Yeshe Tsogyal’s early life was damaging and dangerous. Her early suitors regularly tried to rape and kidnap her. Her father, frustrated with her refusal to marry, gave her to a neighbor for use in his harem. Despite this treatment, she kept searching for a divine path. Eventually, her owner gave her to a visiting yogi as a gift. The yogi immediately freed her and taught her the spiritual practice she needed. With tools in hand, she set out to find the truths she sought.

As a traveling yogini, Yeshe was set upon by bandits who robbed and raped her. She was abandoned in a remote Tibetan cave by her companion because they got cold and hungry while she wanted to keep working toward her spiritual goals. She began to find the beauty and divine awareness she desired within herself, so the young woman left her cave to find and thank her guru. Upon his death she again took to the road to share what she had learned.

You cannot be polluted by the things of this world. We can easily see things as impure and acts as unholy. A victim may look to their injury as ruinous–permanently changing and deforming them. Yeshe Tsogyal understood this and disagreed–no maltreatment would mutilate or disable her because there is nothing that can reduce or harm who you truly are. The beautiful truths were in her all along, as they are in everyone, and nothing could corrupt or change their perfection.

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