Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism

The primary emblem of the feminine in Tibetan Buddhism is the dakini, or "sky-dancer," a semi-wrathful spirit-woman who manifests in visions, dreams, and meditation experiences. Western scholars and interpreters of the dakini, influenced by Jungian psychology and feminist goddess theology, have shaped a contemporary critique of Tibetan Buddhism in which the dakini is seen as a psychological "shadow," a feminine savior, or an objectified product of patriarchal fantasy. According to Judith Simmer-Brown—who writes from the point of view of an experienced practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism—such interpretations are inadequate.

In the spiritual journey of the meditator, Simmer-Brown demonstrates, the dakini symbolizes levels of personal realization: the sacredness of the body, both female and male; the profound meeting point of body and mind in meditation; the visionary realm of ritual practice; and the empty, spacious qualities of mind itself. When the meditator encounters the dakini, living spiritual experience is activated in a nonconceptual manner by her direct gaze, her radiant body, and her compassionate revelation of reality. Grounded in the author's personal encounter with the dakini, this unique study will appeal to both male and female spiritual seekers interested in goddess worship, women's spirituality, and the tantric tradition.

Simmer-Brown applies a lifetime of learning and practice to this exploration of Tibetan dakini traditions. With the guidance of numerous Tibetan teachers, she gives us the lore of enlightened women--real founders of spiritual lineages, classical images of inner liberation, voices of wisdom, tales of visionary guides, or modern women who are teaching today. The author explains the significance and role of these traditions in Tibetan Buddhism, both historically, and for individual seekers of enlightenment. She carefully puts Western interpretations in context, showing how Jungian psychology or modern feminism impose a polemic view of Tibet's dakinis. She refers to Tibetan female teachers themselves, who explain their struggles in a patriarchal culture, but point to a deeper kind of identity, beyond any duality of male and female.

This book is wonderful. As an academic book it is a model of moderate, responsible, rational and empathetic scholarship. As a book on Buddhist teachings it is rich, well-written, informative and inspiring. It is also a much needed corrective to well-intentioned but flawed books like Women of Wisdom (Tsultrim Allione) and Passionate Enlightenment (Miranda Shaw). When I was in University I knew two fellow non-Buddhist students who loved this book for its approach to feminist issues and scholarship, considering it one of the best Religious Studies books they had read. I very much agree, and highly recommend it.

Judith Simmer-Brown seeks in this stufy to help cultivate a culture of awakening in the west by brokering a peaceful resolution to the ongoing "gender wars," themselves predicated on a radical misunderstanding of who and what we really are: "These teachings may have the potential for liberating the very views of gender that have blocked much spiritual progress in Western culture" (P 8).Simmer-Brown, to her credit, has little patience for cheesy apologetics for patriarchy or shrill and essentialistic pop feminist-esque positions. She also explores precisely how the dakini works in Vajrayana, pulling the rug out from under the aforementioned Jungian and second-wave (70's style goddess-constructing) feminist appropriations and abuses of the dakini in the process.

Simmer-Brown is fabulously well-informed on this; her sources are authoritative and her proposals are uniformly sensible and workable in practice (although I do have a few minor reservations about her critical theory, but I anticipate). She is at her best when discussing Vajrayana practice; she writes with less confidence, for example, when she proposes Paul Ricoeur's symbolic as an analogue for the dakini's role early in the book, then abandons the symbolic for the rest of the study (an alternative in a moment). While I respect and admire Simmer-Brown for recognizing where her work needs to lead in the future, to intensive study on the heruka's being and to address the role and place of homosexual/homosocial/monogendered relations in tantra, I am saddened that she seems content to play fast and loose with concepts such as subjectivity, and subjugation and subjectification that follow from it.

I really wish Simmer-Brown had been advised to read the work of Deleuze and Guattari, and Helene Cixous, for tools to more rigorously and elegantly break open uncluttered conceptual space in which to grasp the dakini intellectually. Can the dakini, whose body is of space and who traffics in bodily dismemberment and cannibalism, function as the Body without Organs par excellance? And are female, dakini-empowered teaching lineages a rhizomic-nomadic process, as distinguished from the monastic patriarchal structures which would be sedentary and arborescent in nature (with important implications for subjectivity and subjectification)? You can read A Thousand Plateaus and find out, dear reader; I have reason to think there is a dakini protecting that volume, too.

Another idea: Dakinis are symbolically feminine and communicate in a unique, coded, visionary manner. Now, are dakini messages uniquely powerful examples of what Cixous describes as "ecriture feminine," or feminine writing?

Simmer-Brown has initiated a process of reconciling the ways of the dakini to contemporary life and scholarly discourse, and I hope her work gets the follow-up and following among intelligent readers, practicing Buddhists, and intellectuals it deserves, for the sake of All This and Everyone In It.

Now, how valuable is this book (after I've proposed solutions to what my humble mind sees as its more conspicuous shortcomings)? Let's say, hypothetically, that you've driven a few hundred miles of wind and dust in order to meet-and-greet the fine poets of Weber State University, but your horse loses a wheel and you're stuck at the Les Schwab tire store in Ogden, Utah. May I suggest that this book is very much worth the evel eye you'll get from certain of the locals when they view the book's cover art through their Wal-Mart bifocals and diabetic eyes? It's great stuff by a great author in a great tradition. Great, great, great, worth getting run out of town by an angry pack of elderly flatlanders for daring to read it.

Homage to the herukas, the dakinis, and all true gurus!

The feminine (not: female) principle is very important, even indispensible, in third-cycle (vajrayana) teachings of Tibetan Buddhism.

Whether transcendent as nonconceptual living archetype of primordial Wisdom, or embodied as female "sky-goer" ("sky" meaning "space" as the ground and expanse of all being), the Wisdom Dakini is the Great Mother, the visionary Queen, the subtle body of bliss, Protector of the tantric teachings, Remover of all obstacles to authentic spiritual practice, consort of practitioners in mutual alchemy (subtle spiritual transformation).

How she is seen depends upon the "sacred outlook" of the meditator. Moreover, anyone who doesn't respect her Presence on his or her level of experience, will inadvertently face her fierce, wrathful expression.

This wonderful book is the most comprehensive study I have encountered on the subject of the feminine principle in Tibetan Buddhism, as well as the interaction between the male and female principles in spiritual practice. A must-read for anyone interested.

As a side note: on page 66 of this book there is an exceptionally lovely and beautiful picture of Yeshe Tsogyal ("Ocean of Wisdom"), one of the principle consorts of Guru Padmasambhava.

"The teachings of the whispered lineage

are the Dakini's warm breath"

- Milarepa

This book is at once both a very much needed manual for serious students of Buddhism as well as a clear and authoritative education for the feminist.

For the Feminist: This is a book that should be savored and closely studied. The wisdom that this research and insight present transcends any idea that anyone--male or female--could have cooked up about any topic adressed here. I doubt that I will ever be able to hold a serious conversation on the subject of gender differences with anyone, male or female, who has not read this book. Every page is filled with the author's insights and detailed instructions gathered during many years of her own personal investigation. Along the way she debunks many previous misunderstandings of respected authors and thinkers who have attempted to prove their biased points of view using Tibetan texts and ideas as their reference points, but have misconstrued the basic meaning due to their own wishful thinking. Simmer-Brown points out that the female mind is neither superior nor inferior to, and not the same as and not different from the male mind. One begins to see that the battle of the sexes has come about from a simple confusion with regard to the mind itself, explained here in terms of the feminine principle of Secret Dakini. Relative differences do exist and when understood properly, become a strength that both genders can draw from. The complex topic of the role of women in religion and for that matter in any society is given a breath of fresh air with keen insights such as:

"For Tibetans, the `feminine' refers to the limitless, ungraspable, and aware qualities of the ultimate nature of mind; it also refers to the intensely dynamic way in which that awareness undermines concepts, hesitation, and obstacles in the spiritual journeys of female and male Vajrayana practioners. The `masculine' relates to the qualities of fearless compassion and actions that naturally arise from the realization of limitless awareness, and the confidence and effectiveness associated with enlightened action."(p.33)

For the vajrayana practioner: This book is a very much needed education and elucidation of the four levels of dakini, explained in plain English, with a logical progression through all of the important points. Your understanding will deepen and you will find inspiration to investigate and practice further. For instance, these insights into vajrayana mediation:

"Deity yoga in Tibetan Buddhism gives traditional expression to the fundamental sacredness of human life, our enlightened natures. This inherently awake nature has no conditioned existence, but it arises in radiant forms ceaselessly throughout our lives." (p.166) "The ordinary chemistry between men and women is a powerful expression of the fundamental dynamic of phenomena. For this reason, the realm of gender relationships if of utmost interest for the tantrika, for the dynamic experienced there exposes the heart of the world. The sharp edginess of women reaches for the blunt pragmatism of men; at the same time, men yearn for the emotional intensity of women. Sexual yearning is, at its heart, no different from spiritual yearning. Appreciating contrast and complementarity is central to the tantrika's life, as is tracing the dance between men and women in the ordinary discourse. And sexual passion is a central expression of this dynamic, which goes to the heart of the tantrika's body and mind." (p. 215)

Future generations of tantric practioners will praise this book highly as a clear and concise study aid, unlocking such mysterious topics as the vajra master, the meditation deity, the protector principle, and women and men.