[Buddha-l] Hanging Buddhas from the Tree of Life

[curt]

Well - sort of. In the Hindu pantheon there are 10 Goddesses who are 
called the "Dasa Mahavidyas" or the "Ten Wisdom Goddesses". At least two 
of these correspond directly to Buddhist Bodhisattvas - Tara and 
Cinnamasta (aka Cinnamunda). Since there are ten of these I once thought 
I'd see if there was any kind of correspondence between them and the 10 
Sephiroth, which it turns out there is .... maybe:

Kali - Kether
Tara - Chokhmah
Tripura Sundari - Binah
Bhuvanesvari - Chesed
Bharavi - Geburah
Cinnamasta- Tiphareth
Dhumavati - Netzach
Bagalamuki - Hod
Matangi - Yesod
Kamala - Malkuth

Simply putting them both side-by-side in their usual ordering (although 
sometimes I've seen Bhairavi and Cinnamasta switched) results in this 
pairing. Some of these correspondences are very nice - and all of them 
make some sense. For example, Bhairavi is sometimes called "the Warrior 
Goddess" - and this relates well with the Sephira associated with the 
planet Mars. The first and last on both lists 
(Kali-Kether/Kamala-Malkuth) are essentially identical in many of their 
associations - and they also have similar relationships with each other 
within their given "systems".

As is always the case with "correspondences" once you get started it's 
hard to stop. I highly recommend David Kinsley's "Tantric Visions of the 
Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas" and David Frawley's "Tantric Yoga 
and the Wisdom Goddesses". To my knowledge I am the only person who has 
ever pursued this comparison, but it's so obvious and tempting that I am 
sure others have been down the same rabbit hole.

- Curt

Terence Hays wrote:
> Is anyone aware of an attempt (book or article) to use the Kabbalistic Tree
> of Life as a model for organizing/understanding Buddhas, bodhisattvas, or
> Buddhist deities in general?
>
> Thanks,
> T. M. Hays
>
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