38 BUDDHADHARMA: THE PRACTITIONER'S QUARTERLY
As a Buddhist community, rather than assume we have a complete
picture, we need to realize that because the feminine is obscured, our
transmission is incomplete. This great wound generates a consider-
able gap in our understanding in ways that are rarely understood.
Yet this is an increasingly vital question, because underlying our
planetary emergency is the loss of the sacred, the denigration of the
feminine, and the brutalization of the masculine.
In the West, we have brought the traumatic imprint of the Axial
Age split (in which salvation and nirvana are seen as apart from
this world and this body) as well as colonialism and patriarchy into
Buddhist practice, where the focus on otherworldliness often masks
a pervasive self-aversion and dislike of our bodies. Reclaiming the
sacred feminine is a softening out of self-aversion. It is a merciful
feeling into embodiment that frees the energetics of oppressive sys-
temic conditioning and dysfunctional beliefs handed down through
generations—subliminal voices like “I’m not good enough,” “I don’t
belong,” “It’s dangerous to speak out,” “I’m stupid,” “My body is
ugly,” “I can’t trust what I feel,” “I’m not creative.” As we reclaim
access to what the body feels and knows intuitively, we leave behind
internalized oppression and empower ourselves, and are therefore
able to respond more freely to the need of our times.
Our planetary crisis is so urgent, so out of control, that we can
feel the scream rising through our bodies. While the destruction
and dismemberment of our world is terrifying and intense, it is also
initiating us into the fierceness of the sacred feminine. She wants us
to feel, to connect, and to dissolve all separations—like Vajrayogini,
the diamond-like female yogini who distills even the worst poisons
into spiritual force, or like Guan Yin, who soothes by pouring heal-
ing nectar but who also wields an axe to cut through obstruction,
arrows to pierce the heart, a lariat to tie up demons, and swords to
slice away ignorance.
This is the sacred feminine as the protector who bestows fearless-
ness and roams the realms of existence, shape-shifting into whatever