In honor of mother's day I wanted to share this article with you, from a list serv that I am on.

FEMININE EMPOWERMENT
Jacqueline Kramer
May 2008 newsletter

I have been thinking about the call of many visionaries, including
the Dali Lama, for women to take a leadership role in healing this
Earth. In order for this to happen women first need to become
empowered. I thought I was going to Thailand to receive an award for
my work teaching Buddhism to mothers but it turns out I was enrolled
in a tutorial on feminine empowerment.

At the awards ceremony I had the opportunity to be surrounded by
empowered women from all over the world. Women like the Venerable
Bhiksuni Dr. Myung Korean from Korea, who is in charge of the
Bhiksuni order in Korea and head of a university that molds and
shapes young Buddhist women. She was like a mountain. Her power was
solid, quiet and rock hard. I can’t imagine her doing anything she
didn’t choose to do or blaming anyone for her challenges. Then there
was the Taiwanese Master Bhiksuni Sik Wei Chun. She was like water.
Her power was fluid, soft, flowing. She looked like Kuan Yin. She was
in charge of many Bhiksuni in a country that honors the feminine face
of Buddhism. Taiwan has more female clergy than male clergy, yet, in
Asian fashion, the men still hold the power. She advocated for
working with the men in power, bringing them along in a gentle, kind
way. Although her way was quieter and more traditional than the way
of the Korean Bhiksuni she was just as powerful and equally as
effective. There’s no doubt about it, she gets the job done. Then
there was the take no prisoner’s fiery style of the meditation
teacher from Germany. She hailed from a Tibetan lineage where power
and results are respected. She advocated for just doing it, not
asking permission, just taking the power. She said the men would
respect us and get on board once we showed results.

Returning to the United States my tutorial in feminine power
continued. I went to see Tsultrim Allione, the meditation teacher who
brought the Chod practice of Machig Lapdron to the West. Machig
Lapdron was a Tibetan woman teacher who gained the respect of those
around her by her profound spiritual accomplishments. Tsultrim
Allione’s power is like the wind. Her presence is a light breeze but
when she guides a meditation the invisible power of the wind moves
through your consciousness changing and rearranging everything. Wind
is invisible and quiet, you know it is there by the rustling of the
trees as it moves through.

When I shared these thoughts regarding different styles of feminine
power with one of my meditation teachers he asked me, “What does your
power look like?” The question took me by surprise. Like most women
I had been trained to be unempowered. Through many years of
meditation and spiritual practice I have learned to take
responsibility for my life. Taking full responsibility for my choices
has empowered me to make different choices when need be which is much
more powerful than waiting for people or circumstances to change. I
was ready to meet my unique expression of power. My power was not
like earth, air, fire or water. What was left? Out of my unconscious
came an answer. “My power is like a cat. I wait, listen with my
whole body and then when the time is right I pounce.” The more I
thought about this answer the more true it felt.

We are at a time in human history when it is imperative that women
awake into their full feminine power. For centuries feminine power
has been squelched, stepped upon, ridiculed and forced into hiding.
We succumbed, partly for safety and partly for comfort, to rules made
by spiritually immature men and women. Our power went underground. We
learned to express ourselves passive aggressively, seductively and
manipulatively. We learned to blame rather than take responsibility
and expect others to read our minds rather than speak up. An
unempowered woman is full of anger. That poison has entered the
bloodstream of cultures throughout the world as the unempowered
mother nurses the future generation on that deadly milk.

I can understand why many women would rather avoid becoming
empowered. Moving from disempowerment to empowerment can be quite
uncomfortable, even painful. When laying blame for our unhappiness on
circumstances and people; our husband, our parents, society, the
government, we hide behind a veil of niceness. We get to feel that we
are nice and bad things just seem to happen to us. We learn to be
nice at the expense of being kind, creating a pleasant veneer. When
we become empowered that veneer is ripped away and we face ours fears
and addictions without excuses. When we strip ourselves of blaming
even ourselves for our circumstances we walk naked back into the
garden of Eden. Bare naked, we unwrap the gifts of our own unique
form of feminine power.

What does your power look like? This is a question well worth
sitting in, walking around in, sleeping and dreaming in. The best
thing we can do for our world and family is to become intimate with
our own power. It is from here that the changes necessary to
rebalance the feminine and masculine can unfold. From a place of
empowerment women all over the world can develop the ability to
protect their families and this planet. Mothers are fierce protectors
of children and family. All children are our children and all
sentient beings are our family. We need to apply our empowered
maternal fierceness to the protection of the Earth and all its
precious beings. I invite you to explore your unique expression of
power this mother’s day month, heal what needs to be healed, take
full responsibility for your life as it is now, find your power and
take your place alongside the pantheon of the goddesses.