Tantric Buddhism is pervasive in the history of Buddhism.

A sweeping history of tantric influences across the Buddhist world showing that Tantra was a coherent and continuous movement present across Asia.

For a brief synopsis of the book’s chapters, see the introduction on Lion’s Roar.

I want to go through these points with the idea of giving you a Western approach to understanding them. You might take more extensive teachings from some of the Tibetan lamas later on, and if I am able to at least introduce you to some of those topics through the Westernized approach, then when you hear the standard Tibetan approach, it will go in more smoothly for you.

A series of lectures delivered in Seattle from 1991 to 1994 going systematically through Atiśa’s presentation of the gradual path of training.

He asserts that all religious lineages other than Shingon encounter the raw teachings that emanate directly from Mahāvairocana in only symbolic and indirect ways. Thus he designates them as “exoteric.” Shingon practices, on the other hand, bestow the capacity to enter into the very source of Mahāvairocana’s teaching, into the depths of His own profoundly enlightened samādhi, such that the practitioner unites directly with the spontaneous expression of this buddha’s body, speech, and mind. This is the “esoteric” approach, and its practice reveals that this deeper, hidden dimension is always present in any kind of teaching…

Embarrassed the organizers were indeed, even dismayed, when they were showered with fervent thanks from the women participants for organizing such a wonderful spiritual experience…

This article discusses the modern reenactments of the Nunohashi kanjoe (the Cloth-Bridge Consecration [Initiation] rite) in Tateyama-cho, Toyama prefecture, and the religious and political issues they raised. Originally a popular Edo-period rite for women’s salvation, the Nunohashi kanjoe was obsolete for one hundred and thirty years, until it was reconstructed and performed as the main spectacle of the Culture Festival ibento (event) in Tateyama in 1996. A decade later, in 2005, 2006, and 2009, its reenactments were resumed as ceremonies of traditional healing. This paper follows the progression of these attempts at transforming a Buddhist ritual into a modern-day cultural event. It looks at the gap between the politics and purposes behind the reenactments of the rites, and the reactions of the women who participated in them. It further considers general issues illuminated by these reenactments, such as the nature and status of religious experiences, and the relations of religion and state in contemporary Japan.

In the poetic commentary Nameless Notes (1211–1216), the poet-priest Kamo no Chōmei explains that unlike prose, a poem “possesses the power to move heaven and earth, to calm demons and gods,” because, among other attributes, “it contains many truths in a single word.”

The supernatural powers of Japanese poetry are widely documented in literature of Heian and medieval Japan. Twentieth-century scholars have tended to follow Orikuchi Shinobu in interpreting and discussing miraculous verses in terms of ancient (pre-Buddhist) beliefs in kotodama, the magic spirit power of special words. In this paper, I argue for application of a more contemporaneous hermeneutical approach: thirteenth-century Japanese dharani theory, according to which Japanese poetry is capable of supernatural effects because it contains truth (kotowari) in a semantic superabundance.

You may fall prey to the curses and spells of demons and other ethereal entities…

Some practical advice.

Being unfamiliar with tantra, they cannot recognize that what they’re looking at has a tantric origin, and they may think of it as simply (unproblematically) part of whatever tradition they are looking at…

On how elements of Buddhist tantra circulated across Buddhist Asia.

… what is the person whose mind is like a diamond?

Showing the Canonical basis for the “Vajra” image which would become important in later Buddhism.

The temple represents an objectification of a model of the mind which underlies Sherpa religious thinking

… an interpretation of the structure and symbolism of a Sherpa Buddhist temple in northeastern Nepal

Consecration is presented not as another worldly end, but with the express aim of producing adepts who could wield the ritual technology of the three types of homa.

How Indian esoteric rituals were exported to China in the eighth century.

‘root texts’ are summaries of teachings, that traditionally have been celebrated, memorized and commented on by teachers.

A collection of “root texts” of the Tibetan Tradition forming a basic outline of the practice.

Tantric Buddhist art helps people to imagine a world they do not yet experience and to jolt them out of their habitual experience of the world

An introduction to Tantric Buddhist art and how tantric practices connect to the Buddhist path.

reflect on the trials of saṃsāra
With a determination to escape

A short letter of advice on walking the Vajrayana path.

Kyeho! All activities within saṃsāra are pointless

In accordance with the scriptures, I shall now in brief describe
The way to adopt the discipline of all the buddhas’ heirs.

A verse translation of chapter 1 from the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra on “bodhicitta.”

… observance of the monastic rules was not intended to be only a matter of acceptance of institutional rules and lifestyles. […] educated monks understood a causal connection between the exercise of ethical behavior in a monastic lifestyle and progress on the path

Mahayana (and Tantric) Buddhism is often portrayed as antinomian or even “lay oriented” but, while certainly a strand, did not constitute the mainstream understanding, even in late India.

… an ethical theory centered on the experience of an individual where perception and affect are the loci of moral development

… although objects manufactured in factories for profit are not made or handled according to Buddhist tradition, the “aura” can be produced in different ways and at different points of an object’s life

… a concise yet thorough exposition of the essentials of Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice

Buddhas and Bodisattvas and frequently other deities are shown with their hands forming a number of different ritualized and stylized poses (Mudrās).

… several Buddhist commentators, in advancing the notion of “compassionate violence,” also advanced an ethical double standard

there’s no teaching more profound
Than emptiness with compassion

Overpowered by the three poisons, I have committed the five boundless crimes…

It is very important to distinguish between mind and awareness.

Vajrayana Buddhism didn’t lose simple meditation so much as bury it under successive conceptual layers.

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In tantra, the ultimate result is the union of the illusory body and clear light manifesting on the path of no-more-learning, while in sūtra the ultimate result is the form body and dharma body of a buddha.

A systematic outline of the tantric vehicle.

on the eighth and full and new moon days,
I shall abandon killing, stealing, sexual misconduct,
Lying, intoxicants; singing, dancing and wearing jewellery;
Sitting on high seats and eating after midday—
These eight branches I shall maintain.
May the enemies, destructive emotions, be destroyed!

Buddhist tantric traditions were strongly influenced at their inception by preexisting Śaiva Hindu traditions, but they also drew on a growing body of ritual and magical practices that had been developing for several centuries in Mahāyāna Buddhist circles. The spread of tantric traditions quickly followed their development in India.

A very brief introduction to tantra.

We must decide, with firm conviction, that all that appears to us is nothing but our own deluded perception

The path from a Tibetan perspective, showing how Vajrayana is an extension of the Mahayana.

Ho! Out of the great purity and equalness of appearance and existence,
Samantabhadra’s offering clouds appear spontaneously without obstruction

In the Three Jewels, I take refuge…

The spell overflows with concrete nouns and dynamic verbs, with-out ever committing fully to semantic or syntactic cohesion. What does such language do? How does it act in the world of the speaker or reader? The Saddharmapuṇḍarīka itself offers guarantees of efficacy, but does not explain the precise mechanism of the dhāraṇī.

Medieval, Chinese exegetes were unanimous in saying that dhāraṇī should not be translated, but offered a variety of explanations why.

Even if a house is of inferior quality, if decorated with flowers, it will appear to be a bower. It will become the source of a ‘clear mind’

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The Q&A format of this booklet is quite easy to skim, making it an excellent primer for those who have a bit of background knowledge already. Written from the Western, Tibetan perspective, it also has an admirably wide scope, covering questions about Tibetan and Mahayana Buddhism without disparaging the Theravāda perspective.

For the likes of you, the qualities of the path
Will go on increasing

[Mahayana] doctrines eventually propose that the Buddha is completely immortal, and that his immortality is reflected in his embodiment in an utterly indestructible substance (Skt. vajra)

Here in Dzogpachenpo, we settle, without contriving, in what we call the essence of mind

A simple encouragement to cultivate simplicity of awareness.