I have a sore throat and am losing my voice due to lots of speaking for work reasons,
but I wanted to make this video this week anyway. So please bear with me.
Religious scholars in East Asia will make the distinction between
sutra-based Buddhism (顯宗, xiǎn zōng) and tantra-based Buddhism (密宗, mì zōng).
Xiǎn zōng, sutra-based Buddhism, by its terminology, can also refer to exoteric, or to put
it in lay terms, the religious and philosophical Buddhism that you’re probably familiar with.
Mì zōng, tantric Buddhism,
is esoteric Buddhism. “Mì” in mi zong means Secret, the Mysteries -- Arcana.
Xīzàng mìzōng (西藏密宗), or Tibetan tantric Buddhism
is what the West often associates with the concept of “Esoteric Buddhism.”
But Tibetan tantric Buddhism is only one sect,
one Fó jiào pài (佛教派別), of the umbrella term “Esoteric Buddhism.”
I’ll skip the geopolitics around why the West is only familiar with
Tibetan tantric Buddhism and like literally nothing else.
Moving on— You’ll hear Chinese esoteric Buddhism referred to as Táng mì 唐密, which
rose in prominence during the Tang dynasty, 600 AD to 900 AD, give or take.
Táng mì is a form of Mahayana – well – put a pin in that – Mahayana Buddhist magic,
or esoteric Buddhism in the Mahayana tradition.
Esoteric Buddhism arose during the Tang dynasty. During the earlier centuries of the Tang,
Mahayana Buddhism was dominant and Vajrayana Buddhism had not even been developed yet.
Vajrayana wasn’t developed until around 700 AD, the latter half of the Tang dynasty.
So Táng mì or Tang dynasty Esoteric Buddhism, or forms of Buddhist mysticism,
is probably best characterized as part Mahayana, part Vajrayana.
And Táng mì pre-dates Tibetan Vajrayana esoteric Buddhism by 200 years.
It bears pointing out that this binary distinction between sutra-based exoteric
Buddhism and tantric esoteric Buddhism is a bit of an artificial construct courtesy of academia.
Because in practice, sutra recitation is tantric, so technically if you’re a practicing Mahayana
Buddhist, you’re practicing tantra. And if you’re a tantric Buddhist, one of your
core cultivation practices for amplifying magic and occult power is probably sutra recitation.
High level philosophy question here. Why is it, East or West,
when we get into occult practitioner spaces, everyone both loves and hates labels,
and no one can ever agree on the scope or definition of labels?
For those interested in exploring Táng mì,
the two key texts for cultivation and empowerment are the Vajrasekhara Sūtra
(Jīngāng dǐng jīng, 金剛頂経) and the Vairocanā bhisaṃ bodhi Sūtra (Dà rì jīng, 大日經).
[Pictured: Vairocanā Blessed Sand 金剛沙 or 金光明沙]
By the way, what you just saw on screen is a traditional magical
protection talisman you’ll find in Tang mi esoteric Buddhism.
You take sand from sacred, consecrated grounds, such as a temple or monastery,
and you bless it with 108 recitations of the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi Sūtra
(Dà rì jīng, 大日經), though any of the sutras in the Vajra traditions can be used for this.
Also, the spiritual disposition of the person doing the sutra recitation matters
a lot. At least in theory, religious theory. According to esoteric Buddhist belief systems,
you can’t just be anybody to do this. You’ve got to possess a certain aura,
achieved a certain level of cultivation, and so forth.
So, for example, something I will do for myself before I craft this type of a protection sand is
to be vegan for 49 days, to live and adhere very strictly to Buddhist tenets for those 49 days,
such as making sure I don’t raise my temper, speaking no ill, blah, blah, blah…
…speaking no ill and not gossiping for 49 days is much harder than you would think…
The belief is that this blessed sand will protect the living when worn on the person,
and also purify the karma of the deceased when you sprinkle it over their remains.
It’s used as spiritual protection, so wherever
you sprinkle this consecrated sand, no demons can trespass.
It stops and blocks baneful magic.
In the way that Tibetan tantric or esoteric Buddhism is Buddhism syncretized with Tibet’s
native shamanic practices of Bön (Běn jiào, 苯教), esoteric Buddhism or Buddhist
magic in China syncretized with native shamanic-historical traditions and Taoism.
Esoteric Buddhism also assimilated into indigenous shamanic practices across Mainland Southeast
Asia—that’s Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and the Malaysian peninsula—and—if
you’re asking me? If you’re really interested in understanding the full potency of “Buddhist magic
and sorcery,” personally, I’d go and study tantric Buddhism in the Southeast Asian traditions.
And finally, there’s Shingon Buddhism, also a tradition of Esoteric Buddhism that rose out
of Japan. Shingon Shintō, which came about around 800 AD, syncretizes esoteric Buddhism with Shinto.
So generally, Mìzōng, or Tantric Buddhism,
is a branch of Buddhism syncretized with indigenous Asian folk practices and beliefs.
It’s an approach to Buddhist practice that cultivates an interactive relationship with
the various spirit realms, devas and apsaras (飛天, fei tian) to ashuras,
and even naraka, if you are so bold.
Ashura (阿修羅) are…fallen angels? -ish…
So in Buddhism, devas are celestials that try to inspire you toward a greater good,
while ashuras seek to subvert what the devas are trying to do. Ashuras tempt you toward
self-empowerment, generally being selfish and self-interested, and indulging in the vices.
And there are many lineages in tantric Buddhism that work very closely with ashuras.
Esoteric Buddhism, or Buddhist mysticism, is also a system of occult practices that
help humans to more productively engage with the spirit world. So
you’re going to see talisman crafting, divination, exorcisms, faith healing,
and rituals for interacting with spirit entities from the various Buddhist realms.
When we’re talking about tantric Buddhist practice,
one core approach to cultivating the personal power needed for
occult practice is recitation of the Diamond Sutra (金剛經, Jīngāng jīng).
Another would be the Xián jié jīng (賢劫經), or Bhadrakalpika Sūtra. It’s known in
English as the Fortunate Aeon Sutra, and also as the Thousand Buddha Names Sutra.
Whether you’re battling demonic entities, performing exorcisms, blessing talismans,
healing the sick, cursing someone, you’d be working within that portfolio of sutras.
Whether you’re talking about Mahayana or Vajrayana Tantric Buddhism,
Tantric Buddhism as an occult practice is subdivided in two Mi 密, Secrets, or Mysteries.
You’ve got Lao Mi 老密, the Elder Mysteries and the Xin Mi 新密, the New Mysteries.
And these two Mystery schools of tantric Buddhism are distinguished from one another
by the… in short summary, by the sutras they focus on. I mean, it’s complicated,
and I really want to keep this video brief so let’s just keep it to that explanation.
Back to the distinctions or conceptual differences between
sutra-based exoteric Buddhism and tantric esoteric Buddhism.
In sutra-based Buddhism, “normal people Buddhism” as I’d like to call it,
the core premise for Buddhist practice and spiritual cultivation
are: (1) purify the mind, (2) purify the body, and (3) purify the spirit.
Whereas in esoteric tantra-based Buddhism, the core premise for Buddhist practice and
spiritual cultivation are: (1) know the secrets of the mind, (2) know
the secrets of the body, and (3) know the secrets of the spirit.
Knowledge of the Mi, the mysteries then becomes your path to empowerment.
Conceptually, sutra-based Buddhism is about detaching from your sense
of self and ego to reunite with a collective divine consciousness.
Whereas tantric Buddhism is about amplifying the power of the ego and taking for yourself
the powers of Buddhas and bodhisattvas, to essentially become a god yourself.
Now when we start making references to “magic” in Buddhism, it gets murky and confusing,
because technically, this concept of “magic” or its equivalent is found in both sutra-based
Buddhism and tantric Buddhism. Buddhist magic is not just limited to tantric or esoteric Buddhism.
In sutra-based Buddhist magical or ritual practices, the goal is,
in theory, spiritual transcendence.
And by and large, the only way to achieve that is meditation
and reading sutras to “sew” Buddha’s wisdom into your mind, body, and spirit.
You sew the sutras into your mind, body, and spirit…
(sigh) That is an inside joke that nobody watching this will get. I’m making fun of a shi fu.
In tantra-based Buddhist magical or ritual practices, the goal is personal empowerment.
The concept at play is siphoning power and harvesting it for yourself.
In sutra-based Buddhist magic, there’s the belief that you need to be calm and
emotionally balanced, emotionally detached, to effectuate the most powerful magic.
But, in tantra-based Buddhist magic, the belief is the total opposite - you need to be extreme with
your emotions to effectuate the most powerful magic. Anger, wrath, lust, pride and hubris.
Approaching exorcism with the intention to kill or vanquish the demon through some form
of psychic or magical ritual battle tends to be associated with tantra-based Buddhist magic.
Approaching exorcism with the Great Compassion Mantra (大悲咒, Da Bei Zou) where you’re invoking
Kuan Yin and having the Bodhisattva of Mercy come to save the demon,
or you invoke Di Zang Wang Pusa by reciting the Sutra of the Past Vows to help the demon with
rebirth back into humanity, then that tends to be associated with sutra-based Buddhist magic.
Oh, and some context and definitions for these words I’ve been throwing around:
A dharani (陀羅尼, Tuóluóní) or a mantra (咒, Zhòu), are
recitations where speaking it is a form of magical or mystically-charged incantation.
The recitation itself invokes or manifests something. You could
maybe describe it as a spell, where the words themselves,
in the strings they’re put in, are magically empowered somehow. Enchanted.
A sutra (佛經, Fójīng) is a sacred text consisting
of spiritual or religious teachings. It’s considered canonical scripture.
When you recite a dharani or mantra, recitations of the words create thought forms,
and those thought forms become magically charged with the power to protect, to purify,
or to heal. Which is why they are such a big part in Buddhist magic and esoteric Buddhism.
Oh god—my throat is really killing me…
When you recite a sutra, visualize yourself sewing pearls of wisdom into your mind and memory.
(Again, making fun of a shi fu. With love. With love.)
We now get to the question that is always asked:
Is tantric Buddhism a closed or open cultural practice?
How do I want to answer this…
Let’s start with the easy stuff. Sutra-based Buddhist practice, always open. Religious,
devotional, or philosophical Buddhism, always open. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
With that resolved, now let’s return to tantric Buddhism.
The reason I’m struggling with how to approach answering is because I don’t want to gatekeep,
and I don’t want to fear-monger, but I also want to be honest and thorough.
So let’s use metaphors. Let’s talk about a journey with a finish line, an end goal.
Sutra-based Buddhism provides a road map for how to complete that journey
and get to your end goal, but it’s the long way and the hard way. And in fact,
will probably take multiple lifetimes to get there.
It’s the way that requires patience and self-control, and selflessness, and compassion,
and forbearance. And emotional detachment, or sentimental detachment is a better term.
Tantric Buddhism, by and large, is saying,
a shortcut to the finish line, to get to your end goal, has been discovered.
You don’t have to renounce anything, you don’t have to be an ordained monk or nun. In fact,
you can continue to indulge in all your favorite things…
It’s a shortcut, but with potentially dangerous terrain.
Also, tantric Buddhism tends to attract particular types of personalities and egos.
The fact that someone is looking for a shortcut to attain omnipotent power, and who’s willing to
gamble with their soul and karma to get it, kinda tells you everything you need to know.
This is probably the type of someone who is going
to be a master manipulator if given the opportunity to be one.
And so should you choose to pursue this path, you need to be hyper-vigilant about sniffing out the
ulterior motives of your spiritual teachers. Certain lamas… certain shifu and gurus…
This shortcut involves dealing with more mara,
much sooner on the road than along the harder, longer, traditional path.
It involves you dealing with mara prematurely,
probably before you’re really ready to be dealing with mara.
Mara (tiānmó, 天魔) … are … demons? But native
practitioners don’t really make this clear-cut distinction between inner
demon and the more literal superstitious understanding of an externalized demon.
For a demon, a mara, tian mo, to exist on this earthly plane,
the mara itself, this “demon,” needs to exist contemporaneously within and without.
So it’s that resonance of it being conjured within a sentient consciousness and at
the same time externally conjured that a mara or demon comes to be.
That is to say that the “shortcut” way exposes you to more mara prematurely,
probably before you’re wise or strong enough to be dealing with mara.
So now come to think of it, tantric Buddhist cultivation is harder,
maybe, but harder in a different way.
And also, to be clear, as earlier noted, when we say “Esoteric Buddhism,” already culturally
we’re referring to not just Tibetan Mi Zong, but Tang Mi, and the many different Mi Zong of
Southeast Asia and of Japan, all typically syncretized with indigenous folk magic.
So I don’t want to inadvertently give the wrong impression that esoteric Buddhism is a monolith.
It’s very hard to generalize, because the various lineages have really different,
diverse magical practices and magical philosophies.
Not to mention, I’m biased. I tried very hard to be objective
and was diligent in trying to present the various lineages and systems objectively,
but it goes without saying that objectivity is impossible. And I personally come from a
Tang Mi tradition. And so whatever biases and subjective perspectives that come with
that – it’s going to present itself in the way I speak about Mi Zong (tantric Buddhism).
If you’re interested in a practicum so you have hands-on experience and
firsthand insight into what Buddhist magic, Buddhist mysticism, or esoteric Buddhism,
what this is exactly, I’ve opted to provide the “homework assignments” in written form,
so click on the link in the video description box for more information.
These “homework assignments,” for lack of a better term, will show,
rather than tell you about magical practices in Buddhist traditions,
specifically Tang Mi, or Buddhist occultism dating back to the 7th century Tang dynasty.
(Namo Da Bei Guan Shi Yin pusa.)