Facilitators
Ma Anand Leandra
Founder and director of the Durga Tantra School, Leandra is based on the Durban South Coast where she lives with her 14 yearl old nephew whose legal guardian she is. She is also mother to a 23 year old daughter who lives in Vienna, Austria and has been married for 24 years to a German doctor who lives in Hamburg, Germany.
In addition to facilitating retreats, she runs a busy Tantra Sacred Massage in Johannesburg, Cape Town and on the Durban South Coast. She is also the founder of National Institute of Tantra, South Africa (NITSA).
After her political activism student days at Natal University in Durban, she left South Africa in 1974 and lived in Germany for 28 years, where she began her professional life as a successful Fine Artist (painting & multi-media performance art) and a Stage and Costume Designer in a large German State Theatre.
She later qualified in psychoanalytical Art Therapy and for many years ran a busy practice working with individual children and adults as well as groups, before founding the Interdisciplinary Art Therapy Training Centre in Hamburg, Germany where she trained on-going Art Therapists in a unique method of Art Therapy which she developed (Psychodynamic Process-Orientated Art Therapy) for 10 years before returning to South Africa some 8 years ago. For some years before her return to South Africa, she was the chairperson of the German Arts Therapies Association and initiated the first professional insurance scheme for the Art Therapists as well as the acceptance of art therapy as a profession worth supporting and protecting into a major European trade union. She also sat at the forefront of discussions and decisions on the training standards and ethics for Art Therapists in Germany.
Having known about Tantra since the seventies in Germany, when it first emerged Germany, she was initiated into Tantra in South Africa (by Rahassya of the Advait Tantra School) and then travelled to Germany for intensive tantric massage training and group experiences with further Tantra schools. She was subsequently further trained by South African born Ron Solo, an international tantric touch specialist based in Australia. Her experience in working with individuals and groups is vast and all areas of her previous professional work are incorporated into her individual and group work as a leading Tantra Coach.
Her name, given to her when she took sannyas with Osho, means "The Lion Woman, Mother of Bliss". She says, "Tantra has totally transformed my life in the most positive way thinkable. As a result of this, I am passionate about introducing others to Tantra as a spiritual path that embraces our humanity in such a deep way."
Read about Leandra's journey on the Tantra Sacred Massage website: http://www.tantra-massage.co.za/pages/about-leandra.php, and more about her, including details of her qualifications: http://www.tantra-massage.co.za/pages/about-leandra/more-on-leandra.php.
In her blog, Leandra's Journal, she shares thoughts, personal and professional experiences: http://leandrasjournal.blogspot.com/
Yashordan
Yashordan is of Indian descent (Hindu) and based in Durban and has been and is studying Tantra with Leandra. An artist (sculptor, painter, designer) by profession, he studied Reiki and qualified as a master teacher in 2002. This field of study has opened him up to a wide range of experiences and knowledge of the world around us, including the different energy fields that exist within our own body.
He has been a devout Hindu for as long as he can remember, and for many years, ritual worship and meditation have played a vital roll in his daily prayer, which he says moved him closer and closer to the ultimate truth. Under the guidance of his Guru, Shunmagum Varaden Reddy he began to understand the vastness and glory of Hinduism and the true meaning of all the Lelas (ancient stories), which he finds a true treasure house of knowledge for every aspect of life, also covering topics like Reiki, the Kama Sutra, Tantra ect. In this he found that Hinduism was life it itself, an intertwined relationship between nature and the supreme.
It is out of this knowledge, together with his experiences of working with the charkas and the different energy centers in the body, that he "would like to share the true nature of the SIVA SATHI or ying-yang energy and in so doing contribute to a better understanding of Tantra and its origin within the oldest of the world religions, Hinduism."
Roger Austen
Roger is 41, single and born, educated and based in Cape Town where he owns a business specialising in CCTV and Access Control Systems.
He was brought up in a close Christian family and after many years in the corprorate world, he bagan his journey of self-discovery in 2002 during a holiday trip to Europe, which he embarked on to prevent corporate burnout. He realised he had become a person that that he really didn't like and began his search for something that would make a valued difference to his life.
After exploring various spiritual options he discovered Tantra. It was during his first Tantra Sacred Massage session with Leandra that something awoke within him. After much soul searching and many deep conversations with Leandra, he made the decision to follow the path of Tantra. In 2007 he began his Tantra Sacred Massage training with Leandra, and says that it ,has been a journey in which he discovered parts of himself that he didn't know existed. Leandra has subsequently became his mentor and a very dear friend.
Further experiences and discussions and with tantric massage specialists, Nidhana from the U.K. and Nils Kreidner and Lisa from Germany during their visits to South Africa to work with Leandra, as well as with Durban based Yashordan, have developed and grown his spirituality, which blossomed into major changes in his life.
"From being a hard, cold person, detached from my emotions and quite indecisive, I am now able to show both emotions and affection openly and I constantly strive to live a life of unconditional love. Tantra has not been an easy road to travel for me, but it is one well worth travelling - I have become the man always I wanted to be. I found self-love and self-respect, and part of this has been learning to embrace my feminine side. This has allowed me to become more complete as a man and my sensual self is far more powerful than I ever believed possible."
Nils Kriedner (Dredsen, Germany)
Nils is 35, single and based in Berlin, Fermany. He is the director of Wahrhaftig Leben Tantra School (Living Fully & Consciously Tantra School)and Sahaja Tantra in Dresden, Germany. He has a long and intense background in martial arts before coming to tantra.
He developed an early interest in methods of physical and mental training after taking up martial arts from the young age of 6 years and learning and experiencing Judo, Karate, Aikido, Wing Chun und Arnis before he finally came to Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu, a traditional Japanese martial art, of which Nils says "it combines all important elements, making it the most complex martial art".
He also explored the more mental methods of Buddhism, Autogenic Training and Alpha Training as well as a variety of relaxation techniques, finally taking up Zen meditation under Rei Shin Sensei und Rei Ko Sensei.
After completing school, he fulfilled his dearest wish and spent a year in Japan studying Bujinkan under number of unique masters - Mannaka, Noguchi, Ishizuka und Nagase, as well as the present Great Master Dr. Masaaki Hatsumi. For some years parallel to this, he studied Japanese at a German University, while continuing frequent travels to Japan whenever he could, finally successfully completing his 5th Dan. He was given the title Shidoshi, Teacher of the Warrior Path. He studied Yoga in Germany and India as well as tantric Kriya Yoga under Trayati Gabriele Impsal in Vienna. He completed both a tantra teacher training in Germany and a Yoga teacher training in India, where he also studied Advaida Vedanta under Swami Suddhananda, a great Jnana Yoga master in Tiruvannamalai.
He is trained in Osho Massage, Shiatzu, Yoga-Massage and Ayurovedic Massage as well as Tantra Massage and spent a intensive period studying North American Indian-shamanistic and spiritual teachings. He underwent Wilderniss Survival trainings in USA, Sweden and Germany and is deeply influenced by Byron Katie's "The Work".
Nils says that he continues to discover new horizons of freedom and inner vastness, "Life has taken on a dimension in which I would have to strain myself to find a problem, any problem. I live, I love, I laugh. What I want...? I want to share this conscious, passionate restfulness with all those who are interested."
Nils' Websites: http://www.wahrhaftigleben.de & http://www.sahajatantra.de
Saheer (Dolf Theron)
Saheer is 58, married with three adult children and a Personal Growth and Business Development Facilitator, based in Johannesburg.
Saheer writes about himself: "I am a tenth generation South African male, born into a traditional rural Afrikaans language home. I was blessed with primary school Sotho speaking friends and secondary school English speaking friends, who like many other friends later in life, helped me appreciate diversity as well as the power of unity. I love the spice of the many world cultures and have had the privilege of spending time working and traveling in 15 countries of the world.
My own spiritual path has moved through traditional Christian, African and Eastern religions to finally embrace what some call the new spirituality. Since discovering Tantra, I can see how there is a tantric thread through all of these spiritual paths. I can also recognise the tantric elements of my life's experience from my pre-school days, during school and university as well as my adult and family life: I love the sensuality of water and how it connects me with the entire universe, carries me, sooths me and energises me.
Tantra has become my approach to life and my life's dream to support others in experiencing their own potential for bliss and joyful living. My professional qualifications and work of more than 20 years has been focussed on training trainers, coaching coaches, facilitating personal growth, as well as group and business development and I love combining these skills with the Tantra work that I now have the privilege to be sharing with others.
I have the privilege of being taught and guided by Leandra, my special mentor in South Africa, and am also blessed through experiencing other Tantra teachers in Europe. I am inspired by their example and the professional standards that they maintain and I will strive to participate in Tantra and working with fellow students adhering to these high standards.
"Saheer" is the name that was channeled by Leandra during my tantric initiation ritual. It is arabic in origin and means "wakeful". I understand this to be a challenge to live up to as well as a confirmation of what my life has been and is about."