Ḍākinī Practice

Ḍākinī Practices are collection of Siddha practices for inner alchemy. There are fierce wisdom powers ( Ḍākinīs ) within us which are experienced as powerful fluidic breath like movements within our subtle being.

Why Ḍākinī Practice – Inner Alchemy?

Do you, or someone you know, experience one or more of these?

Feelings of being stuck: You are pushing through in the world, trying harder at work, focusing more on relationship or recommitting to the gym, etc., nothing seems to resolve the feeling of being stuck. It feels that everything life brings is only a variation of the same old themes. You can no longer feel fully alive.

Emotional stagnation: your inner life feels like a desert, a place overwhelming sensations and at the same time tasteless and dry.

Feeling of disconnect: Your mind continuously churns out thoughts about all things from past and around and you feel disconnected and distracted from what’s happening in present moment.

Feeling of dissatisfaction and numbness: You are physically, financially, and socially comfortable, but deep inside there is a feeling of dissatisfaction and numbness that lingers on, irrespective of all the achievements and celebrations in life.

Chronic stress: Acute or short-lived feelings of stress are a regular part of daily life. However, when these feelings become chronic or long-lasting, they impact your health. Symptoms can range from irritability, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, disorganized thoughts, difficulty sleeping, digestive problems, feeling helpless or a perceived loss of control, low self-esteem, and low libido.

If you said yes to one or more of the above then according of Trika and Ḍākinī tradition these are symptoms of disconnection from sacred-self or lack of self-cultivation.

In Tantric traditions, the subtle wind that moves through inner sky is referred as Ḍākinī, (Tib. Khandro.) Ḍākinī is a Sanskrit term, it means “Sky-Goer“. In yogic and tantric art forms dakini is portrayed in a feminine form and shown in union with peaceful or wrathful male deity. A masculine form in tantric tradition represent the mind state and feminine represents the transformational wisdom power.
Ḍākinī appears in almost all of the tantric traditions, but the description varies from a magical flying women, young virgin consort, crazy wise old hag, wrathful dark mother, great wisdom energy, and a secret innate pulsating power, that is pushing and guiding us to wakeup from the slumber of samsara. Different traditions have given various names to the innate pulsating wind or ḍākinī: Valley-Spirit, Mother, Breath-of-life, MayaVidya, Yogini, Chiti-shakti, PranaShakti, etc.

All names point to the same moon; names are not important rather direct experience is the key in ḍākinī practice.

Ḍākinīs are the power and wisdom behind all phenomena, and at the same time, they are pure potentialities for all possible manifestations.

The role of ḍākinī is vast from transformational healing to the awakening of inner blissful states.

“She is the key, the gate opener, and the guardian of the unconditioned primordial state which is innate in everyone. If I am not willing to play with her, or if I try to force her, or if I do not invoke her, the gate remains closed and I remain in darkness and ignorance. The blade (she carries in hand) cuts through self-clinging, and through the dualistic split into the great bliss. The cutting edge of the knife is representative of the cutting quality of wisdom, the wisdom that cuts through self-deception. One cannot force or grasp a spiritual experience, because it is as delicate as the whisper of the wind.” ~Tsultrim Allione

Most of us feel that we are a person – an objectified field, locked in the blueprint of our inherited genes and marinated in the conscious & unconscious environment of our ancestry and culture. And that the healing of our pain can only be achieved by “fixing” the inherited physical and habitual behaviors.

Some of us seem to have a “knowing” that we were aware and in-touch with larger field of life that is not locked in any genes or ancestry, before we were conceived and took birth as human being. Regardless of how you feel about yourself and live your life, we are shaped and formed by a larger field of love, referred in Tantra as – the Mother, and her fierce and intense form is – the Dākinī.

We always have an option to attune to this larger field of fierce love or the Ḍākinī, to heal, live fully, and be open to deeper experience of connectedness or stay with small objectified field of our persona.

Irrespective of which tantric tradition one follows the single most common feature of all ḍākinīs is fierce power that teaches us directly not through words, but actions. In tantric healing work ḍākinī is fiery innate pulsating formless power, that guides, shapes, nurtures our embodied form conception to dissolution, and beyond.

The ḍākinī mandala healing practice is a way to directly meet her. She can then point out obstacles, reveal new paths, and awaken us to potential of living fully.