Vajrayana And Hindu Tantricism
Differences In Base
Sridhar SJB Rana
Among the Newars, the Hindu Newars priests are called Deobhaju, whereas Gubhaju are the Buddhist Vajrayana priests. It shows clear difference in emphasis. To Hinduism, Devas are the supreme, and represent various forms of Gods, that is why the priest is called Deobhaju. But in Buddhism, Devas are manifestations of the mind, and the mind and the Guru are one. So the Guru is the supreme. He creates the Devas and introduces them to the disciple. He and ones won mind are not really two.
Furthermore, there is no God (Ishwar) in Buddhism, so the question of the Devi/Devatas in Vajrayana becoming manifestations of God (Ishwar) is completely out of the question. That is why the Vajrayana priests are called Gu(ru)bhaju. It is also not surprising that many western scholars called Tibetan Vajrayana as Lamaism. Although this is inaccurate and wrong, since there actually is no such thing as Lamaism, it is however true that the word Lama means Guru and the Lama is Supreme in Tibetan Vajrayana.
Lama is the Tibetan word for the Sanskrit Guru. The Buddha himself in all forms of Buddhism is the Supreme Guru and not by any means some sort of replacement for God of the other religions. So the Devas are manifestations of the mind itself, and given archetypal forms for quick purification and Samatha (called Shiney in Tibetan, i.e., to make the mind quite). They are never really independent of the nature of mind that in Tantric terminology is called Empty and Luminous. So all the deities, their consorts, and sons are only metaphoric ways of expressing manifestations. It is totally stupid to say, as some so called Vajracharyas influenced by Theravad have written, that Vajrayana has created many Buddhas out of the one Sakyamuni Buddha and given them wives and children. Vajrayana has not created replacements of the historical Sakyamuni. What Vajrayana has done is discovered two things: easier ways to purification, and perform Samatha through visualization of metaphoric forms of the Enlightened mind of Sakyamuni.
As I have already mentioned, Chittanusmriti, i.e., mindfulness of the mind, is the form of Vipassyana most common in Vajrayana. Visualizing of various Mandala, like forms and spontaneous appearance of Devas in meditation, is found not only in Vajrayana but also in the Theravad Buddhist traditions existing in the mountains of Laos. So these Theravadin “Vajracharyas” who have tried to make fun of the Mandalas of Vajrayana are also criticising their own Theravad traditions as practiced in the mountains of Laos. I believe this is breaking the Theravada tradition (creating disturbance in the Sangha).
Hindu Tantra certainly does not use the Devi / Devata in this way except in the Kashmiri form of Shaiva Tantra as mentioned before.
As mentioned earlier, the ten Mahavidyas are the ultimate deities in Hindu Tantra, and they represent God or the Ultimate Reality, depending upon which Amnya (way) of Hindu Tantra one follows. However, as already mentioned, in Buddhist Tantra none of the visualized represent either God or the Ultimate Reality (Paramartha Satta), and this has already been clearly explained in the earlier articles.
As already said, what they request is the Mind or the Guru (which are one). There are various classes of deities (‘visualisable forms’ would be more accurate in Buddhist Tantra) whose concept of Devis/Devas is so drastically different from that of Hindu Tantra that they cannot in any way be called even remotely similar. The various classes of forms used for meditation in Vajrayana are :
- Gurus
- Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
- Yidam
1. Guru: Who represent the entire lineages from Sakyamuni till now. Since every teacher that comes from an unbroken lineage represents every other in the lineage, their Enlightenment being the same, it is not necessary that only Sakyamuni represents the Guru. So in the Vajrayana tradition not only Sakyamuni but also Padmasambhava, Naropa, Milarepa, Virupada, Karmapa and a host of others who represented the Enlightenment of Sakyamuni are also used as Guru-Visualization. this is totally non-existent in Hindu Tantra which has only Guru Puja which is done to ones own Guru on certain days like Guru Purnima; but no meditations which uses the Guru for Samatha-Vipassyana is found. Furthermore the concept of a pure lineage, unbroken so that any one living Guru’s mind is the same as any other before him (which is a technical way of saying that they have all experienced the same true Enlightenment and not different states as per each Guru and certainly does not mean they have lost their individuality or identity) - such a concept does not exist in any form to Hinduism except those influenced by Buddhism. What I and talking about is the transmission from generation to generation of exactly the same Enlightenment state without distortive changes, not transmission of concepts or ideas from generation to generation which is found in Hinduism also. This concept of the same (pure) Enlightenment state “being transmitted” generation to generation without any breakage (which would otherwise open up distortion) is very important for all forms of Buddhism which emphasizes meditation and the experience of Enlightenment, and especially for Vajrayana which is one of the most practically oriented forms of Buddhism.