Tantra

What is Tantra?

John Powers defines tantra (rgyud) as “systems of practice and meditation derived from esoteric texts emphasizing cognitive transformation through visualization, symbols and ritual” (Powers 249). Tantric texts began to appear in the late 6th and 7th century in India and continued to proliferate through the 12th century, when many sites of religious practice were decimated by invading Turks (Gray 2010). Tantric texts and practices emerged within a variety of ancient Indian religious traditions; Hindu and Jain tantric texts proliferated during this era alongside their Buddhist counterparts. Although tantric texts lack characteristic sectarian “markers,” many influential esoteric tantras highlight a particular buddha as the object and ideal of practice (such as Avalokitesvara). The Oxford Bibliography of Buddhism defines  “Tantric literature” as a broad umbrella encompassing esoteric texts as well as the wealth of literary and oral commentary and “praxical works” they inspired, including musical practice, which have strongly marked strains of contemporary Tibetan Buddhism in particular (Gray 2010, Powers 249). 

Characteristics of the Vajrayana

The tradition arising from tantric texts is known among other names as the third and final vessel of the tripitaka, the Vajrayana. The Vajrayana retained many of the aspects of the Mahayana vehicle which preceded it, including the elevation of the bodhisattva as the idea of human practice. However, a major distinguishing characteristic of the Vajrayana is the possibility of a shorter path to enlightenment that the other vehicles; some yoga tantric texts indicate just one lifetime may be enough. “Vajra” has multiple meanings; at times it refers to an important ritual objects in tantric iconography, a small “five-pointed scepter” which signifies “the method aspect” of a buddha’s awakening (Powers 250). Buddhas, particular male buddhas, are often depicted in Tantric art holding the vajra, which simultaneously represents the male principle, compassion and skillful means, in one hand, and a bell, representing the female principle and wisdom, in the other. Other common features of tantric depictions of buddhas include the embrace of a wide variety of non-human forms (multiple limbs, brightly colored skin, etc.), as well as depictions of the buddha with a female consort. “Vajra” also refers to an utterly immutable, unchangeable substance which is harder than rock, lending the Vajrayana the nickname of the “diamond vehicle”. The names “tantrayana,”  meaning vehicle of mantas, and “mantrayana,” or vehicle of mantras, are also pseudonyms for the Vajrayana. 

Historical Context of Early Indian Tantra & Subversive Practices

Some historical scholars posit that tantric texts developed as a subversive response to social upheaval in ancient India following the collapse of the Gupta and Vakata dynasties around 320-550. John Powers and Ronald Davidson argue that the influence of the historical context is discernible in tantric traditions such as the mandala, a geometric visual representation of a buddha’s palace which plays a role in visualization meditation. Powers argues that early mandalas are structurally reminiscent of Indian royal palaces, and that the association of buddhahood with gaining lordship over a domain reflects the hierarchical structure of post-Gupta Indian society in which feudal lords wielded centralized power. Powers also argues that some tantric traditions can be seen as outright rejections and subversions of Brahmanic Indian society, such as the consommation of taboo substances (the five meats and the five nectars), incorporation of lower-caste deities, and sexual practices. These transgressive acts are depicted in tantric texts such as the Hevajra Tantra as a form of “skillful means” as described in the Lotus Sutra: ways to help practitioners “transcend ordinary conceptuality” and see that “all phenomena are devoid of any inherent nature, and so by extension anything can be appropriated in the path to liberation” (Powers 256).  The most famous early tantric practitioners were adepts known as siddhas who rejected all society, even monastic life, and conducted subversive tantric ritual practice in pursuit of magical powers. Some of the most well-known siddahs include Tilopa (988-1069) and Saraha (around 1000), who are memorialized through hagiographies as well as their own poetry and writings (Jackson 4). 

A variety of factors, including the colonization of India by the British empire and the colonial encounter with tantric practices has contributed to the idea in the West that tantric practice is inherently subversive and sexual. While sexual practice does appear in some Tantric texts, scholars writing about tantra for the Berzin Archives argue that the emphasis in such practices centers on the cultivation of mental and yogic discipline, not the pursuit of pleasure. In addition, the view of as synonymous with sexual practice obscures the diverse forms of ritual which have emerged from the Vajrayana in Tibet, India and other parts of South Asia (. 

What are examples of Tantric practices?

Examples of ritual practices within the Tantric tradition in Tibet include rituals of initiation, deity yoga, and visualization meditations known as sadhanas. and yiddam, meditations which involve pledging the mind to a chosen deity. The practice of yiddam meditations are conceptualized as having two stages, a generation stage in which stability of the mind is achieved through steady visualization of the particular figure, and a completion stage in which the dissolution of the vision into emptiness is believed to open the flow of energy in the body and mind. A particular tantric understanding of the physiology of the body in the midst of this practice describes a series of subtle channels of energy called prana at the body’s center which are particularly opened during the completion stage. This energy is understood to flow through six wheels called cakras, which can easily become tangled up and disrupted. 

Tantric sadhanas are visualization meditation techniques believed to enable practitioners to achieve enlightenment by realizing embodied identification with any of the “buddhas, bodhisattvas or enlightened deities in the tantric Buddhist pantheon,” according to religious studies scholar Janet Gyatso.  The efficacy of the sadhana technique relies on the assumption that “a person’s identity, experience, and existence are self-created” and therefore manipulable given certain conditions, including training and having received the sadhana technique through ritual from an authoritative teacher. One example of a tantric sadhana meditation practice, which Gyatso discusses in depth, is the For All Beings Throughout Space sadhana, through which meditators aim to visualize themselves (and all beings throughout time) embodying the buddha of compassion, Avalokitesvara. As part of the practice, the meditator is instructed to chant the mantra “om mani padme hum”, on of the most famous tantric mantras which, like many others, does not have a direct semantic meaning as a phrase but is believed to accrue meaning through recitation (Gyatso 270). 

While common understandings of “tantra” outside of Buddhist societies continue to misrepresent tantra as inherently sexual, the diverse manifestations of rituals (such as the creation of a sand mandala, a palace for the tantric kalacakra buddha, pictured below) which proliferated from the Vajrayana in modern Tibet and elsewhere continue to defy such simplistic characterizations.

References

Roger R Jackson. (2004). Tantric treasures: Three collections of mystical verse from Buddhist India. Oxford University Press.

Mandala of Vajrapani (Bodhisattva & Buddhist Deity)—(Sarvadurgati Tantra, Four Kings) (Himalayan Art). (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.himalayanart.org/items/86926

Gyatso, J. (1997). “An Avalokitesvara Sadhana”. 1997. 

Gray, D. (2010). “Siddhas—Buddhism.” Oxford Bibliographies. Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0149.xml

Gray, D. (2010). “Tantric Literature—Buddhism” Oxford Bibliographies. Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0158.xml

Powers, J. (2007). Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism. Snow Lion Publications.

The Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir. (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.whiteswanrecords.com/artists/the-gyuto-monks-tantric-choir

Tibetan Monks Painstakingly Create Incredible Mandalas Using Millions of Grains of Sand. (2014, April 21). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from My Modern Met website: https://mymodernmet.com/tibetan-buddhist-monks-sand-art/

Vajrayogini (Buddhist Deity)—Vajravarahi, Red (Himalayan Art). (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://www.himalayanart.org/items/839

What Is Tantra? (n.d.). Retrieved November 26, 2019, from https://studybuddhism.com/en/tibetan-buddhism/tantra/buddhist-tantra/what-is-tantra

Further Readings

Arnold, E. A., ed. (2009). As Long as Space Endures: Essays on the Kālacakra Tantra in Honor of H. H. The Dalai Lama. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion.

Owing its title to a famous quote from the 14th Dalai Lama’s autobiography, this anthology of twenty-five essays from a variety of authors (traditional Tibetan scholars, Western religious scholars, and Western Buddhist practitioners) provides a broad variety of perspectives on the Kalacakra tradition of tantra and its influence on Tibetan Buddhist practices. 

Shaw, M. (1994). Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

For those interested in the role of women in the development of tantric literature and practice, Miranda Shaw’s 1994 book is considered a seminal piece of scholarship. Although her arguments have received significant criticism since the book’s publication twenty-five years ago, according to Oxford Bibliographies it remains a “flawed yet provocative study.” For criticism of Shaw’s work, refer to Ronald M. Davidson’s Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.

Urban, H. B. (2003). Tantra: Sex, secrecy politics, and power in the study of religions. University of California Press.

For those interested in understanding Western fascination with tantric traditions as exoticized sexual practices which are inherently “other”, this book is an excellent resource. Hugh B. Urban seeks to historicize the development of “tantra” as a category within the discipline of Western religious studies as well as popular culture, and demonstrate how it embodies cultural imaginations of the “exotic Orient and the contemporary West”.

External Links

Video: His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and Professor Rob Thurman Explain the Significance of the Kalacakra

In this six-minute video, professor of Buddhist studies Rob Thurman and the Dalai Lama speak about the meaning and significance of the teaching of the Kalacakra, the wheel of time, which they both identify as one of the most important concepts in the Tibetan tantric tradition. This video was created in 2011 as the Dalai Lama delivered a teaching on Kalacakra in the place where it is believed that Sakyamuni Buddha originally delivered the same teaching hundreds of years ago. 

Video: A 3-D Exploration of the Kalacakra Mandala

For those more interested in a striking visual exploration of the Kalacakra, this 7-minute video was created by a team of students and professors at Cornell University to mark the occasion of the 14th Dalai Lama’s visit to Cornell in 2007. In addition to presenting a striking 3-D graphic of the sand mandala, the traditionally 2-D depiction of the palace in which the Kalacakra Buddha is believed to reside, the video presents brief but useful contextual information about the Kalacakra. 

Music: Chants from The Gyuto Monks’ Tantric Choir

The album “The Perfect Jewel,” performed by a group of monks from the Gyuto monastery in Sidhbara, India and produced by Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead is available for listening on YouTube! The Gyuto monastery is a center for the study of the vajrayana which was first established in Tibet in 1475, but was relocated to India during the turmoil following the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950. A group of monks from Gyuto, known for their tradition of “chordal chanting”, travelled to the United States in 1995 and performed with the Grateful Dead, leading to the partnership which produced this album (For more information on the Gyuto Monks’ Choir, see https://whiteswanrecords.com/artists/the-gyuto-monks-tantric-choir).