Dakini is a female embodiment of enlightenment — a type of sacred female spirit, but the term can also be applied to human women with a certain amount of spiritual development. Tibetan Buddhism offers a unique premise, that to be a woman can actually be favorable on the path to spiritual realization. Padmasambhava, the eighth century pioneer of Buddhism in Tibet, reasoned that women are better equipped to realize the wisdom of the teachings. Many lamas have said that women make superior practitioners because they are able to dive into meditation much more easily than males. This is because many males are afraid of dropping the intellect. To suddenly just let that go and be naked in the meditation experience is frightening for them, whereas women seem to be able to manage it naturally. Dakinis are elusive and playful by nature, trying to nail them down with a neat definition means missing them, since defying narrow intellectual concepts is at the core of their wise game. They’re not interested in intellectual discussion which they normally find dry and cold with minimum appeal because they know that the absolute reality cannot be grasped intellectually. To really meet the dakini, you have to go beyond duality.

The Tibetan word for dakini - khandro, means "sky-goer" or "space-dancer" which indicates that these ethereal awakened ones have left the confinements of solid earth and have the vastness of open space to play in.