Sun, 05 Jul 2009
Worthy Women
When you read about the great spiritual figures of Tibet, they are almost always men. Tibet also had great women practitioners, but because of the culture, they mostly lived in obscurity. There's no difference between the sexes in ability to achieve enlightenment, but there has been a difference in life stories of spiritual teachers. here are two stories of great women: Sherab Zangmo and Shungsep Jetsun. Here is an excerpt from Sherap Zangmo's story:
Three times she [Yeshe Tsogyal] offered me mudras (hand gestures) and then she became Tsang Yang Gyamtso (the student of the first Tsoknyi Rinpoche who started Getchak Nunnery). He came to rest on top of my head and then he dissolved into my body, speech and mind. We became one. I cried and cried. That moment I had a direct experience of the nature of my mind. I have had many experiences, good and bad, but my mind has remained stable, neither good nor bad
and here is an exceprt from Shunsep Jetsun's story:
When I meditate with undivided attention I experience (the following):
Ordinary appearances having simply ceased,
(Intuitive awareness) appears vividly to my mind
Yet is inexpressible by speech.
When mind is relaxed, I experienced that beyond mind
In my experience of peace, I ecstatically uncovered non-conceptual reality
I meditated on that which is neither continued nor reversed,
Earlier or later not just once, but again and again.
I burst into natural laughter
Upon seeing the self-nature and self's spontaneity,
I can definitely ascertain there is no more to look for.
