Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism in the West

Michaela Haas

Apr 2013 · Shambhala Publications

About this eBook

Pema Chödrön, Joan Halifax, and ten other female Tibetan Buddhist teachers share inspiring personal stories, revealing how we can embody Buddhist wisdom and overcome everyday challenges

What drives a young London librarian to board a ship to India, meditate in a remote cave by herself for twelve years, and then build a flourishing nunnery in the Himalayas? How does a surfer girl from Malibu become the head of the main international organization for Buddhist women? Why does the daughter of a music executive in Santa Monica dream so vividly of peacocks one night that she chases these images to Nepal, where she finds the love of her life in an unconventional young Tibetan master?

The women featured in Dakini Power—contemporary teachers of Tibetan Buddhism, both Asians and Westerners, who teach in the West—have been universally recognized as accomplished practitioners and brilliant teachers whose life stories demonstrate their immense determination and bravery. Meeting them in this book, readers will be inspired to let go of old fears, explore new paths, and lead the lives they envision.

Featured here are:

Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche (This Precious Life)
Dagmola Sakya (Princess in the Land of Snows)
Jetsun Tenzin Palmo/Diane Perry (Into the Heart of Life)
Pema Chödrön/Deirdre Blomfield-Brown (When Things Fall Apart; Start Where You Are)
Khandro Tsering Chödron (late aunt of Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying)
Thubten Chodron/Cherry Greene (Buddhism for Beginners; Taming the Mind)
Karma Lekshe Tsomo/Patricia Zenn (Buddhism Through American Women ’s Eyes)
Chagdud Khadro/Jane Dedman (P ’howa Commentary; Life in Relation to Death)
Sangye Khandro/Nanci Gay Gustafson (Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga)
Roshi Joan Halifax (Being with Dying)
Lama Tsultrim Allione/Joan Rousmanière Ewing (Women of Wisdom; Feeding Your Demons)
Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel (The Power of an Open Question)

About the author

Michaela Haas, PhD, is a reporter, lecturer, and consultant. She is the founder of Haas live! Communication Coaching Consulting, an international coaching company that specializes in media and mindfulness training for business leadersand media professionals. She is also a TV host, interviewer, and documentary filmmaker who has hosted numerous successful live talk shows and political broadcasts in Germany. She has been studying and practicing Buddhism for twenty years, has a PhD in Asian Studies, and is a visiting scholar in Religious Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. Haas divides her time between Malibu, California, and Munich, Germany.