This week's readings introduce tantric practice as a new and distinct Buddhist tradition. It consists of the Method Vehicle and the Effect Vehicle (Powers 250), has mysterious origins (Powers 252), and consists of a more intensive and rapidly transformative approach to attaining buddhahood. At the very minimum, a practitioner of the tantra could complete the path to awakening in one lifetime rather than three countless eons, which are required for other practices of Buddhism. Presumably for this reason, along with some other details of the practice, tantra is characterized by some Western researchers as
"the final degradation of Indian Buddhism" (Powers 253).
Interestingly, Tibetan scholars disagree and contend that tantra is the supreme of all Buddhist teachings.
The main goal of tantric practice is to become indifferent to all notions of
"good and bad, pure and impure, and permitted and proscribed" (Powers 257).
In other words, embracing nonduality seems to be at the forefront of tantric practice (Yarnall 32). One of the innovations of tantric practice is the idea of reclaiming one's desire and channeling it into more productive purposes. In that vein, it is said that desire is misdirected and could be put to good use in the path to awakening; paradoxically, desire can be used as a means of overcoming desire (Powers 259). Faith is another crucial element of tantric practice. Due to the intense nature of the practice, it is required that practitioners be wholly dedicated and have genuine faith that the tantra is the best possible method of attaining awakening. Importantly, the faith described in Powers is certainly not blind faith; it is faith based on evidence and one's own educated reasoning (Powers 299). A question I have is how a prospective practitioner can know when they are "ready" to accept the tantra and how a teacher can be sure that a practitioner is ready to begin training. It feels like a quite monumental decision to make, with dire consequences for not following through with one's training, so I wonder what the internal process is like in preparing for the practice.
It bears repeating that there are serious consequences for not doing tantric practice the "right way," and the practice is therefore considered to be quite dangerous. It is recommended only for those who are equipped with the right qualities, specifically great compassion for others, and those who are serious about the practice (Powers 258). I found the analogy of jets to be useful in my understanding. Tantric practice is like a jet: it is a fast and effective way of getting from point A to point B, but not just anyone is able to learn how to do it. In the case of becoming a pilot, one must not only go through rigorous training, but they must have certain innate qualities like excellent eye sight and coordination. Further, tantric practitioners are not allowed to reveal what they know to outsiders who are not deemed capable of handling the information. I am curious to know exactly what information is kept so secret (though I guess it would then no longer be a secret), and why it would be so dangerous to reveal to a layperson.
The concept of a guru goes hand in hand with this idea that tantric practice is quite intense and potentially dangerous. Powers describes the necessity of preliminary practices to prepare for tantric practice, and a guru is crucial for this step (Powers 294). A practitioner's situation is like being stuck in a ditch, and only someone who has made it out of that ditch (an awakened being) can help you out of it (Powers 296). It is effectively impossible to follow the tantra without a guru, and there are several rules laid out for practitioners in how they must relate to their guru. Of highest importance is for one to view their guru as a fully awakened buddha, regardless of their actual qualities (Powers 315). I wonder if there is any danger in placing so much faith and trust into a person, or if there are any sort of case studies of bad gurus who have misled a practitioner. Is there a screening process or any system for monitoring gurus?
Both Powers and Yarnall discuss deity yoga in great depth. Deity yoga is described as the practice of visualizing oneself as a buddha. It is a visualization that takes a great deal of practice, but which, once developed, takes one much closer to attaining buddhahood in their own lifetime. I found Powers's notion that visualizations are no less real than ordinary experiences, which are also manifestations of the mind (303), to be quite profound and helpful in understanding the fundamental importance of these visualizations. Powers's and Yarnall's descriptions of tantric practice live up to the intensity with which the practice was initially described.