Buddhism 4A - Tibetan Buddhism Flashcards
What does Tantra mean?
To weave
What is Tantric Buddhism?
Tantric Buddhism is a tradition that focuses on mystical practices and concepts as a path to enlightenment
What is Vajrayana?
Diamond Vehicle, form of tibetan buddhism
What to Tibetans believe?
that there were ‘three turnings of the wheel of the Dharma’
What is Hinayana?
Arhat Vehicle
What are the three vehicles?
Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana
The three levels of vehicles can be understood by what?
the vows required
What are the Hinayana vows?
Patimokkha vows eg 5 precpts
What are the Mahayana vows?
Bodhisattva vows eg to become enlightened for sake of others
What are the Vajrayana vows?
Many and various ‘secret vows’ determined by your guru
In Tantric buddhism one uses one’s own personal what as an aide to meditation?
Guru
How do they see and treat the guru as?
a Buddha
In Tantric meditation one visualises what?
the Tantric deity
Why do they visualise the Tantric deity?
Because it represents an aspect of Enlightenment
What’s an example of this?
Avalokiteshavara symbolises compassion
How would one do this?
By visualising oneself sitting in front of the deity in their mandala (pure land)
What does mandala mean?
Circle but refers to the ‘Pure Land’ of deityies
What does Tantric practice involve?
Recitation of mantras
Why do people use prayer flags and beads?
Gain good karma or reduce negative karma from previous lives
What is Bon?
Pre-Buddhist religion in Tibet
What type of Bon practices does Tibetan Buddhism incorporate?
Astrology, medicine and divination
Most Buddhist traditions have ‘Protector deities’, what are they?
Worldly spirits who look after the tradition
How can these spirits be consulted?
Through a medium called an ‘oracle’
Is this Buddhism or witchcraft?
Some of these sound very similar to what we mean by ‘Witch craft’
What did Edward Conze translate ‘mantra’ as?
‘spell’
Buddhism is never generally compatible with what practices?
that seek to ‘harm people’
Therevada scriptures contain chants that protect people from harmful spirits, what are they called
Parittas
What is Tibetan Buddhism famous for claiming?
to be able to identify the reincarnation of deceased lamas
Who was the first famous reincarnation?
Karmapa
What is Lamaism?
negative term that has been used to describe Tibetan Buddhism
What does it derive from?
viewpoint of western scholars that Tibetan Buddhism isnt really Buddhism at all but a kind of corrupted synthesis of Buddhism
Tibet has what sangha structure?
Fourfold
True or false, monks are not vegetarian
True
What is the Tibetan Book of the Dead known as?
Bardo Thodal
What is the Bardo Thodal
Details the process of dying and negitiating bardo
When one is in the Bardo, what will they see?
a ‘clear light’
If you can recognise this as your own enlightened mind then what?
you can achieve Nirvana
What happens if you dont recognise this as your own enlightened mind?
You will experience a range of images that are peaceful and wrathful
What happens if you recognise these as your own mind?
You can take control of your own rebirth
