DAKINI POWER

Our Saga Dawa Project: Sponsor a Girl And Change The World

Buddhists all over the world celebrate Buddha's birth and awakening this month as the most sacred and auspicious time in the Buddhist calendar. Happy Saga Dawa!

Dakini Power celebrates by sponsoring a girl to continue her university education for an entire year to become a nurse, a doctor, a lawyer, or a teacher. This month, all our t-shirt sales and proceeds will be donated 100% to this purpose. Find out more here!

Wear Your Dakini Power

The Dakini Power Hats and Tees Are Out!

At first we only made a few for our friends, but now everybody wants them, so we made more and will use the proceeds to sponsor the education of a girl. Get your Dakini Power to go here!

Giveaway: Enter Your Comment For Your Chance to Win a Dakini Power Tee

The book and website are dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and life stories of the women featured in this book and many more. Why stop with these twelve? In the comment section in the Blog here, please share your story of how female practitioners have inspired you.

We will give away a Dakini Power hat and a Dakini Power tee to two commentators, chosen randomly by the luck of the draw. Enter your comment for your chance to win by Dakini Day, June 3rd, before midnight!

Dakini Power at Insight LA in June

Join us For a Book Discussion With Lisa Napoli (Radio Shangri-La) at Insight LA

When radio host and author Lisa Napoli read Dakini Power, she said: "I love the book, and now I have so many questions!" Thus we decided the two should meet: Author Michaela Haas will present inspiring biographies from her book Dakini Power with an engaging slide show, and Lisa Napoli will pepper her with questions! A fun format to engage in a discussion about women in Buddhism, and to discover the challenges and accomplishments in the life stories of brilliant teachers like Pema Chodron, Roshi Joan Halifax, Thubten Chodron, and others.

When? June 22, 2013 @ 7pm

Where? Insight LA, 1430 Olympic Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA 90404 map ph (310) 774-3325

Register here!

We'll announce talks in San Diego, Seattle, Hawaii, and on the East Coast soon!

A Female Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama's enthusiastic 'yes' to a female successor in a new TV interview is making headlines. Author Michaela Haas has just discussed this possibility in a recent article: A Female Dalai Lama? Why It Matters.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama gave several outstanding talks in Portland, OR, during his recent visit. He got a lot of laughs and applause when he said at the University of Portland: "Biologically women care more, so its not wrong to say, men create the problems." He also connected deeply with Grandmother Agnes Baker Pilgrim, an indigenous elder, who said at the same event: "It is always us women who have an umbilical cord attached to the earth, because we are the givers of life." 

Several of the teachers featured in Dakini Power attended as well: Dagmola Sakya, Venerable Thubten Chodron, and Sangye Khandro.

We had a wonderful book talk at Powell´s Books. What a great crowd! About 50 people attended, asked fabulous questions, and the book sold out. Portland rocks!

Dakini Power Launched!

"The dakini is not far away. We all have that potential. When you want to accomplish something, you always invoke the presence of the dakinis. With this book, Michaela has invoked this presence. Making this book and calling it Dakini Power is really invoking that enlightened activity in all of us. Having this book out there with this name has a power. I feel like this book is a really important book.

It is so inspiring to hear the stories of these women, how each one of them has met the challenge and gone beyond of what she thought she could do. They all embody and express this courage, in a very unassuming way.

The main message or point of the book is, yes, there are these women, and they have these qualities, but so do you. We all have the dakini within us. Find her and play with her, and feel all the levels of her in us and in the world. We need her. We need the dakini energy, for us to survive, for the earth to survive. Why do we need it? Because we have become so materialistic, so caught in speed. Faster, faster, faster.

The dakini is all about the play. It’s not ordinary play. It’s the play that pulls the rug out from under you. That moment when you’re there with no ground is such an opportunity, and that’s the dakini." Lama Tsultrim Allione

Listen to Lama Tsultrim Allione's speech at the Dakini Power book launch in Malibu in this video by the wonderful documentary filmmaker Sue May from Simplexity Mediaworks

Dakini Power is officially launched!

Lama Tsultrim Allione, bestselling author of Women of Wisdom and Feeding Your Demons, joined us for the book launch party at Diesel Bookstore Malibu and spoke very movingly about the dakini principle, her own life, and women on the path.

We had a full house, wonderful guests, and perfect hosts. Thank you, Diesel Malibu!

Exclusive Bonus:

Read an interview with Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel about the teacher-student-relationship!

For a limited time only we are offering an exclusive interview from one of the teachers featured in Dakini Power! Read the interview for free after you sign up for our mailing list here.

The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa's support for Buddhist women

"The path to enlightenment which the Buddha taught was for all sentient beings, for women as well as men.

In the past there were many great women practitioners, such as Mahaprajabati Gautami, who was both Shakyamuni Buddha's adoptive mother and the first woman to be ordained into the sangha he established. Buddhist texts also refer to female Arhats. Equal practice opportunities were given to both men and women, and the four pillars of the house of Buddhism include ordained nuns and lay women. 

I am heartened to read the accounts in this book of the achievements of women teachers from different schools of Buddhism. It is a celebration of the contribution which female practitioners have made throughout history, and which they are continuing to make.

Unfortunately, influenced by the views and customs of the time, too many societies have put too much emphasis on the difference between men and women, and this has led to discrimination against and unequal treatment of women in many religions, including Buddhism.

My heartfelt prayer is that women such as these are the trailblazers, their efforts will lead to a fresh recognition of the unique insights and qualities of female spirituality , and wider acknowledgement of women practitioners and teachers."

The 17th Gyalwang Karmapa meets with nuns from 32 countries after the Sakyadhita conference 2013: