"The Dakini boldly, sternly claims, "Without including the body, tantric practice is a waste of time!" Dakini [also] firmly adds, "The body is exactly the reason why tantric practice doesn't work!"
The body is what makes tantra work. It is a vessel, a vehicle for awakening that is central to the tantric path. If tantra does not touch or transform our emotional life, it may be because we are out of a relationship with our body. In tantra then, we slowly or gradually enter the wilderness of our body which is sometimes an unknown and scary place to us.
The body is the quickest, most powerful, and direct source of realizing, directly experiencing, and embodying our true nature. Everything that is to be transformed within the tantric practice is held within the body."
(pages 230-231, 10.2 THE BODY AS THE PATH, Volume II of the Heart of Cho: DAKINI JOURNEY in the Contemporary World, Choying Khandro)
Every day that we wake up back into this precious human life, we wake into the body mandala of Vajrayogini! Maybe we forget and remember over our coffee, but still we have arrived. Every moment is an opportunity to feel Dakini within our body though the good, bad, the ugly, and all the in between. Those moments are part of the whole and today, the whole is celebrating no matter what we do to be a part of it! Within the body mandala, all is just as perfect as it always was and there we find confidence and divinity.
artwork by Farah Siddiq, @neptuneunderground