Call of the Dakini

A Memoir of a Life Lived

Barbara Lepani's narrative memoir traces how the Dakini, the Buddhist feminine principle of dynamic awareness, has been calling to her throughout her life as an inner quest for meaning and wisdom.

Her life's journey takes her from an intellectually impoverished Queensland childhood to an encounter with China's Cultural Revolution in 1968, to life in Sydney and through marriage to life in Papua New Guinea during its transition to self-government and independence.

Back in Australia, while working in the government, non-government and university sectors, through the turmoil of a failed romantic relationship she encounters the Vajrayana teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. This radically different knowledge system challenges her Western ideas about the nature of reality and wisdom.

Following a journey to Tibet in 2004, and a three-year retreat from 2006-2009, she discusses her current quest to learn from Australia's First Nations knowledge systems and the new zeitgeist of a philosophy of regenerative living on the spiritual, community, environmental and economic levels.

In the face of the hegemonic anxiety engulfing the world, this is a call for 'two-way learning' between these ancient knowledge systems and the Western understandings of the nature of complex systems that govern life on Earth.