Julian of Norwich and Other Tibetan Lamas

Through the teaching of reincarnation, Tibetan Buddhists believe that all sentient beings have been one’s mother, and father, and sister, and brother an incalculable number of times. Using “mother” as the name of a primary relationship embodying the quality of loving kindness, Tibetan Buddhists affirm this vast communion of relationships when they speak of other creatures as “all mother sentient beings.” ₁ Appearing now in limitlessly different forms, each and every sentient being at one point as been to us a mother, but they now have no memory of that tender bond. ₂ Through the intentional discipline of meditation, practitioners are provided the opportunity “to recognize all sentient beings as having been our mother.” ₃

The great teachers of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition offer much guidance on how to meditate upon and deepen in these teachings and thus begin to transcend the boundaries of a single relationship, of a particular place, and of time itself. Geshe Lhundup Sopa explains: “[A]ll sentient beings are the same as your dear mother of this lifetime. The only difference between them is time …” ₄ And like their medieval Christian contemporaries, Tibetan teachers drew on the mind’s capacity for visualization. Thus does a revered and influential 12^th century text invite meditators to “visualize [their] dear mother vividly” and, in order “to cultivate loving-kindness and compassion,” to reflect:

‘She has … helped me. Throughout all stages, when I was in her womb and after birth, she nurtured me with impossible acts of kindness. Not only that, since … beginningless time, she has constantly watched me with eyes of love, perpetually held me with affection and repeatedly protected me from harm and misfortune. She has given me so much benefit and happiness and has thus embodied true kindness.’ Reflect thus and cultivate a depth of emotion such that tears fall down from your eyes and the hairs of your pores stand on end. ₅

Like their Christian confreres on the other side of the world, Tibetan lamas also offered guidance for visualization that was intended to draw forth significant emotional responses, through both suggested meditational content as well as direct appeal to the practitioner, i.e., “cultivate a depth of emotion such that …” In a similar way, a 13^th century master gently directs the reader/practitioner: “Reflecting upon [your mother’s] kindness in this and previous lives, generate feelings of closeness, intimacy, and endearment …” ₆

And like medieval Christian spiritual manuals, Tibetan Buddhist meditational texts utilize “vivid and evocative” imagery to assist practitioners in stirring their hearts and minds. One later medieval text, while beginning its guidance as earlier ones had done, greatly expands such imagery, creating a type of litany in which the many loving qualities of the mother are marked, one by one:

First, visualize your real-life mother in front of you and reflect, ‘[H]er kindness toward me has been extremely great. [For instance] by offering her own body to conceive me she has placed me among the ranks of the humans …. Even when I was a new-born …. [s]he drew me close to her warm flesh, cleaned my waste with her hands, broke my food by chewing it, and wiped my runny nose with her tongue. She took great joy in me, and so her child grew bigger …. [S]he nurtured me as if I were a piece of her own heart existing outside. She gave me, her child, her food, clothes, and possessions, which she could have used for herself. In this way, she held me dearer than her own self. She worried when I was away even for a day. This kind mother, who has helped me in so many ways and fought harms in so many ways [on my behalf], has been indeed a great embodiment of kindness.’ Reflect in this manner until tears flow from your eyes and the hair stands up from the pores of your body. ₇    

Endnotes

1. As these revered teachings have been communicated in the West, present day Tibetan Buddhist teachers have presented them to audiences and offered guidance for practice with a sensitivity to the different cultural understandings regarding relationships between children and parents.
2. One 20^th century lama teaches: “[A]lthough we do not recognize each other as such, there is not one sentient being who has not been our mother. And just as we have taken countless rebirths, we have had countless mothers; no being has not been our mother. And each time they were our mother, the kindness they showed us was no different from the kindness shown by our mother in this life. Since they did nothing but lovingly care for us, there is not the slightest difference between our present mother’s kindness and care toward us and that of every sentient being.” (Pabongka Rinpoche, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand: A Concise Discourse on the Path to Enlightenment. Edited in the Tibetan by Trijang Rinpoche. Translated into English by Michael Richards. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1991, page 16.) In an oral presentation, contemporary Tibetan Buddhist nun and teacher, Venerable Thubten Chodron explains: “You know, I think math prepares us nowadays for thinking about infinity because I know as a kid, the number line, ‘Wow infinity!’ The square root of two, infinity. I used to look at the sky at night and think, ‘Does it ever end?’ … And I think this reflection about infinity that we get just from thinking about math and science can really aid us in understanding the Dharma here. We haven’t always been who we are. We’ve had beginningless infinite lives and all these sentient beings have been our parents in one lifetime or another and probably not just once, but many, many times. There’s this story about Atisha, who’s one of the great Indian sages who helped bring Buddhism to Tibet. Whenever he saw somebody, he would say, ‘Hello mother.’ And there’s this story that one day he saw this donkey and he said, ‘Hello mother.’” (Venerable Thubten Chodron, “All Beings Have Been Our Mother.” Venerable Thubten Chodron. Posted on May 17, 2003: https://thubtenchodron.org/2003/05/parents-importance/)
3. Geshe Lhundub Sopa with Beth Newman, Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, A Commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo, Volume 3, The Way of the Bodhisattva. Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2008. page 7.
4. Geshe Lhundub Sopa with Beth Newman, Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, A Commentary on Tsongkhapa’s Lamrim Chenmo, Volume 3, The Way of the Bodhisattva. Boston, Wisdom Publications, 2008. page 69.
5. Sé Chilbu Chöki Gyaltsen (1121-89) “A Commentary on the ‘Seven-Point Mind Training.” Mind Training: The Great Collection. Compiled by Shonu Gyalchok (ca. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) and Konchok Gyaltsen (1388-1469). Translated and edited by Thupten Jinpa. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006, page 94.
6. Sangye Gompa (1179-1250) “Public Explication of Mind Training.” Mind Training: The Great Collection. Compiled by Shonu Gyalchok (ca. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) and Konchok Gyaltsen (1388-1469). Translated and edited by Thupten Jinpa. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006, page 336. A fuller quotation: “[C]ontemplate in the following way: Right at the start, if your real-life mother is alive, visualize her at her actual present location. If she is not alive, visualize her in front of you. Reflecting upon her kindness in this and previous lives, generate feelings of closeness, intimacy, and endearment …” (Ibid., 336).
7. “Atisa’s Seven-Point Mind Training.” Mind Training: The Great Collection. Compiled by Shonu Gyalchok (ca. fourteenth-fifteenth centuries) and Konchok Gyaltsen (1388-1469). Translated and edited by Thupten Jinpa. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2006, page 248-249. Geshe Jinpa explains that the Tibetan expression he translates as “real-life mother” literally “means something like ‘root mother.’” (Ibid., note 377, page 609.) Also, Geshe Jinpa, states that, while this text bears the name of the 11^th century scholar, Atisa, it is likely to have been written by a later author. And his guess as to who this author might have been is Konchok Gyaltsen, one of the compilers of the “great collection” of mind training texts cited directly above. (Ibid., note 373, page 608). Here is a fuller quotation of the guided meditation passage cited here: “First, visualize your real-life mother in front of you and reflect, ‘[H]er kindness toward me has been extremely great. [For instance] by offering her own body to conceive me she has placed me among the ranks of the humans. While I was in her womb for nine months, approaching ten, she nurtured me with loving and kind thoughts … Even when I was a new-born, merely the size of a hand, a bundle of hair and wrinkles, so fragile that if left unattended for a single moment – the duration of a fingersnap – it could have proved to be fatal, she protected [me,] her child, from death. She drew me close to her warm flesh, cleaned my waste with her hands, broke my food by chewing it, and wiped my runny nose with her tongue. She took great joy in me, and so her child grew bigger … She protected me, her child, more than she did her own body. She nurtured me, her child, with no regard for pleasure, pain, or fame. She called me her child with endearing names; she looked at me, her child, with loving eyes. As I, her child, grew older, she gave me, without any sense of possessiveness, all that she had hoarded through small accumulations, which often required struggle and produced hostility toward others. For her child’s sake, she endured both good and bad circumstances, including negative reputation. Had she the power to make me, her child, a universal monarch, she would have considered even such highest excellence of the mundane realm to be inadequate … In this way, she nurtured me, her child, with kindness, watched me with loving eyes, and called me by endearing names … [S]he nurtured me as if I were a piece of her own heart existing outside. She gave me, her child, her food, clothes, and possessions, which she could have used for herself. In this way, she held me dearer than her own self. She worried when I was away even for a day. This kind mother, who has helped me in so many ways and fought harms in so many ways [on my behalf], has been indeed a great embodiment of kindness.’ Reflect in this manner until tears flow from your eyes and the hair stands up from the pores of your body.” (Ibid., 248-249).