Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

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Padmist
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Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Padmist »

Could you please recommend sources you know, Buddhists or Buddhologists, who focus their work on how Vajrayana developed and spread?
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Aemilius
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Aemilius »

Encyclopedia of Tantra, 5 volumes
by Sadhu Santideva

Image

It is not very much buddhist, but it is interesting, and relevant to the question of history.
svaha
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They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1. (in english and sanskrit)
tingdzin
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by tingdzin »

If you can take heavy academic stuff, try R. Davidson's Indian Esoteric Buddhism,although it has its flaws.You also might try Reginald Ray's books, though the relevant titles have slipped my mind right now. A lot of scholars specialize in one or another sub-area of the subject., such as dakini lore, ritual practices, literature, etc., Wedemeyer not too long ago published a work exploring several theories of the origins of Vajrayana and "Tantra" (the two are in no way equivalent) called Making Sense of Tantric Buddhism. If there is an authoritative and current summary available, I don't know of it; the store of knowledge is continually being increased.
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by FiveSkandhas »

You might find something of interest in the archives of the following academically-written and generally well-sourced blogs. They are not all up to date, but some of the older pieces in them are excellent.

https://blogs.orient.ox.ac.uk/kila/

https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/

https://earlytibet.com/
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karmanyingpo
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by karmanyingpo »

tingdzin wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 12:48 am Vajrayana and "Tantra" (the two are in no way equivalent)
Can you please help explain why? Is it because Vajrayana encompasses non tantric practice, and tantra can also be found in non Vajrayana buddhism?

KN
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tingdzin
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by tingdzin »

In the first place, "tantra" is an impossibly poorly-defined word, and all academic types who use it recognize that its use, and that of "Vajrayana", must be explained and boundaries must be set before an intelligent discussion can even begin. A quick reading of any scholarly introduction to the subject will bear this out. And what do you personally understand by the words? There is for example a very good discussion of this problem in the introduction to the massive volume on "tantra" in East Asia recently published by Brill, and many others I can't recall offhand.

Sloppy and careless use of both terms leads to a lot of problems. To begin with there is so-called "Hindu" tantra which is obviously not the same as "Buddhist tantra" or Vajrayana . There is a lot of debate between the historical relationship between the two, but there are some forms of the former that have nothing to do with the latter in terms of goals, "philosophical" views, etc . -- in fact little in common at all except perhaps in terms of ritual structures (and some scholars think that ritual structures are in fact the defining feature of "tantra"). If one does define tantra in this way, then one could say that "tantra" can be found in non-Vajrayana Buddhism. It all depends on how one uses the words.
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FiveSkandhas
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by FiveSkandhas »

What do you think of the term "mantrayana?" I personally find it more precise than "Vajrayana" and wish it had more widespread use.

However problematic, it seems difficult at the current point in time to banish the expression "tantra" completely -- for example, "highest yoga tantra" and the like are fairly entrenched, as is the use of the term "tantra" in non-sutra texts.
"One should cultivate contemplation in one’s foibles. The foibles are like fish, and contemplation is like fishing hooks. If there are no fish, then the fishing hooks have no use. The bigger the fish is, the better the result we will get. As long as the fishing hooks keep at it, all foibles will eventually be contained and controlled at will." -Zhiyi

"Just be kind." -Atisha
tingdzin
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by tingdzin »

Nothing wrong with using the word "tantra" as you have, as long as one understands that in this context (highest yoga tantra) it refers to a very specific class of literature as defined by a certain tradition, and that no historical conclusions can be drawn from it. There is a tendency to do exactly that, even though there is a lot of scholarly literature that has pointed out the flaws with this approach. The fourfold classification beloved by the New Translation schools in Tibet is a later development which is moreover not accepted by East Asian Vajrayana.

"Mantrayana" at least avoids a lot of wrong assumptions.
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Hazel
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Hazel »

FiveSkandhas wrote: Sat Jan 09, 2021 1:37 am You might find something of interest in the archives of the following academically-written and generally well-sourced blogs. They are not all up to date, but some of the older pieces in them are excellent.

https://blogs.orient.ox.ac.uk/kila/

https://www.tibetarchaeology.com/

https://earlytibet.com/
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Kim O'Hara
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Kim O'Hara »

tingdzin wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:05 am ... -- in fact little in common at all except perhaps in terms of ritual structures (and some scholars think that ritual structures are in fact the defining feature of "tantra"). If one does define tantra in this way, then one could say that "tantra" can be found in non-Vajrayana Buddhism. ...
Indeed.
There's a very long thread on Tantric Theravada on the other Wheel, started by a Theravadin monk (Western-born and Thai-trained, if I remember rightly). Here it is for anyone interested - https://www.dhammawheel.com/viewtopic.php?t=10503

Thailand/Angkhor, of course, was alternately Hindu and Buddhist for quite some time so perhaps the tantric elements could have seeped into their Buddhism locally rather than being brought from India. Real life is much messier than history!

:namaste:
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tingdzin
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by tingdzin »

Kim O'Hara wrote: Wed Jan 27, 2021 7:45 am Real life is much messier than history!
I would say that real life is messier than predigested, popular versions of history. Once one gets into it, history itself also proves to be pretty messy, and all the more interesting because of that, as the other thread you linked to shows.
Malcolm
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Malcolm »

FiveSkandhas wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:37 am What do you think of the term "mantrayana?" I personally find it more precise than "Vajrayana" and wish it had more widespread use.
In the Indian Buddhist tantras preserved in the Kengyur, there are 93 mentions of vajrayāna; 2 mentions of guhyamantrayāna; and 21 mentions of mantrayāna.

In the Indian commentarial literature preserved in the Tengyur, there are 461 mentions of vajrayāna; 75 for guhyamantrayāna; and 191 for mantrayāna, but many times, mantrayāna and guhyamantrayāna are quite close to each other in proximity, meaning that the former is often a contraction of the latter.

I would say, that since the Vajramāla commentary and other texts equate Vajrayāna and Mantrayāna, Vajrayāna is clearly the more widespread and widely used term in Indian sources, and therefore, mere force of usage in Indian literature favors the use of the term Vajrayāna as an overall name for this Buddhist textual movement.

In Tibetan sources one often see "Secret Mantra Vajrayāna" (gsang sngags rdo rje'i theg pa).

To add to this, the earlier tantras transmitted to Japan are quite few in number, compared with the very large amount of tantras transmitted to Tibet at exactly the same time (800 CE). The term "vajrayāna" was already widely used in India by this time even for so-called "lower tantras" like the Subāhuparipṛcchā Tantra, or "yoga tantras" like the Vajraśikhara tantra, in which is found the term "vajrayāna," though not in the incomplete version translated by Amoghasiddhi.
Malcolm
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Re: Academic Sources on Development of Vajrayana

Post by Malcolm »

tingdzin wrote: Mon Jan 18, 2021 9:05 am in fact little in common at all except perhaps in terms of ritual structures (and some scholars think that ritual structures are in fact the defining feature of "tantra"). If one does define tantra in this way, then one could say that "tantra" can be found in non-Vajrayana Buddhism. It all depends on how one uses the words.
The earliest text we know of to be titled a "tantra" is the fabled Agniveśa Tantra, held to be the core text around which the Caraka Samhita is written. Caraka Samhita is the earliest Ayurvedic medical text, most likely written written somewhere around 100 BCE-100 CE.

In Tibetan Medicine, the word "tantra" is held to mean "to protect the body" from "tanu + tra."
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