Books · Sahitya - Literature

A Long Sadhana Vajrayogini – The diamond female yogi

Dalai Lama

Order a printed copy

ShrutSangam GyanBhandars JainTatvaGyanshala

A Long Sadhana Vajrayogini – The diamond female yogi. Last April I spend some time at the Tawang Monastary up between Bhutan and the border to Tibet. This is the second largest Buddhist monastary in the world, the birthplace of the sixth Dalai Lama and the first stop in safe-land for the 14th after his escape from Lhasa. One day I walked the mountains for hours to reach a branch of Tawang Monastary a nunnery called Khromteng Gonpa. Here lives about 20 nuns practicing Vajrayogini. It translates to ‘the diamond female yogi’ and it is a series of tantric practices including methods for preventing ordinary death, intermediate state, bardo, and rebirth by transforming them into paths to enlightenment. Here is a part of one central meditation, Meditation on the Mandala of Vajrayogini: “My body is red in colour, with a brilliance like the fire of the Aeon of Destruction. I have one face, two arms, and three eyes which look up towards Dakini-land. With my right hand I hold a downwards-facing outstretched curved knife marked with a vajra. With my left I hold up in the air a skullcup filled with nectar.” Read more