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

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

by Michaela Haas

Snow Lion, Boston, Massachusetts, © 2013, 325 pp.

I recently enjoyed reading Diana Mukpo's Dragon Thunder about her life as the wife of Chogyam Trungpa and the early days of Naropa yet, as in Camilla's review of that book, I finished it wanting more. Around the same time we previewed a video of teachings of Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel (now in the CSS library). I thought "Wow, what an amazing women teacher, and how beautifully clear are her teachings, how did she slip by unknown to us?"

After seeing her in the video, I still had no idea she was married to Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, nor that she was one of twelve women practitioner/teachers featured in Dakini Power.

In Dakini Power some of these women are well-known, some less, some monastics, some married, some married to their teachers.  All are interviewed about their life, practices and teachings, and each interview has a lovely honesty and depth.

An engaging and fruitful read. Highly recommended.

-- reviewed by Jennifer Knight