Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism

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Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism refers to the categorization of Buddhist tantric scriptures in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. Broadly speaking, there are two main tantric traditions within Tibetan Buddhism: the Nyingma ("old") school and the Sarma ("new") schools. Both traditions have in common the "three outer tantras" (Kriyā, Caryā, and Yoga). The Nyingma school also identifies a set of "three inner tantras" for a total of six classes of tantra. The Sarma schools categorize tantric scriptures into four classes: the three "outer tantras" plus the class of Highest Yoga Tantra.

Outer tantras

The three "outer tantras" (Kriyā, Caryā, and Yoga) or "lesser tantras" are included in the classification schemes of both the Nyingma and Sarma schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

Kriyā tantra

Sculpture of Eleven-Headed Avalokiteśvara, Vietnam. The Dhāraṇī of the Eleven Faced Avalokiteśvara is a popular tantra of the Kriya class.
Main article: Kriya tantra

Kriyā tantra, or "action tantra," emphasize external conduct, such as ritual bathing, the sprinkling of scented water, the creation of a circle of protection, the use of mudras and the chanting of mantras.[1][2]

Cortland Dahl states:

The view of this approach concerns the ultimate and relative truths. In terms of the ultimate, Kriya stresses the inseparability of appearance and emptiness, and that all phenomena are essentially beyond arising and cessation. In terms of the relative, these same phenomena are viewed as divine forms.
Kriya stresses the vital role of meditation in spiritual practice, as do all Buddhist traditions. What sets this approach apart is its use of purification rituals, ablutions, and specific requirements concerning diet and clothing. Such activities are linked with tantric meditations, such as the visualization of deities and mantra recitation. In Kriya meditation, the deity is regarded as superior to oneself, whereas in later approaches the deity is considered an expression of the nature of one’s own mind.[3]

Caryā tantra

Painting of Buddha Vairocana, Tibet, late 13th–early 14th century.
Main article: Charya tantra

Caryā tantra (spyod pa, Performance, or Conduct) is also known as Upa tantra, or Ubhaya tantra. This class of tantra stresses "the importance of a balanced approach in both the external rites and internal mental activity."[4]

Cortland Dahl states:

This approach is also referred to as Dual Tantra, or Ubhaya Tantra, because it links the view of Yoga Tantra (the third outer tantra) with the practices of Kriya Tantra. Thus, it is essentially an amalgam of Kriya Tantra and Yoga Tantra. In contrast to the Kriya approach, here the deity is viewed as a friend or companion, rather than one’s superior.[3]

Translators Guarisco & McLeod state:

Conduct tantra, where conduct encompasses both outer ritual activity and inner contemplation, involves training in a vast range of deeds while entering the inner reality that presents itself in visual and audible divine representations. The notion here is that of being close to the state of a perfect divine being, a state not yet fully realized. This limited view is overcome by visualizing oneself as the deity, understanding that form to be the appearance aspect of emptiness.[5]

According to Jamgon Kongtrul, the main elements of Conduct tantra are:

To practice and train thoroughly in a vast range of deeds related to activations, which are sets of outer (physical and verbal) [actions] such as mudras and other characteristic focuses as taught in action tantra, and thus [to have] objects of practice that accord with that tantra; to cultivate inner (mental) contemplation that accords with yogatantra and to practice [deity yoga] in what is like a friend-to-friend relation-ship with the deity.[6]

Kongtrul further states, "conduct tantra is known to have five initiations: water, diadem, vajra, bell, and name."[6]

Yoga tantra

Main article: Yoga tantra

Yoga tantra (T. rnal 'byor rgyud) emphasizes inner yogic meditation upon reality, combining skillful means and wisdom.[7]

Cortland Dahl states:

Unlike the first two outer tantras, this approach does not place as much emphasis on acts of ritual purity. In terms of the view, Yoga practitioners see the ultimate truth as the pure wisdom of reality itself, while in terms of the relative truth, they see all phenomena as the expression, or luminosity, of the ultimate. In meditation, practitioners of this vehicle view themselves as inseparable from the deity and practice a formless meditation that involves immersing oneself in the ultimate nature of reality itself.[3]

Jamgon Kongtrul states:

Yoga tantra is so named because it emphasizes the inner yoga meditation of method and wisdom; or alternatively, because based on knowledge and understanding of all aspects of the profound ultimate truth and the vast relative truth, it emphasizes contemplation that inseparably unites these two truths.[8]

Sarma classification

The Sarma ("New Translation") schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Gelug, Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang) enumerate four classes of tantra. In this, they follow Indian Tantric Buddhists such as Abhayākara, who makes this distinction in his Clusters of Quintessential Instructions. Tantras are classified according to the capacity of persons, the deities they use, the specific types of methods they employ and how they use desire (kāma).[1][2]

Three outer tantras

Main article: Three outer tantras

The first three categories in the Sarma tradition are the three outer tantras (Kriyā, Caryā, and Yoga).

Highest yoga tantra

A Hevajra Mandala
Main article: Highest Yoga Tantra

"Highest yoga tantras" (Skt. Niruttara-yoga tantra [alt. Anuttarayoga tantra]; T. rnal 'byor bla na med pa'i rgyud) also known as "Unexcelled yoga tantras", etc., are meant for practitioners of the highest ability who do not rely on external activities. It uses the highest level of desire, sexual union, and is thus also designated the “tantra of union of the two.” According to Kongtrul, only Highest Yoga includes both the generation and completion phases.[1][2] Kongtrul states that these are "supreme among all tantras" and "there is no other tantra above it."[9]

"Highest yoga tantras" are characterized by the practice of deity yoga as well as various subtle body yogas (such as the Six Yogas of Naropa), to generate great bliss and attain the subtle clear light (luminous) mind.

The "highest yoga tantras" are sometimes further classified into "Mother Tantras" (ma rgyud), "Father Tantras" (Wyl. pha rgyud), and "Non-dual Tantras" (gnyis med kyi rgyud).

Nyingma classification

The Nyingma school enumerates six classes of tantra, which make up the last six of Nyingma system of "nine yanas".

Three outer tantras

Main article: Three outer tantras

The first three categories within the Nyingma classification are the three outer tantras (Kriyā, Caryā, and Yoga).

Three inner tantras

Main article: Three inner tantras

The last three classes of tantra in the Nyingma school are referred to as the "inner tantras". These are:

  • Mahāyoga (rnal ’byor chen po) - emphasizes the development stage practices and are sometimes also termed father tantras. The Guhyagarbha Tantra is the most influential of these texts.
  • Anuyoga (rjes su rnal ’byor) - emphasizes the completion stage practices and are associated with mother tantras. They also teach a "principle of instantaneous perfection", which is not found in other tantras. An example of one of these texts is the All-Unifying Pure Presence (Kun ’dus rig pa’i mdo).
  • Atiyoga (aka. Dzogchen) - emphasizes a non-gradual method which transcends the two stages of tantric yoga and focuses on directly recognizing the true nature of the mind. The texts associated with this vehicle include the Kulayarāja Tantra and the "Seventeen tantras of the esoteric instruction cycle".

According to Longchenpa's Great Chariot:

Mahāyoga, the father tantra, the nature of method [related to] appearance, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is aversion and who are subject to excessive discursiveness. Anuyoga, the mother tantra, the wisdom of the completion phase [related to] the essential reality of emptiness, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is desire and who delight in stillness of mind. Atiyoga, the nature of nonduality, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is delusion and who are tarnished by [attachment to] effort.[10]

Alternate classification schemes within the Nyingma school

According to Jean-Luc Achard, "in the Nyingma tradition, there are several ways of classifying the teachings of the Buddha into nine, ten, and sometimes twelve Vehicles. Most of these classifications have not survived in practical usage, except for that into nine. In this case, the ninth is considered to be the Vehicle of Dzogchen."[11]

Regarding the alternative schemas which are now rarely used in Nyingma, Achard writes:

In the classification into twelve Vehicles (such as in the surviving proto-doxographical works of O rgyan gling pa), Dzogchen is the ninth Vehicle as usual, but it is composed of three subdivisions which are also styled Vehicles (theg pa). In this case, Dzogchen is equated with Ati yoga. Then, the tenth Vehicle is that of the sPyi ti yoga; the eleventh is that of the Yang ti yoga; and the twelfth is the vehicle of the Great Limit (mtha’ chen). Such references to higher categories of Dzogchen teachings, said to surpass those of Ati yoga stricto sensu, have survived at least down to the revelations of mChog gyur gling pa in the 19th century. Since then, practically no one has used these unusual categories, especially that of the Great Limit which remains more than obscure.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Tsongkhapa & Dalai Lama 2016, pp. 63 - 155..
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Jamgön Kongtrul 2005, pp. 40, 93.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Dahl 2009, Appendix IV: The Nine Yanas.
  4. ↑ spyod rgyud, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
  5. ↑ Jamgön Kongtrul 2005, p. 41.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Jamgön Kongtrul 2005, pp. 116-117.
  7. ↑ A Brief Presentation of the Nine Yanas by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, Lotsawa House
  8. ↑ Jamgön Kongtrul 2005, p. 128.
  9. ↑ Jamgön Kongtrül (2005), p. 141.
  10. ↑ Jamgön Kongtrül (2005), p. 308.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Achard, Jean-Luc. The View of sPyi ti yoga*. Archived 2021-06-24 at the Wayback Machine. CNRS, CRCAO, Paris

Sources

  • Dahl, Cortland (2009), Entrance to the Great Perfection: A Guide to the Dzogchen Preliminary Practices, Shambhala 
  • Tsongkhapa; Dalai Lama (2016), The Great Exposition of Secret Mantra, Volume I: Tantra in Tibet, translated by Hopkins, Jeffrey, Shambhala Publications . Outline
  • Jamgön Kongtrul (2005), Systems of Buddhist Tantra, The Treasury of Knowledge, Book Six, Part Four, translated by Ingrid Loken McLeod; Elio Guarisco, Snow Lion . Archive version
  • Ringu Tulku (2006), The Ri-Me Philosophy of Jamgon Kungtrul the Great, Shambhala 

Further reading

  • Mkhas-grub-rje (compiler); Lessing, R.D (senior translator) & Wayman, Alex (journeyman translator, annotations) (1968, 1993). 'Introduction to The Buddhist Tantric Systems' (Wylie: rgyud sde spyi'i rnam par gzhag pa rgyas par brjod). Tibetan transliterated in Wylie with English Translation. Second edition. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidass.
  • Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism, Wikipedia
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