Talk:Yogini

Additional stories and legends
Quotation: "There were the four Joginis. Mani Jogini, who appeared for Raja Manichur; Bajra Jogini, who appeared for Aryacharya; Bidyadhari Jogini, who appeared for Apjasi Pandit; and lastly Hingu Jogini. footnote 5: Mani Jogini's shrine is at Sankhu; Bajra Jogini's at Sankhu and at Phurphing; Bidyadhari Jogini's below Swayambhu; and Hingu Jogini's south of Thapatali and also west of Patan."
 * History of Nepal Von Wright Daniel, Daniel Wright
 * Austerlitz -- 88.75.69.84 (talk) 13:09, 6 January 2009 (UTC)


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 * mentions the "practice of Jogini"
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 * Austerlitz -- 88.75.69.84 (talk) 13:36, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Weblink
 * I am not sure whether this is for this article or not.
 * Austerlitz -- 88.75.198.144 (talk) 15:59, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

Cultural Bias and POV
It appears that all of the quotes are from American women, none from people in Asia. This leads one to question the statistic cited in paragraph 2 of the lead: "the vast majority of modern practitioners are female". Does this claim refer to the vast majority of AMERICAN practitioners?

It is salutary that Hindu temples in India are mentioned, but the geographic range of this token reference to Asia is limited. Nothing about Hinduism in SE Asia (Angkor Wat, Prambanan, Bali) nor about Tantric Buddhism in Sumatra (Srivijaya Kingdom).

The ideal of equality and complementarity set out in the first paragraph of the article soon fades into American feminism POV. But a larger problem is that the article is presented as something distant and abstract, full of technical terms about magical powers. How about some excerpts from actual lives of yoginis in order to balance the theory with descriptions of practical accomplishments? Martindo (talk) 23:28, 25 September 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps this is seen as POV bias by male-identified scholars? We are discussing the word YOGINI which is a feminine and generative word after all. As far as the "vast majority" quote, that is from TKV Desikachar, a male and modern indian yoga master in the tradition of Krishnamacharya. The prevailing concept is that since it is females who also gestate yogis, as well as manifest the human menstrual cycle, there is a potential yoga embodied in femaleness itself regardless of location. KellyPhD (talk) 00:51, 23 April 2011 (UTC)

Reorganizing sections
The quotes cited here sound inspirational or political but hardly shed light on WHAT a yogini can accomplish. I'd like to see this section reoriented as "Modern Examples of Yogini" or "20th Century American Yogini" or something along those lines.

Instead of quotes (such as the Baker one, which is lifted from her own WP page verbatim), we would show readers what yoginis have actually accomplished. Talk is fine, but a WP page that endeavors to explain a very old and essential mystical role for women should provide concrete examples.

The WP page on plastic shaman is recommended reading to help us avoid an excess of New Age jargon and too much celebration of eclectic approaches. In particular, shamanism, alchemy, and other related topics should be differentiated rather than lumped together as background. This might be accomplished more clearly by extracting that info from "Past and Present Contexts" and putting it into a new section titled something like "Other Types of Wisdom Women". Martindo (talk) 23:29, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

RE "a very old and essential mystical role for women," with all due respect Martindo, some things are as concrete as physiology, yet still are mysterious. New paradigm scholarship is very different than the New Age jargon you accuse. It is well known among eastern scholars that meditative body union practices originated in shamanic forest peoples, and that many of the vedic rishis were female. As stated in the lay Shambhala Enclopedia of Yoga among other sources. Go ahead and flesh that out further, the sources are plenty and I don't have much time for expanding this page KellyPhD (talk) 00:57, 23 April 2011 (UTC)