Hallows Eve Ritual and Celebration

• All Hallows Eve celebration
• Neighborhood Unitarian Church, Pasadena
• Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011, 6:00 PM

Temple of the Goddess Hallows Eve Ritual & Celebration October 29, 2011 "The seasons and all their changes are in me." --Henry David Thoreau The Wheel of the Year spins and we come together to honor the turning of the seasons and the Earth's never-ending cycles of life. We remember, and honor, our beloved ancestors and the lives they lived. We remind ourselves it is time to Slow Down and synchronize our internal rhythms with the rhythm of the Earth. As we prepare ourselves for the coming dark of winter, we honor our ancestors and connect to the healing power of the Earth. October 29, 2011 Temple of the Goddess Hallows Eve Ritual & Celebration Samhain or Hallows Eve is the new year, the time when the veil between this world and the spirit world is at its thinnest. It marks the onset of a darker, more introspective time of year. The theme of Hallows Eve is honoring darkness, memory of the dead, communication with the spirit world, and purification for the future. ~~~~~~~~~~~ Newcomer's Meeting 5:45 Before the Ritual If this is your first Temple of the Goddess Ritual or you just have questions, meet with Kamala in the lobby before the ritual. Bring your questions, fears, hopes, and desires. Newcomer's Meeting in Lobby at 5:45pm, before the ritual. Hallows Eve Ritual & Celebration Saturday October 29, 2011 6:30 PM Doors Open 6:00 Neighborhood Unitarian Church, Pasadena NOTE: Families with children, please come early for a seat down front so your children don't miss anything! Our evening of ritual theatre opens with music and dance honoring Samhain night. Enveloped in candlelight, we come to the mythic labyrinth, offering song, dance and spoken word to create the magic of the cauldron. We are come to the labyrinth tonight, walking one by one. In the dark of Samhain, a riddle burning bright, and candles waving down. We are vessels of the highest love in a lesson, burning bright, the lesson of our lives. When all our sorrows cauldron into one, be reborn, this Samhain night. (SJ Tucker) When last we visited the mythic realm, we encountered Artemis, the First Environmentalist, who released the Green Dragon, the warrior that resides within each of us, the fighter that is called upon to battle the forces, both within and without, that would harm the Earth and Her Children. (Click here to read Joanne Elliott's article, Releasing the Green Dragon.) Now the Green Dragon sends our young heroine, Maya, on a quest for the shaman's path; to seek the entrance to Ix Chel's realm; the opening to the underworld of the Medicine Woman. Maya, fresh from the battle for the Earth and the people of Earth, must put down her bow and arrow to find the shaman within, the healer to balance the warrior that is needed in times such as these. The journey of our young warrior is to search for the inner knowledge of the ancestors; it is the journey of remembering the power of the Earth to heal ourselves and humanity.

Buddhist Goddesses

Wisdom Quarterly inspired by Brian Schell's Women in Buddhism (dailybuddhism.com)

Kwan Yin in Tibet: "Every person whose heart is moved by love and compassion, who deeply and sincerely acts for the benefit of others without concern for fame, profit, social position, or recognition expresses the activity of Chenrezig" (Bokar Rinpoche).

There are highly respected historical women in Buddhism, such as the Buddha's chief female disciples Khema Theri, Uppalavanna Theri, Maha Pajapati (the Buddha's stepmother and the first woman ordained as a nun), Maya Devi (the Buddha's birth mother), accomplished monastics and enlightened lay women. But no female is more famous than the Goddess of Compassion and Mercy, Kwan Yin.

She is a bodhisattva, a being vowing to become a buddha to rescue others from suffering. She is also known as Kwannon, Kannon, Kuanyin, Guanyin, Guanshi’yin, and many other names throughout the East. Just as famously, she is the inspiration for many characteristics attributed to Mother Mary.

She is the feminine manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the male bodhisattva of compassion in Indian Buddhist lore. The name means "the lord who looks down." She remains male in Japan as Kannon Bosatsu, but even there is often depicted as female; the same happens in Tibet. Many believe that Kwan Yin is both masculine and feminine, male and female, yin and yang as called for by the situation. Such is the capacity of a "goddess" (devi).

Of course historically, Avalokita, as the bodhisattva of compassion is also known, was male. But in art as well as myth he evolved, combining with or being influenced by similar Chinese female characters to create the "goddess" the world knows as Kwan Yin.

She is depicted as a beautiful and graceful lady in flowing robes, extending mercy and comfort, sitting in meditation, overcoming dragons, and sometimes appearing in the manner of a Hindu deity with many arms (indicating the ability to do many things simultaneously).

There are countless variations of stories, legends, prayers, and imagery for Kwan Yin. One very common origin-tale speaks of an exceedingly compassionate girl sentenced to death by her father. Her mantra is very famous.

Avalokiteshvara forms a protective trinity along with Manjushri and Vajrapani. He is the protector of the Lotus family of devas, which also includes Amitabha and Tara (wildmind.org)

Dharma protecting deity, an avian-hybrid kinnara (richard-seaman.com)

• Transcendence in India
  
• Women in Buddhism (DailyBuddhism.com)
• Religion21.com: Buddhism in the 21st Century
• Who are the Taras and Mother Goddess Green Tara?
  

Combining many characters: Considered a manifestation of Benzaiten by some, Kichijōten by others (Sanskrit = Śrī-devī, Lakṣmī), the Buddhist goddess of beauty, luck, prosperity, and merit. “Daibenkudoku-ten is a manifestation of Kichijoten. Of Hindu origin. Born from the sea, the wife of Vishnu. It is believed that she grants prosperity and good luck. In Buddhism, she is worshipped as the wife of Bishamonten and the daughter of the Dragon King and Kishimojin (Sanskrit = Hāritī). In Buddhism, she too presides over prosperity” (Sanjūsangendō temple catalog).

The Buddha's Forest Tradition

Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha lovingly bundled beholding the Himalayas from behind, Ladakh, India

The wonderful thing about Buddhism originally (the Dharma as taught by the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama) is that it was a forest tradition.

Siddhartha left Kapilavastu, the territory of his family, cut off his hair, discarded his fine clothes, crossed the river in a simple garment and went in search of yogis in the wilderness.

He found Alara Kalama and then Uddaka Ramaputra, wandering ascetics who taught him to meditate in the tradition of mental serenity. This led to a great accomplishment -- self control and a clear heart/mind.

But he left it behind as well because he realized that serenity in itself -- even to the tranquil depths of full absorption -- did not lead to final and complete liberation (moksha).

India had found many routes to the heavens. And many seers could see no further than this. Uddaka Ramaputra's teacher, Rama, had reached the zenith of worlds beyond form. But even that was not outside of samsara, the interminable Round of Rebirths.

Leaving behind these great teachers, Siddhartha plunged himself into the forest to practice austerities. Everyone understood that this had to be the way to break free of sensuality, the body, and all its temptations and bonds.

What the Buddha realized is what "everybody" knows now: The body is not to blame, but rather attachment and clinging, which are defilements of the mind/heart. Insight brought Siddhartha to this realization. And that realization made him the Buddha.

Siddhartha did his striving almost exclusively in the quiet and nurturing atmosphere of the forest, attaining buddhahood in a grove of Bo trees (Bodh Gaya).

Legend has it, that on becoming a supremely enligthened teacher (samma-sam-buddha) he remained in the forest, in the vicinity of the Bodhi tree (the sacred and sheltering fig tree), staring at unblinkingly in admiration.

Woodland sprites (fairies, earthbound-devas) had offered to save his life when his fasting had becoming so extreme that he looked dead. "He's dead," one said. The other explained, "No, this is how ascetics behave." "We should feed him deva food through his pores," they concluded.

"No," Siddhartha aware of their conversation said to them, "that won't be necessary. People think that I am fasting, and were I to be living on subtle deva nourishment, it would be deceiving them." But this encouraged Siddhartha to nourish his body with human food.

He came to understand that it was not by rejecting the world and such facts as the constraints of materiality (e.g., the need for nutrition) that one finds freedom. Instead, it is by practicing serenity-and-insight, Zen and Vipassana one can say. The first prepares the mind/heart through concentration (calm, collectedness, intensification, and focus). The other aims the laser singularity of consciousness on mindful contemplation of four things that lead to freedom here and now.

They lead the heart to realize nirvana and the complete end of suffering.

Realizing it and deciding to teach others the path of purification, the path to freedom, he walked to another forest in Sarnath, in a deer park outside of the famous ancient Indian city of Varanasi. There he instructed the first Five Disciples, who had formerly practiced austerities with him trying to reach liberation.

Siddhartha returns to the Five Ascetics as the Buddha and sets rolling in motion the Wheel of the Dharma by teaching them the path to enlightenment (History of Buddhism).

When the Five Ascetics reached enlightenment by hearing the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutra ("Turning the Wheel of Dharma"), the Buddha began a forest tradition of recluses. Whether lay people came to him or wanderers on a quest for enlightenment, the Buddha's essential advice was the same:

"Here in this Dharma (this Teaching), a meditator who has gone to the forest, or to the foot of a tree, or to an empty place, sits down cross legged, holding the back sustainably erect [not too stiff, not too lax], arousing mindfulness in front."

Of course, before there can be real insight into those four things mentioned before, there must be serenity. Mindfulness is not thinking. There is contemplation and reflection and reviewing (anussati), but that occurs as one emerges from the purifying absorptions (jhanas, zens, ch'ans as it were).

To gain concentration (samadhi) to the level of full-absorption one needs mindfulness, which simply means constant-bare-awareness, nonjudgmental attention, non-evaluative holding in consciousness. One avoids two extremes, rigidity and laxity, and balances in the blissful middle, awake but serene.

The Buddha often taught lay people and rulers outside of cities, villages, and hamlets while residing in groves and orchards.

Then the Buddha moved from grove to grove -- bamboo, mango... -- from glade to glade, staying outdoors, enjoying the freedom of the left-home life. He developed a great following. He said the home life was constricted and dusty, but renunciation (which need not mean getting rid of anything but simply letting go of the attachment to everything) was open and free:

• "Household life is crowded, constricting, and dusty! A life gone forth is wide open. While living at home, it is not easy to carry out this noble life utterly perfect and pure as [the milky luminous lustre of a] polished conch shell... But suppose I cut off my hair and beard, don a saffron robe, and go forth from home into homelessness? What if I leave behind my fortune, small or large, leave behind my circle of family and friends, small or large? Then doing so out of verifiable-confidence (saddha) in this Teacher or this Teaching or these well-taught disciples, after past lives of accumulating the right conditions for attaining the expeditious state of a recluse in the Buddha's lineage, surely one has found the surest means of winning the stream that runs towards and merges with the deathless nirvana!"

Before monasteries were built, the Buddha sent his disciples into the forest to live, in no way harming nature, taking their ceramic bowls with them to gather alms food which delighted the people of India to give in a longstanding tradition of dana. After monasteries were built, the Buddha sent his disciples into the forest to practice. Even at the end of his days before his final passing into nirvana without remainder outdoors in a grove between twin Sal trees, he advised his deva and human disciples who had gathered in the tens of thousands (mostly devas):

The Buddha in a bamboo grove, Malaysia(Esani/Flickr.com)

If you would maintain in purity the [monastic] precepts, you should not give yourselves over to buying... You should not covet fields or buildings, nor accumulate servants, attendants, or animals. You should flee from all sorts of property and wealth as you would avoid a fire or a pit. You should not cut down grass or trees, neither break new soil, nor plough the earth. ...All of these are things which are improper (for a recluse).

• The Buddha's Last Bequest (compiled from the Chinese Tripitaka)
• Meditation on Breathing - the First Foundation of Mindfulness (the Body)
• The Absorptions in Buddhist Meditation (Leigh Brasington)
• Intellectualizing the Meditative Absorptions (Bhante G)

Bolivia grants Nature rights (video)

Bolivia's new Mother Nature Law

ZMEscience.com
Environmentalism is finally being taken seriously. Steps are moving in the right direction to protect nature and reverse climate chaos. One intriguing idea, spearheaded by Bolivia, is to give legal rights to natural systems: Bolivia’s "Law of Mother Nature" is set to pass, which will redefine the mineral riches as “blessings.” It is expected to lead to radical new conservation of these resources.

“It has to happen. We have to be able to give legal protection and consideration to the rest of the natural world,” said Patricia Siemen, executive director of the Center for Earth Jurisprudence. “It’s in the human best interest, as well as the larger natural world’s.”

The first article of the Mother Nature Law (translated from Spanish) states that every human activity has to “achieve dynamic balance with the cycles and processes inherent in Mother Earth,” with Mother Earth defined as “a unique, indivisible, self-regulating community of interrelated beings that sustains, contains, and reproduces all beings.” A Nature ministry will be formed and issues will be addressed thoroughly. More

Earth Day (Mother Bhumi) from India to US

Padma Kuppa (Seeking Shanti, Patheos.com) (TwilightRainbow)

Mother Bhumi: Hinduism and Creation

As we approach Earth Day, let's choose to be wise, to live in friendly collaboration with one another and Mother Earth.

Once or twice a year during Lent I'm in a church: I am fortunate to be invited to speak during the house of worship's Lenten Lecture Series about my faith journey as a Hindu. This Lent, I had an opportunity to share how Hindus value all of Creation.

The issue came up when I mentioned the many misconceptions about Hinduism: how people believe that Hindus are polytheistic or that we worship cows -- a question that comes up often because public school curricula provides this misrepresentation. Hindus have to answer collectively, as in the Hindu American Foundation's media toolkit, or individually, as in Gautham Pathial's 2007 essay in Hinduism Today.

When someone asked during the Q&A if we also worship snakes, I simply stated: "All of Creation is sacred."

Matthew McDermott quoted from the part of Hinduism's sacred scriptures known as the Upanishads. In the latest issue of Hinduism Today, his article on Hinduism and the Environment opens with three words in Sanskrit and its 11-word English translation: Ishavasyam idam sarvam: "This entire universe is to be looked upon as the Supreme" (Shukla Yajur Veda, Ishavasya Upanishad-1). More

Earth Day Los Angeles

Santa Monica changes Earth Day celebrations to June 24-26
San Fernando Valley celebrates Earth Day on May 22, 2011