For a good time, read “Passionate Enlightenment” by Miranda Shaw.

No, seriously.  I know it sounds a little like something you’d read on the inside of a stall at a public restroom, but after reading it a few times, I still find myself walking away feeling that much more compassionate and empowered.  Shaw not only outlines the Tantric approach to Buddhism, but she does so from historical female scholarship.  I’m not the only person in the world who has noticed that waaaayyyyy too much religious doctrine had been penned by men, and therefore have varying degrees of testosterone filters installed.  “Passionate Enlightenment” offers something quite unique – a gynocentric POV in Tantric Buddhism (what has been criticized as blatantly misogynistic by other scholars).  And to a loud Buddhist feminista like myself, this is music to my ears.

The flow of Shaw’s writings follows women in Tantric theory, to the women adepts in Tantric circles, to the women founders in Tantric history, and what is outlined in the Buddha-Tantras how to treat a woman (she adamently states that intimacy is a path to enlightenment, very Left-Hand Path here where renunciates might be taken aback at first glance).

An excerpt from the book that brilliantly describes the Spontaneous Jewellike Yogini:

Like the jewel that is her namesake, the illustrious yogini has many facets.  She is a visionary revealer of Tantric teachings received in deep meditatitive state.  She is a skilled rhetorician who dazzles her audience with a sensuous and exuberant vision of Tantric sexuality.  She is a homileticist who motivates her audience to religious discipline, exhorting them that worldly pleasures are impermanent and ultimately unsatisfying.  She is a subtle philosopher who spins and unravels the theoretical intricacies of her position…..

See?  How fucking awesome is that?

Anyway, the book is far more worth than the $15.00 or so that I paid for it.  It is exquisite, daring, and illustrious.  For this moment in time, it is my personal Tantric feminist Bible, and it calls me to courageously access the Bodhisattva to help others in my uniquely womanly way.

Happy reading!!

I’ve posited before that sex is a valuable tool for contemplation, and I still see it that way.  Both the sexual act and meditation are powerful tools for realization and bliss, and with that potency in it’s cut-straight-to-the-source of non-duality, the practice of mindfulness is of the utmost importance.

We can approach sex with wishes to pursue, to capture, to claim, to possess, with someone – with some other Self.  And during the act, we can find ourselves in the bliss of love and orgasm that the practice offers, but it soon ends, and it’s back to real life again and doing the laundry.

In meditation, we can approach it with wishes to understand our mind, our thoughts, our feelings, our habits, our actions – to get a snapshot and claim this picture of our aggregates as our Self.  And while sitting, we can find ourselves in the bliss of the moment of NOW.  We are aware of the stream of thoughts flowing in front of us or through our hearts.  We are aware of the bodily sensations, and we can remain unattached to these karmic manifestations.  However, this also soon ends, and we are left to deal with real life and doing the laundry.

I say this because in both practices – sex and meditation – we can be very unaware of the subtle wish to capture either our own Self or another Self for even a moment.  And both are futile because of the extraordinary fleeting nature of impermanence.  But if we do our sitting and/or our screwing with the mindfulness of emptiness – that all phenomena does not exist inherently on it’s own side – we can continue to touch on our non-dual nature and possibly open the door a little further to enlightenment.

I’m consistently drawn to Buddhist Tantra not so much because of how “sex-friendly” it is with it’s thangkas of explicit yab-yum depictions and all, but also because of the esoteric poetry that fully acknowledges how masculine and feminine qualities complement each other.   It’s very easy for the dogmatic religions to outline these same facets publicly and without shame, however they also tend to be quite rigid when deciding which gender should do what.

And that’s a recipe for disaster as we’ve seen.  Hence, I think many of us are hesitant to discuss masculinity and feminity because there is apprehension that such a discussion will lead to defining gender roles.  Most of us don’t like being boxed in when we don’t fit.

Recently, I’ve familiarized myself once again with a book by Mark Epstein, M.D. called “Open to Desire.”  One passage has stood out to me concerning this very topic:

The copulating figures that adorn much of Tibetan art represent the interpenetration or intermingling of the male and female approaches.  In this tradition the active male desire, chastened by the gap that desire creates, becomes empathy or compassion:  the ability to reach into the experience of another and feel what they’re feeling.  The desire to possess or control becomes the ability to relate.  The beholding desire, represented by the female partner, is a metaphor for wisdom, as exemplified by the capacity to be.  This formulation has always impressed me because it reverses the conditioned way of thinking.  Compassion is male and wisdom is female.

What’s important to note here is that we truly HAVE been conditioned to think that men are naturally wise and women are naturally compassionate, based on our patriarchal gender role system where men have taken leadership positions in government and in religion, and women’s caretaking for children, the sick, and the elderly have been seen as the hallmarks of compassion.  In Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, these strengths are quite the opposite – the skillful means and potent strength of the probing nature of masculinity make it quite suited to be the path of compassion (“I understand what you feel”); and the reality of emptiness, the physiological make up of feminity, the unlimited potential (“there is no inherent difference between you and me”)………..such qualities make feminity very suitable as the path of wisdom. 

One could even say that the masculine must learn to understand others, but the feminine must learn from within. 

Give it some thought.

In case one wasn’t aware of what I routinely do at the end of each and every meditation session, puja, offering, mantra, or prayer….I dedicate all the merit acquired to the benefit of all sentient beings.  Such a practice is wonderful for continuing selflessness – and especially so since we tend to view giving with strings attached.  Ultimately, we should give freely without hoping to be paid back or even noticed.  Usually the dedication goes like this:

Due to the merits of the these virtuous actions,

May I quickly attain the state of a guru-buddha

And lead all sentient beings, without exception,

Into that enlightened state.

May the supreme jewel bodhichitta

That has not arisen, arise and grow;

And that which has arisen not diminish

But increase more and more.

___________________________________________

Ultimately, we should not even be patting ourselves on the back for being such a noble and kind person.  This isn’t about us, because the self does not inherently exist on it’s own side.  This is about remembering why we do what we do on the path to enlightenment.

It’s about dancing forever on the bridge between you and me, with my heart open to you.

Welcome to my adventure.

Let’s take a moment, first, to understand why I chose to consider “Sacred Whore” an adventure. This practicing and stumbling Buddhist desires to share with you her journey into an undefined yoga uniting the mind and the G-spot. We talk about the ideal of the bodhisattva – but who the hell is this consort that always seems to straddle him anyway? It isn’t difficult to find thankgas of varying deities in Tibetan esoteric art in sexual union with a consort riding him like an equestrian gold medalist….

Is she a Sacred Whore?

Seriously, we have this consort, this partner, who is screwing a bodhisattva. She’s a part of the picture, too, so why all the fuss about merely and solely sitting in a full-lotus, counting the breaths, practicing vipassana meditation and contemplation of the concept of emptiness? Can’t we utilize this other half of the image, and make love as well on our way to enlightenment?

This is part of my goal for Sacred Whore…..to explore the imagery and symbolism in that Tantric consort. It’s one thing – and a very good thing at that – to contemplate our Buddha nature as an absolute. I’m wondering and pondering if there is value in contemplating our nature as the consort as well. In other words – I’m embarking on an adventure to discover not only my true nature as a Buddha, but my true nature as a Sacred Whore.

So, again, welcome to my adventure. May this be a blessing and a gift of great fortune upon all who share this journey with me.