Diamond Mountain's Dakinis
Lady Christie
Lady Ora
Lady Trisangma
Lady Ani Pelma
Geshe Michael Roach has taken Christie McNally as his "Consort" or spiritual Partner. He has recently also surrounded himself at Diamond Mountain with those he describes as his "four Dakinis"... Lady Ora, Lady Christie, Lady Pelma and Lady Trisangma. The title "Lady" was granted by Geshe Michael Roach himself (in writing on the Diamond Mountain Tantra Course notes), and has the meaning of "Dakini".
During the current Tantra course at Diamond Mountain, Geshe Michael insisted that any student who takes initiation from him at Diamond Mountain must in fact take initiation from all four ladies as well.
The bond between tantric lama and student is exceptionally strong. The Guhyasamaja texts have explained that potential disciples and gurus may need to examine each other's qualities for up to twelve years. The advice refers specifically to scrutinizing one another before receiving or conferring a highest tantra empowerment.
Geshe Michael Roach and Christie McNally's rationality was that "eventually, everyone will appear as a deity to you, so why not start now by taking these four relative strangers as your tantric gurus. You just have to trust"
Students of the Tantra Course were given less than 2 weeks to decide if they would take these 4 ladies as their tantric lamas, on pain of being expelled from of the course. This was a very serious matter for some students, as many had uprooted themselves and changed their life entirely to study tantra at Diamond Mountain with Geshe Michael Roach.
Of the 140 students involved, only one (E. Prather) was brave enough to not take the initiation and pull out of the tantra course voluntarily.
According to Buddhist tradition, it takes many years to examine someone before committing to taking them as a tantric lama. Geshe Michael Roach gave his students 2 weeks to decide whether to take four of their peers as their tantric lamas.
May all beings instantly achieve every happiness, be free from any suffering, never be separated from a perfectly qualified Mahayana teacher and quickly achieve perfect, pure enlightenment in order to benefit others.