"Vision of A New Culture"
The Great Learning

 

LETTER TO MY SPIRITUAL SISTERS

1. As you know being female or male describes only characteristics of the periphery of human beings: body, thoughts, emotions, dreams and desires. In fact we are neither this nor that, but something neutral. This something is our true identity, the divine Spark within us. It is from this dimension that I decided to write you.

2. In order for you to understand, I have to tell you something about my life. It has not been an ordinary one. While being trained as a medical doctor (specialized in holistic medicine), I very soon experienced the call towards spiritual life. In 1977, thanks to immeasurable Grace I totally unexpectedly received the full Unity with the Ultimate (Enlightenment), immediately followed by the Great Death (Tib. delog). After that I roamed around „like a Buddha" for ten years, followed by ten years in which I had to (painfully) integrate my common self into the New Identity („Dark Night of the Soul").

3. However, Enlightenment appeared not to be the final Realization. There is a Dimension, which is Beyond the Light. It is the Inconceivable Depth, from which both the Light and the visible world originate. It is the Vacuum, the bottomless Abyss of the universe out of which everything is born and to which everything returns in the self-same Eternal Moment. This Ultimate Reality I have called the Cosmic Womb or the Great Mother.

4. Now, you probably have contemplated the possibility of the „Ultimate as being feminine" before. There is much (feminist) literature about it. What makes my story unique though is, that IT originates not from books, not from intuition, psychic abilities or the like, but from genuine and authentic Realization, from Knowing, from the Truth. Of course the Ultimate is not female in ITself - it transcends everything imaginable - but it appears the best way to describe IT.

5. The miracle is this: with all existing concepts about God remaining intact - e.g. the monotheistic „there is only one God" or "Buddha nature" - a revolution has taken place, in which God/Buddhanature appears to be „born" out of Something Beyond, called the Great Mother. The taking and giving of "God", His renewing and destructive (nouminous) aspects come from Her. He is born and not born, simultaneously absolute and not absolute, since He resides (IS) (in) the One Eternal Moment yet uninterruptedly returning to the Source.

6. With the Nameless ultimately „born out" of the Great Mother - the latter in some traditions being „degraded" to concepts like Tao and Nirvana - religion together with their believers have gained a surplus value. Although both men and women are equally „children of the Mother", especially women will experience a significant upgrading here. Being female suddenly reflects the Ultimate, it corresponds with Reality As IT Is. With Her as the Ultimate Reality the universe becomes a lot more friendlier, warmer and humane. Even Her destructive aspects: destroying everything old, sick, nasty and ugly are natural, a part of life, expression of Her limitless compassion.

"Wisdom-perfection is a Bodhisattva's
Mother, his father is expedient method

The Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra

7. In history the Mother is mankind's oldest perception of the Ultimate. It was followed by many millennia of patriarchy and patriarchal religions. All major religions - Taoism, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam - can be considered as "Sons of the Mother". Rather than acknowledging their origin, they all have denied their Eternal Mother. It is part of masculine psychology: the fear of ego-loss, of falling back into the maternal womb. All "great" religions claim to possess the absolute Truth. Now that the Mother has been rediscovered, their absolute claims are no longer valid. It was physics, which defined the essence of the universe as a Vacuum. Slowly, slowly people awaken to what could be called "a universal Mother religion".

8. In mainstream (monastic) Buddhism women have always been rejected because they were held responsible for the "ongoing cycle of birth and death" and thus the chief obstacle to redemption."Women are the unremitting stream of samsara" (Padmasambhava). With the birth of Great Mother Buddhism the wholeness is restored.

9. Having „discovered" all this, I couldn’t but to transmit the Truth to my spiritual sisters wherever they are. My hope is that the Mother will enrich your religious life, be it the Western or the Eastern Way. My wish is that She will give you new insights, inspiration and empowerment without the need of abandoning your existing beliefs. On the contrary, to put the latter in a new perspective - that of the deepest Insight possible - will only strengthen your commitment towards yourSelf, God/Buddha, your religion and your community. May Grace of both the Mother and Her Daughter/Son be upon you.*

* Female Enlightened Ones should avoid the word "Buddhanature" altogether. Instead, they should call their Realization their "Devi", "Tara" or "Dakininature"

10. P.S. The Great Mother is the Ultimate Reality, the supreme Matrix of everything alive, including the Light (Buddha) and the visible world alike. She - the Void - is all-embracing, without any exception. It is a turning point in the history of religion...In this tradition gender will reflect Reality in which women and men are absolutely equal. Rather than fighting with patriarchy women may return to their true home. This includes of course (for those who still have doubts about this) women who are identifying themselves with goddesses, dakini's or female deities, which often is a (very) necessary step in emancipation*. Women are no less enlightened than men; only the latter have a stronger tendency to make a career out of it! What has to be realized here though, that the Great Mother and the goddess are two totally and incomparably different dimensions. Hence, in the new movement not identification, but "taking refuge in the Mother" will be the binding factor of all.

* Highly recommended:
geocities.com/zennun12_8/index.html
library.wisc.edu/guides/EastAsia/SSCR/li_miaoshan.html

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and men, devoted to the Great Mother

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