BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER’S QUARTERLY 35
Reclaiming the
Sacred Feminine
Thanissara
AS A YOUNG NUN, one day I was distractedly flipping through
a series of small cards that depicted, in the artistic style of a Thai
temple, the trajectory of the Buddha’s life. In the middle of the pack
there was a picture of the emaciated Siddhartha, then him receiving
milk rice from Sujata, then enlightened under the bodhi tree, peace-
ful, with a radiant halo. What leapt out to me was this: the Buddha
only reached enlightenment by going through the portal of the femi-
nine, or more broadly speaking, the sacred feminine.
Generally, the term “sacred feminine” is not part of Buddhist lexi-
con. The place of the feminine, and of women, in Buddhism is indel-
ibly marked by historic ambivalence. And while there are realized
women, dedicated scholars, nuns, teachers, and practitioners, their
contribution is mostly invisible.
The current interest in reconnecting with the sacred feminine
reveals a yearning for something missing in Buddhist practice. Yet
when we try to define what that may be or look like, there’s often
confusion. This is not that surprising given that 2,500 years of Bud-
dhist transmission has been primarily through men, shaping not only
Buddhism’s outer forms but the internal landscape of our psyches
as well. So when it comes to understanding the sacred feminine, we
are really talking about reclaiming a dimension of our being that has
mostly been lost or submerged beneath the conscious mind.opposite | Water-moon Avalokiteshvara
Korea, fourteenth century
Metropolitan Museum of Art