Dakini

A dakini is the wisdom principle in female form. The Tibetan word is khandro, built from "space" and "going": she who moves through space. That space is emptiness, and the moving is a wisdom that catches on nothing. Mobile, hard to pin down, and never quite the shape she was a moment ago.

More than a figure on a thangka

Dakinis appear in several ways, and the tradition deliberately keeps those meanings open. There are wisdom dakinis, fully realised forms visualised in practice. There are women of flesh and blood recognised as dakinis, of whom Yeshe Tsogyal is the best known, consort of Guru Rinpoche and the one to whom we owe a great part of the terma teachings.

And then there is the dakini as whatever crosses your path at the moment it is needed. In the life stories of the great masters this is often an unwelcome encounter. Someone says exactly the wrong thing, or the right thing at the wrong time, and a certainty you spent years building falls over. That is how the principle works. It cuts through self-satisfaction, and it does not ask whether the timing suits you.

There is a temptation to reduce all this to a gentle symbol of the feminine. That falls short. Dakinis are often depicted peacefully, but just as often wrathfully, naked, dancing on a corpse, a curved knife in hand. Those images are not a threat. They indicate how thoroughly one's own grasping is dealt with.

Dakini day and our practice

The twenty-fifth day of every Tibetan lunar month is Dakini day. We gather then for the tsok offering, as we do on the tenth day, Guru Rinpoche day. It is one of the steady rhythms of the centre.

Within the Düdjom Tersar, Khandro Thugthik, the essence of the dakini's heart, holds a central place. The practice focuses on the wisdom of the feminine principle and is known for its power to reveal the true nature of mind. Lama Sonam Tashi Rinpoche taught on it here in Hoofddorp.

Tsok dates shift with the lunar calendar. The tsok calendar shows when the next one falls.