Dakini Nature: Dakini Nature: Meditation, community, transition

the Goddess

Women are creating a new spirituality around the idea of the 'Goddess.'

Who is she?

Often we hark back to the imagined past as a source of inspiration for what we are doing now. We can easily get vague. People mean all sorts of things by the "Goddess" Often it's her more beautiful side than her death-dealing.

Goddess spirituality understands the 'Goddess' as the all-encompassing nature. Many specific goddesses arise out of her.

This new spirituality is for healing ourselves and the earth.
In this time of environmental crisis we can explore what forms would be most helpful.

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the Goddess according to Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism has a living tradition of one goddess, and many. The Great Mother is the all-encompassing primordial ground of being, Mother of all Buddhas Prajnaparamita. Then there are many goddesses, or dakinis, who embody various ways of manifesting enlightened wisdom in the world - peaceful, healing, energetic, constructively angry.

The present moment of awareness is called the Mother of all Enlightened ones. It gives a space for realising our natural state. Moments of insight, the energy pathways in the body, are called the dakini.

Dido has worked with many of these dakinis or goddesses, in their traditional forms of practice. She offers creative ways of working with the Goddess and goddesses, in meditation and ritual, taking them to depth, so that insight into the nature of the Goddess can arise.

Our body, breath and mind are part of the universal mind. Practises of awareness help us meet this goddess. She is immanent in all things, and each one of us is the Goddess.

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women and nature

Many people now understand that we and our ecosystem are inseparably linked. Few yet see this in terms of 'feminine' ways of operating. It is crucial to make this link, if we are to create the kind of social change we need.

Nature and women have become linked in our minds. Nature’s ecosystems have been felt as life-giving Mother. Women can proudly identify with nature.
Can we make use of the Goddess to help us create inspired sustainability and integration? Mother nature teaches us about supporting life, connectedness and beauty.

Is the Goddess, Mother Earth, Mother Nature, the Cosmic Mother, or Queen of Space? Is she Cosmic Consciousness? Are these the same or different?

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ecofeminism

Ecofeminism is an approach which weaves together three things: environmental sustainability, ways of living together grounded in 'feminine' principles, and Nature as a source of spirituality. Sometimes the Goddess is invoked for this.

These days, most of our spiritual life is not in the context of anything to do with social issues or environment. Ecofeminism integrates these various parts of our lives in one all-encompassing vision.

Nature and women have been linked together. Nature's ecosystems have been felt as life-giving Mother. Feminine wisdom and ways of being - life-supporting care, connectedness and cooperation - must be brought into balance with 'masculine' values now predominant - such as individualism, hierarchy, competition. This is women's contribution to healing the planet.

Within this context, Dido can contribute principally on the spiritual side, the changing views of the 'feminine' and the Goddess, with practices and meditations to take this knowledge beyond ideas, into deeper visceral experience.

For further information contact Dido Dunlop at dido@wisebirds.org

Original artwork by
dido dunlop