Vajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. Vajrayana is a complex and multifaceted system of Buddhist thought and practice which evolved over several centuries and encompasses much inconsistency and a variety of opinions. Its main scriptures are called Tantras. A distinctive feature of Vajrayana Buddhism is ritual, which is used as a substitute or alternative for the earlier abstract meditations.
The period of Indian Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism. Although the first tantric Buddhist texts appeared in India in the 3rd century CE and continued to appear until the 12th century CE, scholars such as Hirakawa Akira believe that the Vajrayana probably came into existence in the 6th or 7th century CE, while the term Vajrayana first came into evidence in the 8th century CE. According to Vajrayana scriptures Vajrayana refers to one of three routes to enlightenment, the other two being Hinayana and Mahayana.
Vajrayana Buddhism is a spiritual and life philosophy that embraces the teachings of Siddharta Gautama Buddha. However, its emergence in the 8th century is often credited to Padmasambhava, the Indian tantric master also known as the "second Buddha." Vajrayana Buddhism is closely associated with the Mahayana and Theravada schools of Buddhism, although there are some differences in practice between them. Vajrayana Buddhism is also considered to be the third yana of Buddhism, the Sanskrit word that translates to mean ‘vehicle.’ Specifically, the path leading to the birth of Vajrayana Buddhism is believed to have stemmed from the third turning of the ‘wheel of dharma,’ a series of Buddhist teachings and oral traditions generally known as sutras.
Vajrayana Buddhism received its name from the Sanskrit word vajra, which represents the thunderbolt wielded by Indra, the god of war and weather. This word also loosely translates to mean ‘diamond,’ denoting unbreakable strength. As such, Vajrayana Buddhism is often called the Diamond Vehicle and Indestructible Path of Buddhism. It is also synonymous with various other names, including Thunderbolt Vehicle, True Words Sect, Esoteric Buddhism, Tantric Buddhism, Mantrayana, and Secret Mantra, among others.
The principles of Vajrayana Buddhism are considered to be the closest to those practiced by Buddha to achieve dharmakaya, or true enlightenment. However, Vajrayanists maintain that Buddha did not share many of these principles since he considered them too esoteric for the non-initiated. Like other Buddhist teachings,Vajrayana is based on tantric doctrine (tantras), which may be accessed by practicing various sadhanas. A sadhana may consist of yoga, meditation, controlled breathing (Pranayama), and the repetition of specialized prayers known as mantras.
Unlike some Buddhist teachings, the path of Vajrayana Buddhism does not dictate that the practitioner should strive to reach Nirvana, a process believed to take many lifetimes. In alliance with the bodhisattvas of Mahayana, the Vajrayana practitioner should seek perfect enlightenment but be willing to reincarnate to assist others on the worldly plane to achieve the same. The belief that the Vajrayana practitioner may attain pure enlightenment in a single lifetime also differs from other teachings. In fact, this is why Vajrayana Buddhism is sometimes referred to as the Short Path.
Vajrayana, or Tantric Buddhism, has been described as the latest phase in the development and evolution of Buddhist thought. For a long time, Western scholars dismissed Vajrayana as the final "degenerate phase" of Buddhist thought. This attitude was due to the fact that these materialistic scholars had only a Christian or a secular way of seeing the world. They could appreciate ordinary Buddhism (Theravada, etc), seeing the Buddha as the Christ of the East teaching an essentially moral message, or as a sort of spiritual humanist; but when faced with a system of knowledge and practice that embraced all the magical and occult elements that Western rationalism had rejected centuries ago, could only explain it as some sort of degenerate end phase.
Fortunately, in more recent times other Westerners have studied Tantric Buddhism first hand, at the feet of actual Tibetan Masters, and so have a more mature appreciation and respect for that noble tradition. Indeed, if anything good has come out of the terrible Chinese invasion and oppression of the Tibetan homeland in the 2nd half of the 20th century, it has been that this has driven Tibetan lamas and teachers to the West, and encouraged them to spread their tradition among sympathetic Westerners.
Vajrayana metaphysics is, like Indian Tantra, a hybrid affair: a coming together of Indian Tantrism, Mahayana Buddhism, and the original aboriginal shamanism - the Bon tradition - of Tibet itself. Like the Nathas, Shaktas, and Shaivites, the Vajrayanists postulated a subtle or iconographic body, made up of chakras, nadis, and subtle winds (vayu). And like their Indian counterparts they worked on manipulating the forces of this subtle body through yoga in order to attain spiritual enlightenment. But Vajrayana tantra diverged very early from Indian tantra. Instead of the later seven-chakra model, they retain an earlier four chak-ra schema of navel, heart, throat, and head centres. Starting from this four-chakra foundation, the Vajrayanists - like the Indian tantics - built up a very elaborate system of correspondences.
There are a number of other important differences to Indian (Shakta) Tantra as well. In Indian tantra one starts form the base chakra and progresses up. In Tibetan tantra one starts from the head, which is the "lowest" level of consciousness (body, waking consciousness, wrathful deities), and progresses down to the heart, which is the highest level of consciousness.
With Indian Tantra the kundalini is awakened through specific breathing practices and yoga-postures. The prana or vital-force of the subtle body is thus manipulated through the breath and the physical body; through an extension of Hatha yoga which, the reader will recall, was associated from the beginning with Indian Tantra. In contrast, Vajrayana practice involves manipulating the vital force through the mind and concentration. Through intense visualisation of deities and so on, one activates the inner "winds" (= prana = ch'i) and "drops".
The Instead of the Kundalini-Shakti or "Serpent Fire" of Shakta Tantrism, Vajrayana has the Tumo (literally "fierce woman"). Through intense visualisation of deities and concentration upon the "lower tip" (the minor chakra at the tip of the sex-organ), the winds (prana) are drawn into the lower opening of the central channel (sushumna), producing an intense heat, called tumo [Daniel Cozort, Highest Yoga Tantra, p.71]. In her fascinating book, Magic and Mystery in Tibet Alexandra David-Neel popularised stories of Tibetan yogis drying icy sheets with their naked bodies outside in the middle of winter. That is a showy exhibition of tumo. Real tumo of course is the tantric meditation itself.
As a result of the tumo-heat, the drops melt and enter the central channel. The red "female" drops in the navel chakra ascends to the heart chakra, while the white drops in the crown chakra descend to the same chakra. The bliss of the drops flowing in the central channel is said to be a hundred times greater than that of orgasm [p.71]. The drops, moving up or down the central channel, finally enter the "indestructable drop" in the heart chakra, so called because it is said to be drop that passes from life-time to life-time, taking with it the "very subtle mind" and "very subtle wind" .
The entire visualisation or meditation stage itself is called the stage of Generation, as its purpose of is to construct or generate an actual enlightenment or buddha-body, the stage of Completion. The result of all this is that one rises in an "illusory body", so called because it is a spirit body rather than a physical body, and at death, rather than be caught up by the bardo and reincarnation, one remains in full consciousness in the illusory body, so attaining Buddhahood.
The term "vajra" denoted the thunderbolt, a legendary weapon and divine attribute that was made from an adamantine, or indestructible, substance and which could therefore pierce and penetrate any obstacle orobfuscation. As a secondary meaning, "vajra" refers to this indestructible substance, and so is sometimes translated as "adamantine" or "diamond". So the Vajrayana is sometimes rendered in English as "The Adamantine Vehicle" or "The Diamond Vehicle".
A vajra is also a scepter-like ritual object , which has a sphere (and sometimes a gankyil) at its centre, and a variable number of spokes (depending on the sadhana), enfolding either end of the rod. The vajra is often traditionally employed in tantric rituals in combination with the bell or ghanta; symbolically, the vajra may representmethod as well as great bliss and the bell stands for wisdom, specifically the wisdom realizing emptiness or lack of inherent existence.
[edit]Tantric Buddhism
The term Tantric Buddhism was not one originally used by those who practiced it. As scholar Isabelle Onians explains:
“Tantric Buddhism” . . . is not the transcription of a native term, but a rather modern coinage, if not totally occidental. For the equivalent Sanskrit tāntrika is found, but not in Buddhist texts. Tāntrika is a term denoting someone who follows the teachings of scriptures known as Tantras, but only in Saivism, not Buddhism (although cf. the single known occurrence in a copper-plate inscription from Nālandā made in the name of the Javanese king Devapāla in the ninth century AD:,tāntrikabodhisattvaganasya; SIRCAR 1983:II .37-38; ref. provided by Sanderson). Indeed, Alexis Sanderson has noted that it is usually used of followers of another tradition, by proponents of the Trika of practitioners of the Bhairava tantras, for example, and thus with a slightly pejorative tone, unlike the simple noun tantra (personal communication). Tantric Buddhism is a name for a phenomenon which calls itself, in Sanskrit, Mantranaya, Vajrayāna, Mantrayāna or Mantramahāyāna (and apparently never Tantrayāna). Its practitioners are known as mantrins, yogis, or sādhakas. Thus, our use of the anglicised adjective “Tantric” for the Buddhist religion taught in Tantras is not native to the tradition, but is a borrowed term which serves its purpose.
Difficulties in the academic study of Vajrayana
Serious academic study of Vajrayana is still in its early stages, because of a number of problems that make research difficult:lthough a large number of Tantric scriptures are extant, they have not been formally ordered or systematized.
- Because Vajrayana was influenced by Hinduism, further research into Hinduism is necessary.
- Ritual as well as doctrine need to be investigated.
In general, Buddhist tantric practice is categorized as secret practice, this is to avoid misuse of the practices by misinformed people. One of the methods to keep this secrecy is that tantric initiation is required from a Master before any instructions can be received about the actual practice. During the initiation procedure in the highest class of tantra (such as the Kalachakra), students must take the tantric vows which commit them to such secrecy. "Explaining general tantra theory in a scholarly manner, not sufficient for practice, is likewise not a root downfall. Nevertheless, it weakens the effectiveness of our tantric practice."
Classifying Vajrayana
Vajrayana as a newly composed teaching
The literature of Vajrayana is absent from the oldest Buddhist literature of the Pali Canon and the Agamas. The Vajrayana tradition holds that its teachings were first expounded by the Buddha 16 years after his enlightenment. Historians have identified an early stage of Mantrayana beginning in the 4th century CE, and argue that assigning the teachings to the historical Buddha is "patently absurd".
Only from 7th or the beginning of the 8th century CE, tantric techniques and approaches increasingly dominated Buddhist practice in India.
The first tantric (Vajrayana Buddhist) texts appeared in the 3rd century CE, and continued to appear until the 12th century CE.
Vajrayana as evolved from the local conditions of Medieval India
Although the Vajrayana claims to be as ancient and authentic as any other Buddhist school, it may have grown up gradually in an environment with previously existing texts such as the mahasannipata and the ratnaketudharani. The basic position of Vajrayana is still the same as the early Buddhist position of not-self: there is nothing which is eternal.The changes that took place agreed with the changing society of medieval India: the presentation has changed, the techniques of the way to enlightenment have changed, the outward appearance of Buddhism came to be dominated by ritualism and the array of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and gods and goddesses.
Classification based on Vajrayana scriptures and commentaries
The tantric scriptures and its commentaries provide three strategies to discuss the theoretical nature of Vajrayana Buddhism:
- Vajrayana as a subset of Mahayana Buddhism
- Vajrayana as a fruitional or advanced vehicle (where Mahayana is a prelude to Vajrayana)
- Vajrayana as the sorcerer’s discipline (vidyadharasamvara)
Vajrayana as a subset of Mahayana Buddhism
According to this schema, Indian Mahayana revealed two vehicles (yana) or methods for attaining enlightenment: the method of the perfections (Paramitayana) and the method of mantra (Mantrayana). The Paramitayana consists of the six or ten paramitas, of which the scriptures say that it takes three incalculable aeons to lead one to Buddhahood. The tantra literature, however, claims that the Mantrayanaleads one to Buddhahood in one single life. According to the literature, the mantra is an easy path without the difficulties innate to theParamitanaya. Mantrayana is sometimes portrayed as a method for those of inferior abilities. However the practitioner of the mantra still has to adhere to the vows of the Bodhisattva.
When viewed as a subset of Mahayana, it is one of two paths of practice: the Sutrayana method of perfecting good qualities and theVajrayāna method of taking the intended outcome of Buddhahood as the path. Vajrayana techniques are aimed at making it possible to experience Buddha-nature prior to full enlightenment. In order to transmit these experiences, a body of esoteric knowledge has been accumulated by Buddhist tantric yogis and is passed via lineages of transmission. In order to access this knowledge, the practitioner requires initiation from a skilled spiritual teacher or guru.
Vajrayana as fruitional vehicle
According to the Vajrayana theory, Vajrayana refers to one of the three routes to enlightenment, the other two being Hinayana andMahayana. According to this view, there were three "turnings of the wheel of dharma":
- In the first turning Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths at Varanasi in the 5th century BC, which led to the founding of Buddhism and the later early Buddhist schools. Details of the first turning are described in the Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta. The oldest scriptures do not mention any further turnings other than this first turning.
- The Mahayana tradition claims that there was a second turning in which the Perfection of Wisdom sutras were taught at Vulture's Peak, which led to the Mahayana schools. Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures (including the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras) were composed from the first century CE onwards.
- According to the Vajrayana tradition, there was a third turning which took place at Dhanyakataka sixteen years after the Buddha's enlightenment. Scholars have strongly denied that Vajrayana appeared at that time, and placed it at a much later time. The first tantric (Vajrayana Buddhist) texts appeared in the 3rd century CE, and they continued to appear until the 12th century CE.
Vajrayana as an esoteric discipline
Vajrayana teaches that in order to access esoteric knowledge, the practitioner requires initiation from a skilled spiritual teacher or guru.
Vajrayana textual tradition
Harunaga Isaacson, a leading scholar of Vajrayana Buddhism, remarks:
"though we do not know precisely at present just how many Indian tantric Buddhist texts survive today in the language in which they were written, their number is certainly over one thousand five hundred; I suspect indeed over two thousand. A large part of this body of texts has also been translated into Tibetan, and a smaller part into Chinese. Aside from these, there are perhaps another two thousand or more works that are known today only from such translations. We can be certain as well that many others are lost to us forever, in whatever form. Of the texts that survive a very small proportion has been published; an almost insignificant percentage has been edited or translated reliably."
Isaacson notes that Vajrayana texts exhibit a wide range of literary characteristics—usually a mix of verse and prose, almost always in a Sanskrit that "transgresses frequently against classical norms of grammar and usage," although also occasionally in various Middle Indic dialects or elegant classical Sanskrit.
Dunhuang: Tibetan tantric documents recovered from the Mogao Caves
Dalton and Schaik (2007, revised) provide an excellent online catalogue listing 350 Tibetan Tantric Manuscript from Dunhuang in the Stein Collection of the British Library which is currently fully accessible online in discrete digitized manuscripts; with the Wylie transcription of the manuscripts to be made discoverable online in future.[20] The 350 texts is just a small number compared to the vast cache of the Dunhuang manuscripts.
Key features of Vajrayana
The distinction between traditions is not always rigid. For example, the tantra sections of theTibetan Buddhist canon of texts sometimes include material not usually thought of as tantric outside the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, such as the Heart Sutra and even versions of some material found in the Pali Canon.
Ritual
The distinctive feature of Vajrayana Buddhism is ritual, which is used as a substitute or alternative for the earlier abstract meditations. For Vajrayana Tibetan death rituals, see phowa.
Goal and motivation
The goal of spiritual practice within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions is to become a Buddha(i.e. attain complete enlightenment), whereas the goal for Theravada practice is specific to become an arahant (i.e. attain the enlightenment and liberation of nirvana). As with the Mahayana, motivation is a vital component of Vajrayana practice, and Vajrayana teaches that all practices are to be undertaken with the motivation to achieve Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Upaya
The Vajrayana is based on the concept of "skillful means" (Sanskrit: upaya) as formulated in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a system of lineages, whereby those who successfully receive an initiation (permission to practice) are seen to share in the mindstream of the realisation of a particular skillful means of the vajra Master. In the Vajrayana these skillful means mainly relate to tantric, Mahamudra or Dzogchen practices. Vajrayana teaches that the Vajrayana techniques provide an accelerated path to enlightenment.
Two Truths Doctrine
Vajrayana subscribes to the two truths doctrine of conventional and ultimate truths, which is present in all Buddhist tenet systems.[24][25] The two truths doctrine is a central concept in the Vajrayana path of practice and is the philosophical basis for its methods. The two truths identifies conventional a.k.a. relative - and absolute a.k.a. nirvana. Conventional truth is the truth of consensus reality, common-sense notions of what does and does not exist. Ultimate truth is reality as viewed by an awakened, or enlightened mind.
In the Sutrayana practice, a path of Mahayana, the "path of the cause" is taken, whereby a practitioner starts with his or her potentialBuddha-nature and nurtures it to produce the fruit of Buddhahood. In the Vajrayana the "path of the fruit" is taken whereby the practitioner takes his or her innate Buddha-nature as the means of practice. The premise is that since we innately have an enlightened mind, practicing seeing the world in terms of ultimate truth can help us to attain our full Buddha-nature.
Experiencing ultimate truth is said to be the purpose of all the various tantric techniques practiced in the Vajrayana. Apart from the advanced meditation practices such as Dzogchen and Mahamudra, which aim to experience the empty nature of the enlightened mind that can see ultimate truth, all practices are aimed in some way at purifying the impure perception of the practitioner to allow ultimate truth to be seen. These may be ngondro, or preliminary practices, or the more advanced techniques of the tantric sadhana.
Vows and behaviour
In general, practitioners of the Vajrayana need to abide by various tantric vows or samaya of behaviour. These are extensions of the rules of the Pratimoksha vows and Bodhisattva vows for the lower levels of tantra, and are taken during initiations into the empowerment for a particular Anuttarayoga tantra. The special tantric vows vary depending on the specific mandala practice for which the initiation is received, and also depending on the level of initiation.
A tantric guru, or teacher, is expected to keep his or her samaya vows in the same way as his students. Proper conduct is considered especially necessary for a qualified Vajrayana guru. For example, the Ornament for the Essence of Manjushrikirti states:[27]
Distance yourself from Vajra Masters who are not keeping the three vowswho keep on with a root downfall, who are miserly with the Dharma,and who engage in actions that should be forsaken.Those who worship them go to hell and so on as a result.
The Ngagpa Yogis from the Nyingma school keep a special lay ordination.
[edit]Esoteric transmission
Vajrayana Buddhism is esoteric, in the sense that the transmission of certain teachings only occurs directly from teacher to student during an initiation or empowerment and cannot be simply learned from a book. Many techniques are also commonly said to be secret, but some Vajrayana teachers have responded that secrecy itself is not important and only a side-effect of the reality that the techniques have no validity outside the teacher-student lineage.[28] In order to engage in Vajrayana practice, a student should have received such an initiation or permission.
Reginald Ray writes that "If these techniques are not practiced properly, practitioners may harm themselves physically and mentally. In order to avoid these dangers, the practice is kept "secret" outside the teacher/student relationship. Secrecy and the commitment of the student to the vajra guru are aspects of the samaya (Tib. damtsig), or "sacred bond", that protects both the practitioner and the integrity of the teachings."[18]
The teachings may also be considered "self-secret", meaning that even if they were to be told directly to a person, that person would not necessarily understand the teachings without proper context. In this way the teachings are "secret" to the minds of those who are not following the path with more than a simple sense of curiosity.[29][30]
The esoteric transmission framework can take varying forms. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism uses a method called Dzogchen. The Tibetan Kagyu school and the Shingon school in Japan use an alternative method called Mahamudra.
[edit]Sub-schools
Although there is historical evidence for Vajrayana Buddhism in Southeast Asia and elsewhere (see History of Vajrayana below), today the Vajrayana exists primarily in the form of the two major sub-schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Shingon Buddhism, with a handful of minor subschools utilising lesser amounts of esoteric or tantric materials.
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