wider relevance
In terms of our chapter on “The Great Bliss Queen,” intriguing contrasts appear in the
process of comparing Christian doctrine to Buddhist. From this comparative religion study
perspective, we can appreciate how humans -- both west and east -- need to connect with a vast,
unknowable God; consequently, disciples form relationships with God’s human/divine
messengers as a way to reach the unreachable, nonhuman vastness of God. The concept of a
three-in-one deity provides a “ladder” upon which to climb to God, starting with the known,
human realm of earth and climbing increasingly “higher” into the abstract, unknown, nonhuman
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realms. Thus, a three-in-one deity of the Christian Trinity appears as Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, and the Buddhist Bliss Queen’s three-in-one form consists of Yeshey Tsogyal, Lady Tara,
and Vajravarahi (144). Of these three, Yeshey is the only one both human and divine, just as
Jesus (even a name with similar sounds) is the only one in His Trinity to be both human and
divine. Just as the name of “Jesus” is the sweetest word in the world for Christians, the name of
“Yeshey” awakens love in the hearts of her Buddhist disciples; for each religion, these names
represent divine humans with whom ordinary people can communicate. On the other hand, in a
fundamental difference between religious doctrines, many forms of Christianity teach the
principle of original sin whereas Buddhism teaches the opposite; Yeshey is depicted as smiling
and laughing because “the essential nature of all living beings is. . .enlightened” and their work
is to become more of the perfect person they already are (148).
One of the most profound Christian/Buddhist differences occurs in the area of regard for
women. Only a few centuries ago, Christian attitudes toward women were deeply impacted by
the Augustinian teaching that “the body of a man is as superior to that of a woman as the soul is
to the body. . . St. Augustine, Contra mendacium, Cited in Boswell, Social Tolerance and
Homosexuality, p. 157” (Brown 12, 169). Christianity has a long heritage of devaluing women,
to the point of believing the male sperm to be the vitality of procreation and the female womb to
be merely its inferior receptacle (12). We witness a dramatic contrast in “The Great Bliss Queen”
cosmology, which perceives all of creation (the whole “spacious sphere” of “expanse of reality”)
to be held within the female deity’s womb (Klein 145). At least in this summarized sample of
hagiographical literature on the Great Bliss Queen, Buddhist tradition does honor the masculine
presence of the “glorious wisdom drop [of semen]” in the cosmic womb; but, at the same time,
this nonChristian perspective lavishes adoration and attention upon the infinite, eternal,
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“thoroughly perfected body” of the Great Bliss Queen and her “female organ” (womb), while
very little is said about men (divine or human). If such value could have been given to women in
the Christianized world, Rita Gross would have found no need to wear her T-shirt declaring:
“Feminism is the radical proposition that women are human beings [just like men]” (Gross 1617).
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