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Vajrayana

Encyclopedia

Vajrayāna Buddhism also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...

: वज्रयान; Tibetan

Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually-unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering the Indian subcontinent, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh,...

: རྡོ་རྗེ་ཐེག་པ་, rdo rje theg pa; Mongolian

Mongolian language

The Mongolian language is the official language of Mongolia and the best-known member of the Mongolic language family. The number of speakers across all its dialects may be 5.2 million, including the vast majority of the residents of Mongolia and many of the Mongolian residents of the Inner...

: Очирт хөлгөн, Ochirt Hölgön) 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. Its main scriptures are called Tantras

Tantras

Tantras refers to numerous and varied scriptures pertaining to any of several esoteric traditions rooted in Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. Although Buddhist and Hindu Tantra have many similarities from the outside, they do have some clear distinctions. The rest of this article deals with Hindu...

. A distinctive feature of Vajrayana Buddhism is ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....

, which are Skillful Means (Upaya

Upaya

Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is derived from the root upa√i and refers to a means that goes or brings one up to some goal, often the goal of Enlightenment. The term is often used with kaushalya ; upaya-kaushalya means roughly "skill in means"...

), 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 and continued to appear until the 12th century, scholars such as Hirakawa Akira believe that the Vajrayana probably came into existence in the 6th or 7th century, while the term Vajrayana first came into evidence in the 8th century.

According to Vajrayana scriptures Vajrayana refers to one of three vehicles or routes to enlightenment

Yana (Buddhism)

Yāna refers to a mode or method of spiritual practice in Buddhism, and in particular to divisions of various schools of Buddhism according to their type of practice.-Nomenclature, etymology and orthography:...

, the other two being the Hinayana

Hinayana

Hīnayāna is a Sanskrit and Pāli term literally meaning: the "Inferior Vehicle", "Deficient Vehicle", the "Abandoned Vehicle", or the "Defective Vehicle". The term appeared around the 1st or 2nd century....

(not to be confused with Theravada

Theravada

Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

) and Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

Terminology

The terminology associated with Vajrayana Buddhism can be confusing. Most of the terms originated in the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

language of tantric Indian Buddhism and may have passed through other cultures, notably those of Japan and Tibet, before translation for the modern reader. Further complications arise as seemingly equivalent terms can have subtle variations in use and meaning according to context, the time and place of use; and because the Vajrayana texts employ the tantric tradition of the twilight language

The Twilight Language

Twilight language is a rendering of the Sanskrit term — or of their modern Indic equivalents ....

, a means of instruction that is deliberately coded. These obscure teaching methods relying on symbolism

Religious symbolism

Religious symbolism is the use of symbols, including archetypes, acts, artwork, events, or natural phenomena, by a religion. Religions view religious texts, rituals, and works of art as symbols of compelling ideas or ideals...

as well as synonym

Synonym

Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...

, metaphor

Metaphor

A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...

and word association

Word Association

Word Association is a common word game involving an exchange of words that are associated together. The game is based on the noun phrase word association, meaning "stimulation of an associative pattern by a word" or "the connection and production of other words in response to a given word, done...

add to the difficulties faced by those attempting to understand Vajrayana Buddhism. Bucknell & Stuart-Fox (1986: p.vii) state:

In the Vajrayana tradition, now preserved mainly in Tibetan lineages, it has long been recognized that certain important teachings are expressed in a form of secret symbolic language known as , 'Twilight Language'. Mudrā
Mudra
A mudrā is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers...

s and mantra
Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...

s, and cakras, those mysterious devices and diagrams that were so much in vogue in the pseudo-Buddhist hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

culture of the 1960s, were all examples of Twilight Language [...]

The Vajra

The Sanskrit

Sanskrit

term "vajra

Vajra

Vajra is a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond...

" denoted the thunderbolt

Thunderbolt

A thunderbolt is a discharge of lightning accompanied by a loud thunderclap or its symbolic representation. In its original usage the word may also have been a description of meteors, or, as Plato suggested in Timaeus, of the consequences of a close approach between two planetary cosmic bodies,...

, a legendary weapon and divine attribute that was made from an adamant

Adamant

Adamant and similar words are used to refer to any especially hard substance, whether composed of diamond, some other gemstone, or some type of metal. Both adamant and diamond derive from the Greek word αδαμας , meaning "untameable"...

ine, or indestructible, substance and which could therefore pierce and penetrate any obstacle or obfuscation

Obfuscation

Obfuscation is the hiding of intended meaning in communication, making communication confusing, wilfully ambiguous, and harder to interpret.- Background :Obfuscation may be used for many purposes...

. It is the weapon of choice of Indra

Indra

' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...

, the King of the Devas

Deva (Hinduism)

' is the Sanskrit word for god or deity, its related feminine term is devi. In modern Hinduism, it can be loosely interpreted as any benevolent supernatural beings. The devs in Hinduism, also called Suras, are often juxtaposed to the Asuras, their half brothers. Devs are also the maintainers of...

in Hinduism

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

. 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 ( dorje), which has a sphere (and sometimes a gankyil

Gankyil

The Gankyil[Tibetan:དགའ་འཁྱིལ་] is a symbol and ritual tool in Tibetan Buddhism, Bön, Himalayan Shamanism and Korean Buddhism. In Bön and Nyingma Dzogchen lineages, the Gankyil is the principal symbol and teaching tool: it is symbolic of primordial energy and represents the central unity and...

) at its centre, and a variable number of spokes, 3, 5 or 9 at each end (depending on the sadhana

Sadhana

Sādhanā literally "a means of accomplishing something" is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.The historian N...

), enfolding either end of the rod. The vajra is often traditionally employed in tantric rituals in combination with the bell

Bell (instrument)

A bell is a simple sound-making device. The bell is a percussion instrument and an idiophone. Its form is usually a hollow, cup-shaped object, which resonates upon being struck...

or ghanta

Ghanta

A ghanta is an Indian bell used in Hindu rituals. The same term is also used to describe Buddhist bells.-Description:The bell is generally made out of brass. A clapper is attached to the inside and the bell makes a high pitched sound when rung...

; symbolically, the vajra may represent method

Upaya

as well as great bliss and the bell stands for wisdom

Prajña

Prajñā or paññā is wisdom, understanding, discernment or cognitive acuity. Such wisdom is understood to exist in the universal flux of being and can be intuitively experienced through meditation...

, specifically the wisdom realizing emptiness or lack of inherent existence.

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.

Academic study difficulties

Serious Vajrayana academic study in the western world is in early stages; because, these problems make research difficult:

Although a large number of Tantric scriptures are extant, they have not been formally ordered or systematized.
Because Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

influenced Vajrayana, further research into Hinduism is necessary.
Ritual as well as doctrine need to be investigated.

Buddhist tantric practice are categorized as secret practice; this is to avoid misinformed people from harmfully misusing the practices. A method 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."

Vajrayana as an ex post facto classification

As Matthew Kapstein has argued:

"[T]he practice of "incantation and ritual," directed to both ultimate and mundane ends, had become normal Mahayana practice, and not merely a popular cult shunned by the learned clergy, prior to the sixth century, and probably as early as the third. Over the course of the centuries the volume of ritual lore incorporated into the Mahayana in this fashion increased without any but general doctrinal restriction....It was only after this corpus has grown sufficiently massive to take on a life of its own however, that conditions came to favor the emergence of the mantrayana and later Vajrayana as distinct ways of Buddhist practice....[T]his development occurred within a century or two following Bhavaviveka's day, and perhaps had begun already during his lifetime. Once it took place, it became possible to attempt an ex post facto classification of the whole mass of mantric lore that had accumulated during the preceding centuries. Thus, the so-called "outer tantras" had been part and parcel of Mahayana practice long before anyone ever conceived of them as a class apart."

Vajrayana as a newly composed teaching

The literature of Vajrayana is absent from the oldest Buddhist literature of the Pali Canon

Pāli Canon

The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...

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, and argue that assigning the teachings to the historical Buddha is "patently absurd".

Only from 7th or the beginning of the 8th century, tantric techniques and approaches increasingly dominated Buddhist practice in India.

The first tantric (Vajrayana Buddhist) texts appeared in the 3rd century, and continued to appear until the 12th century.

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

Early Buddhism

The term Early Buddhism can refer to:* Pre-sectarian Buddhism, which refers to the Teachings and monastic organization and structure, founded by Gautama Buddha....

position of not-self

Anatta

In Buddhism, anattā or anātman refers to the notion of "not-self." In the early texts, the Buddha commonly uses the word in the context of teaching that all things perceived by the senses are not really "I" or "mine," and for this reason one should not cling to them.In the same vein, the Pali...

: 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
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

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 paramita
Paramita
Pāramitā or pāramī is "perfection" or "completeness." In Buddhism, the pāramitās refer to the perfection or culmination of certain virtues...

s, of which the scriptures say that it takes three incalculable aeon

Aeon

The word aeon, also spelled eon or æon , originally means "life", and/or "being", though it then tended to mean "age", "forever" or "for eternity". It is a Latin transliteration from the koine Greek word , from the archaic . In Homer it typically refers to life or lifespan...

s to lead one to Buddhahood. The tantra literature, however, claims that the Mantrayana leads one to Buddhahood in one single life. According to the literature, the mantra is an easy path without the difficulties innate to the Paramitanaya. 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

Bodhisattva

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is either an enlightened existence or an enlightenment-being or, given the variant Sanskrit spelling satva rather than sattva, "heroic-minded one for enlightenment ." The Pali term has sometimes been translated as "wisdom-being," although in modern publications, and...

.

When viewed as a subset of Mahayana, it is one of two paths of practice: the Sutrayana method of perfecting good qualities and the Vajrayāna method of taking the intended outcome of Buddhahood

Buddhahood

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

as the path. Vajrayana techniques are aimed at making it possible to experience Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature, Buddha-dhatu or Buddha Principle , is taught differently in various Mahayana Buddhism traditions. Broadly speaking Buddha-nature is concerned with ascertaining what allows sentient beings to become Buddhas...

prior to full enlightenment

Enlightenment in Buddhism

The English term enlightenment has commonly been used in the western world to translate several Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese and Japanese terms and concepts, especially bodhi, prajna, kensho, satori and buddhahood.-Insight:...

. In order to transmit these experiences, a body of esoteric knowledge has been accumulated by Buddhist tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

yogi

Yogi

A Yogi is a practitioner of Yoga. The word is also used to refer to ascetic practitioners of meditation in a number of South Asian Religions including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism.-Etymology:...

s and is passed via lineages

Lineage (Buddhism)

An authentic lineage in Buddhism is the uninterrupted transmission of the Buddha's Dharma from teacher to disciple.The transmission itself can be for example oral, scriptural, through signs, or directly from one mind to another....

of transmission. In order to access this knowledge, the practitioner requires initiation

Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...

from a skilled spiritual teacher or guru

Guru

A guru is one who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom, and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others . Other forms of manifestation of this principle can include parents, school teachers, non-human objects and even one's own intellectual discipline, if the...

Vajrayana as fruitional vehicle

According to the Vajrayana theory, Vajrayana refers to one of the three routes to enlightenment

Yana (Buddhism)

, the other two being Theravada and Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

. According to this view, there were three "turnings of the wheel of dharma":

In the first turning Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths
Four Noble Truths
The Four Noble Truths are an important principle in Buddhism, classically taught by the Buddha in the Dharmacakra Pravartana Sūtra....

at Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...

in the 5th century BC, which led to the founding of Buddhism and the later early Buddhist schools
Early Buddhist schools
The early Buddhist schools are those schools into which, according to most scholars, the Buddhist monastic saṅgha initially split, due originally to differences in vinaya, and later also due to doctrinal differences and geographical separation of groups of monks.The original saṅgha split into the...

. 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
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

schools. Generally, scholars conclude that the Mahayana scriptures (including the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras) were composed from the 1st 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. Some 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.

Vajrayana as an esoteric discipline

Vajrayana teaches that in order to access esoteric knowledge, the practitioner requires initiation

Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...

from a skilled spiritual teacher or guru

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 Manuscripts from Dunhuang

Dunhuang

Dunhuang is a city in northwestern Gansu province, Western China. It was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road. It was also known at times as Shāzhōu , or 'City of Sands', a name still used today...

in the Stein Collection of the British Library

British Library

The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

which is currently fully accessible online in discrete digitized manuscripts; with the Wylie transcription of the manuscripts to be made discoverable online in future. The 350 texts is just a small number compared to the vast cache of the Dunhuang manuscripts

Dunhuang manuscripts

The Dunhuang manuscripts is a cache of important religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves of Dunhuang, China during the early 20th century. Dating from the 5th to early 11th centuries, the manuscripts include works ranging from history and mathematics to folk songs and dance...

Key features of Vajrayana

The distinction between traditions is not always rigid. For example, the tantra

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

sections of the Tibetan Buddhist canon of texts

Kangyur

The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a loosely defined list of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, made up of the Kangyur or Kanjur and the Tengyur or Tanjur .-The Tibetan Buddhist Canon:In addition to earlier foundational Buddhist texts from early Buddhist schools, mostly...

sometimes include material not usually thought of as tantric outside the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, such as the Heart Sutra
Heart Sutra
The Heart Sūtra is a Mahāyāna Buddhist sūtra. Its Sanskrit name literally translates to "Heart of the Perfection of Transcendent Wisdom." The Heart Sūtra is often cited as the best known and most popular of all Buddhist scriptures.-Introduction:The Heart Sūtra is a member of the Perfection of...

and even versions of some material found in the Pali Canon
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...

.

Ritual

The distinctive feature of Vajrayana Buddhism is ritual

Ritual

, which is used as a substitute or alternative for the earlier abstract meditations. For Vajrayana Tibetan death rituals, see phowa
Phowa
Phowa is a Vajrayāna Buddhist meditation practice...

.

Goal and motivation

The goal of spiritual practice within the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions is to become a Buddha

Buddha

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

(i.e. attain complete enlightenment), whereas the goal for Theravada

Theravada

Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...

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 "skilful means" (Sanskrit: upaya
Upaya
Upaya is a term in Mahayana Buddhism which is derived from the root upa√i and refers to a means that goes or brings one up to some goal, often the goal of Enlightenment. The term is often used with kaushalya ; upaya-kaushalya means roughly "skill in means"...

) as formulated in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a system of lineages

Lineage (Buddhism)

, whereby those who successfully receive an Empowerment (Tibetan Buddhism)

Empowerment (Tibetan Buddhism)

An empowerment is a ritual in Tibetan Buddhism which initiates a student into a particular tantric deity practice. The Tibetan word for this is wang , which literally translates to power. The Sanskrit term for this is abhiseka which literally translates to sprinkling or bathing or anointing...

or sometimes called initiation (permission to practice) are seen to share in the mindstream

Mindstream

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment "continuum" of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may well be rendered "mindstream"...

of the realisation of a particular skillful means of the vajra Master. In the Vajrayana these skilful means mainly relate to tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

, Mahamudra

Mahamudra

Mahāmudrā literally means "great seal" or "great symbol." It "is a multivalent term of great importance in later Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism" which "also occurs occasionally in Hindu and East Asian Buddhist esotericism."The name refers to the way one who...

or Dzogchen

Dzogchen

According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...

practices. Vajrayana teaches that the Vajrayana techniques provide an accelerated path to enlightenment

Bodhi

Bodhi is both a Pāli and Sanskrit word traditionally translated into English with the word "enlightenment", but which means awakened. In Buddhism it is the knowledge possessed by a Buddha into the nature of things...

Two Truths Doctrine

Vajrayana subscribes to the two truths doctrine

Two truths doctrine

The Buddhist doctrine of the two truths differentiates between two levels of truth in Buddhist discourse: a "relative" or commonsense truth , and an "ultimate" or absolute, spiritual truth...

of conventional and ultimate truths, which is present in all Buddhist tenet systems. 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

Consensus reality

Consensus reality is an approach to answering the philosophical question "What is real?" It gives a practical answer: reality is either what exists, or what we can agree seems to exist....

, common-sense

Common sense

Common sense is defined by Merriam-Webster as, "sound and prudent judgment based on a simple perception of the situation or facts." Thus, "common sense" equates to the knowledge and experience which most people already have, or which the person using the term believes that they do or should have...

notions of what does and does not exist. Ultimate truth is reality as viewed by an awakened, or enlightened

Enlightenment in Buddhism

mind.

In the Sutrayana practice, a path of Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

, the "path of the cause" is taken, whereby a practitioner starts with his or her potential Buddha-nature

Buddha-nature

and nurtures it to produce the fruit of Buddhahood

Buddhahood

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

. 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

Tantra techniques (Vajrayana)

Tantra techniques in Vajrayana Buddhism are techniques used to attain Buddhahood. Vajrayana partially relies on various tantric techniques rooted in scriptures such as tantras and various tantric commentaries and treatises...

practiced in the Vajrayana. Apart from the advanced meditation practices such as Mahamudra

Mahamudra

and Dzogchen

Dzogchen

, 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
Ngöndro
Ngöndro refers to the preliminary, preparatory or foundational 'practices' or 'disciplines' common to all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and also to Bön...

, or preliminary practices, or the more advanced techniques of the tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

sadhana
Sadhana
Sādhanā literally "a means of accomplishing something" is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.The historian N...

.

Vows and behaviour

In general, practitioners of the Vajrayana need to abide by various tantric vows or samaya
Samaya
The samaya , is a set of vows or precepts given to initiates of an esoteric Vajrayana Buddhist order as part of the abhiṣeka ceremony that creates a bond between the guru and disciple.According Keown, et al., Samaya may be defined as:*A particular system of teaching or...

of behaviour. These are extensions of the rules of the Pratimoksha

Pratimoksha

The Pratimoksha is a Buddhist moral discipline. A loose translation of the term is "personal liberation", and thus the discipline is concerned with the Buddhist's quest for personal liberation, and originated with the Pratimoksha Vows given by the Buddha to his followers. "Prati" means 'towards' or...

vows and Bodhisattva vows

Bodhisattva vows

The Sanskrit term Bodhisattva is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhichitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. What makes someone a Bodhisattva is her or his dedication to the ultimate welfare of...

for the lower levels of tantra, and are taken during initiations into the empowerment

Empowerment (Tibetan Buddhism)

for a particular Anuttarayoga tantra. The special tantric vows vary depending on the specific mandala

Mandala

Maṇḍala is a Sanskrit word that means "circle". In the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions their sacred art often takes a mandala form. The basic form of most Hindu and Buddhist mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point...

practice for which the initiation is received, and also depending on the level of initiation.

A tantric guru

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:
The Ngagpa

Ngagpa

In Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, a Ngakpa is a non-monastic practitioner of Vajrayana, shamanism, Tibetan medicine, Tantra and Dzogchen amongst other traditions, disciplines and arts....

Yogis from the Nyingma

Nyingma

The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism . "Nyingma" literally means "ancient," and is often referred to as Nga'gyur or the "old school" because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, in the eighth century...

school keep a special lay ordination.

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

Initiation

Initiation is a rite of passage ceremony marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components...

or empowerment

Empowerment (Tibetan Buddhism)

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. 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
Samaya
The samaya , is a set of vows or precepts given to initiates of an esoteric Vajrayana Buddhist order as part of the abhiṣeka ceremony that creates a bond between the guru and disciple.According Keown, et al., Samaya may be defined as:*A particular system of teaching or...

(Tib. damtsig), or "sacred bond", that protects both the practitioner and the integrity of the teachings."

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.

The esoteric transmission framework can take varying forms. The Nyingma

Nyingma

school of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...

uses a method called Dzogchen

Dzogchen

. The Tibetan Kagyu

Kagyu

The Kagyu, Kagyupa, or Kagyud school, also known as the "Oral Lineage" or Whispered Transmission school, is today regarded as one of six main schools of Himalayan or Tibetan Buddhism, the other five being the Nyingma, Sakya, Jonang, Bon and Gelug...

school and the Shingon school in Japan use an alternative method called Mahamudra

Mahamudra

Sub-schools

Although there is historical evidence for Vajrayana Buddhism in Southeast Asia

Vajrayana Buddhism in Southeast Asia

Vajrayana Buddhism, also known as Tantric Buddhism, found its way to the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra before 700 C.E., which predates the 8th Century first wave of the 'Ancient Translation School' in Greater Tibet and the Himalayan region. This particular Tantric and Vajrayana lineage in...

and elsewhere (see History of Vajrayana below), today the Vajrayana exists primarily in the form of the two major sub-schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

and Esoteric Buddhism

Shingon Buddhism

is one of the mainstream major schools of Japanese Buddhism and one of the few surviving Esoteric Buddhist lineages that started in the 3rd to 4th century CE that originally spread from India to China through traveling monks such as Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra...

in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

known as Shingon, with a handful of minor subschools utilising lesser amounts of esoteric or tantric materials.

Tibetan Buddhism

The Tibetan Buddhist schools, based on the lineages and textual traditions of the Kangyur

Kangyur

and Tengyur

Tengyur

The Tengyur or Tanjur is the Tibetan collection of commentaries to the Buddhist teachings, or "Translated Treatises"...

of Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

, are found in Tibet, Bhutan

Buddhism in Bhutan

Mahayana Buddhism is the state religion of Bhutan, and Buddhists comprise two-thirds to three-quarters of its population. Although originating in Tibetan Buddhism, the Buddhism practiced in Bhutan differs significantly in its rituals, liturgy, and monastic organization...

, northern India, Nepal

Buddhism in Nepal

Buddha was born in Shakya kingdom which lies in Rupandehi district, Lumbini zone of Nepal.10.74% of Nepal's population practice Buddhism, consisting mainly of groups of Tibeto-Burman origin.-Overview:...

, southwestern and northern China

Buddhism in China

Chinese Buddhism refers collectively to the various schools of Buddhism that have flourished in China since ancient times. Buddhism has played an enormous role in shaping the mindset of the Chinese people, affecting their aesthetics, politics, literature, philosophy and medicine.At the peak of the...

, Mongolia

Buddhism in Mongolia

Buddhism in Mongolia derives much of its recent characteristics from Tibetan Buddhism of the Gelugpa school. Traditionally, Mongols worshiped heaven and their ancestors, and they followed ancient northern Asian practices of shamanism, in which human intermediaries went into trance and spoke to...

and various constituent republics of Russia

Buddhism in Russia

Historically, Buddhism was incorporated into Russian lands in the early 17th century, when Kalmyk people traveled to and settled in Siberia and what is now the Russian Far East. Buddhism is considered as one of Russia’s traditional religions, legally a part of Russian historical heritage.The main...

that are adjacent to the area, such as Amur Oblast

Amur Oblast

Amur Oblast is a federal subject of Russia , situated about east of Moscow on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers. It shares its border with the Sakha Republic in the north, Khabarovsk Krai and the Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the east, People's Republic of China in the south, and Zabaykalsky...

, Buryatia, Chita Oblast

Chita Oblast

Chita Oblast was a federal subject of Russia in southeast Siberia, Russia. Its administrative center was the city of Chita. It had extensive international borders with China and Mongolia and internal borders with Irkutsk and Amur Oblasts, as well as with the Buryat and the Sakha Republics. Its...

, the Tuva Republic and Khabarovsk Krai

Khabarovsk Krai

Khabarovsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia , located in the Russian Far East. It lies mostly in the basin of the lower Amur River, but also occupies a vast mountainous area along the coastline of the Sea of Okhotsk, an arm of the Pacific Ocean. The administrative center of the krai is the...

. Tibetan Buddhism is also the main religion in Kalmykia

Kalmykia

The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia . Population: It is the only Buddhist region in Europe. It has also become well-known as an international chess mecca because its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation .-Geography:*Area:...

.

Vajrayana Buddhism was established in Tibet in the 8th century when Śāntarakṣita was brought to Tibet

Tibet

from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

at the instigation of the Dharma King Trisong Detsen

Trisong Detsen

Trisong Detsän or Trisong Detsen ཁྲི་སྲོང་ལྡེ་བཙན , was the son of Me Agtsom and one of the emperors of Tibet and ruled...

, some time before 767. He established the basis of what later came to be known as the Nyingma

Nyingma

school. As a Tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

Mahasiddha

Mahasiddha is a term for one who cultivates those teachings that lead to becoming perfect. They are a type of eccentric yogini/yogi in both Sanatan Dharma and Vajrayana Dharma, given by Siddhartha. Mahasiddhi are those practitioners, or tantrikas who have gained sufficient understanding and are so...

Padmasambhava's contribution ensured that Tibetan Buddhism became part of the Vajrayana tradition. While Vajrayana Buddhism is a part of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

in that it forms a core part of every major Tibetan Buddhist school, it is not identical with it. Buddhist scholar Alexander Berzin refers to "the Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions of Tibetan Buddhism". Training in the "common paths" of Sutra

Sutra

Sūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...

(including Lamrim

Lamrim

Lamrim is a Tibetan Buddhist textual form for presenting the stages in the complete path to enlightenment as taught by Buddha. In Tibetan Buddhist history there have been many different versions of lamrim, presented by different teachers of the Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug schools...

) are said to be the foundation for the "uncommon path" of Vajrayana. The Vajrayana techniques add 'skillful means' to the general Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

teachings for advanced students. The 'skillful means' of the Vajrayana in Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

refers to tantra techniques

Tantra techniques (Vajrayana)

, Dzogchen

Dzogchen

(Tibetan; Sanskrit:maha-ati) and Mahamudra

Mahamudra

(Tibetan:Chagchen).

Chinese Esoteric Buddhism

Esoteric traditions in China are similar in teachings to the Japanese Shingon school, though the number of practitioners was greatly reduced, due in part of the persecution of Buddhists under Emperor Wuzong of Tang

Emperor Wuzong of Tang

Emperor Wuzong of Tang , né Li Chan , later changed to Li Yan just before his death, was an emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China, reigning from 840 to 846. Emperor Wuzong is mainly known in modern times for the religious persecution that occurred during his reign...

, nearly wiping out most of the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist lineage. In China and countries with large Chinese populations such as Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

, Malaysia and Singapore

Singapore

Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...

, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism is commonly referred as Tángmì (唐密) "Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

Secret Buddhism," or Hànchuánmìzōng (漢傳密宗) "Secret Buddhism of the Han Transmission" (Hànmì 漢密 for short), or Dōngmì (東密) "Eastern Secret Buddhism." In a more general sense, the Chinese term Mìzōng (密宗) "The Secret Way", is the most popular term used when referring to any form of Esoteric Buddhism. These traditions more or less share the same doctrines as the Shingon school, with many of its students themselves traveling to Japan to be given transmission at Mount Koya.

According to Master Hsuan Hua

Hsuan Hua

Hsuan Hua , also known as An Tzu and Tu Lun, was a Chan Buddhist monk and a contributing figure in bringing Chinese Buddhism to the United States in the 20th century....

, the most popular example of esoteric teachings still practiced in many Zen monasteries of East Asia, is the and its dhāraṇī , along with the Great Compassion Dharani

Great Compassion Mantra

The ' also known as ' , popularly known as the Great Compassion Mantra in English, and known as the Dàbēi Zhòu in Mandarin Chinese, is a dharani of Mahayana Buddhist origin. It was spoken by the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara before an assembly of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, devas and kings, according to...

, with its 42 Hands and Eyes Mantras.

Shingon Buddhism

The Shingon school is found in Japan

Japan

and includes practices, known in Japan as Mikkyō
Mikkyo
Mikkyō is a Japanese term that refers to the esoteric Vajrayāna practices of the Shingon Buddhist school and the related practices that make up part of the Tendai school. There are also various Shingon- and Tendai-influenced practices of Shugendō...

, which are similar in concept to those in Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. The lineage for Shingon Buddhism differs from that of Tibetan Vajrayana, having emerged from India

India

and Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

(via China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

) and is based on earlier versions of the Indian texts than the Tibetan lineage. Shingon shares material with Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

–-such as the esoteric sutras (called Tantras

Tantras

in Tibetan Buddhism) and mandala

Mandala

s – but the actual practices are not related. The primary texts of Shingon Buddhism are the Mahavairocana Sutra and Vajrasekhara Sutra
Vajrasekhara Sutra
The Vajrasekhara Sutra is an important Buddhist tantra used in the Vajrayana schools of Buddhism, particularly the Japanese Shingon school. It is also known as the...

. The founder of Shingon Buddhism was Kukai

Kukai

Kūkai , also known posthumously as , 774–835, was a Japanese monk, civil servant, scholar, poet, and artist, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school of Buddhism. Shingon followers usually refer to him by the honorific titles of and ....

, a Japanese monk who studied in China in the 9th century during the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

and brought back Vajrayana scriptures, techniques and mandalas then popular in China. The school mostly died out or was merged into other schools in China towards the end of the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

but flourished in Japan. Shingon is one of the few remaining branches of Buddhism in the world that continues to use the siddham script of the Sanskrit

Sanskrit

language.

Tendai Buddhism

Although the Tendai school in China and Japan does employ some esoteric practices, these rituals came to be considered of equal importance with the exoteric teachings of the Lotus Sutra
Lotus Sutra
The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...

. By chanting mantras, maintaining mudras, or practicing certain forms of meditation, Tendai

Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...

maintains that one is able to understand sense experiences as taught by the Buddha, have faith that one is innately an enlightened being, and that one can attain enlightenment within the current lifetime.

Shugendō

Shugendō was founded in 7th century Japan by the ascetic En no Gyōja

En no Gyoja

En no Gyōja , or En no Ozunu , born 634, was a Japanese ascetic and mystic, traditionally held to be the founder of Shugendō, a syncretic religion incorporating aspects of Taoism, Shinto, esoteric Buddhism and traditional Japanese shamanism...

, based on the Queen's Peacocks Sutra. With its origins in the solitary hijiri back in the 7th century, Shugendō evolved as a sort of amalgamation between Esoteric Buddhism, Shinto and several other religious influences including Taoism

Taoism

Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...

. Buddhism and Shinto were amalgamated in the shinbutsu shūgō, and Kūkai's syncretic view held wide sway up until the end of the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, coexisting with Shinto elements within Shugendō

In 1613 during the Edo period

Edo period

The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....

, the Tokugawa Shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

issued a regulation obliging Shugendō temples to belong to either Shingon or Tendai temples. During the Meiji Restoration

Meiji Restoration

The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...

, when Shinto was declared an independent state religion separate from Buddhism, Shugendō was banned as a superstition not fit for a new, enlightened Japan. Some Shugendō temples converted themselves into various officially approved Shintō denominations. In modern times, Shugendō is practiced mainly by Tendai and Shingon sects, retaining an influence on modern Japanese religion and culture

Culture of Japan

The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America...

Newar Buddhism

Newar Buddhism is practiced by Newars in Nepal. This is the only form of Vajrayana Buddhism in which the scriptures are written in Sanskrit. Its priests do not follow celibacy and are called Vajracharyas.

Tantra techniques

According to the Vajrayana tradition, at certain times the bodymind

Bodymind (in meditation traditions)

Bodymind is a compound of body and mind and may be used differently in different meditation traditions. These different understandings often inform each other.Buddhist philosopher, Herbert V...

is in a very subtle state which can be used by advanced practitioners to transform the mindstream

Mindstream

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment "continuum" of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may well be rendered "mindstream"...

. Such liminal times are known in Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

as Bardo

Bardo

The Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva...

states and include such transitional states as
during meditation, dreaming, sex and death.

Deity yoga

Deity yoga (Tibetan: lha'i rnal 'byor; Sanskrit: Devata) is the fundamental Vajrayana practice, often involving a sadhana
Sadhana
Sādhanā literally "a means of accomplishing something" is ego-transcending spiritual practice. It includes a variety of disciplines in Hindu, Sikh , Buddhist and Muslim traditions that are followed in order to achieve various spiritual or ritual objectives.The historian N...

liturgy and form, in which practitioners visualize themselves as the meditation Buddha or yidam
Yidam
In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

. The purpose of Deity yoga is to bring the meditator to the realization that the deity and the practitioner are in essence the same, and non-dual. By visualizing oneself and one's environment entirely as a projection of mind, it helps the practitioner to become familiar with the mind's ability and habit of projecting conceptual layers over all experience. This experience undermines a habitual belief that views of reality and self are solid and fixed. Deity yoga enables the practitioner to release, or 'purify' him or herself from spiritual obscurations (Sanskrit: klesha) and to practice compassion and wisdom simultaneously.

Beer (2004: p. 142) states:
The realization of Deity yoga is attained as a result of pure concentration on bringing the three bodies into the path, in which the practitioner mentally generates themselves as a Tantric Deity (Sanskrit: Yidam
Yidam
In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

) and their surroundings as the Deity's mandala

Mandala

. The purpose of doing this is to overcome ordinary appearances and conceptions which, according to Vajrayana, are the obstructions to nirvana

Nirvana

Nirvāṇa ; ) is a central concept in Indian religions. In sramanic thought, it is the state of being free from suffering. In Hindu philosophy, it is the union with the Supreme being through moksha...

and omniscience. Recent studies indicate that Deity yoga yields quantifiable improvements in
the practitioner's ability to process visuospatial information, specifically those involved in working visuospatial memory.

Four complete purities

Four Purities (Tibetan: yongs su dag pa bzhi; yongs dag bzhi) In defining Vajrayana, Yuthok et al. identify the "Four Purities" which define the principal Tantric methodology of Deity Yoga that distinguishes it from the rest of Buddhism:
Kalachakranet identifies and defines the "Four Purities" in a complementary though different fashion:
Imagery and ritual in deity yoga: representations of the deity, such as a statues (murti
Murti
In Hinduism, a murti , or murthi, or vigraha or pratima typically refers to an image which expresses a Divine Spirit . Meaning literally "embodiment", a murti is a representation of a divinity, made usually of stone, wood, or metal, which serves as a means through which a divinity may be worshiped...

), paintings (thangka
Thangka
A "Thangka," also known as "Tangka", "Thanka" or "Tanka" is a Tibetan silk painting with embroidery, usually depicting a Buddhist deity, famous scene, or mandala of some sort. The thankga is not a flat creation like an oil painting or acrylic painting...

), or mandala

Mandala

, are often employed as an aid to visualization

Mental image

A mental image is an experience that, on most occasions, significantly resembles the experience of perceiving some object, event, or scene, but occurs when the relevant object, event, or scene is not actually present to the senses...

, in Deity yoga. Mandalas are sacred enclosures, sacred architecture that house and contain the uncontainable essence of a yidam. In the book The World of Tibetan Buddhism, the Dalai Lama describes mandalas thus: "This is the celestial mansion, the pure residence of the deity."

In the same context, all ritual in Vajrayana practice can be seen as aiding in this process of visualization and identification. The practitioner can use various hand implements such as a vajra, bell, hand-drum (damaru
Damaru
A damaru or damru is a small two-headed drum shaped like an hourglass. The drum is typically made of wood, with leather drum heads at both ends; the damaru might also be made entirely out of human skulls...

) or a ritual dagger (phurba
Phurba
The kīla is a three-sided peg, stake, knife, or nail like ritual implement traditionally associated with Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Bön, and Indian Vedic traditions. The kīla is associated with the meditational deity The kīla (Sanskrit Devanagari: कील; IAST: kīla; , pronunciation between pur-ba and...

), but also ritual hand gestures (mudra
Mudra
A mudrā is a symbolic or ritual gesture in Hinduism and Buddhism. While some mudrās involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers...

s) can be made, special chanting techniques can be used, and in elaborate offering rituals or initiations, many more ritual implements and tools are used, each with an elaborate symbolic meaning to create a special environment for practice. Vajrayana has thus become a major inspiration in traditional Tibetan art

Tibetan art

Tibetan art refers to the art of Tibet. For more than a thousand years, Tibetan artists have played a key role in the cultural life of Tibet. From designs for painted furniture to elaborate murals in religious buildings, their efforts have permeated virtually every facet of life on the Tibetan...

Guru yoga

Guru yoga (or teacher practice) (Tibetan: bla ma'i rnal 'byor) is a practice that has many variations, but may be understood as a tantric devotional process whereby the practitioners unite their mindstream

Mindstream

Mindstream in Buddhist philosophy is the moment-to-moment "continuum" of awareness. There are a number of terms in the Buddhist literature that may well be rendered "mindstream"...

with the mindstream of the guru

Guru

. The guru is engaged as yidam
Yidam
In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

, as a nirmanakaya manifestation of a Buddha. The process of guru yoga might entail visualization of an entire lineage of masters (refuge tree

Refuge tree

In Tibetan Buddhism, the Refuge Tree, , may be represented on a thangka as a mnemonic device and precursor to being fully visualized by the sadhaka during advanced Refuge Formula or evocation, the lineage of gurus and transmission of teachings is depicted in visual...

) as an invocation of the lineage. It usually involves visualization of the guru above or in front of the practitioner. Guru yoga may entail a liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

or mantra such as the Prayer in Seven Lines. (Tibetan: tshig bdun gsol 'debs)

The Guru or spiritual teacher is essential as a guide during tantric practice, as without their example, blessings and grace, genuine progress is held to be impossible for all but the most keen and gifted. Many tantric texts qualify the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha thus: "The Guru is Buddha, the Guru is Dharma, the Guru is also Sangha" to reflect their importance for the disciple. The guru is considered even more compassionate and more potent than the Buddha because we can have a direct relationship with the guru. The guru therefore appears with the yidam
Yidam
In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

and dakini
Dakini
A dakini is a tantric deity described as a female embodiment of enlightened energy. In the Tibetan language, dakini is rendered khandroma which means 'she who traverses the sky' or 'she who moves in space'. Sometimes the term is translated poetically as 'sky dancer' or 'sky walker'. The dakini, in...

in the Three Roots

Three Roots

The Three Roots of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition are the lama , yidam and protector, which may be a khandroma or chokyong . The Three Roots are the second of three Tibetan Buddhist refuge formulations, the Outer, Inner and Secret forms of the Three Jewels...

refuge formulation of the three factors essential for tantric attainments.

Death yoga

Death yoga (or "bringing the three bodies into the path of death, intermediate state (bardo) and rebirth") is another important aspect of Tantra techniques. Although it is sometimes called "death yoga," it is mainly practiced during life, in meditation. It can be practiced first according to generation stage

Generation stage

In Tantric Buddhism, the generation stage is the first phase of meditative Buddhist sādhana associated with the 'Father Tantra' class of anuttara-yoga-tantras of the Sarmapa or associated with what is known as Mahayoga Tantras by the Nyingmapa...

, and then according to completion stage

Completion stage

The completion stage is one of the two stages of Anuttarayoga Tantra. Completion stage may also be translated as perfection stage or fulfillment mode...

. The accumulation of meditative practice helps to prepare the practitioner for what they need to do at the time of death. At the time of death the mind is in a subtle state (clear light) that can open the mind to enlightenment if it is skilfully used to meditate on emptiness (shunyata
Shunyata
Śūnyatā, शून्यता , Suññatā , stong-pa nyid , Kòng/Kū, 空 , Gong-seong, 공성 , qoγusun is frequently translated into English as emptiness...

). During completion stage meditation it is possible to manifest a similar clear light mind and to use it to meditate on emptiness. This meditation causes dualistic appearances to subside into emptiness and enables the practitioner to destroy their ignorance and the imprints of ignorance that are the obstructions to omniscience. It is said that masters like Lama Tsong Khapa used these techniques to achieve enlightenment during the death process.
Actually, there are three stages at which it is possible to do this: at the end of the death process, during the bardo
Bardo
The Tibetan word Bardo means literally "intermediate state" - also translated as "transitional state" or "in-between state" or "liminal state". In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva...

(or 'in between period') and during the process of rebirth. During these stages, the mind is in a very subtle state, and an advanced practitioner can use these natural states to make significant progress on the spiritual path. The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Bardo Thodol

The Liberation Through Hearing During The Intermediate State , sometimes translated as Liberation Through Hearing or Bardo Thodol is a funerary text...

is an important commentary for this kind of traditional practice.

This death yoga should not be confused with the non-Tantric meditation on impermanence and death, which is a common practice within Buddhist traditions used to overcome desirous attachment.

Another Tibetan ritual practice related to death is phowa
Phowa
Phowa is a Vajrayāna Buddhist meditation practice...

(transference of one's consciousness), which can be done by oneself at the moment of death or by ritual specialists, phowa-lamas, on behalf of the dead. For the Anuttarayoga Tantras (Tib. rnal-’byor bla-med-kyi-rgyud), transferring one’s consciousness constitutes one of the two ways to separate the coarse and subtle bodies through meditation. Daniel Cozort explains that ’pho-ba (phowa) merely separates the coarse and subtle bodies without leading to the attainment of an “illusory body” (Tib. sgyu-lus). On the other hand, during the perfection type meditation, known as the “final mental isolation” (Tibetan: sems-dben) because it necessitates the presence of an “actual consort” (Tib. las-rgya), “the winds are totally dissolved in the indestructible drop” and “the fundamental wind naturally rises into an illusory body”

Generation and completion stage practice in the annutarayoga tantras

In the highest class of tantra, two stages of practice are distinguished. In the first stage of generation, one practices oneself in the identification with the meditational Buddha (yidam
Yidam
In Vajrayana Buddhism, an Ishta-deva or Ishta-devata is a fully enlightened being who is the focus of personal meditation, during a retreat or for life. The term is often translated into English as tutelary deity, meditation deity, or meditational deity...

), generally until one can meditate single-pointedly on 'being' the deity (see above, deity yoga). In the next stage of completion, one engages in practices with the subtle energy system of the body (chakra

Chakra

Chakra is a concept originating in Hindu texts, featured in tantric and yogic traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism. Its name derives from the Sanskrit word for "wheel" or "turning" .Chakra is a concept referring to wheel-like vortices...

s and energy channels etc.) to actualize the physical and mental transformation into the meditation Buddha. (Similar practices are also found in Hindu

Hinduism

Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...

tantra and yoga.)
In some Buddhist tantras, both stages can be practiced simultaneously, whereas in others, one first actualizes the generation stage before continuing with the completion stage practices.

Details of these practices are normally only explained to practitioners by their teachers after receiving an initiation or 'permission to practice'.

By scholars

The scholar Joseph M. Kitagawa says that Tantrayana may be divided into three main types of tantra:

Vajrayana - established the symbolic terminology and the liturgy that would characterize all forms of the tradition.
Sahaja
Sahaja
Sahaja is a term of some importance in Indian spirituality, particularly in circles influenced by the Tantric Movement...

yana - was dominated by long-haired, wandering siddha
Siddha
A Siddha सिद्ध in Sanskrit means "one who is accomplished" and refers to perfected masters who, according to Hindu belief, have transcended the ahamkara , have subdued their minds to be subservient to their Awareness, and have transformed their bodies into a different kind of body dominated by...

s who openly challenged and ridiculed the Buddhist establishment.
Kalachakra Tantra - is farthest removed from the earlier Buddhist traditions, and incorporates concepts of messianism
Messianism
Messianism is the belief in a messiah, a savior or redeemer. Many religions have a messiah concept, including the Jewish Messiah, the Christian Christ, the Muslim Mahdi and Isa , the Buddhist Maitreya, the Hindu Kalki and the Zoroastrian Saoshyant...

and astrology
Astrology
Astrology consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between astronomical phenomena and events in the human world...

not present elsewhere in Buddhist literature.

By the New Translation Schools

The Sarma

Sarma

Sarma may refer to:*Sarma , Brahmin surname in India*Sarma , a dish found primarily in the cuisines of the Middle East and eastern Europe*Sarma , three newest schools of Tibetan Buddhism...

or New Translation schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Gelug

Gelug

The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...

, Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

, and Kagyu

Kagyu

) divide the Tantras into four hierarchical categories, namely:

Kriyayoga (action tantra)
Charyayoga (performance tantra)
Yogatantra
Yogatantra
The 'Yogatantra' 'conveyance' is the most sublime of the three Outer Tantras. It includes a class of Buddhist tantric literature as well as 'praxis' associated with this class...

(yoga tantra)
Anuttarayogatantra (highest yoga tantra)
- further divided into "mother", "father" and "non-dual" tantras.

By the Ancient Translation School

A different division is used by the Nyingma

Nyingma

or Ancient school:

Three Outer Tantras
Outer Tantras
The Outer Tantras are the second three divisions in the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. This system divides the whole of the Buddhist path into three divisions of three and is in contrast to the division of the Sarma, or New Translation schools ...

:
- Kriyayoga
- Charyayoga
- Yogatantra
  Yogatantra
  The 'Yogatantra' 'conveyance' is the most sublime of the three Outer Tantras. It includes a class of Buddhist tantric literature as well as 'praxis' associated with this class...
Three Inner Tantras
Inner Tantras
The Inner Tantras are the final three divisions in the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. They comprise the Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga...

, which correspond to the Anuttarayogatantra:
- Mahayoga
  Mahayoga
  Mahayoga is the designation of the first of the three Inner Tantras according to the ninefold division of practice used by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism....
- Anuyoga
  Anuyoga
  Anuyoga is the designation of the second of the three Inner Tantras according to the ninefold division of practice used by the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism...
- Atiyoga (Tib. Dzogchen
  Dzogchen
  According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of the mind, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by...
  
  )
  - The practice of Atiyoga is further divided into three classes: Mental SemDe
    Semde
    Semde translated as "mind division", "mind class" or "mind series" is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage divisions within Atiyoga, Dzogchen or the Great Perfection which is itself the pinnacle of the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan...
    
    , Spatial LongDe
    Longde
    Longde is the name of one of three scriptural divisions within Atiyoga, also known as Dzogchen or the Great Perfection which is itself the pinnacle of the ninefold division of practice according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism.The name Longde is translated as 'Space Division' or 'Space...
    
    , and Esoteric Instructional MenNgagDe
    Menngagde
    In Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Menngagde , , is the name of one of three scriptural and lineage divisions within Dzogchen, teachings...
    
    .

India

There are differing views as to where in the Indian sub-continent Vajrayana began. Some believe it originated in Bengal

Bengal

Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...

, now divided between the Republic of India

India

and Bangladesh

Bangladesh

Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...

, with others claiming it began in Uddiyana, located by some scholars in the modern day Swat Valley

Swat (Pakistan)

Swat is a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, located close to the Afghan-Pakistan border. It is the upper valley of the Swat River, which rises in the Hindu Kush range. The capital of Swat is Saidu Sharif, but the main town in the Swat valley is Mingora...

in Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

, or in South India

South India

South India is the area encompassing India's states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry, occupying 19.31% of India's area...

. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, it is claimed that the historical Shakyamuni Buddha taught tantra

Tantras

, but that since these are 'secret' teachings, confined to the guru

Guru

/disciple relationship, they were generally written down long after the Buddha's other teachings, the Pali Canon

Pāli Canon

and the Mahayana sutras

Mahayana sutras

Mahāyāna sutras are a broad genre of Buddhist scriptures that are accepted as canonical by the various traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism. These are largely preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon, the Tibetan Buddhist canon, and in extant Sanskrit manuscripts...

.

The earliest texts appeared around the early 4th century. Nalanda University

Nalanda

Nālandā is the name of an ancient center of higher learning in Bihar, India.The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from the fifth or sixth century CE to 1197 CE. It has been called "one of the...

in eastern India became a center for the development of Vajrayana theory, although it is likely that the university followed, rather than led, the early Tantric

Tantra

Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....

movement. India would continue as the source of leading-edge Vajrayana practices up until the 11th century producing many renowned Mahasiddha

Mahasiddha

.

Some believe that Indrabhuti

Indrabhuti

Indrabhuti is a name attributed to a number of individuals that have become conflated in the esoteric Buddhadharma tradition of Mantrayana...

, the king of Sambalpur

Sambalpur

Sambalpur is a city in Sambalpur district in the Indian state of Orissa.It lies at a distance of 321 km from the state capital Bhubaneswar. In the year 1876, Sambalpur was established as a municipality. It is currently the headquarters and the largest city of Sambalpur district. It is also...

founded Vajrayana while his sister who was married to Prince (Yuvaraja) Jalendra of Lankapuri (Sonepur

Sonepur

Sonepur, also known as Subarnapur, is a town and district headquarters of Subarnapur district of Orissa. Sonepur was formerly the capital of a princely state of British India. The district spreads over an area of 2284.89 km2. It is also known as Second Varanasi of India for its cluster of...

) founded Sahajayana. These new Tantric cults of Buddhism introduced Mantra, Mudra and Mandala along with six tantric Abhicharas (practices) such as Marana (Death), Stambhana, Sammohana, Vidvesan, Uchchatana and Vajikarana.

(Vajrayana) Buddhism had mostly died out in India

India

by the 13th century, and tantric religions of Buddhism and Hinduism were also experiencing pressure from invading Islamic armies. By that time, the vast majority of the practices were also available in Tibet, where they were preserved until recently.

In the second half of the 20th century a sizable number of Tibetan exiles fled the oppressive, anti-religious rule of the Communist Chinese

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

to establish Tibetan Buddhist communities in northern India, particularly around Dharamsala

Dharamsala

Dharamshala or Dharamsala is a city in northern India. It was formerly known as Bhagsu; it is the winter seat of government of the state of Himachal Pradesh and the district headquarters of the Kangra district....

Sambalpur

Indrabhuti

Indrabhuti is a name attributed to a number of individuals that have become conflated in the esoteric Buddhadharma tradition of Mantrayana...

, the oldest known king of Sambalpur founded Vajrayana while his sister who was married to Yuvaraja Jalendra of Lankapuri (Suvarnapur) founded Sahajayana. These new Tantric cults of Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

introduced Mantra, Mudra and Mandala along with six Tantric Abhicharas (practices) such as Marana, Stambhana, Sammohana, Vidvesan, Uchchatana and Vajikarana. The Tantric Buddhist sects made efforts to raise the dignity of the lowest of the low of the society to a higher plane. It revived primitive beliefs and practices a simpler and less formal approach to the personal god, a liberal and respectful attitude towards women and denial of caste system.

From the 7th century onwards many popular religious elements of heterogeneous nature were incorporated into Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

Buddhism which finally resulted in the origin of Vajrayana, Kalachakrayana and Sahajayana Tantric Buddhism. Tantric Buddhism first developed in Uddiyana, a country which was divided into two kingdoms Sambhala and Lankapuri. Sambhala has been identified with Sambalpur and Lankapuri with Subarnapura (Sonepur

Sonepur

).

Many celebrated Vajrayana Acharyas like Sarah, Hadipa, Dombi, Heruka, Tantipa and Luipa came from the so-called despised classes. The cult exerted a tremendous influence over the tribal and despised classes of people of Sambalpur and Bolangir region. It was in the 9th-10th century that there appeared seven famous Tantric maidens at Patna (Patnagarh

Patnagarh

Patnagarh is a town and a notified area committee in Bolangir district in the Indian state of Orissa. Its original name is Patnāgarh and verbally as Patnāgad. The official language is Oriya , but the mother toungue is Sambalpuri....

) region which was then called Kuanri-Patana. These maidens are popularly known as Saat Bhauni (Seven sisters), namely, Gyanadei Maluni, Luhakuti, Luhuruni, Nitei Dhobani, Sukuti Chamaruni, Patrapindhi Savaruni, Gangi Gauduni and sua Teluni. They hailed from so-called the low castes of the society and were followers of Lakshminkara. Because of their miraculous power and feats; they have been later on deified and worshipped by the folk people.

A systematic analysis of the trend of religious development of the period under review and circumstantial evidences reveal that Chakra Sambar Tantricism of Tantric Buddhism gained popularity in the Gandhagiri region. The chief deity of Chakra Sambara Tantra is Buddha Sambara, the deity whose worship is still popular in China

China

and Tibet

Tibet

. According to Sadhanamala, god Buddha Sambara is one-faced and two-armed. He appears terrible with his garment of tiger-skin, garland of heads, a string of skulls round the head, three eyes and in Âlidhamudrâ, he tramples upon Kalaratri. A number of texts relating to the procedures of worship of God Buddha Sambara have been coposed by siddhacharyas like Darikapa, Santideva, Jayadratha and others. King Indrabhuti of Shambala (Sambalpur) composed Chakra Sambara Stotra, Chakra Sambara Anubandha Samgraha, Chakra Sambara Tantraraga Sambara Samuchchaya Nama Brutti etc. The philosopher cum king Indrabhuti became the source inspiration to the adherents of Tantric Buddhist cult in Kosal including Gandhagiri region.

Indrabhuti and Laksminkara, the two royal Buddhist Acharyas creted a mass of followers to their cults. In the 9th-10th century the worship and sadhana of Buddha Sambara, the presiding deity of Chakra Sambara Tantra gained popularity in the Gandhagiri region. In Gandhagiri which also contained a large number of caves and rock shelters, apparently of the Vajrayanists and Sahajayanists, the adherents of the cults used to live in seclusion and practice Kaya Sadhana or Yogic practices along with worshipping god Buddha Sambara.

This tantric Buddhist culture greatly affected the religious faith and beliefs of the tribal of Gandhagiri, so much so that eventually even today one can notice the invocation of various Buddhist Siddhacharyas and Buddhist deities in the mantras of the tribal to ward off evil spirits or cure some disease. It is also interesting to note here that Buddha

Buddha

In Buddhism, buddhahood is the state of perfect enlightenment attained by a buddha .In Buddhism, the term buddha usually refers to one who has become enlightened...

was worshipped by many tribal in the name of Budharaja. There is also a small hillock at the heart of present day Sambalpur by the name Budharaja.

China

Esoteric teachings followed the same route into northern China

China

as Buddhism

Buddhism

itself, arriving via the Silk Road

Silk Road

The Silk Road or Silk Route refers to a historical network of interlinking trade routes across the Afro-Eurasian landmass that connected East, South, and Western Asia with the Mediterranean and European world, as well as parts of North and East Africa...

sometime during the first half of the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

. Esoteric Mantranaya practices arrived from India just as Buddhism was reaching its zenith in China, and received sanction from the emperors of the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

. During this time, three great masters came from India to China: Śubhakarasiṃha

Subhakarasimha

Śubhakarasiṃha was an eminent Indian Buddhist monk and master of Esoteric Buddhism, who arrived in the Chinese capital Chang'an in 716 CE and translated the , better known as the Mahāvairocana Sūtra...

, Vajrabodhi

Vajrabodhi

Vajrabodhi was an Indian buddhist monk and Esoteric Buddhist teacher in Tang China. He is one the eight patriarchs in Shingon Buddhism....

, and Amoghavajra

Amoghavajra

Amoghavajra was a prolific translator who became one of the most politically powerful Buddhist monks in Chinese history, acknowledged as one of the eight patriarchs of the doctrine in Shingon lineages.-Life:Born in Samarkand of an Indian father and Sogdian mother, he went...

. These three masters brought the esoteric teachings to their height of popularity in China. During this era, the two main source texts were the , and the . Traditions in the Sinosphere still exist for these teachings, and they more or less share the same doctrines as Shingon, with many of its students themselves traveling to Japan to be given transmission at Mount Koya.

Esoteric methods were naturally incorporated into Chinese Buddhism during the Tang Dynasty. Śubhakarasiṃha's most eminent disciple, Master Yixing (Ch. 一行), was a member of the Zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

school. In such a way, in Chinese Buddhism there was no major distinction between exoteric and esoteric practices, and the northern school of Zen Buddhism even became known for its esoteric practices of dhāraṇīs

Dharani

A ' is a type of ritual speech similar to a mantra. The terms dharani and satheesh may be seen as synonyms, although they are normally used in distinct contexts....

and mantra

Mantra

A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is considered capable of "creating transformation"...

s.

During the Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

, the Mongol

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

emperors made Esoteric Buddhism the official religion of China, and Tibetan lamas were given patronage at the court. A common perception was that this patronage of lamas caused corrupt forms of tantra to become widespread. When the Mongol Yuan Dynasty was overthrown and the Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

was established, the Tibetan lamas were expelled from the court, and this form of Buddhism was denounced as not being an orthodox path.

In late imperial China

Late Imperial China

Late Imperial China refers to the period between the end of Mongol rule in 1368 and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912 and includes the Ming and Qing Dynasties...

, the early traditions of Esoteric Buddhism were still thriving in Buddhist communities. Robert Gimello has also observed that in these communities, the esoteric practices associated with Cundī

Cundi (Buddhism)

Cundī is a buddha or bodhisattva venerated in the Mahāyāna Buddhist schools, with emphasis of her practice in the Esoteric Buddhist schools. She is known as a bhagavati, or "mother of buddhas", and is often equated with the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara...

were extremely popular among both the populace and the elite.

Himalayan areas

In 747 the Indian master Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava ; Mongolian ловон Бадмажунай, lovon Badmajunai, , Means The Lotus-Born, was a sage guru from Oddiyāna who is said to have transmitted Vajrayana Buddhism to Bhutan and Tibet and neighbouring countries in the 8th century...

traveled from Afghanistan

Afghanistan

Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

to bring Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet

Tibet

and Bhutan

Bhutan

Bhutan , officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked state in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalayas and bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by the People's Republic of China...

, at the request of the king of Tibet. This was the original transmission which anchors the lineage of the Nyingma

Nyingma

school. During the 11th century and early 12th century a second important transmission occurred with the lineages of Atisa, Marpa

Marpa Lotsawa

Marpa Lotsawa , sometimes known fully as Lhodak Marpa Choski Lodos or commonly as Marpa the Translator, was a Tibetan Buddhist teacher credited with the transmission of many Buddhist teachings to Tibet from India, including the teachings and lineages of Vajrayana and Mahamudra.-Biography:Born as...

and Brogmi, giving rise to the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

, namely Kadam

Kadam

Kadam may refer to:* Kadam clan, the present-day royal Kshatriya Maratha clan descended from the Arya King Kadam* the Kadam school of Buddhism* the Kadam virus of the Flavivirus genus* the first Arya Kshatriya king of Hinduism who ruled Afghanistan* Mt...

, Kagyu

Kagyu

, Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

, and Geluk (the school of the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...

Japan

During the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

in China, when esoteric Buddhist practices reached their peak, Japan was actively importing Buddhism, its texts and teachings, by sending monks on risky missions across the sea to stay in China for two years or more. Depending on where the monk stay and trained, they might bring esoteric Buddhist material and training back to Japan, or not.

In 804, monk Saicho

Saicho

was a Japanese Buddhist monk credited with founding the Tendai school in Japan, based around the Chinese Tiantai tradition he was exposed to during his trip to China beginning in 804. He founded the temple and headquarters of Tendai at Enryaku-ji on Mt. Hiei near Kyoto. He is also said to have...

came back from China with teachings from the Tiantai

Tiantai

Tiantai is an important school of Buddhism in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. In Japan the school is known as Tendai, and in Korea it is known as Cheontae. Tiantai is also called the "Lotus School", due to its emphasis on the Lotus Sūtra as its doctrinal basis...

sect, but was also trained in esoteric lineages. When he later founded the Japanese Tendai

Tendai

is a Japanese school of Mahayana Buddhism, a descendant of the Chinese Tiantai or Lotus Sutra school.Chappell frames the relevance of Tendai for a universal Buddhism:- History :...

sect, esoteric practices were integrated with the larger Tendai teachings, but Tendai is not an exclusively esoteric sect. Subsequent disciples of Saicho also returned from China in later years with further esoteric training, which helped to flesh out the lineage in Japan.

On the same mission in 804, Emperor Kammu

Emperor Kammu

was the 50th emperor of Japan, according to the traditional order of succession. Kammu reigned from 781 to 806.-Traditional narrative:Kammu's personal name was . He was the eldest son of Prince Shirakabe , and was born prior to Shirakabe's ascension to the throne...

also sent monk Kūkai

Kukai

to the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

capital at Chang'an

Chang'an

Chang'an is an ancient capital of more than ten dynasties in Chinese history, today known as Xi'an. Chang'an literally means "Perpetual Peace" in Classical Chinese. During the short-lived Xin Dynasty, the city was renamed "Constant Peace" ; yet after its fall in AD 23, the old name was restored...

(present-day Xi'an

Xi'an

Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...

). Kūkai absorbed the Vajrayana thinking from eminent Indian and Chinese Vajrayana teachers at the time, and synthesized a version of which he took back with him to Japan, where he founded the Shingon school of Buddhism, a school which continues to this day. Unlike Tendai, Shingon is a purely esoteric sect.

Indonesian Archipelago

The empire of Srivijaya

Srivijaya

Srivijaya was a powerful ancient thalassocratic Malay empire based on the island of Sumatra, modern day Indonesia, which influenced much of Southeast Asia. The earliest solid proof of its existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, I-Tsing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in 671 for 6...

in southeast Sumatra was already a center of Vajrayana learning when Dharma Master Yijing

I Ching (monk)

Yijing was a Tang Dynasty Chinese Buddhist monk, originally named Zhang Wenming . The written records of his travels contributed to the world knowledge of the ancient kingdom of Srivijaya, as well as providing information about the other kingdoms lying on the route between China and the Nālandā...

(Ch. 法師義淨) resided there for six months in 671, long before Padmasambhava

Padmasambhava

brought the method to Tibet. In the 11th century, Atisha

Atisha

Atiśa Dipankara Shrijnana was a Buddhist teacher from the Pala Empire who, along with Konchog Gyalpo and Marpa, was one of the major figures in the establishment of the Sarma lineages in Tibet after the repression of Buddhism by King Langdarma .- Birth :Atisha is most commonly said to have been...

studied in Srivijaya under Serlingpa, an eminent Buddhist scholar and a prince of the Srivijayan ruling house.

Through early economic relationships with the Srivijaya Empire, the Philippines came under the influence of Vajrayana. Vajrayana Buddhism also influenced the construction of Borobudur

Borobudur

Borobudur, or Barabudur, is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist monument near Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. The monument comprises six square platforms topped by three circular platforms, and is decorated with 2,672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues...

, a three-dimensional mandala

Mandala

, in central Java circa 800.

Mongolia

In the 13th century, the Tibetan Buddhist teachers of the Sakya

Sakya

The Sakya school is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug...

school, led by Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen took part in a religious debate with Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

s and Muslims before the Mongolia

Mongolia

n royal court. As a result the Mongolian Prince Godan adopted Tibetan Buddhism as his personal religion, although not requiring it of his subjects. Drogön Chögyal Phagpa

Drogön Chögyal Phagpa

Zhogön Qögyä Pagba, Zhogoin Qoigyai Phagspa or Drogön Chögyal Phagpa , born Lochö Gyäcän or Lochoi Gyaicain , was the fifth leader of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism. He became the first vice-king of Tibet and played an important political role...

, Sakya Pandita's nephew, eventually converted Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan , born Kublai and also known by the temple name Shizu , was the fifth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire from 1260 to 1294 and the founder of the Yuan Dynasty in China...

to Buddhism. Since the Khan conquered China and established the Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

which lasted from 1271 to 1368, this led to the renewal in China

China

of the Tantric practices which had died out there many years earlier. Vajrayana practice declined in China and Mongolia with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

, although Mongolia saw another revival of Vajrayana in the 17th century, with the establishment of ties between the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama

in Tibet

Tibet

and the Mongolian princedoms. This revived the historic pattern of the spiritual leaders of Tibet acting as priests to the rulers of the Mongol empire

Mongol Empire

The Mongol Empire , initially named as Greater Mongol State was a great empire during the 13th and 14th centuries...

. Having survived suppression by the Communists, Buddhism in Mongolia

Buddhism in Mongolia

is today primarily of the Gelug

Gelug

The Gelug or Gelug-pa , also known as the Yellow Hat sect, is a school of Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa , a philosopher and Tibetan religious leader...

school of Tibetan Buddhism and is being re-invigorated following the fall of the Communist government.

External links

Teachings available from The Chinese (Hanmi) Esoteric School to the general public
Examples of Vajrayana Buddhist Mantras
Trikaya del Lama Kunsal Kassapa
The Berzin archive. Archive on texts and teachings of Vajrayana, Tibetan Buddhism, Islam and Bon
Love and Passion in Tantric Buddhist Art
A Buddhist View on Tantra
About Tantra Introduction and explanation of Buddhist Tantra
http://www.shugendo.fr Shugendo, japanese vajrayana sources by a western priest of Kyoto Shogoin temple in english.
Vajrayana - at Rigpa Wiki
Tibetan Buddhist Wallpapers to Inspire you on the Path of Vajrayana

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Terminology

The Vajra

Tantric Buddhism

Academic study difficulties

Vajrayana as an ex post facto classification

Vajrayana as a newly composed teaching

Vajrayana as evolved from the local conditions of Medieval India

Classification based on Vajrayana scriptures and commentaries

Vajrayana as a subset of Mahayana Buddhism

Vajrayana as fruitional vehicle

Vajrayana as an esoteric discipline

Vajrayana textual tradition

Dunhuang: Tibetan tantric documents recovered from the Mogao Caves

Key features of Vajrayana

Ritual

Goal and motivation

Upaya

Two Truths Doctrine

Vows and behaviour

Esoteric transmission

Sub-schools

Tibetan Buddhism

Chinese Esoteric Buddhism

Shingon Buddhism

Tendai Buddhism

Shugendō

Newar Buddhism

Tantra techniques

Deity yoga

Four complete purities

Guru yoga

Death yoga

Generation and completion stage practice in the annutarayoga tantras

By scholars

By the New Translation Schools

By the Ancient Translation School

India

Sambalpur

China

Himalayan areas

Japan

Indonesian Archipelago

Mongolia

See also

Further reading

External links