We have taken the risk to choose the fierce gaze of Buddha Padmasambhava to illustrate our home page, knowing that some of our visitors might find it strange or scary. There are several reasons for this :
- Padmasambhava largely inspired Margot Anand when she decided to found her Tantra school. When she created SkyDancing Tantra, she sat in a meditation in order to call for a name for her school. During this meditation, she had a vision of Padmasambhava visiting her and taking her in the Sky in the yab-yum position (as she told us, “maybe it is a creation of my mind, maybe he really visited me … we will never know”).
Padmasambhava (in sanskrit, “Born from a Lotus” ) is a Tantric and Buddhist Master native from Kashmir. He is the founder of the Himalayan Buddhist Tantrism. He is mainly worshiped in Bhutan and Tibet, where he is known as Guru Rinpoche (“precious master”). He is the founder of Buddhism in Tibet where he inspired the Nyingmapa Path, a tantric path in the Buddhist tradition. His consort Yeshe Tsogyel, also known as the Princess or Lady of Karchen, have reached enlightenment thanks to her Tantric Practice with him. They are frequently represented in the yab-yum position. She is said to be the first woman having reached enlightenment in the Buddhist Tradition. She was also sometimes called SkyDancer.
That is why Margot chose this name : “SkyDancing” Tantra which refers at the same time to Yeshe Tsogyel and to all feminine deities of the Tantric Buddhist tradition called Dakinis (literally in Sanskrit : “Sky Goers of Sky Dancers”). - The second reason of our choice is the following : we are convinced that this gaze is a striking, strong image. It underlines the power and the strength of the SkyDancing Method. It also indicates that Tantra is an abrupt path, that doesn’t necessarily suit to any person. It requires courage, commitment and determination.
The fierce gaze also refers to deities in the Tantric Tradition, such as Kali whose dreadful fiery energy destroys all obstacles to personal transformation. Those who enter this path have to be ready for a change. Those who will feel scared or too much disturbed by this image will move on to something else.
