PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Book Reviews 287us to raise questions when we are disturbed by aspects of authority,hierarchy, and secrecy that have been problematic.Given the powerful ∂åkin∆ tradition that Simmer-Brown elucidates,how and why is it that we have or know so little about any lineages offemale teachers? Women are recognized as having full spiritual potentialin the Buddhist traditions, yet they have often been barred from leadershippositions in institutional life. We are told “the dharma is neither male norfemale,” and “there are no women in the Sukhåvat∆ heaven.” Buddhisttradition is rife with stories of women who are on the verge of enlightenment,who, if they practice seriously enough to come back in a male body,will achieve enlightenment in the next life. And, there is that privileging ofscholars that Anne Klein speaks of in her experience that has given someWestern women access to teachers and teaching that would rarely happenfor women indigenous to the culture.Until 1993, I had never met a female Tibetan teacher. All myTibetan or other Asian teachers were male. My own positionwhether staying in a Tibetan monastery in India or engaging indiscussions with monk-scholars in this country, was anomalousinsofar as I had the kind of access to study, instruction, andpersonal interaction that only males would traditionally have inTibetan culture. To be a scholar in a monastery is a male role, nomatter what kind of body is involved (Anne C. Klein, Meeting theGreat Bliss Queen [Boston: Beacon Press, 1995], p. 19).The religious and cultural cross-fertilization that has happened in the lastfifty years when the lamas of the Tibetan diaspora have brought thedzogchen teachings to the West has been an enriching one indeed. Webegin to know one another. Dakini’s Warm Breath has earned the highestranking among publications by Western women writers in the last decade,such as Anne Klein’s Meeting the Great Bliss Queen, Tsultrim Allione’sWomen of Wisdom, Miranda Shaw’s Passionate Enlightenment, and JuneCampbell’s Travelers in Space, that have described and interpreted aspectsof ∂åkin∆ life and literature, and have explored the ramifications of thisphenomena for that distinctively human project of spiritual developmentand identity.