(Антропологийн хичээл дээр бичсэн нэг эсээгээ оруулчихлаа.
Сонирхоод үзээрэй.)
Abstract
In this paper, I will discuss how Tibetan people construct
the knowledge regarding Tantric practice. Firstly, I will focus on the meaning
of Tantra and the history of its practice in Tibet. Tantric practice is a
complex system of rituals, meditation and doctrine. It is an ancient Indian tradition,
which later on prevailed in Tibet. Secondly, I will show how Tibetans construct
the Tantric knowledge. I shall also discuss the roles of gurus, symbols being
used, the practice of meditation and the religious debate involved in the construction
of the Tantric knowledge. Lastly, this paper will argue on the Tantric
practice’s complex and diverse nature in knowledge creation.
Introduction
As a citizen of a country where majority of the population
is Buddhist, I have certain interests and experiences related to Buddhism.
Mongolia has been a Buddhist country for many centuries. The influence of
Buddhism to Tibetan and Mongolian culture has always been an interesting topic
for me. For this essay, I want to focus on just Tibet and Tantric practice of
Tibetan Buddhism in consideration of the availability of information. My goal for
this paper is to discuss how people construct religious knowledge particularly
esoteric and mystical knowledge. Tantric practice can be the best example of
this kind of religious knowledge because it has gained a lot of attention to
its symbolic pictures of sex and other offensive illustrations. It has become the
one reason for its popularity in western world. As a matter of fact, this kind
of symbolic pictures cannot define the essence of Tantric Buddhism. The main
goal of Tantric practice is to help the practitioners go through their pathway
to enlightenment. In this regard, it is a complex system with doctrines,
rituals, and meditation. In this paper, I will examine how people construct
knowledge regarding this complex system based on secondary data.
The
meaning of Tantra and its history
First definition is from Novick (1999, p143) who said that, “Tantra is the collective term for a complex
system of meditative practices that use the methods of ritual symbolic
visualization for transforming one’s experience of conventional reality.” This
definition emphasized its symbolic side and visualization in meditation.
Secondly, Alexis Sanderson (1991, p91) posits that, “Buddhist
Tantra as ritual system, entails the evocation and worship of deities.by means
of mantras of which the visualized forms of the deities are transformations”. It
can be understood that deities are important feature of Tantric Buddhism.
Thirdly, Urban (1999) mentioned that first appearance of the
word Tantra was in Vedic times and which means extended spirit of a thing and a
system of thought. “However, according
to Sir Moneir Williams, the term has also been used throughout Sanskrit literature
to signify not only ‘any rule, theory or scientific work’ (Mahabharata) but
also ‘an army, row, number or series (Bhagavata Puranam) and even a drug or
chief remedy” (Urban, 1999, p125). I can
say that Urban (1999) offers a wider and more focused etymology of the word Tantra.
From these definitions, I can conclude that Tantra does not
just possess diverse meaning, but also it has rich historical background. In
general, Tantra can be understood as a religious ritual system. Now Tantra or Tantric Buddhism is widely used
across the world as body of texts, traditions and practices. Urban (1999)
acknowledges that western world constructed the term ‘Tantra’ in its own way and
it is formed around nineteenth century. In the western world, tantric is a certain
doctrine that is esoteric which is both sexually and morally offensive (Urban, 1999). MacGregor (1989) also
mentioned that Western people think Tantric Buddhism as a radical and a
controversial practice. In the last few decades, Tantric practices gained a lot
of public interest especially from the academic world. “In academic discourse, Tantric Buddhism
usually refers to a special esoteric school of Buddhist philosophy, practice,
and art based on treatises known as tantras” (Keown, 2003, p292). However, my
focus for this paper is not in the context of the western world but in Tibet.
There are also various kinds of classification of the Tantric
practice or Tantric Buddhism. According to Dreyfus (1997), there are mainly
three main Tantric systems in Tibet, which are Guhyasamaja, the Cakrasamvara,
and the Hevajra. These Tantric practices can be understood as a ritual,
practical and yogic, which have own root texts. The root text is a foundational
sutra. On the other hand, Blofeld (1970)
divided Tantric Buddhism (often called Vajrayana)
into three parts, which includes rules of conduct, sutras (discourses), and abhidharma,
which is an advanced doctrine. It is clear that Blofeld’s classification is
similar to Dreyfus’ one. Now I want to mention Gray’s (2007) classification. He
said that Tantric Buddhism is divided into four different types, which are
action tantra, performance tantra, yoga tantra and supreme union tantra. For
me, this classification is derived from the activities associated with Tantra. Moreover,
there are also the six types of functions of Tantra. These are Kriya, Carya, Yoga, Mahayoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga
tantras (Blofeld, 1970). From my
personal point of view, these varying kinds of classification regarding tantric
practice in academic world show clearly how this idea can be diverse and that people
can construct its meanings differently. It can also show that there is no
consolidated and systematic concept about Tantric practice in Tibet.
As mentioned before, I will discuss about its historical
background, in order to understand how it is constructed. Tantric Buddhism has gone through up and down
in its history of diffusion in Tibet. Peng (2013) states that there are four historical
stages in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. The first phase is the introduction of
Tantric Buddhism, the second phase is called “age of fragmentation”, which is the
stage of its great popularity in Tibet (Peng, 2013). The third phase is a
reintroduction to some parts of Tibet and the fourth stage is the “golden age”,
which is the revival of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism (Peng, 2013). As mentioned
before, Tantric Buddhism during this period is gaining great popularity among people
from around the world, not just from Tibet and India. This popularity is generally
derived from its esoteric illustrations.
In general, Tantric practice is an Indian tradition, which
has been partly hegemonising in Tibet since the seventh century (Samuel, 2005).
According Samuel (2005), Tantric Buddhism was transferred from India to Tibet
during the seventh and eight century. However, it looks like the Indian
monastic knowledge has survived in Tibet, but Tantric Buddhism has changed a lot
because of Tibet’s culture and intellectual environment (Samuel, 2005). Tibet’s
shamanist tradition called “Bon” has influenced significantly to Buddhist
Tantric practice as well. From personal point of view, this influence was not
in good way because there is similar history in Mongolian Buddhism. Now
Mongolian Buddhism has a mixed tradition with Mongolian Shamanism and Tibetan
Buddhism. As a result, people always confuse whether it is Buddhism or
not.
In Tibet, urban monks and monasteries usually have a certain
connection with state or government (Samuel, 2005). Some of them even have a
political role. Thus, this kind of political influence was one of the reasons
of power in Monastic life. Notion of tantric Buddhism is mostly connected to
its magical power (Samuel, 2005). Tibetan state intervened it because this
reason. Interestingly, the state has no responsibility to support the
Monasteries financially, because wealthy people already have been supporting
them (Samuel, 2005).
Samuel (2005) mentioned that Tibet was a powerful empire
from year 640 to year 840. Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism transferred to Tibet
around this period. Padmasambhava is considered as a Lama[1],
who is the founder of Tantric Buddhism (Samuel, 2005). Padmasambhava travelled across Tibet during
that time. He was an influential figure who had a major role in the
transmission of Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. Even though Tibetan empire has
collapsed, Tantric practices were still growing slowly with its own features of
Tibet (Samuel, 2005). Thus, a totally different form of Indian Tantric practice
was developed through the successors of Padmasambhava (Samuel, 2005). As
mentioned before, Tibetan shamanism and political role was the main
differentiator in Tibetan Tantric practice. In Tibet, Monasteries have become
more like Tantric centers during that time (Samuel, 2005). Now Tibetan Tantric practices are not considered
homogenous as different types of tantric practices have developed in Tibet.
As mentioned before, Tantric practice is called Vajrayana and Tantric practitioners are
called Siddhas in Tibet. According to
Samuel (2005), following features are important characteristics of Siddhas.
- In
Tantric Buddhism, the Siddha takes
own vows, which is additional to the Pratimoksa
vows and Bodhicitta vows. In general,
taking a vow is one of the important features of Buddhism.
- Tantric
practitioners do not need to follow the vow of “celibacy”. The emphasis is on
sexual and yogic practice. However, most Siddhas are celibate interestingly.
- Siddhas
learn the fundamental ideas from the root texts of Tantric Buddhism. There are
many ideas that are borrowed from Hindu Tantric texts to Vajrayana Tantric texts.
- Siddhas
practice the different rituals from general Buddhists. In Tibetan Tantric
Buddhism, there are significant influences from Tibetan Shamanism called Bon.
- Siddhas
do not follow the traditional moral and rather they pursue higher level of morality.
It means that they have no strict binding
in terms of moral principles.
Construction
of knowledge in Tibet
According to Dreyfus (1997), the way of organizing the
Buddhist knowledge is not an invention of Tibet and it is generally derived
from the Indian tradition. “Tantric practitioners known as the siddhas, and it
is they rather than the urban monasteries who provided a critical component of
the corpus of Buddhist knowledge taken over by Tibet: Vajrayana or Tantric
Buddhism” (Samuel, 2005, 57). Nevertheless,
it is important to understand the connection of Indian and Tibetan knowledge.
On the one hand, these two are inseparable in terms of Buddhist tradition. On
the other hand, they have own features, which I will discuss later in the
paper.
Now I will illustrate more about how practitioners construct
the knowledge in monastic school level in Tibet.
There are different types of sects in Tibetan Buddhism. One
of main sects is called Gelugpa. It is known as a yellow hat sect in Tibetan
Buddhism. Lamas of Yellow hat sect should spend around twenty years on practice
of Sutra and root text (Blofeld, 1970). Official Buddhist universities such as
Se rwa (Yellow hat sect) do not include tantra in their curriculum and
graduates study tantra by themselves separately from the university (Dreyfus,
1997). Some sects of Tibetan Buddhist think that tantric knowledge should be
private and secret in Tibet because of its magical power (Dreyfus, 1997). For
some sects, knowledge regarding Tantric practice is in their official curriculum
(Dreyfus, 1997). There is sect called
Nyingmapas, which is one of the Red Hat Sets (Blofeld, 1970). They study tantra
in their early period of learning and spend less time on Sutras (Blofeld,
1970). Thus, students usually learn basic tantric concepts, for instance
difference between sutras and tantras.
During the seventh and eighth grades, students are tested by general
tantric practices in those schools that teach tantric practices (Dreyfus,
1997). Even though some may not study Tantra, almost all of them have certain
knowledge regarding Tantric practice (Blofeld, 1970). Even normal people follow
some forms of tantric practice, for example visualization through mantra
(Blofeld, 1970).
The construction of meaning is not exceptional thing for
Tibetan monastic education (Dreyfus, 1997). They often use myth and rituals in
this purpose. “The central narratives are not derived from the concrete
teachings of the founder or the biographies of the central figures, but those emerge
from abstract doctrines. This, I suggest, is a particularity of scholasticism
as a religious phenomenon” (Dreyfus, 1997, p61). This is a characteristic that
we can see from other religions as well. It is very clear that belief is an important
feature of religion itself. Thus, it also plays an important role in Tantric
Buddhism.
In order to learn the mystical tantric practice, one needs ultimate
determination. Then, there is a need for a teacher who has experiences and
knows root texts (Blofeld, 1970). In general, tantric practitioners use
techniques, which usually illustrate good and evil. Blofeld (1970) mentioned
that there are common misperceptions regarding Tantric practice, which are
secrecy and sexual symbol. Knowledge about magical power in Tibet is similar to
knowledge of magical power in Southeast Asian countries and countries in
Himalayas (Blofeld, 1970). For instance, sacred places like mountains and lakes
are considered protectors of the communities in Tibet (Samuel, 2005).
The teachings of Vijnanavadings and Yogacarins are very
influential in Tantric Buddhism, because they have significant roles on
constructing philosophical and practical part of the teachings (Blofeld, 1970).
According to Blofeld (1970), it does not make sense to use solely historical
approach in religious subjects, so philosophical and practical aspects are very
important in order to understand construction of knowledge regarding Tantric
practice in Tibet.
Mills (2003) argued that there are various types of
systematization in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. Some schools and monasteries
emphasize on symbolic side of its interpretation and some schools are more
focus on literal interpretation (Mills, 2003). Thus, understanding regarding
Tantric practice is not homogeneous one.
“Whilst almost all Tibetan syntheses found a place for some combination
of tantra, ethical trainings and monasticism, schools such as the Nyingmapa,
Kagyu and Sakyapa placed a high total value on tantric trainings” (Mills, 2003,
p19). Monasteries are very important for some schools and for some, it is not
necessarily important factor in order to practice Tantra (Mills, 2003).
In Tibetan Buddhism, some people have innate connection to
the power and you need to have a relationship with them in order to access to
some religious knowledge (Samuel, 2005). In many cases, if a person could not
get a service from a certain monk or monastery, that person will choose simply
a different place or monk (Samuel, 2005). Here are lists of how people have access to
Religious knowledge (Samuel, 2005).
* By heredity – It can be understood as
more like a family influence but some people have innate talent to understand
Buddhist knowledge.
* By reincarnation – It is one of the
main features of Tibetan Buddhism. If a child is a reincarnation, he will be
considered as a high-level lama who is in his next life.
* Being in monastic community – It is
very common to send his/her children to Monasteries or send their child as an
apprentice of a certain lama.
* Spiritual development by
herself/himself – Through the meditation or sutras, people develop themselves
spiritually.
* Direct access to tantric deities –
Pupils in some sects of Tibetan Buddhism study tantric practice later in their
learning.
* Having access to holy sites – There are
some holy place that lamas usually meditate, read sutras and practice tantras.
According to Samuel (2005), there is a strong role of myth
and half-historical narratives in construction of knowledge in Tibet. Historical
narrative is usually considered as a story-based format. The myths and
half-historical narratives are usually transferred through formal and informal
oral transmission (Samuel, 2005). Through the ceremonies of Tantric practice
such as monastic ritual dances and other tantric rituals, people who do not belong
in a Monastic community can get knowledge regarding Tantric Buddhism (Samuel,
2005)
Practitioners of Gelugpa, Yellow hat
sect, mention that there are three main actions regarding its practice, which
are hearing, thinking and mediation (Wallace, 1999). The hearing can include the
textual study and it helps to understand Buddhist doctrine. The thinking
includes rational analysis and debate and it helps to check internal
consistency of thinking and internal experience of meditation (Wallace, 1999). The
goal of this function is to validate the teachings and inside knowledge within
the teachings (Wallace, 1999). The meditation helps to understand realities of
Buddhist doctrine (Wallace, 1999). I can
also say that it is a process to examine the realities within knowledge. First
two actions can be done under the guidance of the teacher lama in monastic
schools (Wallace, 1999). I think these two main activities, textual analysis
and debate, are similar practice to those in the modern education. In third
one, practitioners usually look for a master who can tell his/her experience (Wallace,
1999). However, the meditation is a self-learning practice in reality.
To conclude this part of the essay, I
argue that how the practitioners of Tantric Buddhism construct knowledge is not
a simple one. This process also often gets problematic when people systematize
in order to understand non-western knowledge especially religious knowledge.
When I compare this to my experiences regarding the construction of knowledge
in Mongolian Buddhism, Tibetan Tantric Buddhism is more complex and
sophisticated for my personal judgment because people do not care about the
meaning behind the teaching of Buddhism in Mongolia. Blofeld (1970, p163)
acknowledged it and he said, “Western men of learning, whatever their attitude
to the content of Tibetan scholarship, cannot fail to admire the amazing feat
of the Tibetans in reaching so high an intellectual level, especially when
comparisons are made with cultures of other mountain and island kingdoms
isolated for centuries from the mainstream progress.”
Now I will illustrate why the role of
Guru, Symbolization, Meditation and Debate are important features in the
construction of knowledge in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. I argue here that these
four elements are the main factors in terms of its influence in Tantric
Buddhism. Here are my rationales.
The
Role of Teacher / Guru
In tantric practice, it is very important to find one’s own
guru, who can teach its methods. “To be
accomplished, they must believe in what they teach and, therefore, fear of
appalling karmic consequences would deter them”
(Blofeld, 1987, p38). If his community is yellow hat sect, he most
likely becomes one of Gelugpa lamas (Blofeld, 1970). Then he is sent to monasteries
and spends around twenty years of religious studies. It means that they have
various teachers in their religious school. Red hat sects will be the one, who
stays with Lama (Blofeld, 1970). People who are involved in red hat sect send
their child as an apprentice to a lama or guru. Lingshed’s Geshe Changchub
explained, “Of course, your lama is more important than Buddha Sakyamuni, or
any of the Buddhas. After all, Buddha Sakyamuni is dead – he has gone to
nirvana. You do not receive the Dharma from him; he cannot help you, but your
lama can. You get your teachings from your lama, so he is far more important”
(Mills, 2003, p99). I think that it shows the most pragmatic side of Tantric
Buddhism with regards to the guru. It can be understood as a pragmatic feature
of Tibetan Buddhism in general because this attitude is realistic even though
it is religious practice.
According to Blofeld (1987), there is very little
information regarding initial training of Tantric Buddhism. Initial practices
and sutras are short and comparably easy but young student should repeat it
thousands of time (Blofeld, 1987). Students usually learn the fundamentals from
the root texts and then gurus explain them further (Dreyfus, 1997). For
example, they memorize four medical tantras and later they receive a comment gauging
their understanding (Dreyfus, 1997). This commentary type of knowledge
construction is the center of Tibetan monastic knowledge (Dreyfus, 1997). The commenting
process is one of the advantages of having a guru. However, this process also
creates a two-way relationship between the lama and the student. The lama is
occupying the more advantageous position because he has the capacity to assess
the performance of the student. In this regard, the discourse of “power” is
also present. In the process of knowledge creation, it is evident that there
are two types of actors, the dominant (Lama) and the subordinate (student). The
dominant are the ones who hold more power. Furthermore, the Tibetan knowledge
classification is different from western knowledge classification. Tibetan
religious texts are usually written as verses and these texts need further
explanation or commentary (Dreyfus, 1997). Those who do not know or who cannot
read the tantric text, daily practice can be mixed form of magic and
superstition (Blofeld, 1987).
In general, it is very important to gain knowledge from
reliable source. In tantric Buddhism it is called “empowerments” where a qualified
lama should initiate the training (Mills, 2003) but there are certain
restrictions. The lama or the instructor knows when his/her student can start
the practice; without them, students cannot understand texts (Mills, 2003).
The
Role of Symbolization
Tantric practitioners often use symbols that convey a
mystery (Blofeld, 1987). This can be understood as one of the ways of constructing
knowledge in Tibet. As mentioned earlier, symbolism has influential factor in
construction of Tantric knowledge, for example mantra can show ‘nascent
presence of divine form’ (Mills, 2003). In order to understand these symbols,
the one needs deeper knowledge regarding Tantric Buddhism (Blofeld, 1987). The symbols include diagrams, shapes, and
objects. There are also illustrations of god and goddess (Blofeld, 1987). Vajrayana
(Tantric) monks often select certain students to transfer their knowledge
orally (Blofeld, 1987). They think that if students use it inappropriately,
they might end up being insane. Even though there is sexual symbolism in
Tantric Buddhism, it has not been considered as a cause of secrecy (Blofeld,
1987). Symbols were important feature because during the meditation, practitioners
reach the intellectual ecstasy, which is thing that hard to imagine because of
its abstractness (Blofeld, 1987). Another reason of secrecy is its supernatural
power, which is a thing that not accepted in the modern world, because it is
cannot explained empirically (Blofeld, 1987).
Tantric symbols can be classified into
three different types (Blofeld, 1987). First, there is a direct teaching aid,
which is considered less important than the others, because these aids are usually
simple and easy ones (Blofeld, 1987). Second one is called living symbols and
those symbols have a wide and sophisticated explanation (Blofeld, 1987).
However, people need to spend more time on these aids. Third one is called a middle
category. They are less direct for teaching purpose but it is more dedicated to
students, who can understand it by themselves (Blofeld, 1987). Steven Katz
(1978) refers that symbols, diagrams, images and rituals are important factor
for practitioners that define what kind of experience they want from
practices. More than that, symbols also
play a huge part of the construction of knowledge of a religion because symbols
are also associated with a particular belief or particular religious activity.
Symbols are also not all the time referring to tangible things. There are
variations from different places, context and people.
The
Role of Meditation
In some Buddhist schools, firstly the student should start
with meditation and then he/she does some ethical training and after that
he/she studies about tantra as mentioned earlier (Mills, 2003). Students, who
want to become lama receive acknowledgement from his/her teacher lama and do
the Tantric meditations (Mills, 2003). In this regard, tantric meditation is
similar to other kinds of rituals (Mills, 2003). However, in general, Tantric
Meditation life is more individualistic and many Western scholars stated this
nature of Tibetan Buddhism (Mills, 2003).
From here, some people suspect that it
is not easy to have an unbiased understanding on Buddhist knowledge through the
meditation because they are following their teacher’s guidance (Wallace, 1999).
However, we need to understand that religious approach is different from modern
scientific approach (Wallace, 1999). In religious approach of constructing
knowledge, first you need to believe completely and then you will seek for
truth within yourself (Wallace, 1999). When people talk about the role of
belief in Buddhist knowledge, they should not forget that it is a complex
notion because Buddhism supports the skepticism in general.
Initially, practitioners need to take the Tantric vows, in
order to practice Deity yoga or Tantric meditation (Novick, 1999). Deity Yoga
is the spirit of Tantra. In order to reach enlightenment, the person has to do
more than meditate on emptiness (Novick, 1999). In tantric meditation and deity
yoga demand an imagination and visualization from practitioners and it is more
than belief (Novick, 1999).
However, in tantric practices, they use other traditional
Buddhist meditational methods, tantric meditation has own characteristics,
which is visualization (Blofeld, 1987). It often includes body, speech and mind
(Blofeld, 1987). Some practitioners
prefer to stay by one and spend around three or seven years in solitude
(Blofeld, 1987). After years of practice, they become one who does need to rely
on books. “In short, visualization is a yoga of the mind” (Blofeld, 1987, p45).
It is not easy to explain how they achieve it. For example, Lopon who is a high
level lama, was doing annual retreat in Kumbum and then he recited the tantric
scripts and imagines himself as tantric Buddha (Mills, 2003). Most lamas become
specialist for certain Tantric practice, but they need to learn almost all
practices (Mills, 2003). Lopon’s retreat
can be demonstration that Buddha’s presence is coming to the monastery (Mills,
2003).
Even though practitioners and lamas can
explain the Buddhist meditation in detail, experience of the meditation is
totally different from one another, so people who have not experienced it
cannot imagine what it is (Wallace, 1999). Thus, the meditation creates a
space, a space that varies from people to people. So through meditation, there
is a personal encounter and that makes the tantric practice also personalized.
Even
Dalai Lama once mentioned that you can find religious teachings from books,
experience is like a finding gold (Wallace, 1999). Paul Griffiths (1986, p13) “states that the
Buddhist cultivation of contemplative insight consists of repeated meditations
upon standard items of Buddhist doctrine...until these are completely
internalized by practitioners and their cognitive and perceptual habit-patterns
operate only in terms of them."
Even though most of Buddhist meditation
is normative, there are no descriptions regarding one’s meditation experience
and no written references even though meditation practice has been developing
for more than five hundred years in Tibet (Wallace, 1999).
The
Role of Debate
In Tibet, religious education begins with literacy and
memorization and then they do hermeneutical practices (Dreyfus, 1997). “The
interpretation of commentaries is thus one form that hermeneutical practice
takes in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It is not, however, the only or even necessarily
the main one, for a remarkable feature of much Tibetan scholastic education is
the importance of dialectical debates” (Dreyfus, 1997, 31). It gives students
more chance to investigate further to that certain issue. Dialectical debates
and commentary are the two common practices of Tibetan monastic education
(Dreyfus, 1997). “This pedagogical role
for debate has led the Gelugpa
tradition to focus on dialectical questions rather than on the more textual and
commentarial aspects of Indian Buddhism. As a consequence, this tradition has
tended to limit the textual basis of its studies” (Dreyfus, 1997, 46) Even though it has huge
importance, debate is not central method.
Sakyamuni Buddha himself stated clearly that it is not fine
to follow his teachings blindly, but rather always try to investigate it
(Blofeld, 1987). However, Tibetan Buddhism is different from western
empiricism. According to Mills (2003), symbolic feature of Tantric Buddhism
indicates a performative perception of meaning, not just descriptive one (Mills,
2003). “Taking a performative approach to language also implies taking a
performative approach to the question of truth itself: after all, simple acts –
such as kicking a football – are neither true nor false: they simply are” (Mills,
2003, p114). There are two main functions to this kind of performative
approach, which are construction of knowledge and systematization in its own
way (Mills, 2003). It means that tantra
has significant link to the performer.
Conclusion,
First of all, I can conclude that the role of a religious
leader was significant in diffusing the Tantric Buddhism in Tibet. Indian
religious leader, Padmasambhava, was the first person who traveled across Tibet
and disseminated the Tantric Buddhism in the country. The disciples of
Padmasambhava helped to spread the Tantric teachings more widely and develop it
in Tibetan culture.
Secondly, even though it has dimensions of abstractness and
magic, practitioners are pragmatic when it comes to training and meditation.
For example, as mentioned earlier, some people prefer their teachers than
Buddha Sakyamuni because the Buddha is dead and you cannot get comment on your
understanding from dead person. Then they prefer their teachers. Thus, role of
guru/teacher is very important in construction of knowledge in Tantric
Buddhism. They have also an important role in the Buddhist knowledge
construction because they often participate as a commentator. This is the one
feature of Tantric Buddhism and it called commentary feature. On the other
hand, there is also performative feature in Tantric Buddhism, which can
demonstrate self-learning side, especially when it comes to meditation; their
learning process becomes more personal journey.
Thirdly, symbolization and myth are next important factor in
the knowledge construction. Tantric Buddhism uses symbols to illustrate ideas
behind the meaning of sutras. These symbols work like help-desk for
practitioners because of usefulness. However, symbols can also be a reason to understand
it wrongly i.e. sexual symbolic pictures. In Tantric meditation, visualization
is the key element as mentioned before. I can conclude that symbolization,
myths, and visualization are the tools to construct knowledge in Tantric
Buddhism.
Lastly, I personally admired the Tantric Buddhism because it
emphasizes skeptical attitude toward any kind of teachings. If you are
practitioner of Tantric Buddhism, you need to investigate the teachings further
through your own common sense. However, there is also a role of belief in
Tantric Buddhism. For example, a practitioner should believe their gurus in
order to receive the guidance from them. I think that this shows clearly the
complexity of Tantric Buddhist knowledge construction.
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