Dakas and Dakinis

"When the completion stage practices have been mastered and we have gained control over our subtle energy winds and so forth, there will come a time when the dakas and dakinis will come. What are the dakas and dakinis? Simply speaking, they are males and females who possess advanced experiences of tantric transformation and control and are therefore able to increase the blissful wisdom of a highly qualified practitioner. There is a certain point in the mastery of the completion stage when physically embracing such a consort is necessary for bringing all the pervading energy winds into the central channel, a prerequisite for opening the heart center completely and experiencing the profoundest level of clear light.

This subject of practice with a consort is open to great misinterpretation, especially by people who have made only superficial contaact with buddhist tantra. Many Westerners, for instance, because they have seen Tibetan paintings and statues showing dieties in embrace, have the mistaken notion that Tibetan Buddhism is mainly concerned with sexual contact between men and women. As was pointed out earlier, what this art is actually representing is the experience of total unity - of method and wisdom, bliss and emptiness - characteristic of the fully enlightened state. But now with the mention of the completion stage practices there is a further opportunity for confusion to arise. Therefore it should be emphasized that until we have gained mastery over our subtle body and have 'embraced' the blissful kundalini energy dormant within, we are not at all qualified to embrace an external consort..."