RELB 2054 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Exoteric, Vajrayana, Cosmogram
18 Feb 2016
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Tantrism and yoga: exoteric vs. esoteric forms of buddhism. Secret and restricted: everyone has access to it: don"t have to go through special gateway rituals and stuff to go through w/ it. Teachings are relatively self-explanatory: teachings don"t require a lot of mediation, if you just put some thought into it, you can figure it out for yourself, no real secrets or riddles. Distance b/t yourself and the buddhas; slow: self effort, discipline, etc, we"re not buddhas, we"re ordinary beings going through samsara, to get access, you need to go through a ritual empowerment. Buddha in his human form (exoteric), rather in his spiritual form (god-like) Vajrayana path which is indestructible like a diamond and it leads to indestructible result as buddhahood. Mantrayana main self-descriptor: tantras scriptures of esoteric buddhism. Sutras scriptures of exoteric buddhism: empowerment, initiation, consecration. The gateway into tantra is the empowerment/initiation/consecration: yidam meditational deities.
