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Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ
In the diverse and rich pantheon of Vietnamese deities, Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ stands out as a significant spiritual figures representing the maternal and protective aspects of divinity. Revered particularly in the context of folk beliefs and local traditions, these two goddesses embody essential qualities of motherhood, fertility, and protection in Vietnamese culture. While their names are often mentioned together as “Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ,” the two are seen as distinct deities, each with their own attributes and roles.
The figures of Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ are deeply embedded in Vietnamese folk religion, and their origins are often intertwined with the local stories and needs of the people. The name “Mẹ” in Vietnamese means “Mother,” which indicates their role as protective and nurturing forces within the Vietnamese spiritual tradition. Though their mythological stories may vary depending on regional beliefs, both goddesses are primarily associated with the well-being of their devotees, especially in relation to childbirth, family life, and general protection from adversity.
Mẹ Sanh is generally seen as the mother of creation, associated with fertility and the continuity of life. As the goddess of childbirth, she is revered by women, especially those who are pregnant or hoping to conceive. In Vietnamese mythology, Mẹ Sanh’s power over life and death is profound—her ability to bring children into the world and to protect mothers during childbirth is paramount in a society that places great importance on family lineage and the nurturing of the next generation.
On the other hand, Mẹ Độ, whose name can be translated as “Mother of Protection,” is often regarded as a goddess of care and protection. Mẹ Độ’s role is more universal, embodying the protective mother figure who ensures the welfare of the people—particularly safeguarding them from misfortune, illness, and natural disasters. Her benevolence extends to both the living and the deceased, as she is also invoked during funerals and rituals associated with the afterlife. Mẹ Độ represents a broader, more inclusive form of maternal care that encompasses all aspects of human existence.
In Vietnamese art and iconography, Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ are often depicted as serene, graceful figures, embodying maternal beauty and strength. Mẹ Sanh is typically shown as a nurturing mother, sometimes with a child in her arms or surrounded by symbols of fertility, such as flowers, fruits, or animals that represent the abundance of life. She may be shown with a gentle expression, symbolizing her role in ensuring a safe and prosperous birth for all those who seek her protection.
Mẹ Độ, in contrast, is often portrayed as a guardian figure, sometimes wearing traditional robes and holding objects that signify her power to protect. This could include a staff, an umbrella (symbolizing shelter from harm), or sometimes a bowl of offerings. Her image conveys a sense of divine grace and maternal authority, underscoring her role as the protector not only of children and women but of the community at large.
One of the key symbols associated with both goddesses is the lotus flower, which represents purity, spiritual enlightenment, and a connection to the divine. This association highlights their role in providing not only physical protection but also spiritual guidance and blessings for their followers.
Making offerings to Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ is integral to many local and folk religious practices in Vietnam. The rituals dedicated to these goddesses are primarily focused on the well-being of families, especially those with young children or women who are pregnant. In rural areas, offerings of food, incense, and flowers are commonly made at small shrines or altars dedicated to Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ. These practices are often centered around asking for divine protection for mothers, children, and families, as well as seeking blessings for fertility and prosperity.
Mẹ Sanh is particularly honored during fertility and childbirth rituals, where mothers-to-be and those with young children will pray for a safe delivery and the health of their babies. These rituals often involve prayers, the burning of incense, and the presentation of symbolic offerings, such as fruit, milk, and rice—items that represent abundance, growth, and nurturing.
Offering to Mẹ Độ is more widespread and not limited to one specific life stage. Vietnamese make offerings to her for protection against illness, disaster, and evil influences. She is often called upon during times of crisis, and her festivals include prayers for safety and peace. During these festivals, local communities will gather, often at temples or community centers, to offer songs, dances, and prayers, celebrating her role as the motherly protector.
Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ hold deep cultural significance in Vietnam, particularly because of the country’s agricultural roots and the essential role of family life. In Vietnamese society, where family is seen as the cornerstone of cultural continuity, these goddesses are seen as essential guardians of familial well-being. Making offerings reflects the deep respect for women, mothers, and the important role they play in both the continuity of the family line and the health of society as a whole.
Moreover, these two goddesses represent the dual nature of motherhood—one that is both nurturing and protective. Mẹ Sanh’s focus on fertility and childbirth ties her to the creation and sustenance of life, while Mẹ Độ’s focus on protection reflects the broader societal need for safety, peace, and care during times of difficulty. Together, they represent a balanced view of the divine feminine, one that is both gentle and powerful, capable of both creation and defense.
In Vietnamese spirituality, Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ serve as important figures who embody the idealized qualities of motherhood: nurturing, protective, and all-encompassing. Through their veneration, the Vietnamese people express their gratitude for the divine care that sustains life and shields them from harm. These goddesses transcend the boundaries of folklore and religion, becoming symbols of maternal love, community protection, and the enduring strength of the feminine spirit. Through the ongoing worship and cultural presence of Mẹ Sanh and Mẹ Độ, their legacy continues to shape the spiritual and cultural landscape of Vietnam.
How to Make Offerings for Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ
When making offerings for Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ, it is very important to prepare and perform them solemnly and respectfully. Here is how to offer a full and solemn offering for Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ:
Prepare offerings
Incense: Prepare your family's favorite incense or traditional incense.
Fresh flowers: Choose bright, fragrant fresh flowers to honor the beauty of Mother Sinh and Mother Do.
Fresh fruits: Choose fresh, juicy fruits, representing abundance and prosperity.
Candy: Prepare your family's favorite candies or traditional offerings.
Vegetarian sticky rice: This is an important offering, often displayed on the altar to offer to Mother Sinh and Mother Do.
Arranging the altar
Arrange the flowers, fruits, candies and offerings solemnly, neatly and beautifully on the altar.
Place the vegetarian sticky rice dishes and other offerings in a solemn and respectful manner.
Make sure the altar is clean and solemn, creating a peaceful and pure space to perform the ceremony.
Perform the ceremony:
Burn incense and incense, light lamps to create a solemn and sacred atmosphere.
Offer flowers, fruits, candies and offerings on the altar in a solemn and respectful manner.
Perform the ceremony of worshiping the Mother Goddess with sincerity and respect, sending the Mother Goddess the prayers and wishes of the family.
End of the ceremony: When the ceremony ends, you can use clean water to wash your hands and mouth, showing respect and cleanliness. Then, clean the altar and keep the space solemn and pure.
Prayer
Namo Amitabha Buddha!
Namo Great Compassionate Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara!
Today, on this wonderful day of life, we respectfully offer our sincere prayers to the great spirits and ancestors.
My partner and I are [Parents' Names], currently living at [Family Address]. We have been blessed with a little joy, named [Child’s Name], born on [Date of Birth, Month of Birth, Year of Birth].
We offer this gift to the great spirits and ancestors, asking for your blessing to help [Child’s Name] be healthy, happy, and grow up in the love and protection of our family.
May the great spirits and ancestors bless and protect our family, so that each day is filled with joy, happiness, and health. Not only our family, but bless and increase the health and joy of all children and all families in the world.
We sincerely make this offering.
Namo Amitabha Buddha!
Namo Amitabha Buddha!
Namo Amitabha Buddha!
May the children always be safe, happy and grow strong in the love of family and everyone around!
All Beings Are Our Mother
From the beginning you have to realize that all sentient beings are as your mother. This is not just empty words. Each person has been circulating through death and birth since beginningless time – there is no limit. So from time to time, all sentient beings must have been connected to each other as mothers. Whenever a being was connected to you as your mother. Whether you remember it or not, whether you think she was kind or not, she did in fact suffer a lot for your sake.
All sentient beings have been connected to you as your mother, without any limitation. If you go back and do some research or archaeological work, you can never find any beginning for any single original beings. You can see this logically; if you look, each person has two parents: father and mother. The father must have a father and mother. And that father must have a father and mother. Otherwise it is not possible – no-one can grow out of the earth like bushes do. That is not possible. So then there is no limit. Whether you do research in the archaeological way and find some old broken things or not, we can see that no-one ever existed without parents. This is particularly true for human beings; some other beings are born in a different way.
So all beings must once have been your mother. If you keep one black seed in a jar of rice and shake it for a very long time then sometimes this black seed goes up, sometimes it goes down, but it is always in the rice and always touching different grains. There is no single grain of rice it doesn’t touch.
In this example, the bowl is like the Six Realms of Samsara. The sentient beings are like the grains of rice. We are like the black seed. Then all the time we are circulating through death and birth and death and birth. There is no limitation. That is the example which shows how we have been connected with all sentient beings as our mother.
Mother’s Kindness And Suffering
First of all, when the mother is keeping the child in the womb there are so many difficulties. Then during childbirth, it is so hard that many women die. But still they encourage themselves and do not complain. There is no-one to complain to – nobody cares because people always say: “This is natural.” But it is not natural at all. This is how mothers generate courage themselves.
Then when the baby is born it is very small and helpless – you can’t even move by yourself when you are just born! Yet your mother looks after you and helps you grow up until you are as big as she is herself. All that time, the mothers are always thinking of the child and working for him or her. All the mothers know this. It is hard for men to think this. They just think it is natura, not something hard. That means that they don’t know this suffering themselves. But this is suffering, it is very hard. Day and night, all the time, without stopping, they look after the child by themselves; the mother often even stops eating to save her child.
Consider all this in great detail when you think about your mother. Sometimes a mother is rough with her child, but this is not the same as when an enemy is rough with someone. The mother wants the best for her child so sometimes she has to be a little rough. But this is not the same as when an enemy beats you.
Most of the time people don’t recall how their mother looked after them for such a long time and cared for them deeply; they don’t remember these good things. But if the mother did some small thing to make the child unhappy, then they are always complaining about that and remembering it all the time; that is not the right way.
If any of you want to follow the path of the Bodhisattva, you should think that all sentient beings have been your mother – it doesn’t matter whether you remember or not. You should think how the mother loves her child, and how much she has encouraged and worked and taken responsibility for her child. This is the first step.
The Need To Repay Our Mother's Kindness
Then you have to think how to repay your mothers’ kindness. Even if you are hungry and someone gives you enough food, you have to say “thank you.” You are grateful even for this very small thing, but consider how much more the mother does to care for her child. So you have to think how to repay your mother. Don’t repay her by challenging her or being wrathful. Instead, all the time, think about how to repay your mothers’ goodness. That is the second step.
How To Repay Your Mother
It is not enough just to go back and see her on holidays or special occasions; that is not enough. All the time, think how she cared for you. One way to repay her is to go and serve her and help her as much as possible. Don’t wait until she goes to the hospital – if your mother goes to the hospital and you go and sit there and take her some flowers, that is not enough. So what should you do? Maybe during this lifetime you can go and see her and serve her or help her in some way, but those are still small things. The real way to help and repay her is to try and think of how to release her from her suffering and miseries. You have to think about this, and search for the method which will really help her. That is the third step.
Take Great Compassion As The Base
This is all connected with compassion, which means releasing sentient beings from suffering and miseries. This is the true meaning of being a “Mother of Protection” – Mẹ Sanh Mẹ Độ.
By practicing in this way and reflecting we will come to more deeply understand, experience, and extend our compassion knowing how to have loving-kindness towards all sentient beings, how to have great compassion towards all sentient beings, how to have the strong altruistic intention to lead all sentient beings from Samsara to Nirvana, and finally how to generate the intention to achieve Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings - full Bodhichitta.
A Meditation on Mothers
Let’s take a moment to reflect on our own mother. Here, mother is not necessarily tied to a specific gender. If your father raised you, or an older sibling, or aunt or uncle, then please reflect on them. Your mother of course gave birth to you and you may wish to reflect on that. And if you don’t know, feel free to use your imagination or think about other times in our life when we have been around pregnancy and birth.
We can see the suffering our mother went through. Perhaps the suffering in the struggle to conceive. All of the uncertainty of pregnancy. All of the life changes that unfold when one becomes pregnant. All of the physical changes to one’s body. The pain of carrying around you as a tiny baby in your mother’s belly. Walking up and down stairs, perhaps going to work, the swelling, aches, and pains. The pains of the whole experience of childbirth. During childbirth is much physical pain and suffering, along with uncertainty, and potential anxiety about what the future holds. Yet our mother endured it all for us. All mothers endure the pains of childbirth for their children.
Then mothers care for that baby. Babies who are completely helpless. So we can just be aware of all the labor, work, and hardship a mother goes through – that your mother went through for you. We can reflect on the full life of our mother. And all mothers. Without our mother, we would not be here today. Reflect on the courage of mothers everywhere — rising again and again despite hardship, driven by love.
As we recognize the seeds of suffering in our mother, love can spontaneously arise. A love that is formed through gratitude and thankfulness for all that she has done. Aware of the compassion and kindness of our mother, we can reflect “how can we repay our mother’s kindness?” By recognizing that her suffering is no different from my suffering. “Just like me.”
And we may have the wish to free them from their suffering. Even though it may have happened long in the past, we can still generate a heartfelt wish to relieve our mother’s suffering. To take joy in their joy. The joy our parents had when we were born. The joy and happiness that arises when we do something to repay their kindness. Even small joys like visiting them, calling them, giving flowers – there are countless ways to show appreciation and help to remove the sufferings.
The most important part is to connect with your heart as we reflect. How do you feel at this moment? As we give rise to this loving heart, can we notice that quality within us? Allow yourself some time and space to simply notice and rest in this loving heart.
We can continue to practice like this with our own mother, father, or people who raised us. But then we can start to extend this loving heart to all beings we meet. For all beings have at one time been our mother too. Suffered for us. Endured pain and hardship for us. And cared and nourished us when we were helpless. Slowly we can expand this loving heart which naturally wishes to repay all our mother beings to all whom we meet. People we work with, go shopping with, wait in lines with, sit in traffic with. In this life we may be strangers, but in the past they have been our mothers.
“May I remember their kindness. May I help them be happy and free.”
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