Stunningly beautiful, radiating the brilliant yellow light of a thousand suns, Baglamukhi is the stillpoint where duality is transcended as the mind returns to emptiness. Hers is the luminous beauty of the tremoring of the expansion of the cosmos, the golden splendor of the nondependent mind. She is the 8th aspect of the wisdom goddesses, very much to the "form" side of the spectrum. Paradoxically, she brings the mind to emptiness, so the mind can bring forth form from space. This is different than our usual imposition of form on space which occurs through our distorted understanding of experience, our conditioning. As Bagalamukhi moves consciousness toward form, she establishes the mind in emptiness. The mind is reigned in as she paralyzes or halts our movements, thoughts, and speech, bringing our awareness to where we are miserly, where we cling to illusion. She is ruthless, cold, and cutting in the demand that we confront our illusions, all veils are ripped off. She leaves us no place to hide from where we deceive ourselves. This impersonal quality is not a lack of compassion, but rather a clear seeing of things as they are, a testament to truth and strength. In her presence, humility, devotion and interestedness are required. As we move through levels of her sadhana, we begin by confronting our own deceit, and move to direct experience of the nondependent mind, the mind in which form arises from emptiness. Ultimately this mahamudra level of mind is stabilized, and we incarnate this in the wakened state.

Baglamukhi plays with levels of illusion, constantly showing us where we are fragmented, and pointing us toward wholeness. She shows us that when we are paralyzed by fear, we are having reactions, not actions; we are not being fully human. By taking pain to the source, the source can transform it to things that are beautiful, freeing us to feel joy without attachment. She demands that we refuse projections of the mind, that we cede what pleasures us the most, so that we are freed from that which limits the expansion of the mind. She turns that which impoverishes the mind into its opposite, allowing stillness and cutting discernment to be realized. She brings enlightenment in the dream state, where karmas are accessed without the perceptual limits of time and space. Again, in a seeming paradox, it is not until we understand the empty quality of experience, the discernment between what is real and unreal, that we can realize where we are in a dream state and where we are awake.

Bagalamukhi sadhana requires a deep commitment and has some clear requirements that need to be followed regarding lifestyle, orientation and strict attention to the deceptions of the mind. We need to be willing to confront where we are rigid, where we hide, where we think we are untouchable. To go into her sadhana, a clear connection with guru (enlightened aspect of being) is needed. We need a maturity and willingness to see our projections, to see how much energy we put into propping up our identities. It is essential to have an understanding of how the mind works, and to be able to be attentive to what your mind is doing. Through Baglamukhi's grace, we exist in the pure experience so we can touch the nondependent mind. By taking pain to the source, the source can transform it to things of beauty, freeing us to feel joy without attachment, clarity and the natural state of the mind that is touched when illusions are recognized and projections refused. In the Bagalamukhi sadhana are particular practices for working with trauma and integrating the traumas into the Self, a necessary step before Self dissolves into original minf.