1.2 Second speed-up technique: Esoteric Transmission or Initiation

The other conspicuous aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism is that it is esoteric. In this context esoteric means that the transmission of certain accelerating factors only occurs directly from teacher to student during an initiation and cannot be simply learned from a book. Many techniques are also commonly said to be secret, but some Vajrayana teachers have responded that the secrecy itself is not important but only a side-effect of the reality that the techniques have no validity outside the teacher-student lineage. As these techniques are said to be highly effective, when not practiced properly, the practitioner can harm him/herself physically and mentally. In order to avoid these kind of dangers, the practice is kept 'secret' outside the teacher/student relationship. The esoteric aspects of Vajrayana Buddhism results in several more names for the school: Secret Buddhism, Esoteric Mahayana, and Esoteric Buddhism (the most common name in Japan).

The esoteric transmission framework can take varying forms. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism uses a method called dzogchen. Other Tibetan Kagyu schools and the Shingon school in Japan use an alternative method called mahamudra.

2 Relationship with Mahayana

While tantra and esoterism distinguish Vajrayana Buddhism, it is, from the Tibetan Buddhist point of view, nonetheless primarily a form of Mahayana Buddhism. Sutras important to Mahayana are generally important to Vajrayana, although Vajrayana adds some of its own (see Buddhist texts, list of sutras, Tibetan Buddhist canon). The importance of bodhisattvas and a pantheon of deities in Mahayana carries over to Vajrayana, as well as the perspective that Buddhism is not just for monks but for the laity too.

The Japanese Vajrayana teacher Kukai expressed a view contrary to this by making a clear distinction between Mahayana and Vajrayana. Kukai characterises the Mahayana in its entirety as exoteric, and therefore provisional. From this point of view the esoteric Vajrayana is the only Buddhist teaching which is not a compromise with the limited nature of the audience to which it is directed, since the teachings are said to be the Dharmakaya (the principle of enlightenment) in the form of Mahavairocana, engaging in a monologue with himself. From this view the Hinayana and Mahayana are provisional and compromised aspects of the Vajrayana - rather than seeing the Vajrayana as priamrily a form of Mahayana Buddhism.

Some aspects of Vajrayana have also filtered back into Mahayana. In particular, the Vajrayana fondness for powerful symbols may be found in weakened form in Mahayana temples where protector deities may be found glaring down at visitors.

3 History of Vajrayana

3.1 India

There are differing views as to just where Vajrayana started, some claiming that it began in Udyana - the modern day Swat valley in Pakistan, while others say that it began in southern India. In the Tibetan tradition, it is claimed that the historical Shakyamuni Buddha taught tantra, but as these are 'secret' teachings outside the teacher/disciple relationship, they were written down generally long after the Buddhas other teachings, known as sutras.

The earliest texts appeared around the early 4th century.

Nalanda University in northern India became a center for the development of Vajrayana theory, although it is likely that the university followed, rather than led, the early Tantric movement. India would continue as the source of leading-edge Vajrayana practices up through the 11th century.

(Vajrayana) Buddhism had mostly died out in India by the 13th century, its practices merging with Hinduism, and both tantric religions experiencing pressure from the rising importance of Islam. By that time, the vast majority of the practices were also made available in Tibet, where they were preserved until recently.

In the second half of the 20th century a sizeable number of Tibetan exiles fled the oppressive anti-religious rule of the Communist Chinese to establish Tibetan Buddhist communities in northern India, particularly around Dharamsala. They remain the primary practitioners of Tantric Buddhism in India and the entire world.

3.2 China

Vajrayana followed the same route into northern China as Buddhism itself, arriving from India via the Silk Road some time during the first half of the 7th century. It arrived just as Buddhism was reaching its zenith in China, receiving sanction from the emperors of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang capital at Chang'an (modern-day Xi'an) became an important center for Buddhist studies, and Vajrayana ideas no doubt received great attention as pilgrim monks returned from India with the latest texts and methods (see Buddhism in China, Journey to the West).

3.3 Tibet and other Himalayan kingdoms

In 747 the Indian saint Padmasambhava traveled from Afghanistan to bring Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan, at the request of the king of Tibet. This was the original transmission which anchors the lineage of the Nyingma school. During the 11th century and early 12th century a second important transmission occurred with the lineage of Tilopa , Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa giving rise to the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, namely Kagyupa, Kadampa, Sakyapa, and Gelukpa (the school of the Dalai Lama).

3.4 Japan

In 804, the Emperor Kammu of Japan sent the intrepid monk Kukai to the Tang capital at Chang'an to retrieve the latest Buddhist knowledge. Kukai absorbed the Vajrayana thinking and synthesized a version which he took back with him to Japan, where he founded the important Shingon school of Buddhism, a school which continues to this day.

3.5 Java

In the late 8th century, Indian models of Vajrayana traveled directly to the Indonesian island of Java where a huge temple complex at Borobudur was soon built. Vajrayana Buddhism would survive in Indonesia and Malaysia until eclipsed by Islam in the 13th century.

3.6 Mongolia

In the 13th century, long after the original wave of Vajrayana Buddhism had died out in China itself, two Tibetan eminent Sakyapa teachers, Sakya Pandita Kunga Gyaltsen and Chogyal Phagpa , visited the Mongolian royal court. Marco Polo was serving the royal court at about the same time. In a competition between Christians, Moslems, and Buddhists held before the royal court, Prince Godan found Tibetan Buddhism to be the most satisfactory and adopted it as his personal religion, although not requiring it of his subjects. As Kublai Khan had just conquered China (establishing the Yuan Dynasty), his adoption of Vajrayana led to the renewal of Tantric practices in China as the ruling class found it useful to emulate their leader.

Vajrayana would decline in China and Mongolia with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, replaced by resurgent Daoism, Confucianism, and Pure Land Buddhism. However, Mongolia would see yet another revival of Vajrayana in the 17th century, with the establishment of ties between the Dalai Lama in Tibet and the remnants of the Mongol Empire. This revived the historic pattern of the spiritual leaders of Tibet acting as priests to the rulers of the Mongol empire. Tibetan Buddhism is still practiced as a folk religion in Mongolia today despite more than 80 years of state-sponsored communism.

4 See also

• Kalu Rinpoche
• Pema Chodron
• Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche

5 External links

• General page on Vajrayana.
• Dudjom Tersar lineage of Nyingma.
• The Kordong traditon.
• Kagyu lineage. Official website, with biography of Kalu Rinpoche (the 2nd Kalu Rinpoche).
• Official Sakya lineage website.
• Resource page of Sakya lineage.
• Palyul lineage of Nyingma.
• Mindrolling lineage of Nyingma.
• Drukpa Kagyu lineage.
• Drikung Kagyu lineage.
• Resource page from Gelug point of view.
• Buddhist Tantric Practice.

Branches of Buddhism

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