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

gender symbols are used to animate and express the dynamic world of duality, which is viewed as a painful alienation from the truth of things as they are.

Woman is essentially wisdom, Source of spontaneous prajñā and subtle-body. Never consider her inferior; Strive especially to see her as Vajravārāhī1 —MILAREPA

We realize that all women, all beings for that matter, appear in their bodies as emanations: “while they are not women in reality, they appear in the form of women.”87

Ricoeur was perhaps the most articulate in demonstrating that symbols shape the formations of the self through an intimate process of opening and letting go of ego-centered concerns.

Women’s bodies reflect the dynamic qualities of limitless space and the wisdom that knows that space. Men’s bodies reflect skillful action, which enacts the wisdom of space.

On the other hand, when skillful means (upāya, thap) manifests in the styles of human men, there is strength, solidity, and resiliency. In contrast to feminine energy, the masculine is obvious and oriented toward the material world of manifestation and action.

Adverse conditions are the true wealth of a practitioner. . . .

The heat and intensity of women’s energy can trip emotional triggers that can create enormous chaos. This can be beneficial when intractable situations present themselves. For example, when bureaucracy becomes overbearing or when stubborn logics and habitual styles are employed, intense emotionality can liberate the ponderous environment.

any tantric practitioner, whether male or female, who carries the Vajrayāna commitments especially of the practice of the feminine yidam is also considered an embodied ḍākinī, foiling the notion that only women can be considered human ḍākinīs. Finally, subsuming all