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

Rating:
Summary: Cosmic Heterosexual Hegemony?
Review: Book is okay. It avoids some very difficult questions such as what if one is not a heterosexual practitioner?

Rating:
Summary: Getting past the stereotype
Review: Despite my curiosity and intrigued fascination with the mystical dakini - likened to angels and guardians of true spiritual practitioners - I've likewise heard the word dakini used to mean "hot babe" by regular people and Dharma practitioners alike. So is there any truth to the dakini being the true mystical feminine energy in the world? The author is keen to show that the dakini is not merely a gorgeous babe, but rather is a profound and vibrant force in our personal spiritual practice. Her main sources are directly from highly qualified lamas and their oral instructions, and she quotes them regularly throughout the book. She also quotes several lineage texts, adding the power of realized beings to her points. What struck me most was how well she melded such a fascinatingly mystical topic to fit such an academic, systematic format as a book - both the academic and metaphysical sides of my mind were satisfied. The only further thing I would have added to the book was an extra chapter or chapter topic describing the dakini practices in the other two schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Highly recommended for people interested in finding the dakini in all levels of their personal world.

Rating:
Summary: Cosmic Heterosexual Hegemony?
Review: In Tibetan Buddhism, the dakini or "sky-dancer" is a semi-wrathful spirit-woman who manifests in visions, dreams, and meditation experiences. Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle In Tibetan Buddhism persuasively argues that this phenomena cannot be adequately explained in terms of Jungian psychology or feminist goddess theology as a psychological "shadow", a feminine savior, or an objectified product of patriarchal fantasy. Author Judith Simmer-Brown (professor and chair of the religious studies department at Naropa University) reveals that the dakini symbolizes levels of personal relations, the sacredness of the body (both female and male), the profound meeting pint of body and mind in mediation, the visionary realm of ritual practice, and the empty , spacious qualities of the human mind itself. Dakini's Warm Breath is thoughtful, insightful, stimulating reading and strongly recommended for Buddhist studies and library reference collections.

Rating:
Summary: A Sensible Start (to the end of the beginning)
Review: 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!

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful light on the Feminine Principle
Review: Many, many thanks to all the people who made it possible for this book to be written. Thank you Judith for taking the time out of your life to make the journey to write this.

Western psychology has not been kind to women in general. This book embraces a feminine principle - no matter what gender it's manifesting in - that is deep, rich, and somehow completely understandable and recognizable in our own lives.

Encountering the Dakini - when asked what they were the Ven. Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche stated, "One Never Knows". That is a beautiful explanation. I could imagine people everywhere, when presented with the Dakini in their loved ones, mates, lovers, wives, husbands and friends, gently scratch their amazed heads and think, "What the........???"

The Feminist principle when examined from this viewpoint is much stronger than the traditional view and much softer that some of the "feminist" feminism. In the introduction she explains how western psychology models, which used parts of the Dakini principle, missed the point because they were taken out of context and without a good knowledge of the whole Tibetan source. Everyone who has suffered the insult of modern psychology can grasp at least partially why after reading this book.

The explanation of the principle of EVAM is concise and understandable. "Emptiness" suddenly made much more sense that it ever had before. In the same chapter is a symbol of the secret Dakini and a description of it with a good description of the elements of it - a little bit of sacred geometry.

I especially enjoyed the broader explanation of the Mandala. Bringing it into our immediate life renders it more useful and in turn allows us to grasp and comprehend the larger element of it. I wish this view of the Mandala was covered in more articles in mainstream magazines. I have never heard of "systems theory" so I found the description of "naturally existing mandalas" and the following passage extraordinary,

Conventionally, naturally existing mandalas cannot acknowledge that they are mandalas or systems with their own dynamics and parameters. It is especially difficult for mandalas to acknowledge the power generated between the center and perimeter. The center would like to manipulate its boundary, or the perimeter would like to overthrow the center. From a conventional point of view, the Mandala may be a dictatorship, in which the central figure does not acknowledge or respect the perimeter, and so it imposes its tyranny. Conversely, perhaps the perimeter does not acknowledge or respect the central power, and so it undermines and overthrows the center, creating rebellion, chaos, or anarchy. When this happens, everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator, and sacred outlook is impossible to maintain. Pain, fear, and self-serving preoccupation overtake the power dynamic, and no one can thrive. This dynamic can be seen in organizations, in the flow between the extreme of too much power centralized in one or two leaders and the extreme of no centralized leadership, with power struggles erupting between factions. When we do not see the Mandala principle at work, we constantly reject, grasp, or attempt to manipulate the world around us to make it into something other than what it is. We find it difficult to experience the richness of our environment.

Hmmmm, what a concept.

Some would question the necessity for a teacher or guru. However, watching the current administration deal with the global situation has made the case for a teacher a little more viable. I think now that the past "guru" abuses have been openly dealt with and acknowledged those with the responsibility of teaching hopefully will take it more seriously, thus allowing independent Americans to embrace the concept easier.

Whomever made the "hot babes" comment must have just been looking at the pictures. The written description of the Dakini's would somewhat discount the "babe" part (sow hairs on the back??) and the heat is actual heat. As in a hot flash that is not a hot flash. For good and bad I can see her presence in my life in many, many instances going back many years. If I had been aware of this I could have negotiated some of them better or rather, more "skillfully".

There are some aspects of the sexual part of the practice I would like explained further. If I understand it correctly, the female "emptiness" or inspiration combines with the male skill and compassion to create skillful action that has insight and wisdom to guide it. What if one of the aspects is not as developed as the other? Everyone who has had a sexual partner has at one time or another thought, "Well, thats enough for you." The previous common thought in feminist circles was the "sex as power" explanation (which made sense until I read this book). In our society sex has equaled power in many instances but I wonder if we would have felt the need to withdraw it had our "inspiration" been used in better ways than the prevailing global mess. I wonder if at some visceral level partners who have felt that their inspiration/wisdom OR skill/compassion was not being used for the best declined to participate?

This is a wonderful book that hopefully will be widely read by both men and women.






Rating:
Summary: The feminine principle in Tibetan Buddhism
Review: 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


Rating:
Summary: A Must Have for Feminists and buddhists
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Feminine in Buddhist Tantra - The Inside Story
Review: This book is highly readable, accurate, and informative. Beyond that, it is true to the essence of Vajrayana Buddhist teaching. Judith Simmer-Brown is both chairwoman of the religious studies department of Naropa University, and an acharya, an empowered teacher, of the Shambhala lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. It is inspired and useful reading for the practitioner of Vajrayana teachings, and should also be of benefit to someone who is contemplating that path but has not yet joined it. Her sources include personal meetings with and the oral and written teachings of several great modern teachers including Chogyam Trungpa, Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, and Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche, as well as many great historical teachers and texts, and the existing academic literature on the subject.

It is written so as to meet all the requirements of an academic contribution to religious studies, and I expect that other reviewers will praise it from that point of view also. There are excellent notes and a bibliography at the end. The subject of the dakini principle has been approached in a variety of ways in recent literature which gives one every opportunity to misunderstand it. So it is necessary to explain that this is not a Jungian interpretation of the feminine as the anima, it is not about goddess worship or modern paganism, it is not a feminist complaint that the Vajrayana exploits women, nor does it interpret Vajrayana as the worship of women (although Vajrayana offers profound respect for women). All of these views are currently available, and Simmer-Brown treats each sympathetically, but the essence of what is to be understood transcends all of them and all interpretations. Judith Simmer-Brown offers up her own feminist background as part of the feast of insight into the dakini.

Vajrayana wisdom is based on the Mahayana view of the three turnings of the wheel of dharma. The first turning of the wheel teaches the four noble truths, and analyzes how grasping and fixation on what we desire leads to further suffering. The second turning of the wheel teaches the emptiness of any true self, and the emptiness of all phenomena. The third turning teaches that beyond emptiness, beyond any selfness of oneself or the external world, is wisdom and luminosity, inconceivable to the conceptually bound mind. It teaches that all beings have buddha nature, or the inherent capacity to evolve so as to realize this. Vajrayana Buddhism can only be understood within the context of these teachings, otherwise it degenerates into shamanism, magic, or pleasure seeking for personal ends. This book is constantly grounded in this understanding.

Vajrayana is the path of skillful means. It is designed to quicken the progress of those of us with female and male human bodies, and it uses many techniques to engage our bodies, our thoughts and our emotions to achieve realization and liberation. In Buddhist Vajrayana, wisdom is the feminine principle, and skillful means is the masculine principle. The feminine principle, wisdom, is primordial space, the source or womb which gives birth to all phenomena. Therefore it comes first. But both these principles are found in men and women, and their union is what sets the world on fire and produces liberation. The dakini is the personification or symbol of the feminine principle, but in some sense is also beyond gender. This is the core subject of Simmer-Brown's book.

Simmer-Brown's treatment of the dakini is organized around a poem by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, reprinted in the book, which speaks of the secret dakini, the inner dakini, the outer dakini, and the outer-outer dakini. The last of these is the dakini as a human woman. The discussion of these four is powerful and leisurely, and diffuses many possible misunderstandings along the way. The book really covers the entire vajrayana path. It discusses the three roots: guru, yidam and protector. It contains an amazingly lucid discussion of the mandala principle. It discusses the generation and completion stages of vajrayana practice. It explains how the transmission of the dharma across generations is kept both authentic and up-to-date by means of both the ear whispered lineage and the discovered treasure (terma) lineage, and discusses the role of the dakini in both of these. Indeed, the book appears to give away too many secrets, but what keeps it pure is the author's veneration of her teachers, her profound respect and insight into the subject, and the constant grounding of the Vajrayana in the view of Mahayana Buddhism.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants an introduction to the authentic essence of Buddhist Tantra, as well as someone whose specific interest is in the feminine principle or dakini. The title of the book suggests the freshness and living presence of the dakini, the breath as the ear-whispered teachings of Vajrayana, and the breath as the very essence of Buddhist meditation. If you want to know more than what Judith Simmer-Brown's book teaches, you will have to find a personal teacher.

Rating:
Summary: A marvelous work
Review: This is a marvelous book. It is comprehensive in its treatment of the dakini, those fascinating female inspirational beings of tantric Buddhism. What I find most impressive about this work is Simmer Brown's ability to combine 'scientific' research with insight gained from her own practice and from the lamas who have taught her. This is how religious studies scholarship ought to be done, but rarely is.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Work of Writing and Research
Review: Though I have been practicing for years now, it is only recently that I have begun to look more into the place of women within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. This book is lucid,clear and direct. I love Simmer-Brown's writing style which is very strong and doesn't lose its focus or purpose. There have been some very good books coming out on Tibetan Buddhism recently, of which this is one. I would say that background knowledge is a must for this, as it is not a newbie read!

(One reader from NY,NY stated that the book, or practices for that matter, seemed to be heterosexualy biased. Well, yes they are. In India and Tibet homosexuality would not have been figured into Tantric practices the way heterosexuality was.Since the author was creating a large survey for this book, homosexuality would most likely not be included from the traditional sources she referenced.)