At the start of the calendar year, we honor the perfection of wisdom in the Buddhist tradition. Although thangkas (sacred paintings) and statues depict Prajnaparamita as an embodied goddess, she defies conceptualization. Prajnaparamita, also known as Yum Chenmo or Great Mother, is the void nature of all phenomena. She is the embodiment of an ephemeral wisdom that teaches us the way of simply being, of surrendering to what is. She reveals to us that NOW is the holy moment. This is the Temple’s devotional representation of Prajnaparamita, situated in the Temple’s Siskiyou County landscape against the backdrop of the sky above Mt Shasta.
Prajnaparamita, the Mother of the Buddhas, is the perfect wisdom of the dharma way. Depicted as a woman seated on a lotus throne, she floats above Mt Shasta, the symbolic axis of the world. The offerings before her are represented as clear crystals, both in acknowledgement of Mt Shasta’s popularity with gemstone enthusiasts, and representing the inherently empty yet light-filled nature of all phenomena. Grounding her in our world is a halo of wild ginger flowers, native to Mt Shasta and important as a spice to the indigenous people and early colonisers of the region. Her one face represents non-duality. Her four arms represent the four directions, with two holding the dharmachakra mudra, or the turning wheel mudra. She holds in her far left hand a copy of the Heart Sutra, her wisdom text. In her far right hand she holds a mala. These prayer beads symbolise mantrayana, the path of enlightenment through chanting. Above her the sun and moon shine equally, radiating unified light. The sacred syllable AH adorns the sky above her, the sound of bliss-emptiness.
The Mt Shasta Goddess Temple is committed to honouring the Great Mother through acts of spirit, beauty, and service, and we embrace opportunities to help shape a better world for women. Our annual devotional cycle dedicated to Goddesses from many world cultures invites our membership to reflect on the diversity of the female divine, and our practices and teachings inspire women of all colors, shapes, sizes, and backgrounds to discover the divinity within. In our Temple, we believe that every woman is an earthly embodiment of the Goddess.
• Material: 14.77 oz/yd² (350 g/m²) paperboard
• Sizes: Medium: 5″ × 7″ (127 × 178 mm)
• Product weight: Medium: 0.6 oz (17 g)
• Toner-based printing
• Vibrant colors
• Comes with a complimentary envelope