The Female Principle

Here I will post articles, research or texts that are specifically related to issues connected to gender, sexuality and females in Buddhism. For research and translations specifically on female teachers and lineage holders/founders, see here.

IN PRAISE OF THE FEMME FATALE ‘SCARLET WOMAN’: Male monastic privilege and appropriation, denigration of women, female lineages, ‘feminist’ male consorts, and Vajrayoginī with severed-head and reversed Yum-yab union

DAKINI SCRIPT (Khandro Da-yig): Mysterious Symbolic Key to Hidden Treasures

THE ‘MOTHER OF WISDOM’: Pictures, poems and songs on Mother’s Day!

‘Yeshe Tshogyel Guru Yoga‘ by 15th Karmapa

The male-female tantric union: Homophobic heteronormativity or biological inner essences?

A Woman’s Voice : ‘Secret Primordial-Wisdom’, the Autobiography of Kunga Trinley Wangmo, Zhentong lineage holder and consort of Tāranātha

‘Actions Speak Louder than Words’: 17th Karmapa’s outstanding activities on female empowerment and equality 

Tantric Buddhism, Sex and Women: the Importance of Love, Respect and Consent

15th Karmapa on the Immortal Life-Essence Bindu treasure: long-life practice of Padmasambhava and Mandāravā

Praises to Mandāravā by Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo

Ultimate ‘ecstatic union’: the meaning and role of ‘erotic bliss’ in tantra and Kālacakra