Our Kechara is so blessed with powerful potent female, wisdom, Vajra Yogini, queen, ying, ladies, dakinis, feminine, flowery, night, moon, goddess, femme fatale energy.
How fortunate we are to worship feminine energy..and to journey to enlightenment through this volcanic universal mother creator force.
We have so many dedicated, committed, educated, hard working, intelligent, compassionate, generous ladies in KECHARA. They do so much in every dept….some are gentle, some are fierce, some are soft, some are firm, some are fast, some are methodical..but they all manifest this powerful female compassionate force that is beautiful from all aspects…… They are true dakinis of all colors, shapes and sizes within Kechara….when I look now, they are the ones making the huge leap forward within Kechara and for Kechara…I honour them and treasure them… The women in Kechara are amazing. Most of my life, it has been mostly women who have supported and helped me in Dharma for many decades. Without this powerful wisdom force, there can be no enlightenment….Women are such powerful forces to be reckoned with and respected tremendously. I take refuge in the supreme Dakini always.
Tsem Rinpoche
(Vajrayoginī is “inarguably the supreme deity of the Tantric pantheon. No male Buddha, including her divine consort, Heruka Chakrasaṃvara, approaches her in metaphysical or practical import.
Shaw, Miranda (2006). Buddhist Goddesses of India…. USA: Princeton University Press. p. 8.-posted by Shin of E-Division)
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Well said by Rinpoche that there are indeed many dedicated, committed, educated, hard working, intelligent, compassionate, generous ladies in KECHARA. Kechara strong women knew they have the strength enough for the journey. They are courageous and dauntless in the face of unbelievable struggle who handles challenges with grace and patience. Their lives have inspired more to come . They have attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. Thank you to all the ladies out there at Kechara.
Women are a powerful force for change around the world. They are changing the world by overcoming hurdles and setting an example for others and inspired others.
It is not coincidental that past and present masters praised Diamond Lady , Vajrayogini as our saviour during this materialistic, desire driven times. As Rinpoche had said, her practice is most appropriate for us.
Across the world more female are working than ever before, and are very successful holding the top post. Thank you very much for nice write up.
Power and powerful positions have most often been associated with male as opposed to female gender. But now more and more female are in positions of power. Across the world more female are working than ever before, and are very successful holding the top post. In Kechara itself is so blessed with many powerful female energy.
Thank you, Rinpoche for sharing .
Very rarely we hear tributes to the female gender, this is truly refreshing. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this ecomium about the female forces behind the success of Kechara. May this unyielding force continue to bring Kechara to new heights!
Dear Rinpoche,
Beautiful tribute!
It is worth noting that we hear very little about female Masters, yoginis, or female hermits of the Gelug tradition in particular. Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche once apologized for this patriarchal element of Gelugpa society, but never addressed whether or not there is historical as well as present-day accounts of Tibetan female Gelugpa yoginis. Do you know if there are any?
Janice D. Willis wrote the wonderful ‘Enlightened Beings’ book about early Gelugpa Yogis, but we only know of female Master, yoginis, and female hermitages of the Buddhist tradition that are pre-Gelug or from other traditions. Rob Preece’s book The Psychology of Buddhist Tantra is a very important read in general, but he also beautifully covers the subject of the feminine.
Not that long retreat is a necessary prerequisite for attaining realizations as everyone’s karma is different, but it is certainly inspiring to know about female yoginis of the Gelug tradition doing long term retreats. I know a handful of amazing female Gandenpas who have done a lot of retreat, some doing 3-5+yrs of solitary, so beautiful and inspiring!
Rinpoche is kind to point and acknowledge women and their contribution to his organization, society, families, communities and the entire world. I like Pastor David’s comment above that this maternal care and special nurturing quality that women possess is imbibed within all regardless of their gender. Without the high lamas of the world who take on the body of men as is visible to my eye who give the dharma to the world, life wouldn’t be so great. Thank you for your great kindness Rinpoche.
And this is why the Spice Girls had it all right in the mid 1990s when they championed girl power!
Jokes aside, I find it fascinating that one of the tantric vows (the highest sets of vows) includes not deriding women. How wonderful and beautiful it is to acknowledge that one of the most powerful way to gain tantric attainments is to acknowledge the feminine energy – as is said, women hold up half the sky! I take that not only to mean that women are physically make up half the population, but that within every single one of us, we embody both male and female energies and we need to embrace the equality and potential of both to progress spiritually. After all, someone might be a man in this lifetime, but it is most definite that he would have had hundreds of thousands of lifetimes previous to this one which were female. So to deride women and not to acknowledge their power is to deny not only the potential of half the world, but our own potential within ourselves.
That’s not to say that we do a reverse sexism thing, where we turn into huge raging feminists that do the opposite by deriding men! To acknowledge women is not to say that they are better or that men are worse, but to acknowledge that inherently, the capabilities of both are equally strong.
Stereotyping social roles based on gender is not unusual in the society. However the fact that the society now is getting more women-dominated has made gender discrimination invalid. There are so many female leaders in the world, Ang Su Kyi is one of the foremost female leaders who radiates the powerful potent female energy. Her spiritual practice has brought tremendous results in her life.
I strongly believe that female can be good pastor. Why not? Personally I respect Pastor Yek Yee of Kechara a lot. She is always available 24/7 to help others and she never make any complaints. She dedicates her life to Dharma and benefitting others. She is beautiful in all aspects…
Females may look gentlea and physically not strong and useless in strength. But overall the female energy is any time much stronger than the male energy. The energy in the female’s mind is also much stronger in terms of concentration and wisdom. The female can withstand sufferings in childbirth and be able to tolerate pain better than a male. In Kechara Organisation most of the Departments head are females. We have Datuk May as the President of Kechara House. We have 13 Departments majority are headed by females.In Kechara Oasis we have Irene as the Head of the two vegetarian restaurants. Yoke Fui as head of Kechara House Gompa and centre.In Kechara Media and Publications Li Kim is the head of department. Kechara in Motion is Ms Han. In E-Division is Beng Kooi. And Kechara Soup Kitchen is Datuk Ruby. Since Vajrayogini is the main deity of Kechara Organisation and is also the name of Vajrayogini abode. Rinpoche has named the centre Kechara House.
Being female is indeed a force to be reckoned with. For most of us, we already recognize that the kindest person in our lives is our mother. Being able to identify with this maternal kindness is the cornerstone for all our recognition of kindness and compassion. It permeates everyone, whether we are male or female and is the very reason we exist at all.
I think this female ideal is not anything to do with sexuality or gender. It has got everything to do with the maternal instinct in us. Taking care of children and babies is considered and even joked about as a maternal instinct but actually, it can be extended towards caring for others through our platonic, work and civil relationships with have for others. We draw upon that strength and it makes us better and happier people. These are just what went through my head as I read this wonderful post.
On the worldly level, we have heard the following tribute paid to women:
‘Behind the success of every man is a woman.’
‘Half the world is held up by Women.’
( Mao’s words on this matter has weight as he controlled 1/5 of the world’s population then)
History shows that women can do better than men even in a man’s job. Empress Wu Tze Tien , the only de facto woman empress in China ( not Empress Dowager) ruled longer than any other monarch.During her reign there was a peace and prosperity which the people had never enjoyed before.
It is not coincidental that past and present masters praised Diamond Lady , Vajrayogini as our saviour during this materialistic, desire driven times. As Rinpoche had said, her practice is most appropriate for us.
It takes female energy and wisdom to save us from this most challenging time.
Hi Rinpoche,
Would be excellent to hear more about Dakini, Feminine Energy as you’ve already written about here.
I’ve come across this talk online…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdmN6CvzsMI
If there are other resources you could post about it, when you catch a moment, would be wonderful for me to learn more about how feminine energy—as expressed by women family members, friends, relationships, colleagues—is an expression of Dakini. I’m not even sure I’m using that word correctly.
Since the devastation in Japan, I’ve been feeling more and more, on a conceptual level, that there is a “birthing” process happening to the world and all the changes happening. Women, I believe, more than men, hold the wisdom and power of what it means to birth our world anew. I think about the Kechara World Peace Center, and what you have written here: “when I look now, they are the ones making the huge leap forward within Kechara and for Kechara.”
As a guy, would love to hear some more words…if appropriate…that clarifies and explains women, mothers, feminine energy in the Light and Truth of Dharma.
Men suffer from the patriarchal distortions of the society and norms we’ve grown up in. Thank you for the posting above and sounding the Truth of Women, especially during these rapidly changing times.
Sincerely,
Jnaseh
It is so true Rinpoche, not only they are strong and determined; they set a good example for the ladies out there that woman can be mentally & physically strong too… and they don’t have to lead a “standard” life which is determined by the society. In fact, there are more and more female leaders in the world and it only proved that with determination, it is possible.
We almost complete the first two series of the greeting cards project… and in fact there are so many projects going on at the same time. With this post, it made me realize, many of these projects are lead by female… and most of them have proven to be great leaders and sensitive, and very very precised which I find it inspiring to work with. They are the ones who explored different angles of things to make things fresh & very forward thinking. It is like every day they wake up tilt their heads in different angle to explore the world… What happened to the guys I wonder? hehe…
The powerful capable incredible wonderwomen of Kechara I dare say is unique, exquisite, full of strength & very intelligent and is very very rare to find such group in other places. Not that they don’t exist out there, but hey; from an Empress transformed into The Dame; from a decent florist at KSA transformed into High Fashion Models; & from dedicated reserved senior citizen transformed into a mistress ALL IN TWO HOURS. I mean, who can let go and adapt so quickly?
Only with those who understands. I respect that a lot.