ideologies: Divine Initiation and Third-Eye of the Buddhist (Shri Kali Publications, 2001). She helped to shape these publications and without her, they could not have taken place. She advises on all aspects of the ashram and maintains many of the practical aspects, including web design, publishing, and correspondence.

 

​She says, “Our goal at Shri Kali Ashram is to offer new vistas into traditional learning. Traditional learning has no sense of formality or hierarchy. It engenders one to express with affection. If it is not an affectionate environment, one cannot learn. A traditional teacher or ācārya is seen as a very close friend. In the traditional systems, there is no culture of the teacher and the student as isolated beings.”

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She explains that the human body has not changed over the past few millennia. Thus there is no need to modify the Tantras and Yoga as so many contemporary teachers do to create their own brand or style of yoga. The Tantras have foreseen that as long as we have this human body, we don’t need to change anything but only to learn and integrate the principles of life. The timeless formulae of the Tantras were composed after philosophically and mathematically analyzing the macro world and us. They give unique answers that cannot be matched by even the best of modern thinkers or institutions. For instance, only now is it understood that the theory of the quantum mind or quantum consciousness is paralleled in the principle of Shiva and Shakti, as opposed to the West’s emphasis on matter alone as the source of the Universe.

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Tantric science is based on timeless formulae, and therefore, transcends cultural fads and limitations. It is universal and timeless, similar to how mathematics is in the modern world. Anyone, anywhere uses maths, and on many different levels. It is not confined to one race, generation, or application. It is therefore a profound and beneficial science.

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Ma is registered with Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT-500 hours yoga teacher and has completed Pаn̄cakarmа certification with Athreya School of Āyurveda in 2016 under the supervision of Dr. Arun Nair. She started studying Theology and Hebrew at Otago University (in the days when there weren’t female priests) in her teenage years and has followed a path of spirituality ever since. Ma has a B.A. (Honours) in Religious Studies (Otago University, NZ) with Honours papers in Sanskrit from Australian National University (Canberra) and a second Major in English Literature (Auckland University). Ma’s thesis was on the Buddhist text, the Mahāvastu. She has studied with many traditional teachers over the years including: the Tibetan Tantric Nyingma lineage of Kum Nye Yoga of Tarthang Tulku of Berkeley, C.A.; Burmese Buddhism of Mahasi Sayadaw at BMIMC in Blue Mountains, Sydney; and more recently, online with Kentrul Rinpoche, a master of the Kālacakra Tantric teachings. Ma has also practised yoga in the direct traditions of K. Pattabhi Jois and B. K. S. Iyengar, as taught to her by her NZ Gurus of the Auckland Yoga Academy.