In Mahayana Buddhism there are beautiful devotions to maternal, compassionate, deities. These deities are not actual gods but are representations of our true, divine, and compassionate nature, which exists beyond illusory ego identity. The ‘Tara’ is a maternal deity who represents a state of profound loving kindness. She is a maternal, compassionate being devoted to our wellbeing and wanting our emancipation from suffering. Through devotion to this representation of compassionate nature the practitioner seeks to become like this being.
In the Christian tradition, the Blessed Mother, Mary, is a representation of compassionate loving kindness. The compassionate mother gave the Christ to the world through generously and courageously conceiving, birthing and caring for Jesus. In Jesus, the Christ nature was fully realised. She represents qualities such as love, trust, faith, humility, courage, wisdom and deep compassion for the poor and disenfranchised. Devotion to Mary calls the practitioner into a higher state of consciousness, calling forth the Christ nature dwelling within us. Similarly devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is likewise is a devotional symbol of conscious transformation. By seeking the divine presence in our own hearts we seek to become tender hearted, and dilate our hearts to encompass all suffering creatures