THE MOTHER ESSENCE LINEAGE

THE MOTHER ESSENCE LINEAGE

by Ngakpa Chogyam Rinpoche

                             - Yeshe Tsogyel -

 The greatest inspiration and role model for women, in terms of Tibetan 
 Buddhism, is the enlightened yogini Yeshe Tsogyel (Ye-shes mTsho-rGyal).  
 Yeshe means 'primordial wisdom', and Tsogyel means 'queen of the ocean- 
 like quality of Mind'.  She is the female Buddha of the Nyingma School. As 
 an historical figure she is mother of all Nyingma Lineages. Yeshe Tsogyel, 
 together with her incarnation and emanations are an inspiration to women 
 as role models, and to men as teachers.

 According to the teachings of the Mother Essence Lineage, there are three 
 styles of teacher-student relationship; according to mDo (Sutra), rGyud 
 (Tantra), and rDzogs-chen (Mahasandhi). According to Sutra one needs a 
 teacher of the same gender. According to Tantra one needs a teacher of the 
 other, or inverse gender. According to Dzogchen the gender of the teacher 
 is irrelevant. From the perspective of Tantra, therefore, female teachers 
 are role models for women and teachers for men -- whereas male teachers 
 are teachers for women and role models for men.  Within the Mother Essence 
 Lineage, the practice of everyday life is approached from the View of 
 Tantra, and formal practice is approached from the View of Dzogchen. This 
 account of the Mother Essence Lineage is written in a style that 
 emphasizes View rather than practice; and so it emphasizes the perspective 
 of Tantra.  There is tremendous emphasis on what is called living the View 
 in the Mother Essence Lineage, and this is a style of practice that is 
 particularly suited to women.

 Yeshe Tsogyel was the sang-yum or spiritual consort of Padmasambhava. 
 Padmasambhava is known in the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism as the 
 second Buddha. Padmasambhava was the founder of Buddhism in Tibet, and the 
 Nyingma (Ancient) School represents the first spread of Buddhism in Tibet 
 when it surged with the spiritual dynamism provoked by Padmasambhava and 
 Yeshe Tsogyel. Padmasambhava's birth and activity were predicted by Buddha 
 Shakyamuni, who said that a being of tremendous power and compassion would 
 appear after his death, who had the capacity to transmit the teaching and 
 practices of Tantra. The two primary aspects of the practice of Tantra 
 consist of wisdom and active-compassion, and these are regarded as being 
 female and male qualities respectively. Wisdom and active-compassion are 
 fundamentally the enlightened human qualities of Emptiness and Form -- the 
 ornaments of non-duality. (This is a teaching that is also fundamental to 
 the Sutric teaching. It is found in the Heart Sutra, in which it is stated 
 that Form is Emptiness and Emptiness is Form.) With regard to Tantra, 
 Padmasambhava is Form or active-compassion, and Yeshe Tsogyel is Emptiness 
 or wisdom. From this perspective, the whole of reality is seen as the 
 dance of Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel. Within the Ngakphang Sangha of 
 the Nyingma School, every Lama and her or his spiritual consort are 
 Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel as far as their disciples are concerned.

 In the Mother Essence Lineage, Yeshe Togyel and her incarnations and 
 emanations are of primary importance, because she is the Mother of Vision, 
 and therefore the Mother of non-dual experience. Tantra contains methods 
 that are particularly valuable for women, because of their emphasis on the 
 development of Vision. It is said, within the Tantric teachings, that 
 women have greater capacity for realization than men because of their 
 greater natural resonance with the sphere of Visionary practice. The most 
 inspirational example in the Tantric tradition of the profound capacity of 
 women is Yeshe Tsogyel. She was the first Tibetan woman to achieve 
 Buddhahood and has had numerous incarnations and emanations in Tibet and 
 the other Himalayan countries. The Visionary origin of the Mother Essence 
 Lineage is Yeshe Tsogyel, and her influence can be traced forward to the 
 twentieth century through her incarnations. The incarnations of Yeshe 
 Tsogyel include: Machig Lapdron; Jomo Menmo; Jomo Chhi-'med Pema; and, 
 Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema -- the women who gave birth to the pure-vision 
 revelations that are called the Aro gTer of the Mother Essence Lineage.

 Those interested to learn more about the life of Yeshe Tsogyel are 
 referred to Keith Dowman's excellent book 'Sky Dancer', which chronicles 
 her birth, life and realization -- along with a marvellous commentary on 
 the nature of the three inner Tantras. Because this text is easily 
 available, there is no need to discuss the life of Yeshe Tsogyel in this 
 account of the Mother Essence Lineage.

 Machig Lapdron (Ma-gChig Lap-sGron) 'Unique Mother Torch of Practice' was 
 the incarnation of Yeshe Tsogyel. Machig Lapdron was the great Tibetan 
 yogini who was the originator of the practice of Chod -- the Visionary 
 practice of cutting attachment to one's corporeal form (in terms of the 
 dualistic proclivity to relate to ones corporeal form as a reference-point 
 that proves one's existence). Machig Lapdron too, is quite well chronicled 
 in various texts that are currently available. Jomo Menmo is regarded 
 generally as an emanation of Yeshe Tsogyel; but specifically, in the 
 Mother Essence Lineage, as the incarnation of Machig Lapdron. Jomo Menmo, 
 however, is not very well known to Western audiences, and so I will give a 
 short account of her life that was given to me orally by Jetsunma Khandro 
 Ten'dzin Drolkar, a great hidden yogini of the Nyingma School whom I have 
 had the good fortune to know as a friend and mentor since 1975.

                               - Jomo Menmo -

 Jomo Menmo Pema Tsokyi (Jom-mo sMan-mo Padma mTsho-sKyid) was born in the 
 Earth Male monkey year (1248 CE) and passed into the sky-dimension in 1283 
 CE. She was born in the magical vicinity of the cave in which both 
 Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel once stayed. The place was called 
 Zarmolung which was located in an area of Tibet called E-yul, which means 
 'primordial-awareness country'. Her parents named her Pema Tsokyi which 
 means 'Lotus of the Ocean'. Her childhood was relatively uneventful and 
 her parents were fairly ordinary people. She spent her childhood helping 
 with the general work of living in a family and also helped with herding 
 the yaks and dris.  At the onset of puberty (in the Spring of 1261), 
 whilst she was grazing the yaks and dris in the high pasture lands, she 
 fell asleep in a meadow. The alpine meadow was overlooked by the Dewachen- 
 puk -- the cave of great ecstasy, in which Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel 
 had demonstrated attainment. The place was known as Kyungchen-ling -- the 
 place of the great Garuda. The Garuda is the 'Space-eagle', which 
 demonstrates, in its being:  the unborn, unceasing, ever present state of 
 enlightenment that is the fundamental ground of the Dzogchen teachings and 
 practices. Whilst asleep, she had a dream of clarity in which she 
 experienced a profound Vision. A sonorous voice awoke her from the 
 unconscious dream state into a state of pure and total presence. She found 
 herself standing in front of the entrance to a secret cave in the mountain 
 side. She entered the cave immediately and with a sense of keen 
 enthusiasm. She did not know what she would find there, but she was 
 consumed with a sense of immanence without hope or fear. Once inside the 
 cave a Vision unfolded in which Yeshe Tsogyel manifested in a 
 phantasmagorical variety of guises. These Visions melted into each other 
 until they coalesced into the form of Yeshe Tsogyel as Dorje Phagmo. Dorje 
 Phagmo means 'indestructible sow' or 'thunderbolt sow'. Dorje Phagmo is 
 the ecstatically fierce Dakini, whose head is surmounted by the head of a 
 sow whose screech shatters illusion. The sound of the screech obliterates 
 all concepts and sharply confides the direct meaning or ro-chig -- the one 
 taste of Emptiness and Form. At the moment in which she apprehended Yeshe 
 Tsogyel as Dorje Phagmo, a complete body of teaching was revealed to her. 
 She understood its meaning in the instant of its appearance. This teaching 
 named itself as 'The Gathered Secrets of Sky dancers'. She realized this 
 teaching was something that she should practice in complete secrecy until 
 its results were obtained. She knew immediately that there would be no 
 obstacle to her fulfilment of these practices. With the arising of this 
 knowledge the Vision of Dorje Phagmo dissolved into Cho-nyi (Chos-nyid -- 
 Dharmata, the Space of reality).

 Pema Tsokyi awoke from the Vision, and went about her daily life. But 
 wherever she went she gave teachings as the spontaneous expression of her 
 Mind, voice and body. She gave Mind-to-Mind teaching as the natural 
 expression of her presence. She sang teaching-songs as the natural 
 expression of her conversation, and performed vajra-dance as the natural 
 expression of her deportment. This had both fortunate and unfortunate 
 consequences. Many ordinary people were astounded by her and recognized 
 that she was a realized yogini, but the ecclesiastics of that place made 
 people afraid of her. She was slandered as a psychotic, a mad-woman who 
 had been possessed by a demon. Once fear had been stirred up by the 
 jealous male ecclesiastics, people became nervous of Pema Tsokyi. The 
 ordinary people lost their natural faith in Pema Tsokyi. They found 
 themselves unable to have confidence in their own spontaneous devotion, in 
 opposition to the ecclesiastical conservatism that styled her as a 
 demoness. The people then began to make accusations against her as well; 
 saying that she had gone to sleep in the mountains and been possessed by a 
 Menmo -- a demonic female being from another dimension. It was then that 
 she became known as Jomo Menmo -- the Demonic Lady.

 Because of the ill feeling that the bigoted and narrow-minded 
 ecclesiastics showed toward her, she decided to leave her home and family 
 and never return to the area. It would seem to be a common problem faced 
 by religious ecstatics and wisdom eccentrics, that they are attacked by 
 religious moralists, academics, and philosophers. From the view of the 
 gradual path it is regarded as highly threatening for a simple country 
 girl to gain realization over-night, and it is often the case that the 
 'uneducated' have a better appreciation of naturally-born wisdom, than 
 those who have studied for long years in search of the same wisdom. It is 
 also the case that men, especially ecclesiastic men, are threatened by 
 female wisdom eccentrics.  For those who study to attain wisdom there is 
 often the problem of becoming hide-bound by conventional or traditional 
 religious semantics, and then bigotry and anger usually arise.

 After a period of ecstatic wandering, she reached a place called La-yak- 
 pang-drong in the western part of Lho-drak, where she met a great Nyingma 
 Visionary -- the gTerton (gTer-ston) Guru Rinpoche Cho-kyi Wang-chuk (Gu- 
 ru Rin-po-che Chos-kyi dBang-phyug). Guru Cho-wang (as his name is 
 commonly contracted) was one of the five sovereign Nyingma Visionaries, 
 and one of the three major emanations of Padmasambhava. As soon as Guru 
 Cho-wang saw Jomo Menmo he knew that she was the perfect sang-yum or 
 spiritual-wife with whom he could bring his realization to fulfilment. 
 Through her relationship with him, Jomo Menmo was able to clear his 
 Spatial-nerves (tsa) of subtle dualistic eddies and currents with in the 
 Spatial-winds (rLung). Once his tsa-lung system flowed with complete 
 freedom he found himself with the capacity of realizing the meaning of 
 every symbolic device within the Visionary teaching he had discovered, but 
 which he had been unable to translate. (The Innermost Secret Heart Essence 
 Tantra of the Eight Wrathful Awareness-beings -- bKa'a-brGyad gSang-ba 
 yong-rDzogs man-ngak-gi rGyud chen-po.)

 They stayed a brief time with each other, in which they shared songs of 
 realization, and the quintessential instructions according to their 
 individual Vision. When Jomo Menmo decided to take her leave of Guru Cho- 
 wang, he advised her that the time was not right to divulge the Visionary 
 teaching cycle that she had received from Yeshe Tsogyel. He said that it 
 would be better if her Visionary teaching benefited people at a future 
 time.  He advised her, instead, to travel throughout Tibet benefiting 
 people in a secret manner. To 'benefit people in a secret manner' is an 
 activity that is particular to women, and does not involve any kind of 
 describable method.  Secret activity can comprise any human possibility, 
 and can be utterly unobservable to anyone unless they are open to that 
 style of transmission and teaching. An enlightened woman (or more rarely, 
 an enlightened man) can simply appear to live in the style of an ordinary 
 person with no outer sign of accomplishment, wisdom or even knowledge. 
 Such a woman is of profound influence merely in the ways in which her 
 everyday life causes the innate enlightenment of others to sparkle through 
 the fabrications of their dualistic conditioning.

 On her wandering throughout Tibet she met many yogis who gained powerful 
 realizations simply by meeting her. The most famous of these was Ling-je  
 Repa (gLing-rJe ras-pa), who experienced the same profound purification of 
 his Spatial-nerves and Spatial-winds as Guru Cho-wang.

 Jomo Menmo spent her life this way, as a wandering yogini; changing 
 people's lives irredeemably merely through the fact of their 
 adventitiously finding themselves in her presence. In this way she 
 engendered many lineages of female practitioners, two of whom entered the 
 sky-dimension with her at the time of her disappearance from the world. At 
 the age of thirty-six, she climbed to the summit of Tak-lha-ri (Mountain 
 of the Sky Tiger), and on the tenth day of the seventh month (4th of 
 August 1283) she and her two female disciples entered the Sky-dimension 
 and were never seen again. Her extraordinary Visionary teaching returned 
 to the Mind of Yeshe Tsogyel, and was later re-discovered by Rig'dzin Pema 
 Do-ngak Lingpa; who was the incarnation of Guru Cho-wang.

                              - Pema 'o-Zer -

 Jomo Menmo had various emanations in Tibet, but in 1901 her incarnation 
 was recognized by Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer. Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer was raised 
 by Jomo Chhi-'med Pema (who was herself an emanation of Yeshe Tsogyel). 
 Pema 'o-Zer was recognized by her aunt Jomo Chhi-'med Pema, to be an 
 emanation of Tashi Chi-dren. Tashi Chi-dren was the consort of 
 Padmasambhava who manifested in Vision as the Tigress upon which he rode 
 in his manifestation as Dorje Trollo -- the most wrathful of the eight 
 manifestations of Padmasambhava.

 Pema 'o-Zer's mother father and older brother died of small pox when she 
 was about four years old, and she was left to be brought up by her ageing 
 aunt Jomo Chhi-'med Pema, who was regarded as being a very eccentric old 
 woman.  Jomo Chhi-'med Pema lived alone and herded a few goats, but she 
 was however a powerful yogini, and someone who could converse with the 
 local Mountain Protectress and give people answers to questions about 
 their lives and futures. There were heaps of stones all around her 
 dwelling; mounds of pebbles from the river which she had arranged in 
 circles and other shapes.  She would carry stones, sometimes quite large 
 ones, for many miles, because she felt that they were in the wrong place. 
 She had some special knowledge, connected with the Protectors, about where 
 certain stones should be. She treated them very much as living beings, and 
 would read meaning into the positions in which she found them. One day, 
 young Pema 'o-Zer fell over and hit her knee whilst she was playing 
 outside her aunts dwelling. When Jomo Chhi-'med Pema heard her crying, she 
 came out immediately with a large stick a gave the rock a severe 
 thrashing, warning it to take very good care of young Pema 'o-Zer in 
 future. Pema 'o-Zer was very moved by this. She felt very sorry for having 
 got the rock into trouble by her stupidity, and thereafter treated the 
 rock with kindness and respect. She would make offerings to the rock, and 
 everyday apologize for the beating that it had to receive. Jomo Chhi-'med 
 would often give young Pema 'o-Zer teaching in this style and the young 
 girl seemed to be able to take advantage of her aunt's style with very 
 powerful effect. She learnt a great deal from her aunt.

 Jomo Chhi-'med knew the positions of the larger rocks in the river very 
 well, and made predictions about the weather and when to sow or harvest, 
 according to what she saw. If the rocks moved, she would know immediately 
 and it would usually portend some change in weather. The local people 
 would always ask her advice on the weather. Sometimes they would ask her 
 to intervene, in terms of the weather, and she had notable power as a 
 controller of weather. This wisdom-eccentric became the adoptive mother of 
 Pema 'o-Zer, and gave her many instructions on how to practise. She taught 
 her the Dzogchen Long-de and many other kinds of very essential practice.  
 She never chanted texts or used any kind of ritual implements. She had no 
 shrine, and no thangkas in her home. People assumed that she was very 
 poor, and ignorant of religious conventions, but always asked for her help 
 when personal misfortunes overtook them. She did have some disciples who 
 visited her, but they always came secretly and gave no outer sign of 
 'coming to visit a Lama'.

 Jomo Chhi-'med would attend teachings when important Lamas came to the 
 area, but she would sit in a state of non-conceptual equipoise rather than 
 listening in an intellectual style. She would never make mudras of any 
 kind, or join in the recitations when empowerments were given. Because of 
 this many people assumed that she was a pious simpleton. When the 
 teachings or empowerments were over she would walk away giggling. She 
 would smile at people very broadly, and laugh very loudly, which monks in 
 particular found rather disconcerting. When asked any question she would 
 often only reply 'Yes!' over and over again, whilst nodding her head 
 vigorously and grinning in an insane manner. This usually had the effect 
 of dissuading people with intellectual pretensions from asking her 
 questions.

 One day when Pema 'o-Zer was in her late teens, her aunt Jomo Chhi-'med 
 left the house and never returned. (It is not known where she went or what 
 happened to her.) Pema 'o-Zer lived at the house of Jomo Chhi-'med Pema 
 for a while, but one day she had a Vision during her meditation in which 
 Jomo Chhi-'med appeared to her. Jomo Chhi-'med Pema told her to begin a 
 life of wandering in which she would find a suitable sang-yab. Pema 'o-Zer 
 left her aunt's house, which had almost fallen into ruins, and wandered 
 for several years as an itinerant yogini before meeting Rang-rig Togden, a 
 wandering Chodpa (practitioner of Chod). After wandering together through 
 Eastern and Central Tibet, they settled in Mar-Kham where they found a 
 cave called 'Tiger Space of Rainbow Light'. They remained there for the 
 rest of their lives as practitioners of Dzogchen Long-de, the 'Space' or 
 'Vast Expanse' series of Dzogchen.

 Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer's Sangyab and disciple, Rang-rig Togden, was a 
 powerful yogi, especially of the subjugation practices of Chana Dorje 
 (Vajrapani), Tamdrin (Hayagriva) and Khyung (Garuda) a practice he had 
 received from Azom Drukpa. They practiced all their lives and spent almost 
 all their elder years in retreat. When they were in their sixties, 
 Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer had a Vision of Yeshe Tsogyel that lasted for seven 
 days. When the Vision dissolved back into Cho-nyi (dharmata) she was left 
 with the knowledge that she was going to give birth to a daughter who 
 would be the incarnation of Jomo Menmo, the great female Nyingma gTerton. 
 Jomo Menmo was the consort of Guru Chowang -- one of the gTerton Kings. 
 Sang-ngak-cho-dzong holds the nine prong meteorite iron Vajra made by 
 Padmasambhava and discovered by Guru Chowang through the inspiration of 
 Jomo Menmo, and also the Dorje and Drilbu of Jomo Menmo.

                      - Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema -

 The birth of Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema was a remarkable event. She was 
 born with great ease and without making any sound. The first thing she did 
 was to making a very long drawn out hiss with her lips drawn up into 
 Wrathful aspect, as if she were performing a Tsa-lung breathing exercise. 
 A great number of eagles appeared in the sky at her birth. They swooped 
 and glided very close to her parents' Retreat Cave entrance. All manner of 
 sky phenomena appeared at her birth, including clouds shaped like 
 yungdrungs and gakyils. Strong gusts of wind sprang up and subsided very 
 quickly. The sun and moon were clearly visible in the sky at the same 
 time. Her mother remained in a state of Vision through the birth, in which 
 she was physically assisted by Rang-rig Togden.

 Khandro Yeshe slept a great deal as a child but always with her eyes wide 
 open. It was not always easy to tell whether she was asleep or awake 
 because often she would sleep sitting up without any support. She didn't 
 speak until she was five years old but then spoke fluently and without 
 effort. Up until that point she simply listened to her mother and father 
 practising or giving her instruction on practise. She was brought up 
 entirely in retreat and never saw another child until she was an adult 
 woman. As a young girl, she would wander widely in the mountains around 
 her parents meditation cave.  She would disappear whenever patrons came to 
 visit and bring food and offerings to the couple. She expressly did not 
 want anyone to see her apart from her parents, and they were quite happy 
 to go along with her in this wish. They never questioned anything that she 
 did or wanted. She wanted very little and was mostly quiet apart from 
 peals of loud and unexpected laughter. She would sometimes be gone for 
 several days and come back with accounts of having visited other realms 
 and of having met Yeshe Tsogyel and Padmasambhava. Her parents instructed 
 her in Trul-khor (Yantra yoga) from a very early age and she had mastered 
 gTu-mo by the age of nine. She could not endure to wear clothes for most 
 of the year until she was an adult and left the retreat cave. This is why 
 she had the name Rema or cotton wearing lady, because she had the power to 
 generate her own inner heat.

 Khandro Yeshe Rema was about sixteen or seventeen years old when her 
 parents took rainbow-body ('ja'-lus) together. She sewed them in a white 
 tent together after receiving final advice, instructions, and predictions 
 from them; and retired to a distance of twenty one paces to begin her 
 practice.  Seven days later she opened the tent and all that was left were 
 their respective clothes, hair, finger nails, toe nails and nasal septum. 
 They had taken rainbow body together. It is a highly unusual event for two 
 people to achieve rainbow body together at the same time, but it was 
 something that had her mother had predicted many years before. This event 
 had a profound impact on Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema and ripened many 
 latent faculties.  She gathered the relics of her parents and set out 
 toward Northern Kham and Golok where her Mother had predicted she would 
 find a suitable Sang-yab for the realization of a gTerma cycle that would 
 come into being in the future for the benefit of beings in distant lands. 
 Her mother had given indications that this gTerma cycle would be of 
 immense benefit in the future if certain conditions were met, but that 
 there would also be many circumstantial obstacles to overcome.

 Khandro Yeshe travelled from place to place practising and living as a 
 wandering yogini. She had the opportunity on several occasions to join up 
 with other groups of practitioners but was intent on travelling alone. She 
 sometimes pretended to be dumb, in order to avoid speaking with people -- 
 especially if they were religious people. She would always speak to 
 children and ordinary people -- especially if they appeared to have 
 difficulties; but she always avoided religious people whenever she could. 
 It took Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema about year to reach Northern Kham and 
 Golok where it was predicted that she would meet her Sang-yab. It was 
 there that she met 'a-Shul Pema Legden who was a monk and a disciple of 
 Khalding Lingpa. She recognized 'a-Shul Pema Legden immediately as having 
 the potential to realize Visions, and so they travelled together to 
 Southern Tibet. 'a-Shul Pema Legden gave up his monk's vows and became her 
 sang-yab. During their journey to Southern Tibet Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe 
 Rema experienced several profound Visionary experiences of Yeshe Tsogyel 
 in which she realized the cycles of Teachings and practice that her mother 
 had predicted. These cycles of teachings and practice came to be known as 
 the Aro gTer -- the teaching of the Mother Essence Lineage. These 
 teachings survive today as a very essentialized and 'very non-elaborate' 
 body of teachings and practice.

                    - The Mother Essence Lineage Today -

 Tibetan Buddhism is known in the West largely in terms of monasticism. 
 With regard to the monastic sangha, the teaching of the schools of Tibetan 
 Buddhism, and Bon, are accessed mostly completely through the teaching of 
 monks. It is a small minority of Western Buddhists who are aware of 
 Tibetan Lamas who are nuns. At present the only Tibetan nun to teach in 
 the West is Khandro Rinpoche, a female Lama of the Kagyud School. The 
 dominant spiritual culture of Tibet appears to be male as far as most 
 people are aware.  Although this is not an entirely inaccurate portrayal 
 of the dominant spiritual culture of Tibet, it does not convey the 
 spiritual dynamism that existed in terms of women, and the very small 
 family lineages that existed -- in which women were very spiritually 
 influential indeed.

 Contrary to the overt cultural impression, there were many women in Tibet 
 who were teachers of the most profound level, and many of them had male 
 disciples numbering amongst the highest monastic dignitaries. Some 
 practised as ordained nuns, but many more practised both as ordained 
 Ngakmas and lay yoginis. The Ngakmas and Ngakpas (the male equivalent) 
 were those ordained into the Tantric Ngakphang sangha and tended to live 
 as married couples.  Both Ngakmas and lay yoginis are still to be found in 
 the Himalayan countries that surround Tibet; but it is not an easy or 
 simple endeavour to meet them, or even find them. One such remarkable 
 woman is Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin Drolkar -- the remarkable yogini who 
 gave me the account of the life of Jomo Menmo. I have the immense good 
 fortune of knowing her both as a teacher and vajra-sister; and as such, 
 have introduced several of my students to her. Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin 
 Drolkar is a hidden yogini. Very few people in the West have heard of her, 
 and even in India and Nepal she is not widely known. She is 
 indistinguishable from any other elderly Tibetan woman you might pass on 
 the streets of McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala where she currently lives. Despite 
 her anonymity, she is a close friend of Ven. Sonam Sangpo Rinpoche, Ven. 
 Tharchin Rinpoche and His Holiness Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche -- and 
 highly respected by them for the profundity of her practice and 
 realization. She is a Dzogchen yogini who has spent most of her life in 
 and out of retreat. She has also raised a family, and survived a somewhat 
 difficult husband. One of her sons Trulku Ten'dzin was recognized as an 
 Nyingma incarnation, and currently lives in semi-open retreat with Kyabje 
 Chatral Rinpoche in Yang-le-shod in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal.

 Apart from the many individual women practitioners and teachers in Tibet, 
 there were also small lineages that existed along-side the major Nyingma 
 lineages. These were the minor lineages of mountain recluses both male and 
 female; and also, hidden female lineages that passed down from through 
 children rather than through incarnation lines. The Mother Essence Lineage 
 is one such lineage of teachings and practices. The Mother Essence Lineage 
 is primarily a lineage of very unusual women, wisdom-eccentrics who were 
 either solitary or married recluses. They were either itinerant Nyingma 
 yoginis and their partners, or those who lived in communities such as the 
 Aro Gar, where the Mother Essence Lineage was disseminated. The Mother 
 Essence Lineage passed initially from aunt to niece, and then from mother 
 to daughter. With this daughter, began the direct daughter-line which was 
 destined to pass down through a succession of women, but due to the 
 vagaries of circumstance and the intervention of the Chinese invasion, the 
 blood line was broken. The daughter was an extraordinary Visionary by the 
 name of Yeshe Rema (Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema) who passed her teachings 
 on to a small group of men and women who gathered around in the final 
 phase of her life.  Amongst this small group of no more than a hundred 
 disciples there was a predominant number of accomplished yoginis, nine of 
 whom had remarkable yogic abilities. A-ye Khandro and A-she Khandro in 
 particular manifested yogic powers such as telepathy, clairvoyance and the 
 ability to converse with animals and beings in other dimensions.

 Yeshe Rema was a pure-vision gTerton, that is to say a discoverer of 
 spiritual treasures. She received several cycles of practice directly from 
 Yeshe Tsogyel the female Buddha and consort of Padmasambhava. These 
 practices were unique and extraordinary, as they consisted of Awareness- 
 being (meditational deity) forms that were all manifestations of 
 Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel. Together with these practices were 
 methods of the three series of Dzogchen and their ancillary psycho- 
 physical practices. Yeshe Rema was advised by her mother to practice these 
 in secret, and only to teach the practices to her daughter. It would then 
 be her daughter who would transmit these teachings to the world.

 Unfortunately, due to inauspicious circumstances, Yeshe Rema gave birth to 
 a son, and the blood-line was broken. Her Sang-yab (spiritual husband) 
 died, and she never took another consort. Her mother had advised that she 
 should only have one Sang-yab. She also advised that she should only have 
 one child; otherwise her life would be considerably shortened, and she 
 would thus have little time to make sure of her daughter's spiritual 
 training.  Her Sang-yab, 'a-Shul Pema Legden, was an old Lama. He died 
 whilst Yeshe Rema was still quite young, and before she had conceived a 
 daughter. This could have meant that Yeshe Rema's cycles of Visionary 
 teaching would have disappeared from the world, but through her yogic 
 power she was able to conceive shortly before 'a-Shul Pema Legden's death. 
 She guided him through the Bardo visions of the intermediate state between 
 lives, and gave birth to him as her own son. It was not possible, for 'a- 
 Shul Pema Legden to be re-born as a woman due to his own remaining karmic 
 obscurations, and so the opportunity was lost in terms of these teachings 
 being made widely known.  Yeshe Rema's mother had given her advice about 
 the inauspicious advent of giving birth to a son, and as a result of 
 maintaining these instructions very exactly was able to pass the teaching 
 on to her son by appearing to him in Visionary form after her own death, 
 and whilst he was in solitary retreat at the age of eight.

 The son of Yeshe Rema was called Aro Yeshe, and she left instructions that 
 the Visionary practices that he would give would be called the Aro gTer.  
 Aro Yeshe was the name that she would have given to her daughter, had she 
 been able to give birth to a girl. During the childhood of Aro Yeshe he 
 was kept away from other boys and from men in general. He was brought up, 
 after the death of his mother, by five yoginis that she had appointed to 
 attend to his education. His childhood friends were two sisters called A- 
 ye Khandro and A-she Khandro who later becomes his Sang-yums. These two 
 girls were the two first disciples to whom he transmitted the Aro gTer, 
 and it was they who actually passed the teachings on to the other 
 disciples of Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema. Aro Yeshe himself taught very 
 rarely because the transmissions were seen as more powerful if they were 
 received from women.

 Since the death of Yeshe Rema, the tradition was continued by a male 
 lineage holder, supported by two powerful female consorts. This became 
 called the indirect son line. It was called indirect because it came 
 through a male lineage holder, and in this tradition male practitioners 
 have less power of lineal blessing. There is a prediction however, that 
 the direct daughter line will re-emerge with greater power if sufficient 
 women become accomplished in the Visionary methods of the Mother Essence 
 Lineage.

 My work as a Lama is dedicated to ensuring that such lineages as the 
 direct daughter line can re-emerge. To that end Sang-ngak-cho-dzong has 
 been established as a spiritual organization dedicated to the creation of 
 opportunities for women. Special emphasis is placed on practice in the 
 context of family life, and on encouraging women to engage in teacher- 
 training within this lineage. There are now a group of significant women 
 practitioners within Sang-ngak-cho-dzong who have had inspirational 
 contact with Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin Drolkar, three of whom have been 
 ordained into the Vajra commitment of the Ngakphang Sangha.

 Of the three, one is called Khandro Dechen Tsedrup Yeshe; she is my wife 
 and Sang-yum. She is a great inspiration to me, and we work together as a 
 'teaching couple'.  As a 'teaching couple', an important aspect of our 
 role is to provide an example of the dance that exists as the marriage of 
 two Tantric practitioners. This is one of the most crucial and fundamental 
 features of the Mother Essence Lineage, and one which I will describe at a 
 later point in this essay. Khandro Dechen specializes in the practice of 
 sKu-mNye, a system of psycho-physical exercises which are unique to the 
 Mother Essence Lineage. She is currently preparing a three volume series 
 of the one hundred and eleven exercises that comprise the cycle that stems 
 from the Dzogchen Long-de system.

 Another of the three ordained women, is Ngakma Nor'dzin Rang-jung Pamo. 
 She is a mother of two, whose husband has also taken ordination. Ngakma 
 Nor'dzin is a craft potter who makes gTer-bums (treasure vases), wonderful 
 drums, and other practice artifacts for Sang-ngak-cho-dzong. She is also a 
 healer and a woman whose simplicity and directness of explanation touches 
 all those who come to her for advice in their lives and practice.

 The third ordained woman is Ngakma Pema Rig'dzin Zangmo. She is the 
 thangka painter, or visionary artist, of Sang-ngak-cho-dzong. She is 
 responsible for making the visualization practices of this Lineage 
 possible by bringing them into existence through her remarkable talent. 
 She is an extraordinarily gifted artist, who has the unusual capacity to 
 continue to improve at a rate that her Vajra sisters and brothers find 
 surprising. Her husband is also an ordained Ngakpa.

 All three women are experienced practitioners who have engaged in retreats 
 and accomplished signs of practice. At present, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakma 
 Pema Zangmo do not have students of their own, but they give regular 
 teaching input on the 'Open Teaching Retreats' that are held in Britain.  
 When these two yoginis begin to take their own students (at some point in 
 the future) they too will work as teaching couples along with their 
 husbands. This was very much the style in which the Mother Essence Lineage 
 functioned in Tibet, and my female and male students all share the hope 
 that it will develop in this way in the West.

                        - Khandro/Pawo Mirroring, or
                   Cutting Through Spiritual Chauvinism -

 Central to the Aro gTer is a teaching on practising as couples, in order 
 to realize the hidden female and male qualities within men and women. In 
 order to have some understanding of how such teachings function, it is 
 necessary to have some understanding of duality and non-duality and of the 
 functioning of the psycho-physical elements. To this end some explanation 
 of the idea of Pawo and Khandro in Tibetan Tantra are crucial.

 When the beginningless Empty essence of what we are gives rise to the 
 vibrant display of our nature; we manifest a physical form -- the energy 
 that shimmers between wonderment and bewilderment. Bewilderment is the 
 momentary loss of confidence in the open dimension of our being. If we try 
 to 'return' to the open dimension of our being (rather than finding 
 confidence in the recognition that we've never moved from that 
 Spaciousness) we create the illusion of duality. As soon as the illusion 
 of duality is coaxed into illusory existence, 'groundless anxiety' arises 
 -- like wind from an empty sky. 'Groundless anxiety' is the root of 
 paranoia; and when paranoia becomes the pattern of perception, the sense 
 of 'isolation' is sparked -- and fanned into flames. 'Isolation'; is the 
 root of 'clinging' to focuses of comforting proximity -- and when this 
 'clinging' and 'attachment' becomes the pattern of our perception, we 
 experience our reality as flooded by 'fear' of loss. 'Fear' is the root of 
 'anger' which freezes our perception -- dividing substance from 
 substancelessness. Experiencing this division, we evolve elaborate 
 divisive strategies in order to align ourselves with ground, and reject 
 groundlessness. These strategies are the root of 'obduracy', the need to 
 fix, control and concretize everything within our sense fields. Everything 
 within this array of perceptual horizons is then manipulated as a 
 reference-point, in order to prove that we are: 'defined', 'continuous', 
 'separate', 'permanent' and 'solid'.

 In this web of growing confusion and alienation, we continuously cling to 
 whatever momentary pattern arises as a perception. We then try to force 
 these perceptions into fixed definitions of 'what we cannot be'. Because 
 we wish to accept and prolong certain definitions, (and wish to reject and 
 curtail others) it becomes impossible to relax into the true nature of 
 what we are. We become increasingly divided against ourselves (which is 
 not actually possible) through the struggle to deny our Spacious nature.  
 Because it is not actually possible to be divided against ourselves (or to 
 split Emptiness and Form) we find ourselves engaged in a potentially never 
 ending struggle to remain unenlightened.

 Through our struggles to deny our Spacious nature we experience the pain 
 of illusion (of being divided against ourselves). From this illusion all 
 divisions and divisiveness arise! When we manifest human form we 
 experience Form-reality in terms of gender. We become female or male. In 
 our 'physical frames of reference' as women and men, we experience the 
 division that always stems from dualistic perception. In order to feel 
 whole, we have to experience separation and distinction in order to re- 
 unite with what we sense that we have lost. This is where it gets 
 complicated. Our relationships with each other as women and men, reflect 
 the complexities of our estranged relationships with our own Spaciousness. 
 Our Beginningless Enlightenment is continually inviting us to be the 
 enlightened beings that we actually are; but we're very ambivalent about 
 this kind of invitation.  From the perverse perspective of 
 'unenlightenment', this sort of invitation seems to betoken annihilation.

 Our primary dualistic intention is to distract ourselves from the Spacious 
 nature of being; because, somehow, that doesn't seem like a condition in 
 which we could survive. We want to snuggle down into a dim cosiness where 
 the whole idea of Spaciousness might disappear. But however horribly snug 
 we try to make our experiential environment, our innate wisdom always 
 sparkles through. Enlightenment continually sparkles through the fabric of 
 our distracted-being, unravelling the threads of our contrived perception, 
 and making it difficult for us to obscure what we really are. The 
 difficulties involved in playing this game of hide-and-seek with 
 Spaciousness, constitute the pain that we experience. These difficulties 
 are the patterning of our conditioning -- our karmic vision.  Within the 
 sphere of karmic vision we are cut off from our own wholeness. This 
 wholeness, according to the Vision of Tantra, can be described as the 
 interplay of outer and inner qualities.  These manifested qualities of 
 being are the twin aspects of realization -- wisdom and active-compassion. 
 Wisdom is the realization of the clear self-luminous nature of all 
 phenomena, and active-compassion is the energy or spontaneous arising of 
 enlightened activity.

 The primary difference between women and men from this perspective, lies 
 in the reversal of the outer and inner manifested qualities of Being. 
 Women have outer wisdom qualities and inner compassion qualities. Men have 
 outer compassion qualities and inner wisdom qualities. When women and men 
 realize these qualities they dance together as Khandros and Pawos; and 
 their energies brilliantly mirror each other. But when this realization is 
 not present women and men teeter and clump, as beings distracted from 
 Being. In this kind of confused dancing; the man usually wants to lead, 
 and the woman usually wants to be led. However, the man can become unsure 
 of where he is leading and feel resentful at having to lead, and the woman 
 can feel dominated and cease to want to be lead. Whichever way there is no 
 freedom for either.

 The word Khandro is the phonetic adaptation of what is transliterated from 
 the Tibetan as mKha'-'Gro.  mKha' means 'sky' and 'Gro means 'going' and 
 signifies 'movement' or 'unobstructedness' can be loosely rendered into 
 English as Sky-Dancer. This word has a very special meaning in Tibetan, 
 because it suggests the ability to experience the innate freedom of the 
 Sky-like Cho-ying (Spatial dimension or dharmadhatu). This term signifies 
 the unobstructed play of wisdom-Mind in the limitlessness of wisdom-Space. 
 The quality of unobstructed play, is the Wisdom-activity that 
 spontaneously arises from the unconditioned state of our beginningless 
 enlightenment. Within the Tantric Vision, all women are secretly Khandros, 
 and men are secretly Pawos. Pawo means hero or warrior, and signifies the 
 pure appropriateness that has no need for the illusory security of firm 
 ground.  The word Pawo is the phonetic adaptation of what is 
 transliterated from the Tibetan as dPa-bo. The Sanskrit origin of this 
 word is Daka as the counterpart to the female Dakini; but in Tibetan, 
 rather than there being Khandroma and Khandropa, there are Khandro and 
 Pawo. The idea here is that rather than speaking of a male Sky-dancer, we 
 speak of a hero or warrior in order to emphasize activity and power. The 
 warrior is fearless, not because death has been objectified into a future 
 event which is regarded with nonchalance, but because death is experienced 
 with every moment. For the warrior the Birth and Death of every Mind- 
 moment are fully experienced -- enabling him to live with totality in the 
 present moment. (The word Khandropa applies to a Daka who manifests his 
 inner wisdom-display in the external dimension. There is also the female 
 aspect of Pawo, which is Pamo.  The word Pamo applies to a Khandro who 
 manifests her inner method-display in the external dimension.)

 The Khandro quality of women, manifests as outer wisdom-Space in which her 
 internal compassion plays. In relative terms, outer wisdom/sensitivity 
 reflects itself in both the overt and subtle appearance of women as 
 displayed through: intuition; fluidity; flexibility; resilience; 
 adaptability; versatility; reflexiveness; empathy confluence; allowance; 
 facilitation; resonance; sensitivity; receptivity; harmony; euphony; 
 ideation; sensibility; delicacy; softness; obliqueness; devotion; 
 laterality of apprehension; plurality of perception; inchoate 
 understanding; radiance and openness. But when the connection with inner 
 compassion/power is obscured through dualistic perception, the outer 
 wisdom/sensitivity becomes weak, aimless and prey to manipulation.

 The Pawo quality of men manifests as outer compassion/power, which arises 
 energetically from inner wisdom/sensitivity. In relative terms his outer 
 compassion/power, reflects itself in the overt and subtle appearance of 
 men displayed through: strength; intellect; objectivity; productivity; 
 capacity; performance; durability; angularity; acuteness; accuracy; 
 precision; sympathy; steadfastness; methodology; systematization; drive; 
 skillfulness; inventiveness; resourcefulness; creativity; persuasiveness; 
 directiveness; conclusiveness; linearity of apprehension; singularity of 
 perception; constructiveness; reductivity; discrimination; discernment; 
 exertion; capability and rationality. But when the vital connection with 
 inner wisdom/sensitivity is obscured through clinging to dualistic 
 perception, the outer compassion/power stiffens into aggression, 
 intolerance and manipulation.

 Unless a man is a true warrior, he finds the Sky-dancer terrifying because 
 she completely undermines him with her inchoate Spaciousness. Unless a 
 woman recognizes her Sky-dancing potential she finds the Pawo overpowering 
 because she is utterly overawed by his unending effectiveness.

 We need only examine our own sexual fears of penetration and engulfment to 
 get some inkling of how pervasive these qualities are in all our 
 existential interactions. Emptiness and Form are continually performing 
 within the fabric of our psychologies. The 'self preservation instinct' 
 and the 'death-wish' go hand in hand -- we are continually riding the 
 energy of duality; whether we do so with Awareness or through distraction 
 is a matter of commitment to the raw texture of the moment. 

 The assertion sometimes made within Sutric Buddhism, that women cannot 
 attain Enlightenment until they are re-born as men, can be looked at in 
 two ways. At face value such a statement is reflection of male delusion 
 which springs from the neurotic need for protection against the threat of 
 Spaciousness. Men are afraid of the inchoate or that which lies beyond 
 rationality. But at a deeper level -- in order to attain Enlightenment, 
 not only do women have to be re-born as men, but -- MEN MUST BE RE-BORN AS 
 WOMEN. What needs to be re-born or discovered is the secret male in women, 
 and the secret female in men. Both men and women need to re-discover their 
 beginningless connection with their inner qualities -- in order to be 
 complete. From this perspective, women and men are either a constantly 
 available source of teaching for each other -- or, a constant source of 
 conditioning. This is the reason for monasticism within the Sutrayana.  
 Because the goal of the Sutrayana is Emptiness, its principle is 
 renunciation. The method of renunciation is to work with attachment to the 
 world of form through celibacy, non-ownership, and many forms of 
 abstinence.  Within Tantrayana however, there is no insistence on celibacy 
 or any form of abstinence with regard to engaging with the world of form 
 -- because the basis of Tantra is Emptiness. There is no insistence on 
 celibacy or abstinence unless you are a monk or nun who practices Tantra 
 as an internal discipline, whilst maintaining the monastic vows.

 The principle of Tantra is transformation and its method is one of 
 achieving the realization of the innate purity of all phenomena. With 
 realization of Emptiness, there is no need for celibacy, because the Pawo 
 and Khandro principles are emergent -- they're no longer occluded through 
 fear of Emptiness. It is very important to understand this distinction 
 between Sutrayana and Tantrayana, because otherwise there can be confusion 
 over why celibacy is advocated in one vehicle and not by another.

 In Sutra men and women are seen as being sources of conditioning for each 
 other, whereas in Tantra women and men are seen as sources of inspiration 
 for each other. So in Tantra, relationships are definitely described as 
 being a support for practice rather than as a distraction. However, there 
 needs to be the experiential basis of Emptiness. This is the fundamental 
 qualification. If women and men reflect their true outer and inner 
 qualities they provoke each other into relaxing their habits of division 
 and divisiveness. When these habits are relaxed, through the practice of 
 Tantric View -- men and women can realize their completeness. The practice 
 of Tantric View entails the maintenance of pure-vision. Pure-vision is 
 experienced through receiving Empowerment from the Lama, and maintaining 
 that experience in everyday life by hearing all sound as Awareness-spell 
 (mantra) and all phenomena as the radiated quality-sphere of the 
 Awareness-being (mandala of the deity). But if men and women only reflect 
 their outer qualities, divorced from their inner qualities, then 
 inequalities arise.  Then all that is provoked are patterns of dependency 
 and domination, with the woman as the 'sex object', and the man as the 
 'success object'.

 Men need to be in contact with their sensitivity, and women need to be in 
 contact with their power. Without this contact we forget what we are and 
 become distracted from Awareness in the continuity of our essential 
 nature.  From this condition of dualism, our Energies become distorted and 
 we flounder in the fog of forgetfulness with which we have all become so 
 tediously familiar. We become confused and out of balance with ourselves, 
 so that our outer qualities become, discordant and harmful to each other. 
 The man or woman who could be our opportunity for liberation merely 
 becomes our co-dependant imprisoned prisoner.

   When a man loses contact with his inner-quality sensitivity, his outer- 
 quality becomes distorted. Disconnected from his inner Khandro (his secret    
 Wisdom), his outer-quality of Being which should spontaneously manifest    
 active-compassion, manifests assertiveness. This assertiveness then ranges  
 from force to brutality and violence; depending to what extent the inner    
 Khandro has become occluded.  With regard to his spiritual life, he could  
 'grow' into some kind of 'cosmic gorilla'. The 'cosmic gorilla' is some 
 man who has developed 'spiritual muscles', someone who has learnt a few 
 tricks and knows how to win bananas with his performance. He has some sort 
 of 'power of his own', derived from being very linear, which is then 
 bolstered by the power he is lent by others. The 'cosmic gorilla' might 
 even be in search of Siddhis -- extra-normal powers, through which he 
 could expand his carefully sharpened and polished ego, until it looked 
 like a bullet.

 When a woman loses contact with her inner quality power, her outer quality 
 becomes distorted. Disconnected from her inner Pawo (her secret 
 compassion) her outer quality of Being which should spontaneously manifest 
 as encompassing wisdom, manifests decorativeness. This decorativeness then 
 ranges from the inconsequential to superficial obsession with surface 
 appearance, depending to what extent the inner Pawo has been occluded. 
 With regard to her spiritual life, she dwindles into insignificance and 
 insipidity, satisfied to arrange the flowers in the shrine room. She 
 becomes a mindless devotee -- the kind of delicate presence who hovers 
 around the teacher. At the teacher's discourse, she continually fills his 
 glass of water; but she does so in such a way as to be noticed by 
 everyone. There is no sense that she will ever practice, but she is always 
 there as a very obvious and omnipresent nonentity. If she does meditate 
 she wants to cultivate 'beautiful experiences' with which to ornament her 
 psyche. She may consider herself to be a 'sensitive', and 'feel' things 
 that are 'deeply mysterious'. She may sit attempting to feel serene and 
 very special in a way that she would not define.

 This is a depressing picture; but, in the Tantric Vision, no matter how 
 far we wander into the intricacies of duality -- we're just toying or 
 torturing ourselves with endless distortions of what we actually are. This 
 means that whatever our perception is, it is not removed from 
 Enlightenment. So, however our Energies have become distorted we simply 
 need to allow them to relax into their natural condition. To allow our 
 Energies to relax into their natural condition is the purpose of 
 meditation -- we simply need to stop producing unenlightenment. As soon as 
 we let go of our fear of our own Spacious nature our inner qualities 
 manifest spontaneously.

 Men and women are attracted to each other; this is not an unusual 
 statement to make, but that attraction is composed of the openness to our 
 innate Enlightenment and our fear of our innate Enlightenment. Attraction 
 is both a very simple fact and a very complex issue. This is always the 
 condition in which we find ourselves. As long as we attempt to create a 
 division between Emptiness and Form, everything we do has this dual 
 quality; there is always attraction in our aversion and aversion in our 
 attraction. This is why the love-hate relationship can manifest, and why 
 ambivalence is one of the prime keys to understanding the nature of 
 Tantra.

 Women are attracted to the distorted male image because they seek to 
 reconnect with power in some way. Women have a natural relationship with 
 power. But if they fail to realize that their inner quality is the very 
 nature of power, they will find no other solution but to seek it 
 externally.  However, women are also attracted to men through the 
 recognition of the reflection of their own inner Pawo. Both happen 
 simultaneously -- enlightenment and unenlightenment flicker.

 Men are attracted to the distorted female image because they seek to 
 reconnect with sensitivity in some way. Men have a natural relationship 
 with sensitivity; but, if they fail to realize that this is because their 
 own inner quality is the very nature of sensitivity, they will find no 
 other solution but to seek it externally. However, men are also attracted 
 to women through the recognition of the reflection of their own inner 
 Khandro. Both happen simultaneously -- enlightenment and unenlightenment 
 flicker.

 As long as a woman attempts to find her inner Pawo vicariously through 
 seducing (or making herself available to) a man by means of her distorted 
 outer sensitivity, she is likely to lose even what small conventional 
 power she had. She stands the chance of being dominated by an insensitive 
 emotionally inarticulate aggressor. As long as a man tries to obtain his 
 inner Khandro through wooing or coercing a woman by means of his distorted 
 outer power, he is likely to trap himself with some fading glamour-puss 
 with little on her mind but demands for the provision of endless chintz 
 and tinsel.

 These are obviously extreme examples -- caricatures of how people can be 
 if they work very hard to obscure their inner qualities. But everyone 
 finds themselves on the continuum that includes these caricatures, and it 
 is possible that everyone could see some dim reflection of themselves in 
 this pattern of dissatisfaction and incomprehension. This is a situation 
 in which nobody gets what they want. Nobody gets 'what they want', because 
 'what they want' is not possible to obtain through getting 'what they 
 want'. We see 'what we want'; but, when we get it -- it turns out to be 
 something else.  It turns out to be something that seems almost entirely 
 different from what we initially saw.

 Men and women need to look within themselves for completion, rather than 
 trying to find it in an-other incomplete person. Men and women fail to get 
 what they want from each other, because it's not actually there to be had; 
 unless, they have it already anyway. Another paradox. It is only possible 
 to get what we want if we have it already. If we already have the 
 connection with our inner Pawo or inner Khandro then we no longer need to 
 find anything outside ourselves. But it is just at this point when the 
 need is no longer there that we can really begin to dance with each other. 
 Something else arises, which replaces our unrequitable neurotic need. Once 
 this need (which is born of disassociation with our own inner qualities) 
 dissolves into its own Empty nature; a tremendous appreciation for each 
 other can arise. 

 This sense of appreciation arises, because people catch glimpses of their 
 completeness and can begin to relate to each other in an authentic way. No 
 matter how distanced we are from our inner qualities, our enlightened 
 nature continually sparkles through. The frequency of sparkling depends on 
 how much we cooperate with the sparkling or how much we resist it. The 
 nature of this cooperation is our practice of the Inner Tantras. For a 
 Ngakpa, one of the most important vows is never to disparage women. For 
 Ngakpas women are the source of wisdom, and their practice is to See the 
 phenomenal world as female -- as wisdom-display; the dance of the 
 Khandros. When the world is Seen as the scintillating sparkling dance of 
 the Khandros, the inner Khandro is incited. When the inner Khandro is 
 incited, the elements begin to relax into their own condition and the 
 fabric of duality begins to dissolve.

 The vow for a Ngakma is to regard the entire phenomenal world as male -- 
 as method-display as the powerfully direct dance of the Pawos. When the 
 world is seen in this way, the inner Pawo is incited. When the inner Pawo 
 is incited, the Elements begin to relax into their own condition and the 
 fabric of duality begins to dissolve. Men and women who can enter into 
 this kind of reality have the capacity to relate with each other; not 
 through neurotic need, but through a fundamental appreciation of each 
 other's inner qualities and outer qualities. When we waken to the nature 
 of our inner qualities, we are able to mirror each other in a delightful 
 manner. In this way we are able to undermine each other's conditioning 
 rather than entrenching each other further in our respective patterns of 
 conditioning. It is not possible to describe or explain how it is possible 
 to See the world in this way, because fundamentally this capacity itself 
 arises from realization of Emptiness.

 For relationships to have any spiritual meaning, or even any worthwhile 
 purpose, it is essential to maintain the View of one's partner as either 
 Pawo or Khandro. Some remote sense of this is often artificially arrived 
 at through creating mystery or by absence (which makes the heart grow 
 fonder); but, both these are simply reflections of Emptiness. Any 
 authentic glimpse of the Inner Pawo or Khandro can only come through 
 meditative experience and Openness to the insecurity or fundamental chaos 
 of each moment.

                                  GLOSSARY
                                  08:57, 16 January 2020 (CET)VTao (talk)
 'a-Shul Pema Legden::
    The sang-yab of Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema, and the father of Aro Yesh
    'a-Shul Pema Legden was a monk-yogi who was a gTer scribe and Visionary
    artist for Khalding Lingpa the previous incarnation of His Holiness
    Kyabje Khordong gTerchen Tulku Chhi'm.d Rig'dzin Rinpoche

 Aro Gar::
    The Aro Gar, was the encampment where the Mother Essence Lineage was
    received in Vision by Aro Yeshe from his mother Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe
    Rema. These teachings were first taught at the Aro Gar by Aro Yeshe who
    transmitted the teaching to his two sang-yums -- the sisters A-ye
    Khandro and A-she Khandro

 Aro gTer::
    The Visionary Teaching cycle of Aro Yeshe, which was received directly
    from Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema, the incarnation of Jomo Menmo

 Aro Yeshe::
    Ngakchang Drupchen Aro Yeshe was the son of Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema
    and discoverer of the Aro gTer. The incarnation of 'a-Shul Pema Legden

 Bon::
    The shamanic systems that existed in Tibet before Buddhism. Bon in
    Tibet within the last five hundred years is theoretically
    indistinguishable from Tibetan Buddhism. Both Buddhism and Bon
    incorporated each others practises to such a degree that there are only
    superficial differences between them. These differences exist at the
    symbolic level, and at the level of Lineage. Bon lays historical claim
    to a lineage of Dzogchen that pre-dates the entry of Buddhism into
    Tibet.

 Chatral Rinpoche::
    Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche is an important Nyingma Lama who lives in Yang-
    le-shod in the Kathmandu valley of Nepal. He is one of the teachers of
    Lama Tharchin Rinpoche.

 Chod::
    The charnel ground practice in which the practitioner severs attachment
    to his or her corporeal form. The practice originated by Machig
    Labdron, the great Tibetan yogini. See Machig Labdron

 Cho-nyi::
    Chos-nyid -- Dharmata, the Space of reality.

 Cho-ying::
    Spatial dimension or dharmadhatu. This term signifies the unobstructed
    play of wisdom-Mind in the limitlessness of wisdom-Space

 Dorje Phagmo::
    Indestructible sow' or 'Thunderbolt sow'. She is the ecstatically
    fierce Dakini, whose head is surmounted by the head of a sow whose
    screech shatters illusion

 Dorje Trollo::
    Indestructible Rage - the most wrathful of the eight manifestations of
    Padmasambhava

 Dri::
    Large Tibetan ox -- the dri is the female of the yak

 Dzogchen::
    The Great Completion. The innermost Tantra, which transcends ritual and
    symbol

 Dzogchen Long-de::
    One of the three series of Dzogchen -- the 'Space' or 'Vast Expanse'
    series. It deals with subtle-sensation as the focus of meditative
    absorption, and employs a great variety of yogic postures and
    corresponding physical pressure-points that stimulate the rLung, prana,
    or Spatial-winds of the vajra-body. Details of such practices are kept
    highly secret and can only be received through transmission from a
    qualified Lama

 E-yul::
    Land of primordial awareness

 Gar::
    Encampment. The place where Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema settled in
    Southern Nepal was called the Aro Gar. See Aro Gar.

 Garuda::
    See Khyung

 Golok::
    Northern Kham, a very wild area of Tibetan which is notorious for
    brigandry. There are many nomads in this area, and yogic encampments as
    well as tent monasteries.

 Gomchenma::
    Gomchenma means 'greatly accomplished female meditator'

 rGyud::
    Tantra, Tantrayana, Vajrayana or Secret Mantrayana. The vehicle which
    derives from Long-ku (Sambhogakaya) Visionary transmission. The path of
    transformation -- in distinction to the Sutric path of renunciation.
    See Sutra

 Ja-lu::
    'Ja'-lus -- the rainbow body. Dzogchen practitioners who have mastered
    the Trek-chod phase of Dzogchen in which pure and total presence is
    stabilized, are able to practice To-gal. To-gal is the final practice
    of Dzogchen, which enables the yogi or yogini to dissolve his or her
    physical body into the essence of the elements at the time of death.
    The yogi or yogini then disappears into a body of light, leaving only
    hair toe & finger nails, and nasal septum behind

 Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin Drolkar::
    A great living Dzogchen yogini who lives in Himachal Pradesh North
    India

 Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema::
    The incarnation of Jomo Menmo whose Visionary teachings are called the
    Mother Essence Lineage or the Aro gTer. Jetsunma Khandro Yeshe Rema was
    the daughter of Gomchenma 'o-Zer Pema and the niece of Jomo Chhi-'med
    Pema who was an emanation of Yeshe Tsogyel

 Jomo Chhi-'med Pema::
    Emanation of Yeshe Tsogyel who was the aunt and adoptive mother of
    Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer. See Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer

 Jomo Menmo::
    The incarnation of Machig Lapdron, and emanation of Yeshe Tsogyel who
    was the consort of Guru Chowang. The previous incarnation of Jetsunma
    Khandro Yeshe Rema, mother of Aro Yesh See Aro Yeshe, Yeshe Tsogyel and
    Machig Lapdron

 Kagyud::
    One of the four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism. One of the three Sarma, or
    New Translation Schools, that is closest in practice to the Nyingma
    School

 Karmic vision::
    The way, or style, in which we see things. The karmic vision of every
    type of being is distinct. Every being's Karmic vision is comprised
    according to the particular style in which they maintain the illusion
    of duality.

 Khalding Lingpa::
    The incarnation of Nuden Dorje Drophang Lingpa whose incarnation line
    goes back to Kye-chung Lotsa, one of the twenty-five siddhas of
    Chhimphu -- the twenty-five disciples of Padmasambhava. He was the twin
    incarnation, with Dudjom Lingpa of the line that came from Nuden Dorje,
    Shariputra, Hungkara, Gagasiddhi, and Kye-chung Lotsa. H.H. Dudjom
    Rinpoche was the incarnation of Dudjom Lingpa, and His Holiness Kyabje
    Khordong gTerchen Tulku Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche is the incarnation
    of Khalding Lingpa

 Khandro::
    Literally 'sky-goer'. Either the outer quality of a women or the inner
    quality of a man. A wisdom-display manifestation

 Khandropa::
    A man who has recognized his 'inner Khandro' and manifests this
    realization in terms of his external activity in the world

 Khandro Dechen Tsedrup Yeshe::
    The sang-yum of Ngakpa Chogyam Rinpoche

 Khandro Rinpoche::
    A female incarnate Lama of the Kagyud School, currently teaching in
    Europe

 sKu-mNye::
    Literally -- 'subtle-dimension massage'. sKu-mNye in the Aro gTer
    system, is associated with the Dzogchen Long-de teachings (see Dzogchen
    Long-de). The Aro gTer sKu-mNye comprises of exercises that stimulate
    the tsa-lung system (see rLung and Tsa-lung). These exercises are
    divided into six animals that relate with the elements. There are one
    hundred and eleven exercises --  twenty-one for each elemental animal:
    lion / earth; vulture / water; tiger / fire; eagle / air; and garuda /
    space. These add up to one hundred and five.  The remaining six
    exercises belong to the dragon, which represents the unified sphere of
    all the elements

 Khyung::
    The Space-eagle. An Awareness-being (meditational deity) who embodies
    the unborn nature of the Dzogchen teachings. The Khyung is born from
    its egg full grown, symbolizing the self-existent maturity of the
    enlightened state, which is the natural unfabricated condition of all
    beings.

 Lama::
    Teacher, especially of Tantra. The word Lama pertains not only to the
    external teacher, but to the inner teacher or enlightened nature. The
    Lama, therefore, is one who reflects the beginningless enlightened
    nature of their students.

 La-yak-pang-drong::
    The western part of Lho-drak, where Jomo Menmo met Guru Cho-wang

 Ling-je Repa::
    A gTerton of the Nyingma School who gained profound spiritual
    experience from his meeting with Jomo Menmo. See gTer and Jomo Menmo

 rLung::
    Spatial-wind or prana in Sanskrit.

 Machig Lapdron::
    'Unique Mother Torch of Practice', the incarnation of Yeshe Tsogyel who
    originated the practice of Chod. See Chod

 Ngakma Pema Rig'dzin Zangmo::
    The thangka painter of Sang-ngak-cho-dzong. A female disciple of Ngakpa
    Chogyam Rinpoche who has taken ordination into the Vajra commitment of
    the Ngakphang sangha

 Ngakma Nor'dzin Rang-jung Pamo::
    A female disciple Ngakpa Chogyam Rinpoche who has taken ordination into
    the Vajra commitment of the Ngakphang sangha

 Ngakphang Sangha::
    The White Sangha, or non-monastic Sangha.  Ngakphang means 'Mantra-
    holding' and applies to those who have taken Tantric ordination rather
    the Sutric ordination of monks and nuns

 Nyingma::
    The Ancient School of Tibetan Buddhism -- the 'early spread' of
    Buddhism in Tibet which grew under the enlightened inspiration of the
    second Buddha -- Padmasambhava and Yeshe Tsogyel

 Pema Tsokyi::
    The name given to Jomo Menmo by her parents

 Padmasambhava::
    The second Buddha who brought the Tantric teachings to Tibet

 Pamo::
    A woman who has recognized her 'inner Pawo' and manifests this
    realization in terms of her external activity in the world

 Pawo::
    Literally 'warrior' or 'hero'. Either the outer quality of a man or the
    inner quality of a woman. A method-display manifestation

 Rang-rig Togden::
    The yogi who became the sang-yab of Gomchenma Pema 'o-Zer. He practised
    the subjugation practices of Chana Dorje (Vajrapani), Tamdrin
    (Hayagriva) and Khyung (Garuda) a practice he had received from Azom
    Drukpa

 Rema::
    Cotton wearer. The female of Repa, as in Milar.pa. A Rema, or Repa, is
    one who is accomplished in the practice of gTu-mo -- the practice of
    Spatial-heat, one of the Naro-cho-drug (six yogas of Naropa). These
    practitioners wear white cotton and often live naked above the snow-
    line

 Rinpoche::
    Literally 'precious one'. Rinpoche is used as a respectful form of
    address to one's teacher. It is a mistaken assumption that the term
    Rinpoche indicates an incarnate Lama; although all incarnate Lamas are
    called Rinpoche by their students

 Sang-ngak-cho-dzong::
    The spiritual association dedicated to the preservation of the Mother
    Essence Lineage and the Ngakphang sangha. It was founded by Ngakpa
    Chogyam Rinpoche, and named by H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche.

 Sang-yab::
    Secret Father - spiritual-husband or consort

 Sang-yum::
    Secret Mother - spiritual-wife or consort

 Sonam Sangpo Rinpoche::
    The Nyingma Lama who is the abbot of the Vajrayana Retreat Centre in
    Yang-le-shod, Nepal. He is the friend of Ngakpa Chogyam Rinpoche,
    Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin Drolkar, and Lama Tharchin Rinpoche of Pema
    Osel Ling in Santa Cruz

 Sutra::
    The teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha: Sravakabuddhayana;
    Pratyekabuddhayana; and Boddhisattvabuddhayana. Known in the New
    Translation Schools as the Hinayana and Mahayana

 Tak-lha-ri::
    Mountain of the Sky Tiger. The place from which Jomo Menmo and her two
    female disciples entered the Sky-dimension.

 Tantra::
    Continuum, continuity or thread, see rGyud

 Tashi Chi-dren::
    One of the spiritual consorts of Padmasambhava

 Tharchin Rinpoche::
    Nyingma Lama and current Holder of the Repkong Ngakpa Lineage. Friend
    of Ngakpa Chogyam Rinpoche, Jetsunma Khandro Ten'dzin Drolkar, and Lama
    Sonam Sangpo Rinpoche. Tharchin Rinpoche is a married Lama who is an
    ordained member of the Ngakphang sangha

 gTer::
    gTer is the shortened form of the word gTerma, which refers to a cycle
    of teaching and practices that have been discovered in visionary form

 gTerton::
    A discoverer of gTerma

 Thinley Norbu::
    His Holiness Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche is the elder son of His
    Holiness Kyabje Jigdrel Yeshe Dorje, Dudjom Rinpoche, and one of the
    most important living Lamas of the Nyingma School.

 Trul-khor::
    Literally 'apparitional circle' or 'magical-wheel'. Called yantra yoga
    in Sanskrit, it is a system which resembles hatha yoga combined with
    pranayama and linked by movement. The Trul-khor of the Aro gTer is
    allied to the practice of Dzogchen Sem-de (see Dzogchen). In this
    practice, one moves between different physical postures in a rhythmic
    manner linking the movement with the breath. This system is designed to
    purify the rLung (see rLung)

 Togden::
    Possessor of accomplishment.  A yogi or yogini with matted hair

 Tsa-lung::
    Yogic exercises involving breath and visualization. The Tsa-lung system
    is the Vajra-body of Spatial-nerves and the Spatial-winds that move
    within them

 Yak::
    Large Tibetan ox - the yak is the male of the dri

 Yeshe Tsogyel::
    The female Tantric Buddha, and sang-yum of Padmasambhava

   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
                                   NOTES
                                   08:57, 16 January 2020 (CET)
 1. Sang-ngak-cho-dzong is spelt with an umlaut over the "o" in "cho" this 
 has been removed in this version as have various other accent marks.

 2. For more information about Sang-ngak-cho-dzong, please contact:
 the Secretary, Sang-ngak-cho-dzong, 5 Court Close, Whitchurch, Cardiff, 
 CF4 1JR, Wales, U.K. tel: 0222 620332.

 3. Sang-ngak-cho-dzong is a Registered UK Charity, No. 1019886.