The Buddha’s Mother and Mary Magdalene - Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault, Wendy Garling, and Vicki Mackenzie.

Science & Wisdom LIVE

Today’s episode is a dialogue between Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeault and Wendy Garling, moderated by Vicki Mackenzie. In this dialogue, they will discuss the role of two inspiring women in buddhism and christianity – Mahaprajapati, the woman who raised the Buddha, and Mary Magdalene – and reflect upon archetypal and symbolic figures of womanhood in contemplative traditions.

This dialogue was produced in collaboration with Jamyang London Buddhist Centre to celebrate International Women’s Day 2022.
About our guests:
Rev. Dr. Cynthia Bourgeaultis a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, writer, and internationally known retreat leader. She is also a longstanding member of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW). She divides her time between solitude at her seaside hermitage in Maine and tending to a global network of students and practitioners. Her signature contribution to the Christian contemplative reawakening has focused on four main areas: 1) Centering Prayer; 2) The Christian Wisdom Tradition; 3) The Western Esoteric and Fourth Way traditions; 4) The Path of Conscious Love.

She has worked closely with fellow teachers and colleagues including Thomas Keating, Bruno Barnhart, and Richard Rohr, and is an emeritus faculty member of the Living School at the Center for Action and Contemplation. Cynthia has actively participated in numerous inter-spiritual dialogues and events with luminaries and leaders such as A.H. Almaas, Kabir Helminski, Swami Atmarupananda, and Rami Shapiro.

Cynthia Bourgeault is a longstanding member of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW). For Cynthia’s most current writings, offerings, and her calendar of upcoming events please refer to her personal website: CynthiaBourgeault.org

Wendy Garling is a writer, mother, gardener, independent scholar, Tibetan Buddhist practitioner and authorized dharma teacher with a BA from Wellesley College and MA in Sanskrit language and literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of "Stars at Dawn: Forgotten Stories of Women in the Buddha’s Life", a ground-breaking new biography of the Buddha that relates his journey to awakening through the stories of Buddhism’s first women and The Woman Who Raised the Buddha. Her dream is to bring back the stories of Buddhism’s first women, reawaken their voices, and ensure that they are not just remembered, but valorised as integral to the roots of Buddhism.

Vicki Mackenzie is a British national journalist and author. In 1976, while working on The Daily Mail, she stumbled into her first Buddhist meditation course at Kopan, Nepal. This lead to an ongoing journey into Buddhism resulting in many articles for The Sunday Times, The Observer, Sunday Telegraph and many national magazines. She has written six internationally best-selling books including Cave in the Snow (Bloomsbury), featuring Tenzin Palmo; Reincarnation – the Boy Lama (Bloomsbury), featuring Lama Thubten Yeshe and Osel Hita Torres; and recently, The Revolutionary Life of Freda Bedi – British Feminist, Indian Nationalist, Buddhist Nun (Sha

Science & Wisdom LIVE brings meditation practitioners in conversation with scientists to address the problems of contemporary society and come to new possible solutions.
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