Treasuring the Feminine - Open conversations

is a renowned Buddhist translator, editor, and writer who - with Erik Pema Kunsang - created Rangjung Yeshe Publications (www.rangjung.com). They have translated and produced over sixty-two titles that have been translated into fifteen different languages. Marcia now teaches around the world sharing her humor, practice advice, and human approach to traditional Tibetan Buddhist practice. "Marcia lived at the feet of one of the greatest Tibetan Masters of meditation for 17 years at the epicenter of unfolding events of Dharma that crossed many oceans." - Tulku Thondup Rinpoche. “Marcia [Dechen Wangmo] has followed many great lamas, some of the best of this century. Her experience as an American amidst this older generation of lamas is quite important for Dharma students from the West." - Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.

grew up in Western Canada, and then trained as a Buddhist nun in India and on the Tibetan Plateau for seventeen years. She studied a Masters of Indian philosophy at Banaras Hindu University, and a PhD (2021) at the University of Sydney on the modernisation of Tibetan Buddhist meditation lineages. She has taught in the Primary Ethics program (NSW) and an Australian natural health college, and is a Tibetan-to-English translator for the teachings of a lineage of contemplative nuns. She is the co-founder of Gebchak Rigpa Harsey, an Australian charity for Tibetan nuns and schoolchildren, and a researcher with the Mental Balance Initiative (Center for Contemplative Research) and the Community Economies Research Network (CERN). Inspired by the transformative learning systems of pre-modern Buddhist traditions, her passion is for adapting contemplative pedagogy in creative ways that can usher the emergence of new, holistic ways of knowing in our current world. She has published two books on Tibetan Buddhism and the modernization of its practice lineages, including The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery: Tantric Meditation in Context (Brill, 2024).

is an associate professor in the Religious Studies Department at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She studies Tibetan Buddhism, especially Treasure revelation (gter ma), religious auto/biography, Tibetan literature, gender and sexuality, and the history of eastern Tibet. She is the author of Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (Columbia University Press, 2014), co-author of Buddhism: Introducing the Buddhist Experience (Oxford University Press, 2014), and co-editor of Buddhism Beyond the Monastery: Tantric Practices and their Performers in Tibet and the Himalayas (Brill, 2009). Currently she is working on a full Tibetan-English translation of Sera Khandro’s autobiography, as well as a project centered on the 53-volume Tibetan anthology of writings by and about Buddhist women compiled by Tibetan nuns from Larung Gar called Khandro Chödzö Chenmo (Dakinis’ Great Dharma Treasury). Sarah Jacoby is both a practitioner and a scholar of Tibetan Buddhism. She is grateful to have had the precious opportunity to receive teachings from Chatral Sangyé Dorjé Rinpoché as well as other Nyingma lineage masters, which inform not only her practice but also her scholarship and university teaching.

has studied and practiced the Buddhadharma for 35 years under the guidance of her teacher and husband Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche. She is the retreat master of Samten Ling in Crestone, Colorado and has spent over six years in retreat. She holds a degree in anthropology and an M.A. in Buddhist Studies. She teaches throughout the U.S., Australia, and Europe. She is the author of The Power of an Open Question: The Buddha’s Path to Freedom and The Logic of Faith: the Buddhist Path to Finding Certainty Beyond Belief and Doubt. Elizabeth is known for her use of inquiry as a means to reach a place of genuine practice and awakening. She asks audiences to engage in the practice of open questioning with her while she takes a fresh look at all the assumptions and beliefs we have about spirituality. In particular, Elizabeth is fascinated with the Buddha’s essential teachings on the natural principle of pratityasamutpada, dependent arising. Audiences repeatedly comment on how her approach has reinvigorated their meditation practice and the way they relate to their lives as a whole. She teaches extensively in Latin America with students in Brazil and Colombia. 

The Treasuring the Feminine project started in 2021 with a symposium of female Buddhist teachers. The outcome was an important reflection on the misunderstandings and conflicts that Vajrayana Buddhist communities had faced that is summarised here. Since then further teachings and interviews have been gathered to build a library that is freely available for anyone to explore on Prajna Online.

The main contributors to the 2021 Symposium were Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, Sangye Khandro, Chagdud Khadro, Marcia Schmidt, Venerable Karma Lekshe Tsomo, Lama Tsultrim Allione, Acharya Judith Simmer-Brown – in order of intervention.

The wish was to gather and reflect on where we are at in Vajrayana Buddhism when it comes to treasuring the feminine. It was also clear that the problems Vajrayāna Buddhist communities had faced had to be explored genuinely, lovingly and honestly.

The group chose to start from the big picture to bring context, and started with the following four questions which emerged from questions sent in by members of various sanghas:

1. Is gender relevant in a tradition focused on non-duality?

2. Do we understand the feminine principle in Vajrayana Buddhism?

3. How can we honour female practitioners and teachers of the past and make their teachings and realization accessible

4. What is cultural and what is Dharma when it comes to sexuality and conduct?

Please find a PDF summary of the former symposium, including extracts from keynote speeches.

Free access to the video recordings from Mindrolling Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel, Sangye Khandro, Chagdud Khadro, Marcia Schmidt and more are available.