Enchanting, powerful, horrific, beautiful, wise, deadly, compassionate, seductive. Women in Buddhist story and image are all these things and more. She takes the signs of the ancient goddess – the lotus, the sacred grove, the serpent, the sacrifice – and uses them in astonishing new ways. Her story is one of suffering and great trials, and through it all an unquenchable longing to be free. This beautifully illustrated work is as layered and subversive as mythology itself. Based directly on authentic Buddhist texts, and informed with insights from psychology and comparative mythology, it takes a fresh look at how Buddhist women have been depicted by men and how they have depicted themselves....

1 The Lady & the Tree 2 A Myth of Origins 3 The Death of the Goddess 4 The Little Stick Collector 5 A Magic Birth 6 How Māyā Became a Goddess 7 She Who Ate the Children 8 The King Sacrificed 9 The Real Māyā 10 Let’s Play 11 Perception, Symbol, Myth 12 On Using Jung 13 The Dhamma of Gender 14 Mythic Fact, Historic Fiction 15 The Other First Bhikkhuni 16 A Buddhist Femme Fatale 17 The Weaving of the Web 18 Fears of the Future 19 The Flood 20 The Serpent 21 The Deepest Taboo 22 How to Kill a Dead Nun 23 A Very Grievous Text 24 The Hero Departs 25 The Hero Wakes 26 The Hero Returns 27 Building the Legend 28 The Wicked Stepmother 29 The Princess & the Dragon 30 The Sacred Stepmother 31 Rescuing the Hero 32 The Hard Twin 33 The Sage & the Golden Maiden 34 The Soft Twin 35 What a Woman Wants 36 The Heroine 37 That Indefinable Yearning 38 The Flowering of the World 39 Her Dreaming 40 Things Hidden Since the Beginning...