The Fundamental Rationale of Tantric Buddhism

By Living Buddha Sheng-yen Lu

I personally find that the fundamental rationales of the Tantric tradition and the Sutric tradition are completely different. I can tell that the approach employed by the Sutric tradition to salvage sentient beings is the method once used by an ancient Chinese man called Gun, who tried to control a flood by blocking it. However, the approach of Tantric Buddhism liberates sentient beings through the method employed by Gun`s son, Yu, who controlled the flood by channeling the water.

These approaches of blocking and channeling are meant to deal with the three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance. Both the Sutric and Tantric Buddhist traditions acknowledge the presence of these three poisons in the hearts of humans, existing as the accumulated karmic residue from ages. While the Sutric system aims on removing these poisons, Tantric Buddhism cultivates by coexisting with greed, anger and ignorance.

I have highlighted: Greed - The Jambhala Practice. Anger - The Wrathful Guardian Practice. Ignorance - The Consort Practice.

This is the fundamental rationale of Tantric Buddhism, of which the divine deities can be addressed directly as `greedy Buddha`, `angry Guardian`, `ignorant Bodhisattva` or `desirous Bodhisattva`. The rationale of Tantric Buddhism is that coexisting with greed, anger and ignorant, thereby satisfying the wishes of sentient beings through the methods of cultivation, proves to be the most effective approach. Once a practitioner attains the Dharma taste, he or she will naturally understand that greed is emptiness, anger is compassion, and ignorance is wisdom. Eventually, by means of transformation, one realizes there is no gain and loss, and therefore achieves the subjugation of the ego self. The practitioner sees through the illusion of lust, and arises to spirituality, attaining the Primal Wisdom of the Buddha.

Tantric Buddhism regards lust, anger and ignorance as aspects of Buddhadharma, thus it liberates sentient beings accordingly, based on their respective basic instincts and natures. Furthermore, the Tantric mantras are able to bind all evils, prevent them from arising, arrest any evil actions, and help in the increase of wisdom. This is the foundation of the rationale. Tantric mantras can transform all impurities into purity.

Many people today have little understanding of the fundamental rationale of Tantric Buddhism, and they barely scratch the surface of its teachings. They commonly associate Tantric Buddhism with things related to strange, mystical, cult-like activities, which engage in the use of spells, wine and meat. But seriously speaking, the rationale of Tantric Buddhism ultimately aims to transform all defilements into purity, purify one`s mind, and attain supreme purity.

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