Women of Wisdom (Paperback)

by Tsultrim Allione (Author)
Key Phrases: prajna paramita, guru yoga, six paramitas, Nangsa Obum, Dzog Chen, Ani Nyemo (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Tsultrim Allione is one of the first American women to be ordained a nun in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. But blazing a trail for Buddhist women in the West required models of great women practitioners. In the first book of its kind, Allione brings together the biographies of six women mystics in this strong but little known Tibetan tradition. Make that seven women, as Allione expands her own spiritual autobiography into 80 pages in this new printing. The dakini principle, the principle of feminine transformation, pervades each of these stories. A woman is beaten by her husband and father-in-law and has her son taken from her but later comes face-to-face with the boddhisattva Tara and becomes a great teacher. A wife who has always dreamed of practicing the dharma splits from her husband and travels the land receiving teachings. A poor cow herder is given a long-hidden sacred text and becomes a dakini herself. A spiritual biography embodies a teaching, and these stories enchant while transmitting wisdom. --Brian Bruya

Review
"One best books to bring out the riches of the feminine in Buddhism. Filled with inspired stories, Women of Wisdom is truly a classic." --Jack Kornfield

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Snow Lion Publications; Revised edition (November 25, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559391413
• ISBN-13: 978-1559391412
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,241 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fine explanations & elucidations of yogini biographies, March 11, 2005

By	Neal J. Pollock (VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a lovely collection of sacred biographies of Tibetan Buddhist yoginis. The author, a former Buddhist nun, provides an extensive introduction including an autobiographical account-virtually a 7th biography. She provides much valuable information about the Buddha families, biography vs. sacred biography or hagiography, and Tibetan traditions and terminology such as delogs (people who die and come back to life), Togdens (Tibetan yogis), etc. The six sacred biographies included here vary considerably in length (2 are quite long and 4 are rather short) and in nature (some include much more hyperbole and others are more historical). The author states on p. 54 that "Goodness is not necessarily truth." She also provides a prolog and extremely valuable endnotes for each chapter, suggesting that (p. 215) the reason for embedding teachings into a biography is to make them come to life.

She also provides psychological explanations for a number of otherwise fantastic descriptions and activities, frequently based upon the writings of Jung's disciple Esther Harding:
p. 147: "When we think of a demon, we generally think of an external spirit which attacks us, but Machig realized the true nature of demons is the internal functioning of the ego...all four demons are thought-processes which block a state of clear, unattached awareness."
p. 195 note 62: "If we understand the serpentine underwater Nagas as a manifestation of Machig's unconscious, as part of her own mind, this assumption being based on the idea that our environment is a manifestation of our karma and our own projection." Other contemporary books support such a view: Loren Pederson's "Dark Hearts," George Weinberg's "Invisible Masters," & John Sanford's "Invisible Partners."

Further, she also clears up the ambiguity about Tibetan Buddhist practitioners consuming meat:
p. 194 note 54: "the Buddha did not teach strict vegetarianism, but rather that all meat one eats should have passed through at least three hands before a Buddhist should consume it...if a Tantric practitioner eats the meat of an animal with awareness and transcendent insight into the true nature of reality, this creates a connection between the animal and the yogi, and therefore the animal will have a much better chance of reaching a higher rebirth than if it had not been killed and offered to the yogi or yogini. Also...it symbolizes going beyond the limitations of vows and conventional `goodness,' and transformation of poison and dangerous substances into a means for enlightenment. Therefore a big piece of meant would be an appropriate offering for a Tantric initiation." Interestingly, this practice parallels that of Kabbalah where practitioners raise the spiritual level of animals by eating them with proper kavvanah (mystical intention).

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sustained by the voices of other women, February 27, 2006

By	Leslie Barnett - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

There is a hunger among women practitioners for the stories of other women who have gone on before them. Often these stories have been lost or over time turned to silence.

Tsultrim Allione, founder of Tara Mandala, a 600 acree retreat center in South West Colorado, sets out with this book to reclaim some of those lost voices. She was initiated on this journey with the death of her daughter from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Prior to becoming a mother to four children, Tsultrim had been one of the first American women to take vows. For four years she lived in the Himalayas as a nun devoted to in depth practice. Later she returned her vows and became a mother and with the death of one of her twins began the search for stories to sustain her during unbearable times.

In Women of Wisdom she uncovers and chronicles the stories of several of the more well-known women practioners, saints, and delogues, but what is particularly compelling is her own story. She writes openly and honesty with remarkable ease.

It is a must for anyone who wrestles with integrating Buddhist practice with the demands of a modern life.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Teachings from Women Buddas, February 10, 2005

By	joyousemptiness (Pacific Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews

There is a time when women shall have names. The time of consciouness rising, when the wisdom of all life perceiving will be received by humankind.

This text will be recognized - by those who sense that they are called - as an entry point to the evolution of consciousness found in the divine feminine; the source of all inspiration to the Buddhas.

Those who feel a hunger for echoes of the great women spiritual leaders of Buddhism will find great inspiration in this book. It is a personal, fascinating, warm, and inspirational book.

The stories are translated by Tsultrim and her Tibetean associates with a tremendous respect for the meaning in the original sacred texts.

I recommend this work highly to anyone who desires to connect with Buddhism's sacred center, the Prajna Paramita. I recommend it to anyone who perceives that Buddhism has misplaced its joyously empty center, and who senses a chance for a more complete knowing of their own divine spirituality.