1 2 Dedication and Appreciation This memoir is dedicated to the wellbeing of my two sons, Genou and Justin Lepani and my grandchildren: Jasper, Finlay, Stevie and Iris, in the face of the difficult challenges facing our society and Mother Earth and all its lifeforms, and to the work of Regenerative Songlines Australia and its vision of a network of projects that are multidisciplinary, including regenerative economies, societies, ecological stewardship and design practices to transform the dominant industrialised society, economy and culture of Australia, towards regeneration and restoration, so that we can live and thrive within bioregional ecological limits and planetary boundaries. It is also dedicated to the continued role of the ancient wisdom cultures of First Nations peoples and the Vajrayana of Tibet in shaping the future of the world. I would also like to express my appreciation to my dharma teachers, Sogyal Rinpoche and the many masters from whom I received teachings through him, and to Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche, whom I met in New Zealand and with whom I travelled to Tibet in 2004. I would also like to thank my many dharma friends over the years, particularly my lifelong friend Inge Riebe, Susie White and Celeste Croteau who have been staunch dharma friends in my later years, to the many friends in the Rigpa sangha, to Keith Rowan and Tim Lewis my dharma friends in New Zealand, to Volker Denks through whom I was able to research the life and times of Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodrö, to Patience Hook my dear friend from my Stanwell Park days who has given me invaluable advice on the actual writing of the memoir, and provided me with a living personal link to the enduring mystical tradition of Christianity. I would also like to express my gratitude to the late Tjilpi Bob Randall and to the Elders and new generation of First Nations intellectuals and creatives who are helping me understand the rich and important heritage of Australia’s First Nations knowledge systems. 3 Table of Contents Dedication and Appreciation ...................................................................................................... 3 About the Author ............................................................................................................................. 7 Preface ................................................................................................................................................ 9 1: The Dakini Calls ....................................................................................................................... 17 2: Across the Colonial Divide .................................................................................................... 35 3. Life in the Third World and Return to Australia ........................................................... 47 4: Perception and Reality .......................................................................................................... 71 5: I Want You to Dance ................................................................................................................ 81 6: Encountering the Vajrayana with Sogyal Rinpoche ..................................................... 95 7: Guru Yoga—the Mystical Path ........................................................................................... 113 8: Parallel Perspectives ............................................................................................................ 129 9: Wisdom Journeys ................................................................................................................... 141 10: Times with Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche ...................................................................... 159 11: Retreat and Its Fruits ......................................................................................................... 177 12. Towards Regenerative Living ......................................................................................... 191 Footnote References .................................................................................................................. 203 © Call of the Dakini, 2021 About the Author Barbara Lepani is a sociologist of technological innovation, who has also been a student-practitioner of the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition of Tibet since 1985, when she met and took Sogyal Rinpoche as her heart teacher, her guru. She lives in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, surrounded by the majestic beauty of the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area. Over the years she was closely involved with Sogyal Rinpoche’s Rigpa international organisation of dharma centres and groups, attending Australian retreats and international retreats in Lerab Ling, Rigpa’s international retreat centre in the L’Engayresque area of the south of France. Captivated by the Vajrayana knowledge system to which Sogyal Rinpoche introduced her, and through reading the life stories of many of the great masters of this tradition, dating back to the time of Padmsambhava and Yeshe Tsogyal in 8th century Tibet, in the early years Barbara was closely involved in transcribing the recordings of teachings at retreats. She later trained to become a Rigpa instructor, helping groups of students engage with and explore the meaning of the teachings and the relevance to their lives. Barbara later became the National Study Director for Rigpa Australia, and worked on the development of a new international curriculum for Rigpa student-practitioners, under the direction of Sogyal Rinpoche and his senior student, Ian Maxwell. Between 2006 and 2009, Barbara entered into a three-year retreat in the Dzogchen tradition of the Longchen Nyingtik, during which time she undertook the traditional intensive practices of the tradition, studied Tibetan Buddhist philosophy and received teachings from many of the great masters of the tradition, including: HH. Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Orgyen Topgyal Rinpoche, Garchen Rinpoche, Tenga Rinpoche, Jetsuun Kushog Chimey Luding, Kyabjé Taklung Tserul Rinpoche, Phakchog Rinpoche, Alak Zankar Rinpoche, Khenchen Pema Sherab, Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Samdhong Rinpoche, Lodi Gyari Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol and Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel. After returning to Australia, Barbara continued to follow the Buddhist path as a simple student-practitioner, moving to live in the majestic natural environment of the Blue Mountains, part of the extensive Blue Mountains © Call of the Dakini, 2021 World Heritage Area west of Sydney, with an aspiration to live the truth of the teachings in her daily life and activities. Barbara grew up in regional Queensland, moving to live in Sydney in her early twenties, where she met and married fellow university student, Charles Lepani from the Trobriand Islands of PNG. She worked as a sociology teacher and policy analyst in PNG, returning to Australia in late 1878 to work in the government, community and university sectors. She undertook a MA in Science and Technologies Studies, before working at the University of Wollongong’s Centre for Technology and Social Change, and the Australian Centre for Innovation at the University of Sydney. Between 2002 and 2005 Barbara lived in New Zealand, supporting the work of Amnyi Trulchung Rinpoche with whom she travelled to Tibet in 2004. After returning to Australia in late 2009 at the end of her three-year retreat, in 2010 Barbara took up as position as a Visiting Fellow at the ANU, working on a history of East Tibet, Tulkus, Tertons and Turmoil 1855-1955 (unpublished) before taking up a career as a policy analyst in the Commonwealth Public Service. In 2015 Barbara moved to live in Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, and in 2017 she retired from the Australian Public Service. As coordinator of the Blue Mountains Creative Arts Network’s Wild Mountain Collective, Barbara is active in her local community with a passion for promoting the integration of ancient wisdom, including that embodied in First Nations Knowledge systems and Vajrayana Buddhism, with the insights of the sciences of complex systems and ecologies, and through her recent work with Resilient Blue Mountains, a local community organisaiton. 8 Preface Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal Fearless Lady of Lotus Light Hear my plight Fill my heart with your blessings Opening it into the vast expanse. I was almost forty years of age when in 1985 I first encountered the idea of the dakini through the life story of the eighth century Tibetan tantric yogi and spiritual adept, Khandro Yeshe Tsogyal.1 She is regarded as the supreme human embodiment of the dakini principle, of which the outward expression is the dance of the elements, and which is frequently represented in a dancing female form, her right leg tucked against her vulva. ‘Her’ inner ‘secret’ expression is the realisation of limitless dynamic awareness. At the time when the Tibetan Empire controlled large areas of Central Asia, Yeshe Tsogyal abandoned her life as one of King Trisong Detsen’s queens to become a spiritual disciple and consort of the great tantric mystic, Padmasambhava. A foundational figure in the establishment of Vajrayana Buddhism in Tibet during the eighth and ninth centuries, Padmasambhava is known as Guru Rinpoche, precious teacher. Legend has it that the dakinis sang Guru Rinpoche into being on a lotus flower on Lake Dhanakosha in Oddiyana, a small kingdom thought to be in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, on the ancient Silk Road to China along which the Buddhist teachings travelled from