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That deep inner passion for enlightenment is represented by the dakinis. Why are they shown usually naked and abandoned? Because it's an all-or-nothing situation. Unless you really want it, you're not going to get it! It's a one-hundred-and-ten percent commitment, and that's represented by this very wild figure who is completely throwing off all taboos and inhibitions and going for it with everything she's got!"

Ani Tenzin Palmo
Tibetan Buddhist

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There is a science of feminine transformation. It exists. It is an ancient science as old as human consciousness itself. It is a science grounded in the knowledge that real transformation for women can happen in accordance with our nature as women."

Angela Fischer
Sufi

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We can't possibly have a sane world until we realize that the function of the masculine is to allow itself to be irradiated by the feminine, so that it can truly be a protector, and guardian and warrior for those forces that actually ensure the continuance of life. If the masculine doesn't allow this deep and intense permeation by the feminine, it very easily becomes psychotic, addicted to transcendence, power, and control, and while pretending to be the guardian of life, actually becomes its secret destroyer."

Andrew Harvey
Scholar, translator, mystic

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In the vastness of love we can really meet each other."

Myosho Virginia Matthews
Rinzai Zen Buddhist

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Love lies at the core of my being, and enters all my days. And to be in love is to live in love, is to be vitally alive! Every moment is born anew; everything has significance and meaning. But to live out of this passion, a passion that is usually associated solely with sexual expression, makes the more restrained individuals amongst us shrink away in fear, stand back from life. For what they sense is a real power, what they sense is our true nature! But this is love, love that knows no bounds, that flows through the created and uncreated world, that brings emptiness into form, and brings the freedom of death into each moment!"

Jackie Crovetto
Naqshbandi Sufi

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The spiritual ascent is work, effort. You take one step at a time, pass through one stage after another, move closer and closer to the light. But suddenly the light becomes so bright it is black. And the descent begins. The descent is a pull. You have surrendered and it's not up to you. You are taken by love. You are gone. You are lost in the luminous black, the sweet silence, the dynamic, living emptiness of the Unknown She."

Lynn Barron
Sufi

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The women have to come forward, they have to say, 'Men, you have destroyed, all but destroyed everything! You've done some things that are destructive not only to yourselves but to your families, to your communities, to the world. And it's time to stop! In the name of the ceremonies you've done these things, and it's not right! Now we are here as the other half, we are here as the other balance. We are doing this!"

Pansy Hawk Wing
Lakota Sioux

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Women are the heartbeat of the community. Women's ways of living are about the heart and also the earth. In Africa, if you want something to happen, you really have to get the women involved. If the women are not involved, nothing is going to happen. Watching women in my community, you see how they are involved, how they make things happen. They have that sense of knowing, that connection to something bigger."

Sobonfu Somé
Dagara Tribal Elder, West Africa