One Desires You, One Cries:
A Taxonomy of Female Disciples in Great Perfection (rdzogs chen)
Kali Nyima Cape
(Georgia State University)
This article will explore what an important Tibetan Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) scripture states about female adepts in the 14th century. It begins with a translation of an excerpt from The Seminal Heart of the Ḍākinīs (Mkha’ gro snying thig), a scripture entitled The Prophecy of the Lineage Holder’s Disciples (Brgyud ‘dzin gyi slob bu’i lung bstan). Its implications for women and consorts are unpacked through an analysis of consort taxonomy, and the taxonomy of female disciples described here. The final section examines what is gleaned about women in post-tantra from this text. This includes the exploration of women’s liberation, attention to women’s bodies, female disciple’s sexual relationships. It concludes by analyzing the striking assertion of redemption as a possibility for all the female disciples, including those with negative characteristics, a direct contradiction to the rule of the consort taxonomy elsewhere in the scripture which designates such women as those to be renounced.
Forthcoming Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines