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What She Holds in Her Hands

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This is the missing history of women in Tantric Buddhism. This course addresses the fascinating story of nuns, mothers, teachers, consorts, prophets, and disciples. Taught by scholar-practitioners whose groundbreaking research on women and Buddhism has changed the way we think of Buddhist history. This course will address the history of women in Buddhism, the history of yoginis and dakinis in India and Tibet, the stories of important Buddhist women, Buddhist philosophy on gender, sex, and sexuality, and the role of the consort in historical Tibet, and contemporary manifestations and so much more. Support the Buddhist Studies Institute by donating for…
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November 5, 2026 by Buddhist Yogis






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Buddhist Studies Institute

Dear friends,

A brief teaching this evening on what the Lion-Faced Ḍākinī holds, and what each implement means. This is the kind of iconographic reading we will go deeper into at the retreat, but even a glimpse of it changes how one meets her.

In her right hand: the hooked knife (kartṛkā, gri gug).

The hooked knife is not a weapon. It is a cutting instrument shaped to catch and release what it severs. In her hand it cuts the eight worldly concerns: hope and fear of gain and loss, hope and fear of pleasure and pain, hope and fear of praise and blame, hope and fear of fame and disgrace. These eight are the invisible rope that keeps the ordinary mind pulled in every direction at once. Her knife is shaped to catch each strand of that rope and cut it. The hook on the blade is mercy: without the hook, what is cut would scatter and reattach. With the hook, the cutting holds.

In her left hand: the skull cup (kapāla, thod pa).

The skull cup does not hold blood. It holds the nectar of pure awareness, the amṛta that is the taste of mind when self-grasping has been cut away. She drinks from the cup because the result of her own cutting is this nectar. The skull itself is the trace of the fictive self whose cutting released it. She holds in her hand, as her cup, the hollow of what has been emptied.

Together: she cuts, and she drinks. She cuts the ordinary mind and she drinks the awareness that was always underneath it. These are not two actions. They are one action with two aspects.

When we receive her transmission at the retreat, meeting her implements is a way to unlock her deeper meaning.
Learn more about Lion Faced Dakini —>

My very best to you always,

Lion Faced Dakini Transmission, Retreat and Program

Retreat Weekend
Saturday and Sunday, November 7 & 8, 2026
9am – 1pm PT

Monday Evenings
5-6:30pm PT
November 9, 16, 23, 30
Bonus class: Wed, Nov 18

Online via Zoom
with recordings for all sessions

Learn More about Lion Faced Dakini

 

UPCOMING PROGRAMS 

Daily Meditation Online
with BSI Certified Meditation Teachers

Vajrayana Training
1st & 2nd Wednesdays with Pema Khandro

The Lion-Faced Ḍākinī Retreat and Program
The Wrathful Sacred Feminine and the Great Perfection
Weekend Transmission and Retreat: Sat–Sun, Nov 7–8, 2026
Monday Evening Sessions: Nov 9, 16, 23, 30
with Tulku Pema Khandro

SAVE THE DATE – Buddhism After #MeToo
Open to Participants in the Yogini’s Programs & Members of BSI
Wednesday, November 18th, 5-6:30pm PT
with Pema Khandro, PhD

SAVE THE DATE – Dzogchen and the Body
Longchenpa’s Treasury of Words and Meanings
Sat & Sun December 5-6, 9am-1pm PT
with David Germano, PhD and Pema Khandro, PhD

 

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