Can a woman become enlightened? This question often arises in the minds of people who have heard from the lips of priests - representatives of some exoteric movements in the East, for example Hinduism, that in order for a woman to become enlightened and achieve salvation, i.e. broke the circle of samsara, and the sequence of incarnations on earth, she must first incarnate in a male body, in which the possibility of enlightenment will only appear, and enlightenment itself will arise subject to compliance with the Dharma - a religious law that prescribes and prohibits certain norms of behavior. Therefore, a woman cannot become enlightened, because this prerogative is given by nature only to a man. Any sane person will see chauvinistic motives of sexual discrimination in this argumentation and will not be able to take them into account. And he will do the right thing! But we are interested in something else: why did such forms of judgment once arise and continue to exist to this day?
The answer to this question has long existed, but knowledge of it in our time, unfortunately, is very rare. This kind of logical balancing act appears due to the incorrect interpretation by exotericists (representatives of religious circles) of the canon of sacred science, in particular, the provisions of the theory of reincarnation.
This is what the explanation of the phenomenon of enlightenment looks like in Kabbalah - the esoteric tradition of the ancient Jews, from where these data were transferred to the esoteric schools of the single Primordial Tradition. The essence of human enlightenment is an increase in the surrounding light in the world (light of Ohr Makif, or OM). The entire nature of light is divided into 4 main types: direct light, or or yashar (OYA); reflected light, or Ohr Hozer (OH); inner light, or or pnimi (OP); the surrounding light, or Ohr Makif (OM). In proportion, these lights look like this: OY=OX=OP+OM. Since the ambient light (OM) is the light that is in the bestowing kelim (vessels, properties) of the human soul, its increase depends on the decrease in the volume of the receiving kelim, and therefore the decrease in the internal light (OP).
Next, you need to know that the nature of the female soul is the Kelim of receiving with the intention for the sake of receiving + the Kelim of bestowal with the intention for the sake of receiving, and the nature of the male soul is the Kelim of receiving for the sake of bestowal + the Kelim of bestowal for the sake of bestowal. The surrounding light (OM), which is in the bestowing Kelim of the female soul and in the bestowing Kelim of the male soul, affects the enlightenment of a woman and the enlightenment of a man differently, because the bestowing Kelim of the female soul work in the intention for the sake of receiving, and the bestowing Kelim of the male soul work in the intention for the sake of recoil. In other words, the ambient light (OM) is capable of producing enlightenment in a person only when it fills the bestowing Kelim who work in the intention for the sake of bestowal, and these are the bestowing Kelim of the male part of the world soul.
Therefore, in order for a woman to become enlightened, she needs to receive bestowing Kelim somewhere, working in the intention for the sake of bestowal. And such are found only in the bestowing Kelim of the male part of the world soul. Why does the ambient light (OM), located in the bestowing kelim of the female part of the world soul, not produce enlightenment? Because these Kelim of bestowal work in the intention for the sake of receiving, that is, a paradoxical situation arises when the light necessary for enlightenment is available, but it cannot produce work, since the Kelim does not have the necessary intention to work in bestowal for the sake of bestowal.
Where can a woman get these bestowing Kelim, who work not for the sake of receiving, but for the sake of bestowing? Only a man has these Kelim, and, therefore, she will be able to include them in her work in the world only if she adds to them her Kelim of bestowal, working for the sake of receiving. In other words, a woman’s enlightenment depends on whether there is a man next to her who works in his Kelim of Bestowal, at least 10% or more. Why is this minimum capped at 10%? Because in the 10 Sefirot that bestow the Kelim on the male part of the world soul, there is one Sefira – Malchut, which is not included in the work of bestowal with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Nature itself carries out this work with a person, but the proof that we desire this is working in the Kelim of Bestowal with the intention of bestowing at least 10%. The proof that a woman also wants to receive enlightenment is that she marries this man, adding to his Kelim of bestowal with the intention of bestowal her Kelim of bestowal with the intention of receiving.
To sum up our article, let’s say that a woman does not have to wait for the next incarnation of her soul into a male body, as many orthodox believers claim. To receive enlightenment, she must find a beloved man and begin to serve him with all the bestowing Kelim of her soul.
Universe woman.
Every woman is like the universe. Every woman has all the energies of the universe. Since time immemorial, Hindus have likened the womb of the Universe, as well as the solar womb, to a woman's womb. About the first it is said: “Her belly is as vast as Meru itself,” and “future mighty oceans slumbered in the waters that filled its cavities, continents, seas and mountains, stars, planets, gods and demons and humanity.” In terms of its internal and external shell, it all resembled a coconut, from the inside...
Indian society at the time of the formation of the Pali canon (4th-2nd centuries BC) was extremely patriarchal, inclined to emphasize the superiority of men in everything. The degraded position of women in society was reinforced in Brahminical literature; it is enough to recall the famous saying of Manu: “Day and night, women should be dependent on their men...
The father protects her in childhood, the husband protects her in youth, the sons protect her in old age; a woman is never fit to be independent.” (Manu...
It is my hope that such research may become so widespread that the survey given here will soon become but a small stroke in the long, rich history of women in the spiritual life.
CHRISTIANITY. In the Christian tradition, throughout its long history, information has been preserved about many women - saints and mystics.
These are Joan of Arc, several Catherines, Blessed Angela of Foligno, Dame Julian of Norwich, Madame Guyon, and St. Teresa...
“For the Lord will do something new on earth: the woman will save the husband” (Jer. 31, 22)
The Old Testament testifies to the deepest respect for women and is far from considering her the “weaker sex.” Careful Reading Holy Scripture proves that if a woman does not enjoy a position in him similar to that of a man, it is only because she is assigned her own, special role.
In the New Testament, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul gives us as an example the lives of many Old Testament righteous people, or rather their...
Veshtitsa is a character in South Slavic demonology, combining the properties of a real woman and a demon (cf. East Slavic witch).
According to Serbian beliefs, Veshtitsa became a woman who was possessed by a “devil spirit” or who entered into a deal with the devil and sold her soul to him.
A girl could become a Veshti (on reaching maturity) if she was conceived by her parents at an “unkind hour”, on the eve of big holiday, either born “in a shirt” of a special bloody color, or born in...
The idea that the good fairy, who comes to the aid of the unfortunate and gives advice to the inexperienced, is necessarily beautiful, golden-haired and blue-eyed, is firmly rooted in the mass European consciousness, and the evil witch, no matter how she pretends to be a beautiful stranger, will sooner or later reveal her repulsive face with crooked nose and protruding teeth.
If good intentions are completely denied to unattractive women, then some wisdom is still recognized behind them (for example, Ivan Tsarevich runs...
Questions are addressed to Master Umi.
Francis:
I'm looking for a Master, but I don't know who to choose. Moreover, most masters travel the world and it would be impossible to be with just one all the time. For example, I may see one master once a year where he is staying or at Satsang, but there will be no guidance from him for a year.
Umi, can I awaken to reality by meeting the master every year? Or would it be better to have a master present every day?
Umi:
Yes, daily...
Can a woman become enlightened? This question often arises in the minds of people who have heard from the lips of priests - representatives of some exoteric movements in the East, for example Hinduism, that in order for a woman to become enlightened and achieve salvation.
Those. broke the circle of samsara, and the sequence of incarnations on earth, she must first incarnate in a male body, in which the possibility of enlightenment will only appear, and enlightenment itself will arise subject to compliance with the Dharma...
Swami Vivekananda, who brought the teachings of Vedanta to the West, once wrote: "The world has no chance of prosperity until the condition of woman improves. A bird with one wing cannot fly."
As the evolution of humanity enters a new phase characterized by the transcendence of the boundaries of the Ego and the recognition of the unity of all life, it seems necessary to turn to what is most needed in this time of change. What I mean by this is the relative dearth of examples in the existing literature that are helpful to women entering the spiritual life. When I was looking through religious literature on biblical history to find material for this book, I was saddened to see the extent to which women were kept “outside the temple.” Spiritually aspiring women can find very few examples of women to serve as models for them, whether from among our contemporaries or historical figures. Likewise, spiritual literature addresses women much less frequently than men.
Of course, liberation is traditionally recognized as something unconditionally universal, and then already male or female. This is reminiscent of the myth of life before the Fall into dualism and sexuality and how it is likely to be with the advent of a new age when the androgynous human being combines the psychology of both man and woman. It will be fullness and fusion in individual consciousness the best traits traditionally seen as masculine and feminine. Genuine spiritual literature recognizes this and goes beyond gender divisions; it brings truth to men's and women's hearts and minds alike, encouraging liberation from all particular identifications and from attachment to that which does not correspond to the absolute. The emphasis here is on God rather than gender differences; on the spirit, and not on roles determined by gender.
Although gender equality has long been advocated and supported by individuals - Jesus and Buddha were two of the few such individuals - it is clear that it has not yet been achieved in practice. So in a sense it is a new idea, or at least an ideal, the time has finally come for its implementation. I do not know of any society before our time in which a man and a woman would regard each other as psychologically and culturally equal. In all societies, either patriarchy or matriarchy prevailed. And the last three thousand years as a whole have been the era of Man, the era of patriarchy. Before this, human affairs were influenced by the religion of the Great Mother, even if these affairs were mainly local and tribal.
Since the age of the priestesses was replaced by the age of the priests (for whatever reasons) - I think this is best explained by Ken Wilber in his book Up from Paradise - women have occupied the last place in social and spiritual life. There were, however, exceptions, both individual and cultural. But the main impulse of human development brought man to the forefront, and spiritually aspiring women were given secondary, serving roles. This inferior status was overthrown by a small number of courageous and resilient women seekers of God, who more often than not had to go beyond established religious institutions in their thirst for spiritual growth and understanding of higher reality.
With the establishment of a patriarchal society throughout the Earth, all recorded history becomes predominantly male history - and therefore tends to ignore as much as half of the human population! Both positions of power and opportunities for spiritual development became unavailable to women - at least women were not supported in this social institutions masculine-oriented and male-dominated. Once women were removed from power in religious organizations, they were immediately erased from the history of those organizations. Therefore, recorded history offers us almost no female figure as an example of a spiritual or enlightened teacher, and virtually no spiritual literature written by women and for women. This must lead to one-sidedness and blindness modern society for the *sins" and ignorance of the fathers are reflected upon their sons and daughters. The lack of the obvious is not the evidence of the lack. If the history recorded on paper is different from the living history, then in the religious and sacred traditions one can find the existence of little-known examples of women who have achieved liberation. Therefore, women today should not mistakenly believe that they are inferior and need a male intermediary (priest, teacher or role model) on their path to God.But this, of course, does not mean that women should deliberately reject a man as possible teacher either as a potential model in your spiritual life; it only means that man is not inevitably necessary and that there are other sources, female ones. Let us not forget that liberation does not eliminate difference, it eliminates inequality.
This short review is intended primarily for spiritually aspiring women who do not want to deny their femininity, but want to realize it on the spiritual path. And although liberation leads beyond all roles determined by gender, nevertheless, it would be more correct for women seeking God to follow the models of enlightened women in their lives until, as they grow, the need to follow anyone at all disappears.
However, I would like to voice some cautions. Until such time as liberation is achieved, caution and careful discrimination are necessary, since not all the women mentioned here had - or, in the case of contemporaries, have - an equally developed consciousness. This also applies to men from the spirit world (not everything they say or do is necessarily divine wisdom). Saints may persist in dogmas that are far from being the best, and metaphysicians may suffer from a distortion of metaphysical principles. Moreover, even highly developed people, regardless of gender, may have some personality oddities or weak spots in its character. All of these points can be mistakenly taken for characteristic features spirituality of a high level, while in reality they have nothing to do with spiritual development.
Moreover, naive spiritual seekers can fall prey to unscrupulous spiritual teachers, whose attractive and mystifying nature of behavior seduces seekers both figuratively and sometimes literally, in the form of a supposedly special “introduction to miraculous powers.”
And a few more words about those I didn’t talk about. I intentionally did not refer to women from pagan and magical traditions such as witchcraft, astrology, tarot, etc. I did this because I do not consider these directions to be the main spiritual traditions. Undoubtedly, there are spiritually oriented women in these directions, and I would in no way want to humiliate or offend them. And these directions themselves are, of course, valuable, just as everything that contributes to deepening self-knowledge is valuable. But these directions are based on Nature rather than on the transcendental source of Nature. And what they call “self” (self, “I”) is not what is called “myself” in religious and spiritual traditions. Therefore, I do not consider these traditions to be paths leading to enlightenment, just as I do not know of any enlightened woman, past or present, whose growth occurred exclusively within these traditions.
In saying this, I must add that I in no way claim to be omniscient. I am grateful for the advice and support given to me by some of the women who commented on the preliminary draft of this application. I am open to receiving comments from those who can correct me in anything I am wrong about and inform me about what I do not know. Fortunately, the situation with the lack of spiritual literature and role models is already beginning to improve. There are our contemporaries - women of high level spiritual development, speaking and writing from the depth of their hard-won wisdom. And there is Scientific research, opening for a long time previously unknown material about previously living spiritual women - material that brings written history closer to living history. It is my hope that such research may become so widespread that the survey given here will soon become but a small stroke in the long, rich history of women in the spiritual life.
CHRISTIANITY. In the Christian tradition, throughout its long history, information has been preserved about many women - saints and mystics. These are Joan of Arc, several Catherines, Blessed Angela of Foligno, Dame Julian of Norwich, Madame Guyon, and St. Teresa of Avila, founder of the holy order and author of a mystical treatise. Inner Castle.
The holy woman from Calcutta, Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa of Calcutta, also bears her name. Mother Cabrini is another woman who is considered by many to be a modern-day saint. The female example of perfection in the Christian tradition is, of course, the Holy Virgin Mary, whose life serves as an example of perfect service to God and the source of the very ideal of the Madonna in Christianity. Also worthy of mention is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. And finally, the “fallen woman,” Mary Magdalene, whose story of selfless devotion and service to Jesus touched the hearts of millions. The main source of information about female saints in the Christian tradition is Evelyn Andehill's work "Mysticism" and the anthology "Women Saints - East and West" (Swami Ghananada, Women Saints - East and West).
JUDAISM. There are several spiritual women in the history of Biblical Judaism. Among them are figures from antiquity - Sarah, the priestess of fire, and the seer Miriam. Chana is recognized in Jewish tradition as the first to pray with her heart, speaking directly and spontaneously to God. Ima Shalom (Mother of Peace) was renowned for her wisdom during Roman rule in Judea. It is said that there were other women who were poets, kabbalists, scientists and soothsayers. However, in the times following the biblical period, there was little evidence of female saints or female mystics in Judaism. The only known woman in this tradition is Hannah Rachel, also called the Maiden of Lydomir. She was a Hasidic rabbi (teacher) in the 19th century, and her duties included giving advice to men and women. Thanks to the dominance of patriarchy, she had to sit behind a curtain when she talked to a man. In the 12th century, the Gaon of Baghdad, daughter of Samuel Ben Ali, became a religious authority because her father had no sons to teach. The book "Women Saints - East and West" mentions Henrietta Szold, an American-born Jewish woman who became a saint and dedicated 60 years of her life to saving the lives of others.
HINDUISM. In Hinduism, as in other Indian spiritual traditions, there is a fairly extensive list of women whose names were associated with God, both those who lived in ancient times and our contemporaries. This is Lalla, a fourteenth-century Kashmiri poet and yogi who composed songs dedicated to God and then sang them in the bazaar. In the 16th century, Mirabai, a poet-saint from North India, similarly expressed her devotion to God in hundreds of poems. Nun Yogeshwari, also known as Bhairavi Brahmani, was a woman of high spiritual development in this century, and she taught tantric meditation to the great yogi Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna's wife, Sri Sarada Devi, was also said to be a very exalted holy woman. Nowadays, Anandamaya Ma is considered one of the Indian saints. Two other exalted women in this tradition are Srimata Gayatri Devi of the Vedanta Center in Cohasset, Massachusetts, who wrote her story in the book Srimata Gayatri Devi, One life Pilgrimage, and Indira Devi, yogi and co-author of Dilipa's book Kumar Roy "Star Pilgrim" (Dilip Kumar Roy, Pilgrim of the Stars). Another living teacher available today is Swami Sivananda Radha of Yasodara Asram, Kootenay Bay, British Columbia. Her book, Radha: The Diary of a Woman's Quest, is a fascinating account of her journey to India in 1955, where she was accepted into a yogic order.
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BUDDHISM. They say that there were and are many spiritually highly developed women, but that they are simply much less famous than men. Although the Buddha did not exclude women from participating in monastic orders (Buddhism did not have the institution of priesthood), he prohibited women from being wandering nuns after one female nun was raped. The order of Buddhist nuns ceased to exist around the 5th century AD. In Chinese Buddhism, the Bodhisattva of Compassion Guan Yin is a woman, albeit a mythical one. The only historical female figures that attracted my attention in Buddhism were Yasodhara or Gopa (the wife of the Buddha while he was still a prince), Gautami ( younger sister Buddha) and several others described in the already mentioned book “Women Saints - East and West”. One of our contemporaries is Abbess Jiyu Kennett of the Shasta Zen Monastery in Mount Shasta, California. She is the spiritual leader (roshi) of several dozen monks, and she wrote about her life in the two-volume book "Wild white goose"(The Wild White Goose). Another contemporary of ours is the recently deceased follower of Buddhism Claire Myers Owens, who came to Buddhism at an advanced age, but with a beautiful and noble soul, ready for satori. She described her experience in the book "Zen and the Lady"
ISLAM. In the Sufi tradition, the mystical branch of Islam, there is only one mention of a female mystic named Rabi'a. In the book Women Saints - East and West, this woman, who lived in the 8th century, is described as "an inspiring example for all ordinary women who can aspire to the heights of spiritual perfection." However, there may have been other God-conscious women in Islam who were not so widely known - there are several hints of this in other sources. Muhammad's wife, Khadija, was his first disciple, and therefore it can be assumed that she had some spiritual insight.In addition, on the day of his death, Muhammad gave the instruction to his daughter Fatima and his aunt Safiya: “You yourself must work for what will bring you the recognition of God , since I really cannot influence him in any way to save you." This instruction shows that they were spiritually aspirated women with a certain level of understanding of God.
JAINISM. "Women Saints - East and West" celebrates several female saints in the Jain tradition whose spiritual positions entailed erudition and participation in the composition of sacred texts. The most prominent of them was Arya Chandana, a contemporary of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism. Deeply religious, she became his first student and head of the order of nuns. Another contemporary of Mahavira was Jayanti, the king's sister. She listened to Mahavira's sermons and discussed all kinds of spiritual problems with him. She eventually left her life in the royal palace to become a nun. The order of nuns in Jainism still exists today.
AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITION. There are many women of divine nature in American Indian mythology, those who helped found spiritual traditions, but I have not found one among them historical figure. But then there are our contemporaries: Brooke “Healing Eagle” (Brooke Medicine Eagle) – a shaman of European-Indian origin; O'Shinnah Fast Wolf, whose specialty includes healing with crystals and gems; Twylah Hurd Nitsch, granddaughter of the last Seneca shaman; and Wabun, née Marlise James, of Welsh descent, who is an associate of Sun Bear, founder of the first international New Age settlement and healing community.
MODERN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS. As if breaking with history, the modern era demonstrates the spread of spiritual traditions in which women play leading roles. Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science; Ellen G. White was the founder of Seventh-day Adventism; Myrtley Fillmore and her husband Charles founded Unity; Alice Bailey created the "School of Arcana"; occultist Helena Blavatsky was the founder of Theosophy, and her successor was Annie Besant.
Another contemporary of ours at an exceptionally high level of development is the Frenchwoman Mira Richard, better known as “Mother.” At the beginning of our century, her spiritual collaboration with Sri Aurobindo began. The life story of Mira Richard is inspiring, and the content of her and Sri Aurobindo’s teaching, called “integral yoga,” is worthy of the deepest study.
Another prominent woman in the field of modern spiritual quest is the recently deceased Murshida Ivy O'Deuce, successor to Meher Baba and the organization he created, Sufism Reoriented.
In the still remaining new tradition It was recently announced by Yes Free John that two women of this tradition have entered the seventh stage of life - the stage of direct contact with the Shining Beyond Being. In honor of this, women were given new names - Namale-Ma and Nananu-I-Ma. These are names borrowed from the Hawaiian Islands, where these women were located at the time.
As I already said, not all the women mentioned here had the same level of consciousness. I give this review with a warning about the need for such discernment for those who are seeking a female model for their own spiritual development. I also want to emphasize that the names listed here are not the only spiritual reference points for women. Spirituality is seeing God everywhere, in the great and small, ordinary and extraordinary, and expressing this understanding through selfless service. When God-realization is one's achievement, then everything becomes divine, including washing dishes, doing laundry, raising children and other traditional forms of "women's work", because all this is also from God, like the whole process of life.
From this point of view, it does not matter whether you are a commoner or a king (queen). All that matters is to act towards the world with loving care, which is the manifestation of your true Self, whether you do it quietly, in the humble everyday concerns, or whether it manifests itself in you notable actions in the arena of global events.
So, enlightenment does not imply either a renunciation of the world or a renunciation of traditional male or female roles (although these roles must be accepted freely, without coercion). Enlightenment involves rather self-transcendence. This and only this is the path to liberation. As the Buddhist treatises say:
Not with a male or female body
Enlightenment will be achieved.
WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?
exploring the purpose of the spiritual path
Edited by John White
Publishing house of the Transpersonal Institute. M., 1996
The Aquarian Press, Wellngborough, Northamptonshire, 1984
Searching for traces of heavenly dancers
Anyone who reads a tantric text or enters a tantric temple will immediately be confronted with a stunning array of striking female images. He will discover a pantheon of female Buddhas and a whole army of enlightened female beings called dakinis. Dakinis soar up and fly, unconstrained by clothes, with flowing hair. Their bodies bend in dance, their eyes sparkle with passion, delight and fierce strength. You can almost hear the soft tapping of their intricate bone jewelry and feel the breeze lifted by their rainbow scarves as they float over the landscape, which is characteristic of Buddhist Tantra. These unbridled creatures enjoy all kinds of freedom. Tantric literature presents the image of a yogini endowed with magical powers, an omnipotent sorceress who can take on whatever form she pleases, and an enlightened woman who, with just one precise word or gesture, can help a person experience a glimpse of direct experience of reality.
These female images, with their ebullient atmosphere of passion and freedom, inspire a feeling of perfect mastery of spiritual power. They sparked my initial interest in the Tantric tradition and have been a guiding light throughout my studies. It seems to me that the yoginis who adorn tantric literature and gaze so compellingly from examples of tantric painting and sculpture may be evidence of the role of women in Buddhist Tantra - their historical existence, spiritual liberation and mystical insight. This research was the fruit of my search for the women who inspired and helped create these alluring female images.
Interpreters of tantric art and literature have argued that positive female images do not reflect the lives or achievements of real women. Historians rather believed that Tantric Buddhism was a rigid movement in which women, at best, were assigned a marginal and subordinate role, and at worst, humiliated and exploited beings. The prevailing view is that the opulent yoginis of tantric iconography were matched on the human level by despised prostitutes and low-caste women used for ritual purposes. This opinion is not surprising, since statements that underestimate the spiritual life of women were found in all areas of historical scholarship until significant research was undertaken on this topic. For example, similar claims about the low status of women in medieval Christian Europe persisted until a few decades ago when the first trickle of interest in history turned into a torrent of increasingly specialized and methodologically sophisticated research. Such statements are reminiscent of a belief held about Aboriginal women in Australia that was dispelled when ethnographers discovered a rich world of women's myths and rituals in which men had no place. Therefore, initial assumptions about the marginal position of women in tantric circles should not prevent deeper research: they only highlight the need for further study of this issue. This book challenges the prevailing view of the place of women in Buddhist Tantra by bringing forward new historical and textual evidence and providing new interpretations of central themes and concepts in the light of this evidence. There is ample evidence that women took an active part in the development of Tantra. In Tantric biographies we see portraits of brave, direct, independent women. Tantric texts instruct women to be respected, served, and honored in rituals. Tantric literature introduces us to both practices performed exclusively by women and those in which men and women participate together. The theory of Tantra puts forward the ideal of cooperation, such relationships between men and women that are aimed at liberation. Where previously existing assessments of practices, teachings, gender relations and social groups were considered inadequate, they were criticized and either modified or rejected in order to allow subsequent analysis.
Scientific context
Buddhist studies lags behind studies in other fields in its use of gender as a category of analysis. Male dominance has long been considered a constant and unchanging principle in Buddhist history. Since women have been present in every era of Buddhist history for two and a half millennia, and their presence has inevitably influenced the ongoing development of this tradition, it is hardly worth continuing to neglect this facet of Buddhist history. If we are talking about Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, then some progress on women's issues was achieved in early Buddhism, monasticism, and Mahayana Buddhism. Two articles began a serious discussion on the position of women in Indian Buddhist Tantra, and paid a little more attention to Tibetan nuns and lay yoginis.
By focusing on the place of women in Buddhist Tantra in India, this work provides a basis for distinguishing between Indian gender relations and those of Tibetan history. The emergence of powerful Buddhist dynasties, the consolidation of the priestly hierarchy that dominated the economic and political life country, the introduction of the reincarnation system, which allowed male hierarchs to reproduce themselves without the need for marriage, and the rise of a reclusive subculture - all of this influenced the role of women in one way or another, but exactly how remains to be studied. More radical tantric teachings, such as those that included sexual practices, were met with official resistance in Tibet, resulting in restrictions on the translation of embarrassing texts. Nevertheless, in the Land of Snows the entire spectrum of tantric teachings survived and flourished. The tantric ideal of unification with everything and the utopian vision of men and women as companions on a spiritual quest are like embers, ready to flare up as soon as a teacher or cultural environment begins to facilitate the release of their energy. Controversies between pro-celibacy and anti-celibacy, spiritual authorities and charismatic leaders, as well as hierarchical and egalitarian tendencies have contributed greatly to the vitality of the Tibetan tradition. This book also examines how much in Tibet the female pioneers of the tantric movement are remembered by their spiritual heirs and believe in their endeavors.
This book, joining a growing literature on women and religion, provides material needed for cross-cultural research in such areas as explanations of gender, identity, the body, sexuality, and ritual. In the field of feminist theology, some scholars have advanced Buddhist principles that can complement, inform, and, most importantly, offer alternative models of self and power to Western feminism. These scholars—principally Anna Klein and Rita Gross—focus on core concepts of Buddhist philosophy and psychological insights such as the Buddhist understanding of no-self, interdependence, and the experience of contemplation. Tantric understandings of embodiment, ecstasy and the transformative dimensions of passion and intimacy can enrich this dialogue.
One of the main aims of this book is to complement the religious history of Indian women with a chapter on Buddhist Tantra. In the study of women and religion in India, as in other countries, previous views are being revised and challenged through close attention to women's lives and their expression in religion. Indologists of the past tended to accept as normative and typical male religiosity. Many factors contributed to the fact that scientists had no idea about the existence of religious activities of women. Among these factors are the uncritical acceptance of informant reports in the collection of material, unwitting participation in controversy, lack of access to the meetings and religious practices of women (especially in such a highly gender-differentiated society as Indian society), and the preference for written sources to the detriment of study. rituals and oral traditions. Scholars have begun to document the existence of religious traditions in India, where women play the role of guardians of treasures of cultural knowledge, ritual and meditation, oral and indigenous traditions. The impressive results of such recent research show that the spiritual history of Indian women has only just begun to unfold.
Tantra, in both its Hindu and Buddhist varieties, appears to be a field where Indian women could engage in religious pursuits freely, seriously, and on their own initiative. This is the belief primarily of Indian scholars and of Western scholars such as Sir John Woodroffe and Lilian Silburn, who spent much time in India as Tantric disciples. These local and Western scholars report that women can be teachers (gurus) and perform initiation rituals in Tantric traditions, and in some Tantric lineages, female gurus are preferred to male ones. In addition, it is argued that male tantricists are required to respect, honor and ritually worship women. Given the generally high status of women in Tantric circles, some Indian scholars suggest that Tantra (both Hindu and Buddhist) originates from the priestesses and shamans of matriarchal clan and village communities.
Rare first-hand accounts provide intriguing hints that the women's tradition in Tantra is alive and well. For example, the fierce Tantric women of the Shakta and Vaishnava traditions, when questioned by the anthropologist Bholanath Bhattacharya, showed a complete lack of subservience to their male companions and dispelled any suggestion that they practiced Tantra for the sake of anyone other than themselves. While collecting anthropological material about female ascetics in Benares, Lynn Denton discovered that tantric women were not subject to any social conventions and were free to openly choose their partners and lifestyle. Brajamadhava Bhattacharya, in his spiritual autobiography, describes the instructions and initiations he received from his tantric guru, the Saffron Woman, a coconut vendor in his native village who gave initiations and taught to disciples without the help of any male authority. Indologist Lilian Silburn's scientific descriptions of sexual yoga in Kashmir Shaivism, enriched by the teachings she received at initiation, show the complete equality of initiated men and women in the performance of high kundalini practices, in which both partners must be sufficiently proficient and from which they benefit equally. . These studies, although not directly answering the question of the place of women in Buddhist Tantra in medieval India, confirm that women can be active, independent participants in the tantric movement.
These positive statements by local and other interested scholars do not find any response in Western scholarship on Buddhist Tantra. When describing the reformist thrust of this movement, scholars emphasize its radical and egalitarian tendencies, but when it comes to women, they talk about their oppression and exploitation, without explaining such dramatic inconsistency. Most Western scholars are convinced that the true, profound practitioners of Tantra were men, and women were only admitted to rituals when men needed their “services.” These authors speak of Tantric yoginis in a derogatory, even contemptuous manner:
The partner...in essence, was used as a means of achieving results that the yogi himself achieved.
One gets the impression that they [men] are the main characters, and their companions are passive participants, needed only to facilitate the emergence of spiritual insight on the part of the yogis.
In...Tantra...a woman is a tool, a foreign object, without the possibility of mutual or real communication.
The purpose of the sadhana of Sahajayana... is to destroy the feminine.
It is assumed...that women are brought in for each individual occasion and made part of the meeting.
“Slut”, or Dombi (Dombi), is a woman of a despised, low caste house, whose representatives made a living by washing, trading and prostitution... Tantric yogis used them to perform sexual rituals.
The role played by low-caste girls and courtesans in Tantric “orgies” (cakra; Tantric “wheel”) is well known. The more vicious and depraved a woman is, the more suitable she is for this ritual.
Their presence was necessary for the performance of psycho-sexual rituals, and their behavior was usually so unbridled and obscene that they were rightfully called witches.
Similar statements were made about women and Tantra in general:
Their attitude towards a woman: ...she should be used as a ritual object and then discarded.
The main role of women in the tantric shakta cult is to serve as partners (shakti: shakti; duti: duti) of male initiates.
All these unfounded statements are presented as something obvious, without documentary evidence or analysis. The scenario proposed by these scientists is always the same. Men are those who engage in spiritual quests, and women are “passive additions” who are “used”, “used” and “consumed” as a “ritual object” or a “foreign body”. Of course, men have spiritual thoughts, but women do not. As for the behavior of women, they are awarded with such epithets as “sluts”, “whores”, “vicious and depraved”, “licentious and obscene”. Although this scenario was apparently designed to elevate men as true practitioners of the tradition, its unintended effect was to create an image of cruel, selfish Tantric yogis who, in the pursuit of their spiritual perfection, use anything - even the bodies of other people.
Theoretical Considerations
The consistent difference between local and Western views of Tantric followers is quite noticeable. Several theoretical starting points have become a kind of lens or prism that refracts images in the way expected. This refraction is now known as a pattern of colonial attitudes toward aspects of Indian life that seemed incomprehensible, hostile, or incorrigibly alien. For example, the derogatory assessment of women who practice Tantra is an echo of the colonialist view that Indian devadasis are “temple prostitutes.” These women, who were artists, scientists, performers of ritual dances and religious services, seemed to the colonialists to be some kind of unknown and annoying phenomenon. Because British officials and missionaries were unable to understand the spiritual role of these temple maidens, they branded them as “whores” and “harlots” and outlawed the Devadasi tradition. Their opinions reflected not only their lack of knowledge of the people they enslaved, but also a deep antipathy towards some of their cultural values. Such views prevailed until very recently, when anthropologists, examining the lives of the few surviving devadasis from Puri in the coastal state of Orissa, discovered a tradition of economically independent, educated and revered temple dancers, whose ritual service was essential to the maintenance of a well-ordered Indian state. As embodiments of female deities and energies, dancers received generous gifts for their services, and even the dust from their feet was sacred to believers.
An analysis of the colonial confrontation in India shows the difference between colonial and indigenous worldviews in terms of the traits that they believed distinguished men and women. The Indian worldview is not a reflection of Western values, but includes deep respect and reverence magical abilities and divine powers hidden in a woman. This veneration is especially characteristic of the overlapping worlds of Shaktism and Tantra, in which the devadasis and women of Buddhist Tantra live. Perhaps the scholarly characterization of Buddhist Tantric yogini as “whores,” “harlots,” “vicious and debauched” reveals traces of Victorian resentment not only of women's sex life outside of marriage, but also of the religious exaltation and veneration of women. Theologian Hans Küng admits that religious worship of women is so contrary to Jewish and Christian values that it poses a major barrier to understanding:
It is especially difficult for Christian theologians to discuss... Shakta tantrism with its focus on feminine energy or deity... It is impossible not to notice that all tantric systems, and especially Shakta practices, are completely alien to Christianity, more alien than anything else known to us in Buddhism or Hinduism.
In part, such views are alien because they reflect a cultural world, the life of which is determined by completely different pairs of opposites than those on which the interpretation of Tantra in the West is based. Indian society and religion revolve around ideas of purity and pollution, auspiciousness and inauspiciousness; they do not share the prevailing Western opposition between nature and culture, matter and spirit, man and divinity. The association of women with “nature”, “matter” and “man” - especially as the less valuable half of these paired opposites - is completely inappropriate here.
To judge women's spiritual practices in Buddhist Tantra, the researcher is required to correctly determine the areas of their cultural significance, and not to adjust them to their own understanding of gender, sexuality and energy. Herbert Gunther attributes the system of interpretation discussed above to the “Western psychology of dominance,” which results in what he calls “Western paranoid views of Tantrism,” namely, the preoccupation of a “paranoid man obsessed with his sexual potency and efforts.” get what you want." The interpretations given here really gave rise to special Western androcentric schemes of gender relations that are confusing in their simplicity: men are active figures, women are passive victims; male exploiters have power, exploited women have no rights; the sexual exploits of men are admirable, but female promiscuity is condemnable; men are assessed from the point of view of intellectual and spiritual criteria, and women - only biological ones. Such oppositions are clearly of European origin, which prevents them from being indiscriminately attributed to all cultures. In addition, such an interpretation presupposes conflicting, antagonistic relations between the sexes and the inevitable dominance of one over the other in any social system, which again is not applicable to other cultures.
The indiscriminate application of purely Western categories does not take into account the nature of gender relations, which are entirely culturally determined. Other cultures have very different understandings of gender, power, status and spiritual achievement. There is no intercultural uniformity of gender relations that would allow us to speak from a global, ahistorical, egalitarian point of view, without taking into account the peculiarities of their status and rights in a particular culture. Anthropologist Shelley Errington believes that it is inadequate to use simplified models to describe the complexity of gender relations that exist throughout the world: “At best, no simple scheme or criterion of high or low status can be a measure of the status and power of women, regardless of a particular culture. At worst, our most unconscious ideas about “power” and “status” may need to be turned a hundred and eighty degrees if we are to understand the relationships between men and women in different parts peace." Dominance, exploitation and power are highly fluid concepts that rarely correspond neatly to gendered categories (eg: men have power, they are exploiters; women do not have power, they are exploited, etc.), but rather constitute a complex system of changing situations.
The views on women and tantric ritual cited above impose not only Western understandings of gender, sexuality, and power, but also more fundamental ideas about the individual. A situation is postulated where women are depersonalized and exploited. The assertion that women are impersonal is based on the idea that they have an individual “I”, as it is understood in the context of Western ideas. This concept of “I” assumes that “I” is a substance clothed in flesh, which may undergo some changes, but, nevertheless, retains its identity and remains a certain limited entity throughout its entire life. This idea of the “I” makes possible the process of reification, or objectification, turning the “I” into a “thing,” “object,” “product,” which another person can “use” as a means of achieving his goals. This objectified “I” is at odds with the traditional Indian and Buddhist understanding of personality. Moreover, such an exercise in “object fetishism” or utilitarian logic, which holds that the woman’s body was used for male purposes as a physical tool, implies a Cartesian duality of mind and body, a separateness of spirit and matter, which is alien to the Indian context, which is much more dynamic, flexible , an organic understanding of living beings and their rich harmonious interactions, including ritual, social and biological communication. Applying Western categories - such as the atomistic, material self - to the medieval Indian tradition will inevitably result in a distorted analysis, although this distortion is likely to go unnoticed due to the intuitive proximity of these categories for Western authors and their readers. It is difficult to realize the structural principles of one's own thinking; however, interpreting Buddhist Tantra and the role of women in it requires taking into account one's own traditional understanding of femininity and gender relations.
I argue that Buddhist Tantra offers a model not of exploitation, but of complementarity and reciprocity. Tantric texts do not propose to legitimize the oppression of women or their use in sexual matters, but, on the contrary, encourage us to see a woman as a support, a source of spiritual strength. They show appreciation and respect for women, as will be discussed in subsequent chapters, and also show a genuine desire to find and express proper respect for religiously advanced, spiritually empowered women. Western scholars took this desire as proof that the methods of Tantra, while exploiting women, only served to liberate men. This book puts forward a different interpretation.
In the interpretations given above, categories characteristic of Western culture were elevated to absolutes and applied to the tantric context without clarifying whether the Tantric tradition is consonant with these considerations or whether it offers a radically different understanding of the possibilities of liberating relationships between men and women. There is no obvious need to resort to an ethnocentric Euro-American scheme of interpretation, because the Buddhist Tantric tradition is very clear about the relationship between man and woman. This study will demonstrate that Buddhist Tantra provides a clear understanding of the feminine and masculine principles, as well as the ideal, translatable spiritual relationship that can be achieved between them. The authors of the classic yogini-tantra texts discuss these key issues in some detail.
In addition, representatives of the Tantric tradition created profound works that accurately described embodiment, which is understood not as a “soul” in a “body,” but as a multi-level mind-body continuum, possessing physicality, sensitivity, cognitive ability and spirituality, the levels of which are subtly intertwined and interactive. This immaterial self is seen not as something limited or as a static entity, but as a receptacle of energies, internal winds and flames, dissolution, melting and flows, which can produce amazing transformations in embodied experience and establish a bridge between man and divinity. It is in the light of this model of a dynamic, permeable, unconstrained self that the paradigm of Buddhist Tantra should be interpreted. Herbert Gunther, along with other Western scholars, has placed the spiritual partnership inherent in Tantra in the context of Buddhist metaphysics, and this book continues the analysis in the same vein.
Methodology
The principles of interpretation that I have found most useful are those put forward in the context of feminist historiography, especially in the work of Gerda Lerner, Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, and Joan Scott. One of the principles on which feminist historians agree is the need to claim women as historical agents, that is, to focus on how they acted rather than on what was done to them, and to examine how women treated events, not how women were treated. Therefore, one of the principles that guides my work is to view women as active creators of history and interpreters of their own experiences, rather than as passive objects or victims of history. Women have the ability to allow events to happen or not to allow them to happen; they used symbols and interpreted them, performed rituals and introduced new rituals and meditation practices, were writers and teachers, experts in spiritual matters and enlightened guides. Therefore, my intention was to reveal and show as much as possible the driving and creative abilities, as well as the self-awareness of women of Buddhist Tantra. How men may view or treat women is of interest to me only insofar as it may shed light on driving forces floor.
It is essential to look at the historical accounts of prominent women whose importance can be measured in terms of conventional historiographical models, but it is also necessary to reassess the degree of historical importance in order to take into account the lives and concerns of women. Common historical models need to be updated to capture women's activities, contributions and perspectives. Historians also need to evaluate events and movements in light of women's participation in them. In the quest to reconstruct women's history, it is important to recognize that cultural values are often the joint creation of men and women. In the case of Buddhist Tantra, it is necessary to recognize that women's perspectives on the Tantric tradition and their participation in it are contained not only in the texts written by women, but also in the literature created by the communities of which they were a part. Therefore, I view tantric texts and iconography as the result of the work of a community of men and women, not just men. If we see them as evidence of the experiences and insights of both men and women, then we get a completely different interpretation than if we consider them the work of men who, in their philosophy, morality and behavior, are indistinguishable from a select group of modern Western men.
Historical studies focusing on women may start from different assumptions than those found in mainstream history. One difference is that there is disproportionately little written evidence of women's lives. Therefore, although the available information on women cannot be considered representative in quantitatively, but, according to Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, “it should be taken as the tip of the iceberg, indicating how much historical information we have lost.” Even if the documents of past times turn out to be hopelessly androcentric, this cannot be taken as proof that there were no women or that women did not have their own point of view on their lives. Misogynistic sources do not necessarily reflect the reality of women's lives, but they do reveal something about the environment in which they lived.
Thus, this study forms part of an effort to discover religious literature written by women themselves, their views, practices and identities. To try to reconstruct the history of women, it is necessary to first collect all the evidence left by women: works of art, crafts, inscriptions, autobiographies, treatises, fiction, folklore, letters and oral traditions. These documents form the basis for a system of interpretation that uses women's ability to know and direct experience as its organizing principle and overall idea. Consequently, evidence not coming directly from women can be interpreted in the light of this design. According to historian Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza, “Historically adequate translation and interpretation of androcentric texts... must not treat texts with explicit reference to women as disparate fragments in the androcentric picture, but create a clear feminist model of historical reconstruction through which they become light and color, from which a feminist picture would emerge.”
Identifying the gynocentric picture often requires the use of creative hermeneutics, such as extracting information about women from texts. Sometimes information about women and their points of view can be reconstructed by going beyond the statements made in the text to imagine the world in which the text takes place, the contradictions to which it responds, the practices or social order that it seeks to establish, and provisions that are not set forth in it. For example, the classification of women contained in the Tantras was created as androcentric, since it reflects the desire of men to identify certain types of women and thereby express masculine interests rather than feminine ones. However, these passages can be interpreted from different points of view. One view is that of a yogi seeking out a particular variety of yogini, but one must also examine the historical environment that would make such a meeting necessary, and one possibility is the tradition of men giving themselves over to women to teach. In addition, it is easy to imagine the picture from the point of view of the woman sought in this way, because the texts describe how a man should approach her, what he should offer her, what forms of respect or veneration he should show her. Thus, these extracts can be taken as evidence of what the female tantrikas demanded from male disciples, and as a basis on which they could lay claim to the tribute due to them. Although these passages have been dismissed as androcentric and unsuited to the task of feminist re-interpretation, they in fact provide a wealth of information about women and gender relations in the Tantric tradition. Therefore, the term “androcentric” refers more to the actual way of understanding texts than to them themselves. Although it is sometimes necessary to criticize previous understandings, this study is more concerned with the immediate positive task of reconstructing the world that gave birth to these texts and determining what place women occupied in it.
This research draws on a number of sources, including works written by women, tantric texts, Indian and Tibetan commentary traditions, oral traditions, and materials collected on expeditions. The most solid evidence about women in Buddhist Tantra comes from literary works the women themselves. This book uses approximately forty texts written by women that I discovered through archival research. Searches for text written by a woman usually started from the name of a specific woman, from a reference to a woman's work in another source, or from directory listings of authors to search for female names or available references to the female gender of the author. Thus, many candidates for the role of a female author were discovered. The next step was to determine where the text was written and look at it. At this stage, many texts were eliminated unless the colophon or the evidence contained in the text - or better, both - supported female authorship. Then other types of evidence were brought in, such as references to the woman's life or her teachings in other sources. About one-fifth of the annotations pointed to a text that could be supported by some additional evidence that its author was a woman or that it was the teaching of a woman written down by her disciples. Upon completion of this rough work, which took several years and was carried out on two continents, an even more demanding process began, namely, becoming familiar with a range of literary forms, themes and meditation practices in order to be able to read varied and specialized works. Further historical and field research was then required to explore the historical role and continuing influence of these works. These studies have provided invaluable insight into women's religious practices, teachings, and knowledge.
In addition, such research relied on the discovery of texts created in communities of which women were an integral part. The most relevant esoteric texts for this study are called the yogini tantras and mahayoga tantras (hereinafter referred to collectively as the anuttarayoga tantras, or “tantras of unsurpassed yoga”), since they describe the spiritual partnership between men and women and sexual union as a means of spiritual transformation. It is well known that major texts are mentioned in the biographies of great Indian teachers and occupy a primary place in contemplative practices, rituals and commentaries in all areas of Himalayan Buddhism. The main yogini tantras, the content of which is here we're talking about, these are Chakrasamvara (Sandamaharoshana), Hevajra (Hevajra) and Chandamaharoshana (Sandamaharoshana). With few exceptions, translations are based on previously untranslated texts or parts of texts. I have sometimes consulted Indian and Tibetan written commentaries about how female characters are interpreted there. The commentary traditions and the various schools are not unanimous on this point, or on any other. Thus, this study documents just one of the living currents among the diversity of personal and collective opinions that exist in this international tradition.
My journey has been both mental and physical. The Physical Journey was fieldwork that I conducted over sixteen months in India, several weeks in Japan, and six months in Nepal. Before setting off on the expedition, I consulted in writing about the advisability of my plan with the Dalai Lama and received his official approval. I received additional advice from him during a conversation with him at his residence in Dharamsala, India. His approval of my project, as well as subsequent approval by other heads of schools of Tibetan Buddhism, was very helpful in facilitating collaboration, conversations, and access to manuscript collections. Also, in India, I consulted Indian historians and Tantra scholars, mainly Narendranath Bhattacharya and Lokesh Chandra. These scholars supported my research by confirming my vision of Tantra and sharing their own research with me, as well as providing libraries.
In addition, I made many trips to numerous lamas and Tantric yogis and yoginis to talk about the role of women in Tantra, attitudes towards women and their interpretation of relevant passages from the texts. I spent part of this time in one of the Tibetan monasteries, and the rest with Lama Yuru in Ladakh, in a small cell perched on the ledge of a rock, which seemed even more tiny against the backdrop of the surrounding Himalayan mountains. Below, in the rocks, there is a cave that served as a shelter for the famous Naropa, and all the surrounding intricate cliffs are simply dotted with caves in which Tantric yogis and yoginis lived for centuries. This remote and high mountain location was the perfect refuge for those who practiced the most esoteric teachings of Tantra.
Expeditionary collection of materials according to the esoteric tradition includes research integral to any expeditionary work: establishing appropriate cooperation, obtaining access to communities and religious events, gaining trust and achieving interaction with a wide range of people. There are also ethical tasks such as maintaining the confidentiality of information and protecting the interests of those reporting it. However, research into the esoteric tradition also imposes additional requirements. The elements of the tantric tradition that interested me most - the worship of women and the practice of sexual intimacy as a form of spiritual practice - are among the most esoteric and strictly guarded. Gaining access to this side of the tradition does not simply mean finding the relevant texts. Tantric written sources do not contain explanations to help them understand, and oral commentary traditions are considered more authoritative than the printed word of ancient primary sources. It is therefore necessary to gain access to the oral commentary tradition held secretly in the minds and hearts of its living teachers (both men and women). But even having achieved this, it is necessary to respect the fact that those who talk about esoteric practices often do so on the condition that their name is never mentioned, and in some cases not mentioned at all.
In the context of Buddhist Tantra, another requirement for receiving esoteric instructions is to receive initiation. Initiation has three levels: ritual initiation (abhisheka: abhiсeka), transmission by reading a text (аgama: аgama) and secret oral instruction (upadesha: upadeсha). Ritual initiation is the immersion of body and soul in a process that symbolically concentrates in itself the truth that the initiate will experience on her future spiritual path. Transmission through ritual reading gives permission to study and is given to prepare the mind to acquire knowledge of this tradition. I received ritual initiations in several key teachings and reading transmission in others, giving me formal authority to receive secret oral instructions. On my part, the initiation strengthened my respect for the tradition, my determination to gain an adequate understanding and appreciation of the depth of the teachings of Tantra as an ancient and refined religious tradition that has been followed and appreciated by many sincere and wonderful people for many centuries.
I am extremely grateful that the scholars and practitioners I met generously shared the most closely guarded aspects of their tradition. Although I was faced with a formal requirement to receive initiation, individual teachers themselves made the decision to help me and talk frankly with me, taking into account the depth of responsibility that lies with those who guard and transmit the esoteric teachings. It was clear that those whose help I needed were intent on finding out what my motives were and how serious my purpose was. The fact that I was a doctoral student at Harvard didn't carry much weight, since most people I talked to had never heard of Harvard. The status of a scientist aroused some respect, but in itself was not sufficient to serve as a basis for receiving tantric teachings. However, the physical difficulties of the journey I undertook were proof of my desire for knowledge, and sometimes I was asked to talk about recent dreams or explain my motivation. There were other signs that were paid attention to in order to determine the desirability of helping me. Confirmation could be a rainbow, a cloud of unusual shape, or precipitation.
Let me give you an example: one day, when a lama was wondering whether to give me initiation, we walked out of the darkened prayer room and plunged into the glow of a pink-gold sunset over the snow-capped Himalayan peaks. When we, delighted with the bright spectacle, froze at the door, a light snow suddenly began to fall from the cloudless sky. The snowflakes reflected the colors of the sky and filled the space with a gentle, shimmering stream of pink and gold light. This unearthly, magical snowfall lasted for five minutes and then also suddenly stopped, leaving us standing with bated breath under the influence of a mystical feeling. This looked like a clear auspicious sign given women's perfume, called dakinis, special guardians of tantric knowledge. This supernatural seal of approval provided some invaluable teachings. In other cases, the required confirmation was rainbows, dreams and other signs. To my informants, they meant that the dakinis, being themselves female, were naturally more inclined to women than to men, and this time clearly preferred to entrust the transmission of the secret teachings of yogini tantra to a woman.
As is well known in anthropology, different expeditionary settings and the collection of different types of data require different levels of commitment from participants, even within the same project. The degree of participation in various cases can be broken down on the following scale: complete disinterest, or aloof observation; passive; moderate; active and finally full participation. In addition, one must skillfully combine points of view from inside and outside, so that their alternation allows both to gain empathic insight and to maintain critical distance and perspective. More than once it happened that my status as an observer collapsed, as, for example, when I found myself in the company of an exceptionally wise person or a yogi or yogini full of unbridled energy. The same thing happened in ritual settings, when I put aside my camera, notebook and dictionary and sought to experience the event more holistically. In such cases, I plunged into one stop or another so that the memory would be imprinted in my blood, flesh and bones, breathing life into my language, increasing its expressiveness and poetic depth. Although I rely on written sources whenever possible in this book, I have received obvious confirmation of them or observed the practices and beliefs preserved in living traditions that I describe here.
Women of Buddhist Tantra and their divine sisters are often called dakini, which can be translated as “dancing in space” or “reveling in the freedom of emptiness” (Fig. 1). As their name suggests, they leave no beaten path behind. At times their trail disappears into the transparent air where they soar, embarking on their enlightened adventures, but sometimes this trail remains in the dense thicket of ancient texts, among the interweaving of the vines of the Tibetan history of spiritual traditions or on the burning embers of the bonfires of the glory of their famous disciples. The traces of the women of Buddhist Tantra are sometimes unclear, mysterious, even hidden and disguised, but are available to anyone who discovers where to look for them. Once found, these traces shine, enliven and motivate - after all, they give their seekers signs from the expanse of freedom as boundless as the sky.
Bibliography
Miranda Shaw. Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism.
CHRISTIANITY. In the Christian tradition, throughout its long history, information has been preserved about many women - saints and mystics. These are Joan of Arc, several Catherines, Blessed Angela of Foligno, Dame Julian of Norwich, Madame Guyon, and St. Teresa of Avila, founder of the holy order and author of the mystical treatise “The Inner Castle”.
The holy woman from Calcutta, Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa of Calcutta, also bears her name. Mother Cabrini is another woman who is considered by many to be a modern-day saint. The female example of perfection in the Christian tradition is, of course, the Holy Virgin Mary, whose life serves as an example of perfect service to God and the source of the very ideal of the Madonna in Christianity. Also worthy of mention is Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. And finally, the “fallen woman,” Mary Magdalene, whose story of selfless devotion and service to Jesus touched the hearts of millions. The main source of information about female saints in the Christian tradition is Evelyn Andehill's work “Mysticism” and the anthology “Women Saints – East and West” (Swami Ghananada, Women Saints – East and West).
JUDAISM. There are several spiritual women in the history of Biblical Judaism. Among them are figures from antiquity - Sarah, the priestess of fire, and the seer Miriam. Chana is recognized in Jewish tradition as the first to pray with her heart, speaking directly and spontaneously to God.
Ima Shalom (Mother of Peace) was renowned for her wisdom during Roman rule in Judea. It is said that there were other women who were poets, kabbalists, scientists and soothsayers. However, in the times following the biblical period, there was little evidence of female saints or female mystics in Judaism. The only known woman in this tradition is Hannah Rachel, also called the Maiden of Lydomir. She was a Hasidic rabbi (teacher) in the 19th century, and her duties included giving advice to men and women. Thanks to the dominance of patriarchy, she had to sit behind a curtain when she talked to a man. In the 12th century, the Gaon of Baghdad, daughter of Samuel Ben Ali, became a religious authority because her father had no sons to teach. The book Women Saints - East and West mentions Henrietta Szold, an American-born Jewish woman who became a saint and dedicated 60 years of her life to saving the lives of others.
HINDUISM. In Hinduism, as in other Indian spiritual traditions, there is a fairly extensive list of women whose names were associated with God, both those who lived in ancient times and our contemporaries. This is Lalla, a fourteenth-century Kashmiri poet and yogi who composed songs dedicated to God and then sang them in the bazaar. In the 16th century, Mirabai, a poet-saint from North India, similarly expressed her devotion to God in hundreds of poems. Nun Yogeshwari, also known as Bhairavi Brahmani, was a woman of high spiritual development in this century, and she taught tantric meditation to the great yogi Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna's wife, Sri Sarada Devi, was also said to be a very exalted holy woman. Nowadays, Anandamaya Ma is considered one of the Indian saints.
BUDDHISM. They say that there were and are many spiritually highly developed women, but that they are simply much less famous than men. Although the Buddha did not exclude women from participating in monastic orders (Buddhism did not have the institution of priesthood), he prohibited women from being wandering nuns after one female nun was raped. The order of Buddhist nuns ceased to exist around the 5th century AD. In Chinese Buddhism, the Bodhisattva of Compassion Guan Yin is a woman, albeit a mythical one.
The only historical female figures that attracted my attention in Buddhism were Yasodhara or Gopa (the wife of the Buddha while he was still a prince), Gautami (the younger sister of the Buddha) and several others described in the already mentioned book “Women Saints - East and West." One of our contemporaries is Abbess Jiyu Kennett of the Shasta Zen Monastery in Mount Shasta, California. She is the spiritual leader (roshi) of several dozen monks, and she wrote about her life in the two-volume book The Wild White Goose. Another contemporary of ours is the recently deceased follower of Buddhism, Claire Myers Owens, who came to Buddhism at an advanced age, but with a beautiful and noble soul, ready for satori. She described her experience in the book “Zen and the Lady.”
ISLAM. In the Sufi tradition, the mystical branch of Islam, there is mention of only one female mystic named Rabi'a. The book Women Saints - East and West describes this 8th-century woman as "an inspiring example for all ordinary women who can aspire to the heights of spiritual perfection." However, there may have been other God-conscious women in Islam who were not so widely known - there are several hints to this in other sources.
Muhammad's wife, Khadija, was his first disciple, and it can therefore be assumed that she had some spiritual insight. Moreover, on the day of his death, Muhammad gave the instruction to his daughter Fatima and his aunt Safiya: “You yourself must work for what will bring you the recognition of God, since I really cannot influence him in any way to save you.” This instruction shows that they were spiritually aspirated women with a certain level of understanding of God.
JAINISM. “Women Saints – East and West” celebrates several female saints in the Jain tradition whose spiritual positions entailed erudition and participation in the composition of sacred texts. The most prominent of them was Arya Chandana, a contemporary of Mahavira, the founder of Jainism. Deeply religious, she became his first student and head of the order of nuns. Another contemporary of Mahavira was Jayanti, the king's sister. She listened to Mahavira's sermons and discussed all kinds of spiritual problems with him. She eventually left her life in the royal palace to become a nun. The order of nuns in Jainism still exists today.
AMERICAN INDIAN TRADITION. There are many women of divine nature in American Indian mythology, those who helped found spiritual traditions, but I have not found any historical figures among them. But there are our contemporaries: Brooke “Healing Eagle” (Brooke Medicine Eagle) - a shaman of European-Indian origin; O'Shinnah Fast Wolf, whose specialty includes healing with crystals and gems; Twylah Hurd Nitsch, granddaughter of the last Seneca shaman; and Wabun, née Marlise James, of Welsh descent, who is an associate of “Sun Bear,” the founder of the first international New Age settlement and healing community.
MODERN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS. As if breaking with history, the modern era demonstrates the spread of spiritual traditions in which women play leading roles. Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science; Ellen G. White was the founder of Seventh-day Adventism; Myrtley Fillmore and her husband Charles founded Unity; Alice Bailey created the “School of Arcana”; occultist Helena Blavatsky was the founder of Theosophy, and her successor was Annie Besant.
As I already said, not all the women mentioned here had the same level of consciousness. I give this review with a warning about the need for such discernment for those who are seeking a female model for their own spiritual development. I also want to emphasize that the names listed here are not the only spiritual reference points for women. Spirituality is seeing God everywhere, in the great and small, ordinary and extraordinary, and expressing this understanding through selfless service. When God-realization is one's achievement, then everything becomes divine, including washing dishes, doing laundry, raising children and other traditional forms of “women's work”, because all this is also from God, like the whole process of life.
From this point of view, it does not matter whether you are a commoner or a king (queen). All that matters is to act towards the world with loving care, which is the manifestation of your true Self, whether you do it quietly, in the humble everyday concerns, or whether it manifests itself in you notable actions in the arena of global events.
So, enlightenment does not imply either a renunciation of the world or a renunciation of traditional male or female roles (although these roles must be accepted freely, without coercion). Enlightenment involves rather self-transcendence. This and only this is the path to liberation.
As the Buddhist treatises say:
Not with a male or female body
Enlightenment will be achieved.
