Before the 7th CE the indigenous religion of Tibet (Bön) was very strong and its influence can be seen in Tibetan Buddhist practices today.

Bön was essentially shamanistic in nature:

(1) Ritualistic helmets and dress similar to Central and Northern Asian shame. An oracle priest conducts seances and travels to spiritual realms.

(2) Exposure of the dead--Asian and Persian (Zoroastrian) practice.

(3) Intermediate state between death and rebirth.

Separate Bön priesthood existed as late as 1973. Western Tibet especially strong Bön.

In 642 CE King Srong Tsan Gampo was converted by his two Buddhist wives--one Chinese and Nepalese. Under his rule all the Himalayan Kingdoms were united with a capital at Lhasa.

651 CE: first Buddhist temple erected. Tibetan students sent to India, but died in the heat. Some later (700s) students survived and translated some texts.

747: Padmasambhava (Lotus-born-one) came and used the Vajra thunderbolt against Bön demons. But many Bön elements survive in his "Red Hat" Tantric sect.

749: Samye monastery established. Yogacara teachings brought from Nalanda.

792: The great debate: a Chinese Zen monk is defeated by an Indian follower of Nagarjuna.

New translations from Sk. to a new Tibetan language undertaken. 330 volumes by the 1200s.

Tantrism went out of control in 9th and 10th centuries. Indian monk Atisa (1042) sent from Nalanda to restore Buddhism.

Major schools of Tibetan Buddhism (1-3 "Red Hats" and 4 "Yellow Hats")

(1) Nyingmapa--married and expert Tantrists, established by Padmasambhava.

(2) Naropa Sect--meditation and ascetic discipline. Isolation in caves.

(3) Sakyapas--traced back to Atisha who restored Buddhism in Tibet. Closest to the Yellow Hats.

(4) Gelugpas. The Yellow Hats. Long years of monastic discipline and learning. Tantra comes only at the end of a lama's training. Twenty years to receive the Dr. of Divinity. Since 1640 the Dalai Lama has represented this sect and has ruled Tibet, Mongolia, and other Asian States.

Great lamas can fix their next life and will leave clues about how they can be recognized as children. Living Goddess of Nepal chosen in the same way. Dalai Lama and Panchen lamas are chosen in this way.

Tantra literally means "thread," so in Buddhist terms it might mean that all of reality is woven and interconnected.

Five Ways of the East:

Tantric Buddhism arose ca. 6th century CE together with Hindu Tantrism in Northern India--NE and NW and Central Asia.

Nalanda University in the Punjab great center of Tantrism. Padmasambhava was teacher there; first missionary to Tibet 742.

While Hindu Tantrism preserved the female as an active, dynamic principle (prakriti; shakti) and male as inactive spirit substance (purusha) of Sankhya-Yoga, the Buddhist Tantra reversed this. Hindu Tantrism also preserved substance language.

Origin of the Tantric term vajra. Tantric meanings "diamond" or "thunderbolt." Originally meant the analytical knowledge, characteristic of early Buddhism, that proved nonsubstantiality, etc.

In Tantric Buddhism the substantialist is now threatened by Vajrapani--a demon who holds a thunderbolt or diamond.

O m        m a n i             p a d m e       H u m

A u m     the jewel is in the l o t u s      H a i l

A u m ,  the linga (male organ) is in the  y o n i (female organ)

Reference back to the Vajracchedika (Diamond-cutter sutra) of the Prajnaparamita literature. The Buddhist Tantra represents in effusive symbolism the thesis ---> antithesis ---> reconstruction of the Diamond-cutter Sutra. The Tantra allows this to be practiced as well as thought. This makes the Tantra truly Buddhist.

Kalupahana, 223: The five Skandhas symbolized by five Buddhas:

(1) Body (rupa): Vairocana ("shining out") "Sun" Buddha--solar deity. Used first as a name for Shakyamuni. Usually at the center of any Tantric mandala. Cosmic body of the Buddha.

(2) Feeling (Vedana): Ratnasambhava: Buddha of the South.

(3) Perception--Amitabha (literally "Unlimited Light") Buddha of the West where the Sukhavati (Pure Land) is.

(4) Disposition--Amoghasiddhi, Buddha of the North

(5) Consciousness--Aksobhya, Buddha of the East

Colors, mudras, goddesses are also associated with each. See table below.

Kalup: all these symbolic trappings good for ordinary lay Buddhists. Quote at bottom of p. 224.

Chakra syllable color skandha Buddha

head Om white rupa Variocana (center)

throat Ah red samjna Amitabha (west)

(sambhoga)

heart Hum deep blue vijnana Aksobhya (east)

navel Sva yellow vedana Ratnasambava (south)

two feet (?) Ha green samskara Amoghasiddhi (north)

In the Book of the Dead the blissful deities product of heart and throat chakras; wrathful deities, head chakra.

The yogi dresses like Shiva!

Shavite (Hindu) Tantrism fused with Tibetan Tantrism. Yogic heat (Sk. tapas; Tib. tumo) .

Vairocana (= Shiva) deposits his seed in the mother of Great Space (Womb)--seeds of enlightenment. (Book of Dead, p. 32.)

His consort symbolizes prajna = wisdom. The five forbidden things (makaras): madya--liquor (5 cups); matsya (fish); mamsa (meat); mudra (an aphrodisiac = beams); and maithruna (sexual union). "Left-handed," "Left-way" Tantra, Vama marga--woman--way.

THE BARDO THöTRöL (Trungpa trans.)

A book about rebirth, not so much about death. It's about liberation. Six types of liberation: hearing, wearing, seeing, remembering, tasting, and touching.

Composed by Padmasambhava and written down by his wife. Mandalas also given at this time. Texts buried in the Gampo hills in central Tibet. Later discovered by descendent of one of P's 25 disciples.

P.xvii: Tibetan version of the five skandhas. Nama grows out of rupa, which is the body-self before s/o split. Vijnana "which combines all the sense-perceptions and the mind. The self has now become a complete universe of its own; instead of directly perceiving the world as it really is, it projects its own images all around it." Skandhas are "transmuted into their transcendent or purified forms, which are presented during the first five days in the bardo of dharmata."

Tathagata: "He who has become one with the essence of what is."

Tathagatas of the Mandala of the Lotus Deities. Amitabha, whose family is the lotus, "symbolizes passion and desire, grasping hungrily at everything" (xix).

Trungpa: Self-salvation, even though a guru or deity might instigate the process (2).

Six Realms: Hell and its denizens, Hungry Ghosts, animals, humans, jealous gods (Titans), gods. Six realms are represented in the mandala of the five deities. Each of the realms has its own Buddha (23-4).

5-6: Hell as a self-induced state. When one is angry, one becomes anger itself. Hell is self-judgment. (Read this linked article.) In Hell one is not really punished, but overwhelmed by an environment which the person has created. Anger produces a fiery Hell; intense pride produces an icy Hell. Dante: Satan encased in ice.

Hungry Ghosts: craving leads to more craving. Gigantic belly and a small mouth.

Animal Realm: no sense of humor, but joy and pain.

Human realm: humor, but dominated by passion.

Asuras: Jealous gods--jealousy and envy, envy of the highest god's achievement, prestige, position?

Deva-loka: realm of pride, self-satisfaction at having achieved peace. Purusa ideal. Egoism and complete absorption into oneself.

Bardo literally means "island" or "mark" or "gap." Intermediate state.

11-12: Dharmata Bardo: the experience of luminosity. The essence of things as they are. Essentially the same as the dharmakaya. Sound of a thousand thunders roaring, but it is not deafening. No physical ears to hear and nothing to vibrate. Roaring sound from the near-death experiences.

Bardo experience can be induced outside of death by seven weeks of mediatation in total darkness. Peaceful deities in the heart; and the wrathful ones in the brain.

13: Fully perceptual visions, complete with sound and color. Distinction between intial radiance (dharmata bardo) and peaceful deities (second bardo). Initially feelings of enveloping peace, but then the Tathagatas do no respond to attempts to communicate. Ishvara type beings, totally self-sufficient and self-contained. "Terribly hostile"? In their isolation and impassibility? But merely the projection of our own past deeds. Is that why they are impassive? The peaceful deities are intrusions into the experience of total luminosity? Both experiences are frightful in their own ways: loss of individuality in the first, but loss of the bliss that it gives by intrusion of deities.

14: Peaceful deities are in the sambhogakaya level, while dharmata bardo is dharmakaya.

FIRST DAY (after four days of unconsciousness). White Light. Experience of the dharmakaya and luminosity. Vision of Vairocana, the Buddha with four faces. A while Buddha in blue space. The Buddha of panoramic vision. Terrifying experience: we tend to run away.

SECOND DAY. Water and blue. Vajrasattva: the hard-jewel being. Indra made a weapon out of this material. Like Thor's hammer: it always returned to Indra's hand.

THIRD DAY. Earth and yellow. Ratnasambhava and other Bodhisattvas.

FOURTH DAY. Amitabha, representing fire and the color red. Name means boundless light.

ETC. All told, 42 peaceful deities in seven days. 5th, air and green.

THE WRATHFUL DEITIES. Detailed story of Rudra and their origin. All of the deities come out of Rudra. Evil analogues of the peaceful deities. "Wrathful deities rep. hope, and the peaceful deities rep. fear" (26). ??? Hope because if you have courage to face them, they will help you win egolessness. Peaceful deities are fearful because they are impassive; they don't do anything. The real challenge is your evildeeds, not good deeds. The latter are done and constitute merit, the former have to be atoned for. That's why they represent hope??

28: Basic advise: accept and relate to what you experience. Accept it as your own.

TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD, Freemantle and Trungpa trans.

Invocation.

Corpse should be placed on its side, just as the Buddha himself died. Two arteries should be pressed so that final sleep is induced.

Short cuts for yogins of high capacities. Direct ejection of consciousness out the top of the head. Effects spontaneous liberation. No need to read Lib. Through Hearing.

Entering the first bardo, the pilgrim has an opportunity for complete lib. by merging with the "unorginated dharmakaya." (34)

You should realize complete emptiness in your mind (37). The clear light will offer itself several times.

Asvalokitesvara should be used by ordinary people for meditation during this period. Others may have special patron saints or yidam.

After the Bardo of the Moment before Death, one is really dead. Dear-death experiences: people return before this bardo.

Essential to abandon all fear before entering the second bardo. "I will recognize whatever appears as my projection and know it to be a vision of the bardo." (40)

Bardo of the Moment before Death (Chönyid Bardo), Bardo of the Dharmata (Chikhai Bardo), and the Bardo of Becoming.

Great roar of thunder: its the natural sound of one's own dharmamta. Then one starts seeing the peaceful deities.

Don't be seduced by the bliss of the gods. You will not reach lib. that way. Many pitfalls among the peaceful deities. You will be essentially battling and coming to terms with the accumulated karma of your entire life. Wentz, 107. First day there is possibility of an ambush. Rays of grace have hooks on them so that the pilgrim can be literaly saved.

42 deities of the sambhogakaya (51). The whole mandala now appears before the pilgrim.

For the totally ignorant and unenlightened non-Buddhists, this whole experience will be a complete downer. Might even mean reincarnation as an animal (53 bottom).

54: Bardo ends with another mandala with dancing dakinis