I trust that the child is taken care of in accordance with motherly/fatherly love. I would also like to convey my personal opinion that “Westerners” have little or no knowledge of practices that depend on devotion and tantric approaches.
In mainstream Theravada, AFAIK, tantra isn’t seen as compatible with the Buddha’s original teachings. I think in Theravada Buddhism, there’s certainly room for devotion, but tantric practices aren’t typically part of the tradition.
However, other forms of Buddhism, like Vajrayana, incorporate tantra and devotion much more prominently. I think it’s possible for a Westerner to understand and appreciate practices based in devotion and tantra. There might be some initial perplexity, but with dedication and guidance, that perplexity would fade away.
PS: I’m not saying that tantra is a valid practice for achieving Enlightenment. I’m just saying that it is possible for a Westerner to understand the principles behind these practices.
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Lord Buddha used a lot of metaphors and symbols through his teachings, and that’s tantric. We are to develop goodness in body, speech and mind, so when we bow down taking refuge and precepts we show our devotion and love, that’s also tantric.
Bowing down is an act of surrender, and there is no need for some teacher to instruct, one instruct oneself with body, speech and mind.
Maybe a westerner needs to ask him/herself: How deep is my love 
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I think it’s a straw-man to blame westerners of ignorance regarding devotional practices, as it assumes both that westerners could not be familiar with such practices from Catholic and other orthodox traditions (even buddhist ones), and also that it assumes that there aren’t eastern people (like me) who are also critical of such institutions.
I think two instances of suttas are interesting to discuss in this instance:
An 7.83
Upāli, you might know that certain things don’t lead solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. Categorically, you should remember these things as not the teaching, not the training, and not the Teacher’s instructions. You might know that certain things do lead solely to disillusionment, dispassion, cessation, peace, insight, awakening, and extinguishment. Categorically, you should remember these things as the teaching, the training, and the Teacher’s instructions.
And the famous Kesamutti Sutta:
An 3.65
Please, Kālāmas, don’t go by oral transmission, don’t go by lineage, don’t go by testament, don’t go by canonical authority, don’t rely on logic, don’t rely on inference, don’t go by reasoned train of thought, don’t go by the acceptance of a view after deliberation, don’t go by the appearance of competence, and don’t think ‘The ascetic is our respected teacher.’ But when you know for yourselves: ‘These things are unskillful, blameworthy, criticized by sensible people, and when you undertake them, they lead to harm and suffering’, then you should give them up.
Buddha criticized many traditions of his time. We should not be blindly accepting any tradition, even Buddhist ones. It is up to us to figure out what’s wholesome and whats not wholesome; what furthers clinging and what furthers liberation.
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How capable adults choose to express and develop their practice is up to them but even then the precepts should still be observed, right? I’m not very familiar with tantra and Vajrayana but my understanding is that at least in the Buddhist tradition the precepts still apply, it doesn’t mean that all action inspired by devotion is therefore okay.
In this example the problem I see is that the object chosen for devotion is a child with a life of its own. This child didn’t choose to be in that position so in terms of merit, she doesn’t even receive the kammic benefit of all that devotion, but does pay a heavy mental and social price for the rest of her life. Or is them the breaks? Does devotional practice mean we should disregard all the psychological knowledge about human wellbeing with solid evidence, because the opportunity for devotion is more important? Babies attach to their parents from birth (possibly even before); taking them away from good enough parents causes fundamental trauma even when the adoptive caregivers do everything exactly right. I don’t see how this practice is in line with the first precept of non-harm.
So is it that Westerners haven’t enough knowledge of these practices, or that some Eastern practitioners don’t have enough wisdom around human developmental psychology? Maybe both?
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According to what I’ve heard and read, we are all more or less ignorant until Arahantship. No blame, just fact.
Maybe many Western Buddhists gave up on their own religions because lack of devotion, and thought Buddhism didn’t demand suchlike. I don’t know anything about anyone other than myself, so when I ask myself the question: If you had put the same kind of loyalty and love into practising the religion you had before Buddhism, would it have made any difference to where you are at this point?
I don’t think so.
Yes, so it is said, and I find that reasonable, and he also said that other philosophies and religions that contained similar essences like “Sila, Samadhi and Panna” were no obstacles to achieving the same goal, liberation of the heart and mind.
There’s a nice modern teaching saying: “The body holds the score”
And reading most debates, it seems to me most are stuck in their heads, and the body is not used, for accessing the unknown territories and perfectly fine tools that other sects have developed are judged as “not Theravada” or not Lord Buddha’s teachings. Then again, what is “Theravada and the words of the Buddha”?
We rely on translations, and maybe quite a bit is lost in those, because the work of translations has been bent to fit the Western mind, in my opinion.
Again, I would urge you to reconsider your “Western” phrasing, as it could be read almost racist. A person being western or not has no bearing on the validity of their concerns.
And I do agree that body/speech/sound elements are deeply underresearched. For all we know, sutta recitation is a performance piece by itself, and we do not fully explore those aspects in our rational examination.
However, the specific concern that triggered this thread was making a two year old into a living goddess. That’s a completely different ballpark from mantric/yogic practices, don’t you think?
I raise my objections on the practices that further hierarchies and power imbalances. What I appreciate about Pāli Canon is that divinities are treated as a joke compared to the wisdom of a human mendicant. Even Mahamoggalana teaches Indra a lesson at some point. These are interesting points of the suttas.
I have also read some of the interviews of past living goddesses of this particular tradition. It seems, their childhood experience was more or less fine, but their adjustment to real life suffered a bit. There’s also certain superstitions that say marrying ex-goddesses will bring a premature death on the husband, so they have to worry about things like that.
So, all in all, one can have a nuanced opinion on things like that. And without condemning people who practice such curiosities (insofar as no one is actually hurt; and if the subject we’re discussing is a two year old girl, consent and hurt take on a particularly important point) one can declare “No thanks”.
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As long as it’s almost, then it’s okay, and being a westerner myself, I gather I’m allowed to criticise western conditioning.
But it is researched sufficiently for anybody to do their part of the job by direct experience.
Well, this thread was extracted from the original you mention, and this is mainly about what we mean about loyalty and love for the three refuges.
What’s nice about the teachings is that they point out that it’s perfectly fine to keep opposites in mind without jumping into the trenches.
One of the recollection/meditation objects is The Divine, above and below. Before the Ajahn gives a talk, we use the ancient chant that a certain Devada used to persuade the newly enlightened Gotama to start teaching, and I’m grateful for that. When we practice meditation on loving kindness, we include above and below, and I sincerely hope you find great joy in doing so, because if you give it all you got, maybe you get a direct response, one never knows before one knows, you know 
Before Gotama managed to break through, he begged the Earth Mother to be his witness, so she did. They say she washed away the hordes of Mara, so that Gotama got the right conditions for becoming enlightened, and I’m grateful for that too.
Well, of course it’s hard to adjust to this profoundly sick society, when one has been sheltered from this kind of madness. About premature death I’m not so sure, is it a point to live longer than needed? Maybe being spouse to a living Devada gives a free pass to heaven, and that’s not so bad, maybe not optimal, but given a break for å few thousand years from this place doesn’t sound so bad to me.
It would be interesting to better define what Tantra is. I don’t think Buddhism (or any other religious tradition) should be considered tantric simply because it has devotional practices, symbolism, and worship of deities. This seems common to all religious traditions, and Tantra appears to be a more specific type of religious practice.
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