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TK | Dechen Wangmo
May 28, 2023
In Diving Into "DAKINI JOURNEY"
WISDOM DAKINI: student & teacher commentary (page 221-222) [student:] I've heard that Dakinis are the protectors of our mind. When I think about this in the context of Dakini being our own mind, I realize we have the capacity to protect our own minds: protection isn't something that comes from the outside. [Khandro-la:] That's right. The ultimate protection is perhaps the emptiness of your own mind or the realization of emptiness of your own mind. In that case, the nature of Dakini is emptiness inseparable from bliss, luminous clarity, and unlimited capacities and activities, I think. Of course, for most of us, to realize that is a process. But step by step, the best and most authentic way we come to know that is through our own direct experience. Wisdom Dakini is always pointing us to emptiness; therefore, she is a protector of wisdom.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
May 26, 2023
In Diving Into "DAKINI JOURNEY"
“Dakini cuts through the obscurations and confusions that habitually hook us and direct our energies; she introduces us to a fresh way of looking at reality and self; she sees our pure and enlightened nature and directs us to see our inner wakefulness, again and again; and, it is through our practice and direct experience that we recognize, uncover, evoke, and become her." [excerpt from Volume II of The Heart of Cho: DAKINI JOURNEY in the Contemporary World, pages 35-36] Reading Khandro-la's newest book is an experience that reaches out and touches you because it's more than just a commentary, or even Dakini Lamrim - it's a conversation with Dakini herself!
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
May 22, 2023
In Diving Into "DAKINI JOURNEY"
It was an amazing weekend here within our community with teachings, Dharma practice, Vajrayogini Cho Tsok, Khandro-la's birthday celebration, and our precious teacher sharing personal parts of her own story as commentary to her book! To say we are blessed as Khandro-la's students would be an understatement. Here is a selected part of Volume II in a chapter we all spoke about in the Cho Mastery Journey yesterday: "On our journey of personal and collective healing, Dakini is a tremendous source of fearless determination. As an embodiment of power coming from confidence, courage, perseverance, love, and wisdom, she provides us with encouragement. Unlike the patriarchal power that is deeply rooted in our culture and society, Dakini's strength is completely beyond the power of habitual patterns, a "real" power that requires us to shift our old paradigm and see new ways to be active, effective, and compassionate in our lives and the world. A power that we all innately own. It is here, in this Dakini home, where we find hope, truth, and liberation. Then, embracing phenomena as it is, we cut off our head of ordinary perception and view and declare, "liberation"!" (chapter 4, page 117) What good fortune and what precise karma we all have and hold to be able to behold the face of our teacher -- a true Dakini who walks with us in this charnel ground we call life! And here is the cake with Dakini colored candles that we offered for Khandro-la's birthday during our Vajrayogini Cho Tsok! What a way to celebrate the supermundane start to our week!
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
May 20, 2023
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
@Dakinis Whisper Khandro-la, are there any practices we as females should do and/or not do when we are menstruating? While I realize that as a yoga teacher myself my response to a student would be, "What feels right for your body during that time?" However, I feel that our lineage SBT practice may have some kind of suggestion for this, but more so --- what do you, as my teacher, recommend for the time during mensuration? I found tummo practice today to be more challenging during this time for me in terms of the somatic, not meditative. Of course, menstruation is a "go within" time for females so that didn't surprise me, but my body felt antsy ready to move and yet I just wanted to lay down exhausted at the same time. The thought to ask this crossed my course mind during the trulkor exercises. A la la. Thank you!
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 23, 2023
In In the Charnel Grounds
The day after it all -- the three-month Retreat and the three-day Monlam -- I am rejuvenated and grateful and calm and so, so tired. And if this day is supposed to feel different than day one or day fifty-six, it doesn't. The snow falling isn't any different than it was last week, or the week before; the daily routine of tea, baby cat feedings, and sadhana plays out just as it did every day of last month; being human is found in reminding myself to come from the centered place inside .. sometimes minute to minute as hours pass by. There's a sense of completion the day after it all, and there is no possible way I can stop now. I've come this far to not just come this far! And so, I'll make a cup of tea for my teacher as an offering of thanksgiving alongside my own cup while I continue existing in this section of the charnel ground. The emptiness is filled with dakini as all five senses call to their own single-pointed attention; surviving has turned into thriving in some sort of equanimous way I cannot put into words; left step first to continue on.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 18, 2023
In Journeys & Retreat
Last week, Khandro-la was talking about the animal-headed/faced Dakinis that surround the body mandala of Vajrayogini. In the teaching, I brought out the book Vajrayogini: Her Visualizations, Rituals, and Forms by Elizabeth English. On pages 58 and 59, it shows what Khandro-la was teaching about: The bottom of the second image of page 59 with the numbers 34-41 are the animal-faced Dakinis Khandro-la specifically referred to. I thought of @Betty O'Dell / Lekshe Wangmo when I saw the image because I know you had drawn your own previously, so I hope this lends to deeper research for you, Vajra Sister. I also found an image of the Owl-faced Dakini [Ugdongma or #35] on a different website that I thought was beautiful and wanted to also share here. This is from a different lineage ( https://aroencyclopaedia.org/index.php ) and so, I'm thinking that "our" Dakini would be holding other tantric implements rather than flowers, but I liked the representation of colors here along with the offering bowls on either side of Her:
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 11, 2023
In Meeting the Dakini!
I don't know how to start this or how to finish it, but the middle feels like the inside of a peach -- packed with juice, bursting out the moment the pithy edge begins to bite inwards. And so, there by the grace of Her go I ... Last night, I loosely planned out my Saturday morning of, "If I wake up early, I'm going to go get fresh donuts and if I'm feeling it, I'll stop at the grocery store," and that plan hinged on me waking up early enough to not deal with the crowds of people who too like fresh donuts and empty grocery store isles. This is Wisconsin on Super Bowl weekend after all, and if you know what I mean then you know what I mean. My plan was executed at 0700 this morning and trolling around the store heading towards the self-checkout, I found a pheasant jerky stick for Tsok next week. While I was pawing over the flavors, I thoughtlessly left my cart in the middle of the isle. And then, there She was - Vajrayogini! .. just like Khandro-la said happens in grocery stores. She was coming up behind me and I anticipated Her needing to get around my cart with Her own. I felt Her energy before She was able to ask me to move and as I first saw Her, I was intensely drawn to this emanation of Her. In form, She was clothed in near rags with a scarf covering Her hair, She wore the coolest purple fur boots, Her face was marked with some kind of active disease, and Her green eyes were so clear and big that, as I made eye contact, it took my breath away. I moved my cart aside for Her, and it took everything inside me to focus back on the jerky. I felt joy and sadness and awful nervousness and exhilaration, and reigned in the need to somehow speak to Her while, just down the way, She looked at some frozen meat. I had to pass behind Her to continue on to the bread isle before the checkouts and still, I resisted speaking to Her. What would I say? -- what could I possibly say that would be worthy of Her? What if She laughed at me like She laughed at Yeshe Tsogyal? -- I think I might spontaneously combust on the spot of She did that. Seeing Her as a human like me, I thought that She may not want to be spoken to. I wanted to look at Her and I don't even know ... just stand beside Her, but how freakishly ridiculous would that be? And so, I continued on to eventually land myself at the self-checkout next to Her. Yeah. I don't know if you ever do self-checkout, but I rather enjoy sabotaging myself right off the bat with my reusable bags and how the scales pick up their weight in relation to the approved weight of the item, so I'm usually pretty good at flagging down the employee woefully assigned to the self-checkout lanes. And it just so happened that this womxn -- this emanation of Vajrayogini, needed assistance too. After I found an employee for us, She said something to me about ... something ... and I cannot remember what specifically, but I replied, "Yes! It's really annoying." We made eye contact again, and I could see such depths within Her. In that moment, if She would have asked me to slay a dragon in the parking lot I would have done it with my bare hands. She needed assistance again while I was scanning my items and I noticed that She had to squint at the screen even when Her face was close to it. And it's no surprise that at the same time, Her and I finished checking out. I pulled my cart away first as She was putting Her bags into Her cart. I said, "Have a good day," as I passed by Her. I don't know if She responded, but what I do know is that as I exited the store I was overwhelmed with the need to pray through the embodied feelings of loss? .. sadness? .. like I had just lost something, but I couldn't remember what it was. Mother, please bless Her. Mother, please heal Her. Mother, please give Her only what You know She needs. Mother, please increase and multiply Her food. Guardians and Protectors, please protect Her. Dakinis, please watch over Her. Mother, please make Her feel safe in this world. And just like that, I found my way aimlessly home to my four walls greeted by my two sleepy cats at the front door. I made coffee and ate a heart-shaped donut with pink frosting. Freyja, my cat, and I shared the first moments of coffee together on my meditation cushion. I sometimes read to her songs of Dakinis from the book 'Luminous Melodies' and today, we found A Song by the Dakini Queen of Splendor [p.34]: Don't be distracted from where there is nothing to mind! Samsara by virtue of distraction is similar to a dream If realized, this is like a person waking up from sleep As far as I am concerned, I have not seen any samsara Here I still sit with cold coffee and Freyja behind me snoozing, contemplating my morning as the day turns into the afternoon where I again get to see the face of Vajrayogini in my teacher, in the faces of fellow students, and reflected in my own. I still laugh at myself when I find surprise in the synchronicities that happen in my life, like a donut run that aligns me with Vajrayogini, because honestly, this juicy path of fierce faith requires interactions like that. I think that this tantric path is mired with contractual obligations we vowed to fulfill, and there is no failing because as the Song by the Dakini Tuft Topknot [p.30] says: Hey! If there is no duality, there is no bondage or freedom If there is nothing to identify, there are not obscurations If there is not self and other, there is not desire or hatred If there is nothing to mind, there is no distraction
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 05, 2023
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
When Khandro-la said in SBT that the animal-headed Dakinis appear in the Bardo, I had to pull out my Tibetan Book of the Dead because in it are colored pictures of the animal-headed Dakinis. Included below are the only personal pictures I had of the Wolf-Headed Dakini, but before that, I'm going to outline the animal-headed Dakinis cited in the book. I am fascinated with these Dakinis - especially since I realized the animal-headed Dakinis that Yeshe Tsogyal saw feasting at Vajrayogini's head table were an indication that Yeshe Tsogyal was outlining the Bardo for us through her personal stories. Can you imagine being in the Bardo and having no clue that encountering one of these animal-headed Dakinis might happen? Maybe that might spark something within you like it did for me: Vajra Family: six yoginis of the East: Manuraksasi - human colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a wolf Brahmani - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with an orange head of a tigress with black stripes Raudri - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a yellow head of a lioness Vaisnavi - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a yellow head of a leopard with green spots Kaumari - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a panther with darker black spots Indrani - human flesh colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a bovine with light blue horns *the wrathful gatekeeper, Vajratejasi - human colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white head of a horse with a black mane *yogini gatekeeper, Vajra [Mahakali] - human colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a blue head of a peacock Ratna Family: six yoginis of the South: Vajra - blue colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a yellow head of a tigress with green swirl stripes Santi - light blue colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with an orange head of a big cat with brindle shading Amrta - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white head of a bird Saumi - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a scorpion with two front pinchers Dandi - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a red head of a dragon [or makara] with white twisted horns Raksasi - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a light blue head of a jackal *the wrathful gatekeeper, Vajramogha - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a dire wolf twirling a freaking red snake in both her hands above her head *yogini gatekeeper, Vajra [Mahachagala] - yellow colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a long-eared dog with her tongue hanging out of her mouth looking kinda cute Padma Family: six yoginis of the West: Bhaksasi - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white head of a long-necked bird with variegated feathers Rati - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white head of a horse with a black mane waving a corpse around in her left hand Rudhiramadi - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a red head of a bird of prey [possibly a vulcher] with an orange beard and blue horns Ekacarini - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a bat holding a scorpion in her right hand Manoharika - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with an orange head with black stripes of a bird of prey [possibly a vulcher] Siddhikari - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a greenish-yellow head of a canine with green spots *the wrathful gatekeeper, Vajraloka - facing to her right with red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white lion face and green streaming hair holding a skullcup in her left hand *yogini gatekeeper, Vajra [Mahakumbhakarni] - facing to her left with red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white lion face and green streaming hair holding nothing in her hands Karma Family: six yoginis of the North: Vayudevi - light blue colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a light blue head of a wolf holding a victory banner and is a bit larger than any of the other animal-headed Dakinis shown/listed Agnayi - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a orange head of a leopard with black spots Varahi - blue colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a boar with a long black mane Camundi - red colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a black head of a crow casually handling a corpse in her right hand Bhujana - blue colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a white head of an elephant stretching a corpse in front of her with both hands Varunani - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a green head of a long-necked canine with black tiger stripes on both the head and neck *the wrathful gatekeeper, Vajravetali - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a green head of a long-necked peacock with black leopard spots on both the head and neck *yogini gatekeeper, Vajra [Lambodara] - green colored skin wearing a tiger skin skirt with a green head of a long-necked water creature with the skin texture of a crocodile on both the head and neck As a sidenote, all these Dakinis have large breasts and a big belly both swaying while they dance in front of their Wrathful Deities, which represent each family, in union with a Dakini wearing a leopard skin skirt. The Deity and Dakini's skin matches and the color represents the individual family, i.e., Vajra is dark blue [for the male Deity] and light blue for the Dakini; Ratna is yellow; Padma is red; Karma is dark blue [for the male Deity] and light blue for the Dakini. All dakinis listed have a scarf of human skin wrapped around their necks and shoulders as they dance while some hold implements, a few hold skullcups, and others are freely dancing without holding anything in their hands. All are one-faced with two arms, and all look similar to the last photo below; however, the ones Khandro-la described to us in the Kechara Journey last month, look like the two pictures below with their four arms. None of the Dakinis from the Tibetan Book of the Dead were riding any animals. https://www.himalayanart.org/items/192 Another image of the Wolf-Headed Dakini that looks more like a jackal or fox like Khandro-la described in SBT: (I do not know where I found this image)
Who is your Spirit Animal-Headed Dakini? content media
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Jan 18, 2023
In Meeting the Dakini!
I'm fascinated with Pemako and for good reason, so here is a rabbit hole I went down. The site is located at the bottom of this post and it's worth taking the time to read. http://www.tibethiddenfalls.com/vajrayogini
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Jan 08, 2023
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
What a brilliant building block we students were given in class today from Khandro-la! I went down some pretty deep rabbit holes after class looking at all the different Dakinis and the lineages that follow them. Below are three images I thought were really neat regarding the Japanese Dakini and as for the Dakini with a Tiger Head, Simhamukha kept coming up. Here is a link to Her: https://teahouse.buddhistdoor.net/simhamukha-the-lion-faced-dakini/ . What really struck me this evening after class was that there are so many Dakinis, and I cannot wait to meet more and more of them! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/54199 https://yokai.com/dakini/ https://yokai.fandom.com/wiki/Dakini
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Nov 13, 2022
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
One thing I did to embody the dakini of the tigress was attend a painting class where I actually produced something for myself. This was an in-person class, not an online one. Here is what I made: To really see the storm and the snowbank, you have to stand back a bit and just let it speak to you. I'm glad I did this for myself in a creative way without judgement, out of my comfort zone, and into embodying the dakini where it decided to show up for my own good. I'm really proud of this completed expression that allowed my subtle mind to come forward.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Nov 05, 2022
In In the Charnel Grounds
In the last Subtle Body Training class, Khandro-la asked us to be like tigers as we progress into our week. Fierce and courageous, "Where does the tiger live in you," she asked. Before ending, the well-known Shakyamuni Buddha tiger story was cited, but there is another one that I thought of first -- that of the Wisdom Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal, and I want to share her tigress story because Yeshe Tsogyal is an emanation of Vajrayogini and the form body of [pre] Machig Labdron. Yeshe Tsogyal was my origin Buddha before I even heard the story of Shakyamuni, which is others' Buddha origin story. The Dakinis found me first. Another book I read before finding Dakini's Whisper was 'The Life and Visions of Yeshe Tsogyal: The Autobiography of the Great Wisdom Queen', which holds a different perspective on Yeshe Tsogyal's life than that in the book 'Sky Dancer'. Once again bounding through the pages of underlines and tabs -- after I brushed the dust off the cover, the words hit me differently than the first time I read them. In 'Chapter Two: The Princess's Voyages to the Land of Oddiyana', we find Yeshe Tsogyal navigating her way through the great Chimpu charnel ground where she solidifies what defines her: utilizing the means of kindness and nonreactivity when working with every obstacle. Sounds like the underpinnings of Cho to me ... We meet Yeshe Tsogyal in the middle of her twelve year stay when she joins a white-colored womxn who, appearing at daybreak, knocks on Yeshe Tsogyal's door of the Secret Wisdom Cave with her crystal staff. This womxn tells Yeshe Tsogyal that Yeshe Tsogyal doesn't have authentic faith and to find authentic faith, the two must journey together into this womxn's white land. The white-colored womxn takes Yeshe Tsogyal by the hand and shows her places where humans are killing themselves as offerings, where hungry ghosts scrambled for forms of liberation, and finally to a place that feels like a very familiar home [to me] and where the tigress comes to meet us -- it's called The Land of Dakinis and Furies, where the chiefs among them eat flesh and drink blood. Yeshe Tsogyal hadn't noticed yet that at this palace gate when she asked to enter, the two large Dakinis carrying corpses denied her entry because she was unwilling to bravely do what was asked of her (which was to carry one hundred corpses over the threshold) ... but when the white-colored womxn asked to enter, a blue Dakini with red eyes appears and opens the door for both her and Yeshe Tsogyal to enter freely (without carrying any corpses). If the reader knows what they've stepped into with Yeshe Tsogyal and the white-colored womxn, one is awed to be the third party now standing in front of the great bliss union of emptiness and what is spontaneously born from that union. It didn't escape me that this gated place is the center of the open mandala inside the tetrahedron shaped palace of Vajrayogini's mysterious origin, and those flesh eaters are the retinue of Dakinis with Troma Nakmo at the gate of the central channel. It's said in some Vajrayogini commentaries that She is white in the Sambhogakaya and red in the Nirmanakaya. And so, it should come as no surprise that as we three ascend to the upper level of the palace while walking past victory banners made of human skins with supporting beams made of hewed skulls, that the Dakinis at the top of the palace greet the white-colored womxn as [their] Chief named Lives in Peace and who is Vajrayogini Herself! At this point, Holy Vajrayogini sends Yeshe Tsogyal [and us] back to her own place saying, "There is a bounty [there] of amazing spiritual attainment left to gain." And I'll level with you here -- if Vajrayogini said that to me, I'd have reacted with the same panic and tantrum as Yeshe Tsogyal did -- "I can't go there and manage on my own! Won't you come with me?" To which Lives in Peace replies, "I don't have time to go with you. I have to stay here and protect the lives of these adepts who uphold their tantric bonds. Leave here bravely; go and don't doubt yourself." (p. 136) Once outside the palace gate, Yeshe Tsogyal walks through a red land, where the water is the color of blood and bones cover every inch, fires blaze from the mountain peaks and where suns and moons rain from the sky. I again imagine myself as Yeshe Tsogyal dejected and not even concerned with the deluge of suns and moons around her. When suddenly, she finds herself at another gate that's again guarded by two similar large Dakinis as before. But this time, they ask Yeshe Tsogyal to go out and kill a tigress and her cubs bringing them back as the means to enter this city. If there was ever a time to push back, this was the point of the story to do it and that's exactly what Yeshe Tsogyal did! In fact, she offered her own flesh to these gatekeeper Dakinis instead of that of a tigress and her cubs! .. but no, that's not gonna work this time. Turning away from the gates, Yeshe Tsogyal knew she had failed at her attempt at spiritual attainment during this journey and yet, she was still there in the charnel ground wandering around and not back in her cave .. so that means there's still a chance! Figuring out the solution after searching countless days and nights, Yeshe Tsogyal thought, "If I venture into the jungle, perhaps I can find a dead tigress and her cubs." (p. 138) In the jungle, Yeshe Tsogyal comes upon a mother tigress and her eighteen cubs. The cubs were small and hungry because there was no milk left to give from their mother, who was skin and bones herself. All were close to death. Yeshe Tsogyal felt unbearable compassion and made an aspiration prayer for their survival as she cut off pieces of her body and fed them to the dying tigress and her cubs. Near death herself now, Yeshe Tsogyal didn't care if she lived or died and only wanted to ensure the survival of this tigress and her cubs. The tigress moved by unbearable compassion as well, nursed Yeshe Tsogyal back from the brink of death and helped return Yeshe Tsogyal back to her former whole state. Upon being completely healed, Yeshe Tsogyal promises the tigress she won't die and in return, the tigress shows Yeshe Tsogyal the corpse of a dead tigress found further into the jungle. Yeshe Tsogyal cuts off the head of the dead tigress' corpse and throwing it onto her back, goes back to the city gates with bravery. Okay, so there's the tigress story for SBT homework, but there's more to this ... Once inside the city gates, Yeshe Tsogyal is lead by a red womxn to a feast table where the guests had human bodies with animal heads all eating together merrily. Completely mentally and emotionally messed up by this mish-mash of insanity, Yeshe Tsogyal is told she is perceiving things impurely because -- in fact -- all the guests were dakinis and heroes, and that the reason Yeshe Tsogyal is perceiving things impurely is because her channels and energies are not aligned. To show Yeshe Tsogyal how to do that, the red womxn tells Yeshe Tsogyal her past life story as Sole Goddess Fire Light followed by instructions on how to meditate on circulating energies within the central channel. Completely awed in following how to align her channels, Yeshe Tsogyal found the energies were cleared with the pure perception arising thus introducing clear light, and Yeshe Tsogyal could then bravely continue on toward the eastern side of the palace. There in the east, Yeshe Tsogyal found the twenty-one vase empowerments; in the south, she found the eleven longevity empowerments; in the west, she found the supreme illusion empowerment for the all-encompassing matrix of dakinis; and in the north, she found the major empowerment of awareness holders -- the empowerment of the fourfold joy of great bliss. Also in the north, the red womxn who was still Yeshe Tsogyal's companion also received the major empowerment of the awareness holders. Crossing over into the center of the palace, both Yeshe Tsogyal and the red womxn witnessed the Union of Great Bliss swirling and dancing around Vajrayogini who was gazing upwards holding a skullcup of blood and a curved knife. The crystal-like dancing swirl of this awareness holder conferred on Yeshe Tsogyal and the red womxn the unsurpassable four empowerments of the awareness holders. The red womxn then said to Yeshe Tsogyal, "It has been twelve months [in your part] of the charnel ground and it is time for you to return. There, you will find many more great spiritual awakenings." And with that, Yeshe Tsogyal was handed a skullcup wrapped in green silk -- it would never run dry of food or drink, and it would take Yeshe Tsogyal safely back to her retreat cave. Once back there, Yeshe Tsogyal continued to bravely with triumphant nondual compassion meet Her obstacles head on for the sake of all sentient beings. What have we learned from this female Buddha story of Yeshe Tsogyal and the Tigress in the Great Charnel Ground of Samye Chimpu? The tigress and Yeshe Tsogyal had a cyclic bond in that, had Yeshe Tsogyal died, the tigress would have been devastated with grief -- just as Yeshe Tsogyal would have been had the tigress died. Both females nourished the cubs with blood and milk and likewise, we pray to Vajrayogini to nourish us with Her blessings. Yeshe Tsogyal, like us, after continuous trial and error that lead to more and more suffering, finally grasped the spiritual attainment concept she was meant to within Chimpa charnel ground -- which was utilizing the means of kindness and nonreactivity when working with every obstacle. There is no delineation between guru, hungry ghosts, animals, or cannibal Dakinis -- we are all the same and of the same whole. We are shown that even a Buddha was once where we find ourselves and through Her example, we have the bravery and confidence to stay on this path because it simply makes sense -- let alone works! I believe this story was the manifested phenomena of Yeshe Tsogyal and even if it wasn't, what a beautiful meditative guru yoga experience she had within her Secret Wisdom Cave. Yeshe Tsogyal met Vajrayogini and was taken into Her care, she was blessed by the Five Dakinis, found another level of spiritual attainment to humbly teach us, bravely traced back the source of her suffering and of her bliss, created the practice of Cho which would be expanded in a future lifetime as Machig Labdron, learned what the subtle body was and how it is the pathway to liberation, and ultimately, Yeshe Tsogyal with the Wisdom Mind of Vajrayogini lovingly reaches back out to us to say, "Take my hand. I've done this before and it sucks, but it can be overcome. Allow me to show you ..." Yeshe Tsogyal's Past-Lifetime Prayer as Sole Goddess Fire Light: "I undertake this pure offering through blessings of the truth of the all-embracing expanse, beyond center and bounds, and through the immeasurable nondual compassion of infinite buddhas. I will make these pure offerings and undertake inexhaustible positive acts to cultivate the highest stores of goodness for the sake of all beings, with none left out. May I, together with every being, reach unsurpassable, spontaneous bliss."
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Oct 29, 2022
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
Subtle Body Series VIII focuses on the "magic dance" of the dakini and the Dakini along the outline from Khandro-la @Dakinis Whisper that shows us how to move magically within the frame of guru yoga. Based on references from the book by Thinley Norbu entitled Magic Dance: The Display of the Self-Nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis, Khandro-la elaborates how phenomena is expressed through our course dance and ultimately within our subtlest self. I've had that same book collecting dust on my bookcase since I read it before I found Khandro-la and so, after pulling it back out other then just to swipe a quote from it, it's a fresh read -- even with all my underlining and tabs. I recall when I read the book that it was fascinating and I was *just about there* in understanding what it all meant, but I couldn't grasp it (whatever *it* was). I rather enjoyed the end chapters on meditation practice, isolation, and art, but again, the perspective of those things through the dance of dakini wasn't taking shape for me yet. I shelved it and didn't realize it had cracked the code to the next karmic level I was about to level up to: enter Dakini's Whisper and now, I grasp *it*. Completely? .. no, but that's why I'm a dedicated student to SBT. Now, as I've been going through the book reading why I underlined this or that to study for this series, I've come upon the chapter called 'Magic and the Mysterious' (p. 61). I want to share most of the last page of that chapter aligning with Khandro-la's handout she gave us to follow: ""[Vajrayogini's] Wisdom Mind is pure and mysterious. It protects us because it is ultimately uncatchable and secret and so cannot be penetrated by the temporary worldly mysterious." "If we can recognize our own mysterious secret wisdom essence, which is the same from the beginning as [Vajrayogini's] mysterious secret wisdom essence, then enlightenment is no longer mysterious to us because, inseparable from [Her], we are the mysterious." "The earthquake cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its powerful shaking overturns and destroys. The ocean cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its turbulent waves flood and destroy. The fire cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its angry flames burn and destroy. The hurricane cannot harm the mysterious sky no matter how much its violent winds blow and destroy."" I am so grateful for the sincere kindness and deep love Khandro-la shows us through her talent of teaching. Truly, there is no way I would have eclipsed the practice of guru yoga with the dance of the mysterious mind -- our dakini mind. My prayers have begun to reflect an urgency of doing what is necessary in samsara -- to be with it and not of it -- in order to keep my sacred sadhana practice along with my studies and meditation until the end of this lifetime. I cannot imagine a life without waking up to a class or teaching, without having Khandro-la's voice available to me through videos and text, or without Vajrayogini reflected back toward me. May I always find myself in the same great charnel ground as my heart teacher and guru, Khandro-la, to dance together like swans, monkeys, tigers, and any other form sentient beings require of us! *Interesting factoid: on p. 33 the opening quote beginning the chapter called 'Lineage' is from Milarepa, referencing our own -- "The teaching of the whispered lineage is the Dakini's breath."
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Oct 03, 2022
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
I cannot express the feeling I had when I realized what was happening within my subtle body and channels during the last class of Series VII: Dakini Twilight Language .. but I'll try to. So there I was in the presence of four Dakinis, when I realized we had all done this before together - the dancing, the laughing, the silent unspoken understanding that we were once again in our sacred circle increasing the pure energy around us, breathing the same air as the demons we secretly brought along to class with us, fiercely loving the flow of our course body in whatever way it moved according to our subtle body's needs. Within that space of my bedroom and of her living room and in her den, we blended the outer, inner, and secret parts of ourselves together without trying or from course of action - it just manifested .. my heart space physically felt a deep pang of ecstatic bliss that pushed tears to form and a sacred noise to exit my mouth, and my bedroom turned into the mandala that is the grain of sand within this corner of whichever of the great Eight Charnel Grounds I have claimed. I stood holding that for as long as I could before the prana stirred and I began to dance again. All I could think of over and over was that Khandro-la was right! .. she has told us that it will all come together someday, and it did. It did! Although, I have felt this physical feeling before and not in the same enjoyment context - the last time I felt this feeling it was a deep sadness that woke me from a nightmare and within that splinter of reality I don't know why I was so sad, but my heart space physically felt a deep pang of [what I thought was sadness] that pushed tears to form and a sacred noise to exit my mouth. I've had this happen to me three times since the death of my father and alone in the darkness, I try to retrace the steps of my dream but to no avail. The physical feeling of unknown grief and loss reflected the exact physical feeling of spontaneous bliss and happiness from class, and so, again, Khandro-la was right .. the outer, inner, and secret charnel grounds, messengers, dakini, and everything else is the equanimity we ask for on this path and without it there's no point in walking it. It all just is - the good, the bad, and the inescapable [ https://www.dakiniswhisper.com/dakinis-corner-blog/in-the-charnel-grounds/the-good-the-bad-the-inescapable/dl-6eee1e48-a135-4a3b-b6ce-4b6535221efb?origin=notification&postId=62157108ad51c20017acd5a9&commentId=6eee1e48-a135-4a3b-b6ce-4b6535221efb ]. The deep gratitude I feel for having found @Dakinis Whisper Khandro-la through confidence in my own karmic path elicits the same feeling within my course and subtle bodies as when I have laid in the dark with unanswered questions, and just as when I have danced within the sacred circle. It feels satisfying and empowering to be mirroring the dance and play of other Dakinis in this world just as a pigeon would with its friends in the park .. for we are all choosing to be on this same path together here, now, and in this lifetime. I cannot believe my good fortune to have found Khandro-la! It is my prayer that I may transmute this physical feeling of grief and of bliss into any way I can to help another sentient being in this world. May I have fierce compassion for myself and for others as we navigate the outer, inner, and secret charnel grounds we carry. May I be of service to others knowing that they are hurting too, and may we find only what Vajrayogini knows we need. May I mirror the dharma of my teacher, and may I be the face of a Dakini in this world to any sentient being that needs to see Her face.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Jul 12, 2022
In Meeting the Dakini!
My fervent daily prayer: May all females everywhere plagued by sufferings created by patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism, obtain an ocean of happiness and joy by virtue of my merits. May no female suffer from those who think females inferior and unworthy merely due to her gender. For as long as space remains, for as long as men and women remain, until then may I too remain to dispel the miseries of women! - paraphrased from Adele Tomlin of Dakini Translations and Publications, a dear friend of mine, written in December 2020
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Apr 30, 2022
In Meeting the Dakini!
It's been an impactful last two months for me and in this last week, I have seen the clearing beyond the woodline and have made a B-line towards it. I can talk at you all day about the rough feelings, the awkward asks for help, the anxiety that had settled into my chest, and even the cusp of a mid-life crisis I've seen the glimpse of at the edge of this charnel ground. The look of not exhaustion, but of sheer annoyance has etched itself onto my face as my wild hair and dirty feet continue to carry me to the edge of this ashline. I further imagine myself beating my damaru as the hollow reminder that I asked for this obstacle. Missing a weekend teaching to be with family, I rolled up the driveway and walked in the door. Annoyed. Sour. The noises of laughter and chopping of vegetables only brought out, "I'm going to the Temple," in me. I couldn't even give a greeting in the state I was in. I walked out the back patio door and down the short trail to the back stupa area of Deer Park. My routine is to walk two and a half times around it, stepping out of that round to go up into the Kalachakra Temple, and when I'm done there, I complete the rest of my three rounds to head back up the trail to the house. On repeat, I chant Vajrayogini's mantra and in the temple, I kneel before Her tapestry and tear my heart out. But that day, there I was ... ... newly kneeling when I saw it - a mouse at the foot of HHDL's picture, which is in front of Vajrayogini. "If there's ever a place to die ... you did good, little one." I was going to leave it until I was done and then take it outside, when suddenly it started making noises! I crawled over to it and this little thing must have been just older than a baby because it had fur and claws, but with its eyes still closed and its mouth making little sucking sounds. I went to the other shrine area in the temple and found a roll of paper towel to pick this baby up with. Outside it was so cold and windy, and with how the baby was acting I knew it was stunned and needed care - so I couldn't just set it down to figure the world out itself. Had I done that, I believe that would have been negligent and so, it and me went around the stupa three times while I chanted Vajrayogini's mantra aloud for this little one to hear. I petted its head while I walked back up the trail to the house. There, in a container with more paper towel, sunflower seeds, and a cap of water we sat together on the patio steps. It opened its eyes to look at me as I spoke to it and petted its head some more. After a bit, I found a place sheltered from the wind, though in the sunshine, under a shrub to set this little one in the comfort and security of the container. Sometime shortly after that, when it had gained enough strength and fortitude, it was no longer in the container when I went out to check on it. I knew the little mouse left on its own accord because nothing else was disturbed around where the container was, nor was anything within the container, and the water was still in the cap. I walked back in the house now ready to join the world myself. Did you hear that? .. a wee mouse cracked my heart open.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Apr 26, 2022
In Meeting the Dakini!
Before my father died, he gave me a portrait of St. Francis of Assisi. It's a dark painting both in essence and color, with only the light revealing half of St. Francis' face, the skull, and outlines of the monk's robe. My father found this artwork behind construction paper in the office of a Jesuit nun who was living at the Jesuit Retreat House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. She did not like looking at [the essence of darkness] and so, she covered it; when it was discovered by my father, she gave it very willingly to him. It hung in my parents' home for years and years, and the contemplation of St. Francis on another saint's skull always fascinated me because I was always taught to fear death in the Christian faith. Moving into a new home isn't something I do often and I say that with a lot of trepidation, so I've been pausing on where to hang St. Francis - if at all - here on my new walls. But The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi crossed my path a few days ago rewritten by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and it moved me from fear and loss back into a place I can thrive from again: THE PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (with additions from Lama Zopa Rinpoche in brackets) Lord [Buddha], make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is discord, unity. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is error, truth. Where there is despair, hope. Where there is sadness, joy. Where there is darkness, light. O divine master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled [happiness for the ego] as to console; To be understood as to understand; To be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; It is in pardoning that we are pardoned; It is in dying [having practiced] that we are born to eternal life [from happiness to happiness up to full enlightenment]. May all beings effortlessly attain the transcendent blissful state of omniscient Buddhahood.
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 23, 2022
In Subtle Body & Therapeutic
Uchima, the Severed-Headed emanation of Vajrayogini holds the energy of a flash of lightening hitting the top of your head sending you into blissful dance. Oh my, is She terrifying in Her graceful posture! Khandro-la skillfully lead us in our lineage's movements of Refuge and Bodhicitta before we looked outside our four walls and saw the charnel ground of ash and smoke! There, the Dakinis danced in honor of Uchima and beckoned us to come into their circle. I was in awe of my embodiment of the energies in this particular subtle body class! The inner bliss of being in a charnel ground with others was empowering, allowing me to be the most authentic I have felt in a long, long time. I was very grateful for being given this opportunity to learn about Uchima through my teacher's eyes!
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 22, 2022
In In the Charnel Grounds
"In solitude, we are least alone." - Khandro-la This past weekend, Khandro-la gave a commentary on Machik's Five Slogans and what I most appreciated is how she broke down the five slogans within the three classifications of charnel grounds - outer, inner, and secret. The charnel ground we find ourself in is where the dakini arises and the five Dakinis weave in and out of all three. She dances in her different energies to the background music of our damaru and bell as our demons join her. It's all the same to a Dakini. We in the nirmanakaya too weave in and out of all three charnel grounds - the outer is where we physically find an ideal environment with adverse conditions to plant our feet for divine tantric practice, the inner is where our landscape darkly shifts to fear and we dance with it instead of leaving our footing, and the secret is where when the demons sing songs of forgetting who and what we are, we divinely belly laugh alongside the dakini. Samsara ... nirvana ... it's all the same to a Dakini. Machik Labdron was the Dakini who taught us the path of severance through her wisdom of Cho practice. Cho is cultivating the path of letting go of things that are good, bad, and ugly - it's all the same just by another name. It's about finding a different approach to how you live your life through working with your demons and seeing them as a support, a strength, and a way to transform them into awakened energies. Khandro-la called that "wisdom in disguise". Within this world of the five slogans for cho practitioners, the summation is that we are never alone in our striving for severance from self-cherishing and self-grasping. The fifth slogan is, "Go to the places that scare you," and that reveals to us the three charnel grounds. Those hold the other slogans of giving what we are attached to, confessing faults, helping where we don't think we can help, and embracing what is repulsive. Cho practice allows us to embody the greatness of it all as the dakini walks with us fiercely, alluringly, and lovingly in all our charnel grounds!
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TK | Dechen Wangmo
Feb 12, 2022
In Meeting the Dakini!
“Teachings tell us there are marks and signs to know when we’ve found a Dākinī and I ponder … just as I see Vajrayogini in the face of all sentient beings, what if I also choose to see the marks and signs of dākinī within them? When I do that, I sense which dākinī is hurting and so goes the train of thought, “What part of my dākinī can help them?” Is it my Karma Dākinī of action that is in the flash of smile alongside the skillful speech of Vajrayogini? Could it be the soft echo of wisdom and ash-covered footprints as my fierce Padma Dākinī calls to theirs from the charnel ground? How can I radiate the light of Vajra Dākinī to allow a feeling of bliss within their day? And the anxiety I see in their eyes my Ratna Dākinī calls out to embrace within Vajrayogini’s loving body, allowing inner child nurturing. How would I show them my own Buddha Dākinī in such a way that they need to help ease their mind? I admit I don’t know the list of the marks and signs of what to look for in a Dākinī, and I challenge myself to find them in my own way through a Bodhisattva’s eyes. In my past I’ve become lost in the contemplation of my own empathy and highly sensitive nature, but what if those heightened awarenesses are the Bodhisattva’s eyes that help a sentient being where no other could? That structure alone allows the self-grasping and the self-cherishing to be utterly cut at the root, offered up in the skullcup, again, to help those where no other could. May my dākinī always dance to help others.” — Personal Tsok Day Meditative Thoughts
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