Vajrayana Buddhism: Buddhist Tantra and Its Indian Roots

Vajrayana (वज्रयान, "the Diamond or Thunderbolt Vehicle") is the tantric form of Mahayana Buddhism. It arose in India from around the 6th–7th centuries CE and teaches that awakening can be reached swiftly through initiation, mantra, mandala, deity yoga and subtle-body practice under a qualified teacher. Today it survives mainly in Tibetan and Himalayan Buddhism.

Buddhist tantra is often treated as a Tibetan invention, but its texts, deities and great adepts are Indian. It grew up in the same world as the Hindu tantric traditions, borrowing from them and competing with them, and it reached Tibet, China, Japan and beyond before Buddhism declined in India. This chapter explains what Vajrayana is, how it developed, how it compares with Hindu tantra, who the 84 Mahasiddhas were, and where it is practised today.

What Is Vajrayana Buddhism?

Buddhists often speak of three "vehicles" (yanas): the path of the early schools, represented today by Theravada; the Mahayana or "Great Vehicle", with its ideal of the bodhisattva; and the Vajrayana. Vajrayana does not replace the Mahayana. It shares the Mahayana philosophy of emptiness and compassion and adds a distinctive set of methods said to make the path much faster; some accounts say they make Buddhahood possible within a single lifetime.

The vajra, meaning both "diamond" and "thunderbolt", symbolises the indestructible, luminous nature of the awakened mind. In ritual the vajra is held together with a bell (ghanta). The vajra stands for skilful means or compassion, the bell for wisdom, and their union for enlightenment.

Other Names for Buddhist Tantra

Core Practices of Vajrayana

• Empowerment (abhisheka; Tibetan wang): an initiation that authorises practice of a particular deity. It is normally accompanied by a textual transmission (lung) and practical instructions (tri). Compare Hindu diksha.
• Preliminary practices (ngöndro): refuge with prostrations, purification practice, mandala offerings and guru yoga, traditionally each repeated many thousands of times.
• Deity yoga, generation stage (utpattikrama): visualising oneself as a meditational deity (yidam) within its mandala, and seeing all appearances as pure.
• Completion stage (sampannakrama): working with the subtle body's channels (nadi), winds (prana) and drops (bindu), for example through the inner-heat practice of tummo. See Chakras, Nadis & Kundalini.
• Mantra and mudra: sacred sounds and gestures that link body, speech and mind with those of the deity.
• Mahamudra and Dzogchen: "formless" practices of resting in the nature of mind, emphasised especially in the Kagyu and Nyingma schools.
• Samaya: the commitments that bind teacher and student and keep the practice ethically grounded.

History: How Buddhist Tantra Developed in India

Like Hindu tantra, Buddhist tantra is known to historians through surviving texts that date from the second half of the first millennium CE. Earlier claims of great antiquity are traditional rather than historical. For the wider background, see Origins & History of Tantra.

Historians debate the social setting. Ronald Davidson argues that Buddhist tantra drew on the political culture of early medieval India, with kings, vassals and royal consecrations serving as models for mandalas and initiations. Alexis Sanderson has shown that several Buddhist Yogini tantras reuse passages from earlier Shaiva scriptures, which is clear evidence of close contact between the traditions. Geoffrey Samuel places both within a longer history of Indian yoga and tantra.

The Four Classes of Buddhist Tantra

The "new translation" (Sarma) schools of Tibet classify the Indian Buddhist tantras into four ascending classes:

Highest yoga tantras are often grouped into "father" tantras, which emphasise method (for example the Guhyasamaja), "mother" tantras, which emphasise wisdom (for example the Chakrasamvara), and, in some systems, "non-dual" tantras such as the Kalachakra. The details differ between schools. The Nyingma school uses a different, ninefold scheme whose three highest "inner tantras" are Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga (Dzogchen). The progression from outer ritual to inner yoga loosely parallels the Kaula, Mishra and Samaya distinctions in Hindu tantra. Mother tantras are also called yogini tantras, and the dakinis at their centre are compared with their Hindu namesakes in our guide to yoginis and dakinis.

Buddhist Tantra vs Hindu Tantra: Similarities and Differences

Hindu and Buddhist tantra developed side by side, sometimes in the same regions and among overlapping communities of practitioners. They share a large toolkit, and even some deities, such as Tara and Mahakala, but they interpret that toolkit through different philosophies. For the Hindu side, see Tantric Philosophy and the Dasha Mahavidya.

What They Share

Where They Differ

These are broad generalisations. Non-dual Shaiva thinkers, for instance, also treat deities as forms of one consciousness. Influence also ran in both directions. The goddess Tara is honoured in both traditions (see Goddess Tara), and the Hindu Mahavidya Chhinnamasta closely parallels Chinnamunda, a severed-head form of the Buddhist Vajrayogini. Scholars still debate which way the borrowing went in particular cases.

Who Were the 84 Mahasiddhas?

The mahasiddhas ("great accomplished ones") were Indian tantric yogis and yoginis, active roughly between the 8th and 12th centuries, who became legends of rapid awakening outside conventional monastic life. The best-known set of 84 comes from the Caturashiti-siddha-pravritti ("Lives of the Eighty-Four Siddhas"), attributed to Abhayadatta and preserved in Tibetan. Other lists name different figures, and 84 is best read as a symbolic number of completeness.

The stories deliberately feature kings and beggars, scholars and fishermen, monks, courtesans, farmers, outcastes and several women. Their message is that awakening does not depend on caste, gender or learning, and that ordinary activity can become the path once it is joined to a teacher's instruction. Many mahasiddhas expressed their realisation in spontaneous songs (dohas and charya songs). The Charyapada, a collection that Haraprasad Shastri found in Nepal in 1907, is among the earliest literature in Bengali, Assamese and Odia.

Notable Mahasiddhas

Keith Dowman's Masters of Mahamudra and Miranda Shaw's Passionate Enlightenment are accessible introductions to these figures, including the women practitioners who are often overlooked. For Hindu siddhas, see Famous Tantric Masters.

How Vajrayana Reached Tibet

Buddhism reached Tibet in two waves. In the 8th century King Trisong Detsen invited the Indian abbot Shantarakshita and, according to tradition, the tantric master Padmasambhava. Padmasambhava is remembered for subduing local spirits so that Samye, Tibet's first monastery, could be completed (around 779 CE). After a period of political fragmentation, a "later diffusion" beginning in the late 10th century brought new translations of Indian texts and sent many Tibetans to study with Indian teachers.

The Four Schools of Tibetan Buddhism

Where Is Vajrayana Practised Today?

Common Misconceptions About Vajrayana

• "Tantric Buddhism is about sex." Images of deities in union (yab-yum) symbolise the union of wisdom and method. Some highest yoga tantras historically described practice with a consort (karmamudra), but the major traditions have long treated this as rare and restricted, most practitioners work through visualisation alone, and monastics keep vows of celibacy. Modern Western "Neo-Tantra" is a separate phenomenon; see Tantra Myths vs Reality.
• "Wrathful deities are demons." Fierce forms such as Mahakala embody the energy of compassion that cuts through obstacles. They are protectors, not objects of fear.
• "It is a separate religion." Vajrayana is a form of Mahayana Buddhism and rests on the same foundations of refuge, ethics, compassion and insight into emptiness.
• "You can learn it from books." The tradition insists on empowerment and personal instruction for tantric practice, even though some mantras, such as Om Mani Padme Hum, are recited openly by millions.