Inspiration and humor from a real-life yogini
Good books: Reflections on a mountain lake by Tenzin Palmo
Tenzin Palmo is a remarkable person for several reasons. As an English girl called Diane Perry growing up in London during the Second World War, she not only felt a powerful tug towards Buddhism – even though there was very little Buddhism to be found in Britain at that time – but she acted on her instinct. Moving to India when she was just twenty, she got to know several of the most famous lamas who were to come to the West when they were still young and unknown – lamas like Chogyam Trungpa, Akong Rinpoche, Yeshe Losel Rinpoche, Lama Zopa and the man who was to become her own guru, Khamtrul Rinpoche. Under his guidance she went on to spend 12 years in a cave in the Himalayas meditating, the subject of Vicki Mackenzie’s wonderful book about her, Cave in the Snow.
The inward journey Tenzin Palmo undertook was a remarkable enough attainment for one life-time. But after coming down the mountain, at the urging her lama she set up a nunnery, where girls from all over the Himalaya region could come to study and practice Dharma. Even though the mind of enlightenment is beyond gender, and enlightened beings have chosen to manifest in myriad female forms as well as male ones, there have been traditionally been far fewer nunneries than monasteries in Himalayan countries and, as I’ve seen first hand, they tend to be far less generously-funded.
At Dongyu Gyatsal Ling Nunnery, Tenzin Palmo has established an extraordinary place where girls come to study the Dharma, live in communal harmony, and where appropriate, go on to the highest levels of ordination and/or philosophical studies. Importantly, given her own experience as a yogini, she has re-established the togdenma or yogini tradition of her Drukpa Kagyu lineage. The photo below is of the temple at DGL nunnery.
In the past twenty years Tenzin Palmo has also taught extensively around the world – and written three books. It was in her capacity as a visiting teacher that I had the good fortune to meet her in the early 2000s. This mythical figure I had read about was visiting Perth, Australia, where I used to work in media relations, and I was asked to help with her visit.
I still vividly remember spending time with her at ABC studios. She was a small, petite figure in her robes, unassuming, but also completely present. She took the various live interviews completely in her stride. And along with a keen sense of mischief, which bubbled close to the surface all the time, she had a smile which would light up the room.