Dakini Power: Twelve Extraordinary Women Shaping the Transmission of Buddhism (Shambhala, 2013) honors some of the most accomplished female Buddhist teachers in the West, such as Pema Chodron, Khandro Rinpoche, Roshi Joan Halifax, Lama Tsultrim Allione, and others.

The Book

What drives a young London librarian to board a ship to India, meditate in a remote cave by herself for twelve years and then build a flourishing nunnery in the Himalayas? How does a surfer girl from Malibu become the head of the main international organization for Buddhist women?  Why does the daughter of a famed music executive in Santa Monica dream so vividly of peacocks one night that she chases these images all the way to Nepal where she finds the love of her life in an unconventional young Tibetan master? These are some of the fascinating biographies in this book, which was published in 2013 by Snow Lion/Shambhala Publications. Twelve stories of courage, determination and wisdom.

Dakini Power is the first and only book to feature the life stories of the most accomplished female Tibetan Buddhist teachers who bring fresh insights into Buddhism in the West. Their absorbing, personal and provocative accounts provide surprising insights into what this age-old tradition of wisdom can offer to modern seekers.

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Featured are:

Jetsun Khandro Rinpoche (This Precious Life)

Dagmola Kusho Sakya (Princess in the Land of Snow)

Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo (Cave in the Snow)

Pema Chödrön (When Things Fall Apart; Start Where You Are)

Khandro Tsering Chödrön (aunt of Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying) 

Thubten Chodron (Cherry Greene) (Buddhism for Beginners; Taming the Mind)

Karma Lekshe Tsomo (Patricia Zenn) merican Women's Eyes)

Chagdud Khadro (Jane Dedman) (P'howa Commentary; Life in Relation to Death)

Sangye Khandro (Nanci Gay Gustafson) (Meditation, Transformation, and Dream Yoga)

Roshi Joan Halifax (Being with Dying)

Lama Tsultrim Allione (Joan Rousmanière Ewing) (Women of Wisdom; Feeding Your Demons)

Elizabeth Mattis-Namgyel (The Power of an Open Question)

Praise

“A powerful and fascinating book.”—Light of Consciousness Magazine

“A true treasure trove, long awaited by many.”—The Yogini Project

 "Dakini Power offers twelve fascinating and intimate profiles of women teachers who are shaping Tibetan Buddhism in the West."—Shambhala Sun, September 2013, by Andrea Miller

 "Haas’ strength in Dakini Power is to weave together with interviews, journalistic fact finding, and personal anecdote, a picture of 12 notable women who are molding how Tibetan Buddhism is being transmitted in the West. Haas offers the reader a glimpse of the evolution of a diverse collection of female teachers: Asians and Westerners, lay people and nuns, traditional and rebellious, women who have and have not been mothers, practitioners in various traditions (even one Zen practitioner!). Perhaps most interesting is Haas’ willingness to explore some of their opinions and ideas about their tradition’s relationship to gender, sex and sexism."— Mandala Magazine Editor's Choice by Michael Jolliffe

"As engaging and inspiring as it is informative, this is a uniquely wonderful book that should prove to play a large role in encouraging and helping to develop more Buddhist leaders who are women."—Patheos, "Five Favorite Dharma Books of 2013", by Rev. Danny Fisher

"...I urge you to read this book and watch the various online interviews. Michaela Haas is a marvelous writer and storyteller who evokes the spirit and challenges of our times in vivid language. ...These women are not only shaping the transmission of the teachings in the West but trailblazers in our western culture on a number of fronts in the fields death/dying, permaculture, and social justice. They also all seem to have a particular siddhi that allows them to withstand avalanches of criticism by less adventurous practitioners out to diminish their contributions. Michaela Haas also does a great job of portraying the unique contributions each woman has made to her particular lineage and how their personal and sometimes painful spiritual development empowered them on the path as well as serves as an inspiration to thousands of others."—The Mirror, June 2013, by Jacqueline Gens

“I am heartened to read the accounts in this book of the achievements of women teachers from different schools of Buddhism: it is a celebration of the contribution which female practitioners have made throughout history, and which they are continuing to make….My heartfelt prayer is that women such as these are the trailblazers; their efforts will lead to a fresh recognition of the unique insights and qualities of female spirituality, and wider acknowledgment of women practitioners and teachers.”—From the foreword by His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje

“The twelve women profiled in Michaela Haas' book form a circle that radiates in countless ways. Taken as a whole, their lives document both the continuing emergence of Tibetan Buddhism in the West and the concurrent work towards women's inclusion in arenas of practice and leadership where they have historically been marginalized and excluded. Dakini Power is an inspiring contribution to the ongoing conversation.” —Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness and Real Happiness

“What a moving and powerful book! With passion and verve, these remarkable women bear witness to the fact that the buddhadharma has put down firm roots in the West. Michaela Haas has done a superb job of presenting their struggles and their realization in a way that makes them an inspiration to men and women alike.”—B. Alan Wallace, author of Boundless Heart and Choosing Reality