Beautiful, Shona!

Beautiful, Dan, Thank you for sharing.

This seems quite a move, TK!! Your picture says it all.

Both beautiful! Thank you both for sharing!!

Thank you Khandro-la. This helps! And thank you, TK for the idea of starting this blog. It's amazing how much valuable information is being conveyed through it!

Love your dog picture of walking the talk! "There are love dogs no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one." Rumi

As Rumi says, your heart-felt asking is the answer: "This longing you express is the return message. This grief you cry out from draws you toward union. Your pure sadness that wants help is the secret cup. Listen to the moan of a dog for its master. That whining is the connection. There are love-dogs that no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them."

Ellen, I liked that you compared these qualities of the Dakinis to the perfection of the six paramitas.

In describing today what I honor about the Five Dakinis Practice, I forgot to mention that the practice creates an opportunity to align with the physical illusory body's true essence--that of the five elements represented by each of the Five Dakinis. This helps with self-renunciation as our past identity as a solid form becomes one of a more subtle form of each one's unique combination of the five elements, and it helps one to "give away" this illusory form during Chö practice. Khandro-La's Subtle Body Training (SBT) gives exercises to free up the energy channels so we can identify obscurations that block the subtle energy flow to allow feeling the subtle energies of the elemental body, leading to further renunciation and bodhicitta development less hindered by solid-self protection. Also, feeling the subtle energy body in meditation is a gateway to experience the emptiness from which we all emerge, the expanse of awakened presence in which we all truly reside, pretend to leave in incarnation, and to which we return between each moment, each thought, each relationship, and each lifetime. The Five Dakini Practice is truly a preliminary for advanced Chö practices, as well as entering and walking the awakening path. Lekshe Wangmo