Tonight, I learned of being a Dakini:

“It is said that women make superior healers because they are able to dive into meditation much more easily than males, as males are afraid of dropping the intellect.  To be naked in the meditation experience is frightening for them, whereas women seem to be able to manage this naturally.

“A female embodiment of enlightenment is called a dakini in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit.  This translates, literally, to “sky-goer” or “space-dancer”,  indicating that these ethereal awakened creatures have left the confinements of our solid earth and have taken to the vastness of open space as their elusive playground. Dakinis embody a special female quality which has a quality of soft sharpness, and a fiercely radical, courageous yet gentle heart, and a clarity of higher mind that cuts through intellectual ossification by pure and cosmic intuitive force.

“On a secret level, this being is seen as the manifestation of fundamental aspects of phenomena and the mind, and so her power is intimately associated with the profound insights. In this, her most essential aspect, she is considered to be the formless wisdom nature of the mind itself. And on an inner, ritual level, she is a meditational deity, visualized as the personification of buddhahood. On an outer, subtle-body level, she is the energetic network of the embodied mind in the subtle channels of energy and vital breath of tantric yoga. Yet, even more so, she is also, temporarily a mortal, living woman.  She takes many forms and may be a mother, a guru, a yogini, a powerful teacher, or a woman who simply teaches directly through her own life example.

 “Dakinis are the most important elements of the Enlightened Divine Femine in Tibetan Buddhism.  They are the luminous.  Subtle, yet spiritually energetic.  They are, at once, the key, the gatekeeper, and the guardian of the unconditioned state. If we are unwilling to invite the dakini into our life, will simply will not and cannot enter these subtle states of mind on our own.

As such, in order to be awakened and enlightened, we need them, and they will appear to us as messengers, nurturers, protectors, lovers, and guides.

…Yet, no matter what form they take, they will appear, and they have one purpose and one purpose only:  To open your heart.”