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The great 16 th century female indian mystic , Meera , is one that has inspired me : she was a princess , a warrior who rode in battles trained in archery and eventually became a spiritual cultivator in the Bhakti Tradition and achieved the highest Enlightenment
India's most famous woman saint, Mira Bai was a princess in the sixteenth century Rajput kingdom of Mewar, yet her Guru was Ravidas, a humble cobbler. Despite disapproval and persecution by the royal court, she continued with her devotion to him, ultimately attaining mystic union. She expressed her great longing and anguish in separation from her Beloved in hymns distinguished by their lyricism and emotional intensity. Mira's songs are still sung today throughout India.
Mira's Poems and Preface to one of the book about Her :
Mira, the Divine Lover, another title in the Mystics of the East Series, presents the life and message of one of the most popular devotees that India has produced. Born and brought up in a royal family, Mira followed the path of divine love with unflinching dedication, in spite of public censure, persecution by her family and even attempts on her life.
Love and devotion for the Lord and the Master come alive for us in the songs of Mira. Her personal story of love and longing for God, exquisitely expressed in her inimitable poems, has been sung in Indian households for hundreds of years. Men and women, young and old, have sung her songs at village weddings, at village wells and in the streets, Mira expresses her longing for the Lord and the pain of separation from her Master with the anguish of a bride torn from her bridegroom. What she sings of is what all devotees sing of, deep within their heart. It is a cry to end duality, to merge in the One, to live in eternal and lasting bliss and peace. It is a song that is the same today as it was when Mira was singing. It is the song of love.
The poems selected for this volume are presumed to be those composed after Mira came in contact with Saint Ravidas. The poems clearly reflect the unity of the message of all mystics, who always urge us to seek the Lord within the temple of our own body, to learn the technique of going within ourselves from a true Master, and through the practice of Shade or Nam, imparted by the Master, to journey into the inner regions and reach our True Home.
Spiritual power is inherently female in Yogic traditions. Stories about gods invoking goddesses to help destroy ignorance and win wars against demons are prevalent in Hinduism. Kundalini, which is pure power, is feminine. It's a shame that throughout history, feminine power has been controlled and contained by dominant patriarchal traditions.
Mother Teresa, now officially canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Francis, is a shining example for this thread. Her life's work on this Earth is well known. However, her miracles continued after her passing. In 2003, an Indian woman prayed to Mother Teresa and had her tumor healed. As a result, she was beatified as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta. The second miracle which was needed for Sainthood happened in Brazil when a man who was suffering from a viral brain infection was mysteriously cured after his wife continued to pray to Mother Teresa for help.
In this wonderful book, there are four more Women Mystics, and wonderfully, they all expressed their spiritual truths through poetry. Actually, one of them may have been just a girl when she developed her mystic powers; I don't exactly recall.
How lucky are we to be able to access such a wide variety of teachings!
The highest spiritual goal is to go even beyond heaven. In Buddhist terms, this is beyond life and death, beyond the three realms of existence. When Saint Teresa said that "it is wholly impossible for her to doubt that she has been in God, and God in her", and when the Muslim saint, Mansur al-Hallaj, exclaimed that "I am He whom I love and He whom I love is I" they are saying the same things in different words. In a similar ecstatic situation, a Zen master would say "I have seen my original face" or "I realize why Bodhidharma came east".
Then comes their highest spiritual attainment. They suddenly realize there is no boundary between them and the other souls, and no boundary between them and God. That was why when great Christian masters like Saint Augustine and Saint Teresa attained their highest spiritual fulfillment, they exclaimed they are in God, and that they and God are one — a concept which could be heretical to ordinary people.
"Then how could chi kung overcome diseases where the cause is unknown or when there is no cure? The question is actually incorrect. The expressions "the cause is unknown" and "there is no cure" are applicable only in the Western medical paradigm. The expressions no longer hold true in the chi kung paradigm. In the chi kung paradigm the cause is known, and there is a cure."
For sharing the wonderful deeds and inspiring lives of the Lady Warriors and Mystics :Thank you Stephen , Charles and Mark
Indeed Charles , there are 4 great women mystics in that book you shared : Mira , Rabia , St Theresa of Avila and St Catherine of Siena .
Yea , highest Enlightenment and other high spiritual attainments , regardless of gender ( women or men or androgynous ) , age ( St Catherine experienced glimpses of cosmic truth at 4 or 5 years old ) , era ( BCE , CE or today ) , geography ( Rabia from Persia , Mira from India , St. Catherine from Italy , St.Theresa from Spain , etc ) , religion ( Rabia a muslim , Mira a Hindu , and the Christian lady saints , etc ) or race ( arabic , indian , caucasian , chinese etc )
I've read about other less famous female warriors and mystics but perhaps the Ladies in our forum would like to share something about their personal favorite ?
Does anyone know more about a certain chinese lady warrior and mystic :
".....He Xiangu ( The Immortal Maiden ) , birth name He Qiong, is one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon , the only female among the Eight Immortals . He Xiangu is believed to have lived in the Tang dynasty and was born in either Lingling District, Yongzhou, Hunan or Zengcheng District, Guangzhou, Guangdong.
And so it was that Lǐ of the Iron Crutch and Lán Cǎihé, the Eternal Teenager, passed on the secrets of the Way to the beautiful maid with only six hairs. The more she practiced, the more she mastered. Among other things, she learned to fly, and she flew into the mountains and communed with the many female immortals who lived in the heavenly realms ....." excerpted from here http://pages.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/chin...erShianGu.html
.....
Mother Teresa, now officially canonized as a Catholic saint by Pope Francis, is a shining example for this thread. Her life's work on this Earth is well known.....
The English term “Saint” is often used interchangeably with the Indian term ”Sant” , which is generally fine.
However , it is interesting to note that “saint” is derived from Latin “sanctus” meaning sacred , while “sant” from the Sanskrit root ‘sat” meaning “Truth” as in someone who has attained the highest Enlightenment . While in chinese kungfu or chi kung traditions ( if I remember correctly ) , a saint may refer to a genius , god , immortal , lohan , boddhisatva or Buddha .
Some Saints ( in the general sense ) are well known and some obscure , while some have students and some have none.
The following sharing is about a mostly unknown contemporary and friend of Beatified Nobel Laureate Mother Teresa ( 1910-1997 ) whose name is Shraddha Liertz ( 1921- ) , another exemplary lady truth-seeker and author of the inspiring book “ Adventure of Faith” ..
By the way , Rabia was actually from Basra in modern day Iraq ( which I erroneously wrote as from Persia in previous post ) while Mother Teresa was from Albania and Liertz from Germany…..spiritual cultivation indeed transcends geography , gender , age and religion .
Shraddha Liertz : Unity in Diversity : Hermit Nun turned Public Mystic
Around 13 years of age , Shraddha experienced a cosmic glimpse which brought her to travel the world , finally culminating in meeting her Teacher at 50 years of age . Shraddha the nun met Mother Teresa in the 1960s in India and was supposed to help the Saint create a contemplative branch that will support the external work of the missionary branch with internal prayer , but they end up going amicably in separate directions . While a lay kungfu master later became Ng Mui the nun , Shraddha the nun later re-joined public life as a lay person doing mostly charitable works .
In “ Adventure of Faith “ , the author recounts how she, a devout Christian, found the path of the Masters. The reader travels with the author from her childhood days in pre-war Germany to her life as a Benedictine nun and the years spent as a Catholic nun in a Hindu ashram in central India. When she discovered formal spiritual cultivation , she realized she needed a spiritual Master, a living Christ, to guide her in inner practice so she could experience God within herself. Although she learned the way from a contemporary Indian Master, she also discovered the mystic way of her own religion, Christianity. The book also gives a short survey of the teachings of the Masters, including quotations from the mystic teachings of Christian mystics
Shraddha’s book is not only a thrilling story about extraordinary travels and personal reflections of a seeker of the divine but also documents her inner journey from the particular to the universal . Faced with the bewildering variety of religious doctrines , teachings and meditative practice , this book is relevant to truth seekers which transcends differences and unites rather then divides because it enlightens that seeking the Truth can be via a universal spiritual platform aside from via an exclusive religious platform .
Pictures of Shraddha’s spiritual cultivation Teacher ( 1 st foto : although Indian from Bhakti Tradition , Shraddha’s guru sends his children to missionary school run by Catholic nuns in India . 2 nd foto : The Guru and one of his caucasian disciple who is a Buddhist from Germany but now lives in Singapore ! ) …..it reminds me of our Sifu’s teaching that a person can be both spiritual and religious or spiritual but not professing any formal religion ; also that our Shaolin Arts is for all deserving people regardless of gender or religion !
Thank you for starting this interesting thread, it is wonderful to discover more female mystics and warriors.
I came across this thread after watching the movie 'Kung Fu Wing Chun'. It is great to see how Kung Fu brings out the beauty and 'strength' in women. Ng Mui and Yim Wing-Chun are the female warriors that have greatly inspired me along with Kuan Yin Bodhisattva and Mother Theresa.
Ani Choying Drolma, who is a Buddhist nun has inspired me by her gift of singing to spread the dharma and in turn help her humanitarian work. One of her songs is called 'Phool ko Aankhama' and the English translation is below:
'in the eyes of a flower, the world is flower
in the eyes of a throne, the world is a throne
the shadow resembles, how the object is.
in the eyes of a throne, the world is a throne
may my heart be pure and my speech buddha
may my feet never even kill any insects
beautiful eyes shows you beautiful samsara
in the eyes of a throne, the world is a throne'
If I may also add, 'Pocahontas' and 'Grandmother Willow' were the female warrior/mystics that I looked up to as a young child ;
"Listen with your heart you will understand "
All these female 'role models' have a story of how they overcame their adversity and found their 'inner power' to make a difference in the world. This I greatly admire.
Love & Blessings,
Parveen
P.S. Love the painting Charles Siheng.
“So I say to you –
This is how to contemplate our conditioned existence in this fleeting world:” “Like a tiny drop of dew, or a bubble floating in a stream;
Like a flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
Or a flickering lamp, an illusion, a phantom, or a dream.” “So is all conditioned existence to be seen.”
Born in Basrah , now in Iraq ..is one of the best known mystics of Islam ; born according to the traditional story into a poor family , and sold into slavery following the death of her parents in a famine ; given her freedom when her owner saw a great light hovering over her while she was praying ; said to have lived a simple life , focusing on prayer and meditation ; credited with having iintroduced divine love into Sufism , converting its ascetism to mysticism . The sayings and poems attributed to her have remained popular in the Islamic world , some being invoked as proverbs to this day . Poems attributed to her frequemtly emphasize mahabbah ( divine love ) and uns ( intimacy with God)
Sahajo Bai : Enlightenment through Absolute Devotion
SahajoBai was an 18 century mystic and folk heroine who led a householder's life but known for selfless devotion to her Master ( Saint Charandas ) ; Born into a prominent family in Mewat region of Rajastan , author of a book of poems ( Sahaj Prakash or Light on the Natural State ) , which are simple and direct in expression .
One of Sant Sahjo Bai's poem ...
I may abandon Ram (God), but I can never forget my Guru
I do not see God with the same sense of gratitude as I do my Guru
God sent me into this world
But Guru rid me of the vicious cycle of birth & death or transmigration
God sent five thieves (the five sensory organs namely eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin which keep on stealing (the pleasures in) objects of senses viz. form, sound, smell, taste and touch) to accompany me
Guru rescued me, the helpless, from the captivity of these (thieves)
God ensnared me in the trap of kiths & kins Guru, on the other hand, freed me by snapping the shackles of attachments
God entangled me in various diseases (bodily as well as mental) and enduring the fruits of fate or deeds performed in earlier births While Guru liberated me from all these afflictions by making me a yogi i.e. by making me perform “Yoga-Sadhana” (‘Drishti Yoga’ and Shabda Yoga’)
God misled me into the illusory web of doing (good as well as bad deeds) But Guru made me see, taking me beyond these, my true Self
God hid or concealed Himself from me (though He is in me, I couldn’t see Him) Whereas Guru, lending me the lamp of inner eye/ vision, enabled me see Him
God brought me repeatedly in the fetters of the body and the four kinds of ‘mukti’ (liberation which is not genuine) namely, ‘saalokya’, ‘saameepya’, ‘saaroopya’ and ‘saayujya’ But Guru, imparting the experiential knowledge of ‘kaivalya mukti’ (access into the sphere of pure consciousness i.e. primeval word), ended all my wanderings & delusions
I (Sahajo Bai) offer myself whole-heartedly, with all my physical and mental resources, in sacrifice at the lotus feet of (my Guru) Charandas ji
I may renounce God, but can never ever forsake my Guru
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