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Meeting the Great Bliss Queen: You and Yeshe Tsogyal

Trungpa Rinpoche made a colorful drawing of Yeshe Tsogyal. She is included in the “Supplication to the Shambhala Lineage” chant, written about by Sakyong Mipham–a significant naming of a Tibetan Buddhist woman as a lineage founder. And a banner depicting a representation of her image hangs in Shambhala shrine rooms.

Yeshe Tsogyal attained full realization. She was the primary disciple of Padmasambhava and his co-creator of the Nyingma tradition. Trungpa Rinpoche’s main teachers were Nyingma, and he shared their teachings with us. Yeshe Tsogyal, as the first known Tibetan woman to attain enlightenment, is called Mother of all the Victorious Ones.

In the hour given to us for this Shambhala Sunday Gathering, we’ll explore the essential Yeshe Tsogyal, including her peak experience of waking-up within a 211-year long life. And we’ll discuss how to invite Yeshe Tsogyal into our practice by means of supplication and into our life by means of mantra. May our brief time together be auspicious!

About Joanna

Joanna Rotté bears the title of theatre professor emerita from Villanova University. As a Vajrayana practitioner, she is a student of Mahamudra, leaning toward Dzogchen. Currently she lacks a living physical guru. She took refuge years ago with Tenzin Palmo. Her artistic career in live theatre has included directing an adaptation of Chogyam Trungpa’s short play entitled Prajna that became a featured production of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival; as well as performing the role of Yeshe Tsogyal over the course of a year in a play (that she wrote) based on three translations of the biography of Yeshe Tsogyal. Most recently, she has served as a teaching artist in the New York state prison system at the invitation of Rehabilitation through Arts (RTA).