Read this beautifully-written, insightful piece on women poets of Tibet at poetrymind (originally published as part of the catalog of the Tibetan Literary Exhibit at Smith College).
Excerpt:
"Machig Lapdron’s (1055-1143) lineage of Chod exemplifies the highly
sophisticated understanding of the cornerstone of the Mahayana
teachings on emptiness and the illusory belief in an ego.
In Buddhist
philosophy, the ‘conceit’ of ego is perceived as the ultimate demonic
force and obstruction to liberation.
Fully comprehending this view
releases the practitioner into a field of compassion whereas the
psychical/physical becomes a means to feed the illusory demons of the
mind’s projections thus embracing rather than rejecting negative forces
through repression.
Eighth century, Yeshe Tsogyal, an earlier incarnation of Machig Lapdron, in her parting advice incants these words, “I have yet to find any ‘thing’ that truly exists.”
On the other hand, Nangsa Obum, a contemporary of Machig Labdron and famous “delog” draws on the metaphor of weaving, a traditional women’s occupation, to illustrate the stages of the path to realization in a famous folk drama widely known throughout Tibet.
Her song in many ways closely parallels the tradition of Terighati (songs of the nuns from the time of the Buddha) drawing on the immediacy of her domestic life. However slender, these representations are but ciphers in a larger cultural context. . ."
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