Teachers for the Journey
“I was further isolated because I wanted a woman teacher. Women teachers were rare and I knew of none close at hand in either the Zen or Tibetan tradition. I had no illusion about women teachers being incorruptible, but I did know that I could learn from another woman what I couldn’t learn from a man.”
“I continued to meet women who were guides for me, further along this path, who held out their hands, helped me along. Not formally recognized as teachers, they were teachers for me. I was finding women teachers, though not in the form I had sought. Valuing them was crucial. I could dismiss them because they weren’t formally acclaimed, or I could recognize the teachers in what they had given me. The Dharma is everywhere. I am the one who makes the assumption that it must come from a male authority figure, a holdover from my upbringing. No one is telling me that this is the case. It is my own thinking - habitual, unconscious, and unexamined - that is my worst enemy. There are women teachers everyone. It is for me to recognize and acknowledge this fact.”
From Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna by China Galland