The Sutra of the Covered Face

There was a woman who lived her entire life beneath cloth and shame. Her culture said that her face invited trouble. Her desires were shameful. Virtue lived in repression. She believed this because she feared the compassionate beings that ascended through the carnal worship of Mara. Her wanting was not a wound requiring bandaging but a flame requiring tending. On the day of her death, she was filled with the regret of a wasted life. At the threshold a Marasattva found her and said simply: You were not wrong to want. That was enough. What came next was kinder than what came before.