Samantabhadra

Buddha Shakti aka Samantabhadra

Buddha Shakti is also popularly known as Samantabhadra.

While the image may seem shocking, it has a traditional meaning in Tantric Buddhism. The pose represents the mystical union of the active force, or method (Upaya, conceived of as masculine), with wisdom (Prajna, conceived of as feminine) in a fusion necessary to overcome the false duality of separation between people.

It is believed that during the primordial time, the Yab Yum Buddha saw that the mind was often fooled into believing there was a distinction between “I” and “you”. Thus, He sought to liberate his mind from this false distinction. Similar to the Yin Yang symbol in China, it shows that two seeming distinctions exist as one, dependent on one another.