Interview: Buddhism, Tibet & Vajrayana with Lin Kai

A deep dive into Buddhist history, the Tibetan Vajrayana school, esoteric practices and initiation, shamanic syncretism and Buddhist views on violence

The following is an interview between myself and Lin Kai (

Experiments

on Substack), an account who is interested in studying all aspects of Buddhism and its history (@LinJKai on X/Twitter). His knowledge of the history and practice of Buddhism is vast, and I relished the opportunity for him to lay out some of the history and dive more deeply into the complex and misunderstood topic of Tibetan/Vajrayana Buddhism.

It is a long interview, but I know for myself I learnt a great deal and will be coming back to it again and again for names, details and descriptions. I’m sure you will all get something from it.

(I've uploaded the interview using an AI voiceover as well for those who would prefer to listen to it)

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(Stone Age Herbalist) Buddhism in the West today is presented as something closer to a form of self-help or even therapy than a religion. I thought a good way to start a discussion about Buddhism would be to clear up some of those misconceptions and outline its main tenets. If you strip away all the layers of culture and time, what is the core essence of Buddhism?

(Lin Kai) This is a question that's a little harder to answer than many people think. After all, many of the modern misconceptions about Buddhism are downstream from scholars and practitioners of Buddhism who tried to derive a ‘core essence’ of Buddhism that was more palatable to their own time. Nevertheless, modern Buddhist religious leaders have become aware and open of this issue of regional cultural accretion through self-reflection and dialogue with Buddhist traditions from other countries.

The surest statement about the core of Buddhism is that it consists of taking refuge in the Three Jewels, the Four Noble Truths, the philosophy of impermanence and the belief in karma and reincarnation.

The Three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings of Buddhism) and the Sangha (the community of Buddhist monks). To take refuge in them means that anyone who decides to become a Buddhist must believe that their teachings are true and commit to following them. There are several reasons why even this basic requirement means that Buddhism is nothing like secular therapy.

The historical Buddha, born Siddhartha Gautama, also known as Sakyamuni, is presented differently in Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, but what they all agree on is that he became enlightened. This was not merely a mental epiphany, it means that from that point onwards, he never experienced suffering and gained omnipotence and omniscience. Although some Buddhists like to say that the Buddha was ‘just a human’, this is not a statement of humility, rather it is meant to exalt the achievements of the Buddha who was born a human but whose insight and powers are essentially infinite. In the India of around 500 BC when he was born, this meant that the Buddha who walked the earth was proclaimed by Buddhists as superior to all the Vedic and Upanishadic deities, who are considered beings subject to death and reincarnation. Even in the Theravada tradition which emphasizes the humanity of the Buddha, the Buddha’s biography is full of miracles he performed to display his power. In these early sutras the Buddha also proclaimed the existence of future Buddhas to come and past Buddhas who had attained the same enlightenment but whose teachings had been forgotten. To take refuge in the Buddha is to believe in all these things, not to mention the more cosmic understanding of the Buddha in Mahayana and Vajrayana’s theory of the trikaya, the Buddha’s Three Bodies.

Secondly, ‘dharma’ famously has many meanings, but in Buddhism it often simply means the truth. Buddha said of his teachings that they are the objective truth, a description of reality. Though the Buddha encouraged people to verify this using their own reason before committing to becoming Buddhist, there is of course a certain amount of faith necessary because the novice doesn't have the experience of removing their attachments and has not developed the states of awareness Buddhism intends to cultivate. The second jewel of the Dharma is therefore not just the texts and oral teachings of Buddha and Buddhists throughout the ages, it is considered truth itself. For this reason, although one day these teachings will be forgotten due to the passage of time, Buddhists believe they will always be rediscovered by the future Buddhas to come.

The Sangha originally meant the community of monks, distinguished from lay followers. They are a source of refuge because they have committed their lives to the practice of Buddhism, and though they are not inherently superior to laymen, they are the transmitters of the Dharma and one places faith in them as teachers. There is much emphasis in the early sutras and vinayas (codes of conduct for monks) of the physical and mental strength necessary to be a good monk, because it entailed concentration during meditation, living as a mendicant, and the will to commit to asceticism. It is rather explicitly a brotherhood, and there is a famous story of the Buddha’s personal attendant Ananda requesting that women should have the opportunity to form a parallel institution of nuns. The Buddha accepted, but said that it would mean that the teachings of Buddhism would be forgotten sooner. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Sangha is expanded to include the bodhisattvas, who are beings who have almost achieved the level of Buddhahood yet have made vows to help others achieve enlightenment before themselves.

(SAH) What are the Four Noble Truths?

(Lin Kai) The Four Noble Truths are the four axioms which the historical Buddha proclaimed after he became enlightened and are the foundation for all Buddhist teaching. They are

1. Dukkha: To exist is to suffer

2. Samudaya: The cause of suffering is attachment

3. Nirodha: By removing attachments there can be a permanent cessation of suffering

4. Marga: There is a path to the cessation of suffering

Of these four, the first noble truth has received the most misinterpretation from both those who consider it too pessimistic and those who attempt to sugarcoat the problem that the Buddha was describing. The first and second noble truths refer to the fact that suffering is inevitable in life, not merely because of events that cause pain, but because no good thing lasts forever. The attachment to worldly things causes suffering when they are lost, and so the root cause of suffering is attachment. This is the default condition of all sentient beings who are trapped within samsara, the cycle of reincarnation. The process of attachment causing suffering and reincarnation is detailed in the 12 Links of Dependent Origination, a cyclical process Buddha described.

The cessation of attachment is the realization that things are impermanent, not merely intellectually, but honed in meditation and reflected in the everyday attitude towards life. Finally, the Buddha's original formulation of the path to enlightenment was the Eightfold Path, elaborated in the early sutras. These weren't a series of steps like a mechanical process, but rather eight types of actions and virtues that one must engage in to remove attachments. The popular image of Buddhists as exclusively doing meditation is simply because different meditative techniques are part of this process. The method to reach enlightenment has received the most variation throughout the history of Buddhism, with many different sutras and meditative techniques being established as canonical and potentially helpful for individuals according to their capacities.

Integral to an understanding of the four noble truths is the philosophy of impermanence. Besides the observation that all worldly things are impermanent and thereby attachment to them causes suffering, the concept of self-identity is also impermanent. This means that there is no component of one's self that is unchanging like a soul, so an attachment to such a concept must be let go. This is the teaching of anatta, which means ‘absence of self’. In early Buddhism, the teaching of anatta led to a large body of scholastic texts called the Abhidharma which broke down the notion of self into various parts and their relations. The most basic grouping is the Five Aggregates: the physical body, the senses, perception, volition or the will, and consciousness. These are the five factors which make up what we call our ‘selves’ but they are each mutable and so is the product of their interaction. In Mahayana Buddhism, the philosophy of impermanence is vastly expanded by the concept termed ‘emptiness’, which applies the logic of impermanence not merely to ourselves but to all phenomena, which creates a distinct Buddhist ontology. It is fair to say that emptiness and the related concept of ‘Buddha nature are the core and most important teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. This topic is very extensive so I will not elaborate here.

Now, a brief explanation of karma and reincarnation is needed, which were essential parts of the Indic worldview before Buddhism.Karma is conceived of as a natural law, wherein certain mental states and the actions they lead to create either good or bad karma, which creates good or bad outcomes either in this life or in the next reincarnation. Karma is sometimes misinterpreted as ‘fate’ by modern people and lay Buddhists throughout history, when in fact the point of Buddhism is to take control of one’s life by eliminating the influence of karma because Buddhahood means that one is free of it. Nothing the Buddha did after he was enlightened generated any karma because the thing that generates karma is attachment. Although Asian traditions developed which may seem like “keeping score” of bad and good karma by doing good deeds like making donations, this is no replacement for actually pursuing the path towards enlightenment. Reincarnation is believed in because the Buddha debated contemporary rival schools of Indian philosophy such as materialists who believed in annihilation after death. Reincarnation is influenced by karma, with accumulation of good karma leading to a rebirth that is more conducive towards the study of Buddhism. For this reason, the human rebirth is considered better than rebirth as a worldly god, because in the Buddhist view the gods’ powers prevent them from recognising their own impermanence, while a human may have the chance to become a devoted practitioner. There have been attempts to interpret reincarnation as merely symbolic but this interpretation is a wholly modern invention that basically agrees with the Indian materialist schools, thus undermining Buddhism.

(SAH) I know many books have been written to explain this, but can you give us a skeleton timeline for the evolution and development of Buddhism? What are some absolutely key names, dates, places?

(Lin Kai) A good, easy-to-read introduction to Buddhist history is Edward Conze’s Buddhism: A Short History

We naturally begin with the birth of the historical Buddha around 566 BC in Lumbini, Nepal. The Buddha was born a prince of the Sakya clan, which is why he is known as Sakyamuni, the Sage of the Sakyas. His mother was Queen Maya who was traveling back to the capital city of Kapilavastu, and his father was King Suddhodhana. There are locations in Nepal and North India which have been proposed for Kapilavastu. The biography of the Buddha, his renunciation of royal status and his enlightenment under the bodhi tree are well known even to non Buddhists. After this, he traveled across North India to teach, performed miracles and established the sangha. The death of the Buddha’s physical body, which is called his ‘parinirvana’, happened in Kushinagar when he was around eighty years old (~486 BC). Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhists interpret this as the Buddha using his omnipotence to intentionally choose when he would die to demonstrate the truth of impermanence.

After the Buddha’s cremation and the distribution of his relics, the first Buddhist council was called immediately, where the Sangha that had spread across India convened to establish a canon of their master’s teachings. The traditional account is that Ananda, the Buddha’s cousin and personal attendant, was blessed with the ability of perfect memory and recall, so he was able to recite all Buddha’s teachings which were then transcribed. I was admittedly skeptical of this claim myself until I saw that apparently some people actually have this ability called hyperthymesia. Despite this, there was a second Buddhist council approximately 100 years later due to a disagreement about monastic rules, and it was said to have caused the first schism where distinct sects of early Buddhists emerged. Eventually the number of early Buddhist schools grew to 18, with the list varying in number. None of these schools have survived but the Theravada tradition does trace back to one of these groups.

Next, one of the most important events in Buddhist history was the patronage of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (304-232 BC). His empire conquered most of the Indian subcontinent and parts of Afghanistan. His edicts carved into pillars and stones are some of the earliest written evidence of widespread Buddhism. Ashoka also convened the third Buddhist council which was meant to purify the Sangha of monks who had joined for the sake of prestige. He also sent missionaries to all corners of his empire, which began Buddhism’s spread across Asia.

At this point, there are two ways, or two timelines, necessary to answer this question. The first is the timeline of Buddhism’s regional expansion and the second is the timeline of its doctrinal development. I will explain the regional expansion first.

Ashoka's missionaries made it to Sri Lanka in the South, Gandhara in the West and to Burma in the East. And a few examples of textual and archaeological evidence suggests Buddhist presence as far west as Alexandria in Egypt. Sri Lanka is certainly the oldest surviving stronghold of Theravada Buddhism and the first Buddhist temple there is dated to the latter half of the 3rd century BC. Gandhara was converted to Buddhism during Ashoka's reign and from the 2nd to 1st century BC, it was conquered variously by the Indo Greeks and Greco Bactrians, both offshoots of the Seleucid empire. Gandharan texts dating to the 1st century BC are the oldest Buddhist scriptures discovered and the Greek influence on Gandharan art is often credited with creating the first sculptures depicting the Buddha himself, whereas before he was only represented aniconically with symbols in carvings. This region was eventually controlled by the Kushan empire, who became patrons of Buddhism as well and established trade routes to China.

In the first century AD, Buddhism began spreading to China during the Han dynasty and an important early translator of scriptures who traveled there was Lokaksema (164-186 AD) from Gandhara. Later the more famous translator Kumarajiva (344-413 AD) from Kashmir became highly influential and received imperial patronage during the period of political division known as the Sixteen Kingdoms. During the 5th century, there are also legends of the arrival of Bodhidharma, one of the most popular monks depicted in East Asia. The Chinese histories disagree on his origins, such as whether he was central Asian or Indian, but he is said to have taught Emperor Wu of Liang and Chinese monks. He is known as a patriarch of the Chan or Zen tradition and one of its founders in China. He is also said to have visited the Shaolin monastery and taught martial arts, which is why he is often erroneously credited with creating kung fu.

We skip now to the 7th century, when Buddhism spreads for the first time to both Japan and Tibet. In Japan, the prince Shotoku (574-622) was the first major proponent of Buddhism as superior to the native beliefs which had not yet developed into the modern form of Shinto. Buddhism had spread to Japan from Korea, specifically through king Seong of Baekje (504-554) who had made Buddhism the state religion. The traditional account is that the first statue of the Buddha in Japan was given by this Korean king as a gift to the Japanese court. Different clans in the imperial government debated whether or not Buddhism should be accepted and Shotoku's faction won. He went on to build the first Buddhist temple in Japan, the Shitenno-ji.

Meanwhile, in Tibet, the king Songtsen Gampo of the Yarlung dynasty (569-650) founded the Tibetan Empire through rapid expansion of his territory, unifying the Tibetan plateau. He introduced Buddhism to Tibet and his two wives, one from Nepal and the other from China, are said to have brought the first Buddha statues to Tibet, housed in the first Tibetan Buddhist temple, the Jokhang in Lhasa. To spread Buddhism beyond the elites of the empire, the later Tibetan emperors invited masters from India and adjacent regions. The three most important figures in this period were Trisong Detsen the emperor (742-797) who brought Santarakshita the abbot (725-788) and Padmasambhava the tantric master to Tibet. Together they built Samye the first Tibetan monastery and trained the first Tibetan monks and translators. Tibet eventually became the center of central Asian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism would spread to Mongolia, Bhutan, and parts of China during some dynasties.

I have studied Southeast Asian Buddhism the least, but from my understanding, the extensive trade routes with India and China allowed Southeast Asia to receive Buddhism around the first centuries AD. In general, Southeast Asian civilization during this period was based heavily on Indian culture and so Hinduism and Buddhism co-existed. The most significant nations to spread Buddhism were the Khmer Empire (9th to 15th centuries) and in Indonesia, the maritime Srivijaya empire (7th to 11th centuries). The Srivijayans built the world famous Borobudur temple in the 8th century and were significant enough that the famous Bengali monk Atisa (982-1054) traveled to Sumatra to study with a master named Dharmakirtisri. Atisa would go on to aid in the revitalization of Buddhism in Tibet after the collapse of the Tibetan Empire, which shows just how connected the pre-modern world could be.

I've left out the further histories of Buddhist development within each of these regions because that would be much too long, but they will become relevant.

Now to explain the doctrinal development of Buddhism, we return to India where all major doctrinal developments happened first before spreading to other regions. The early sutras, abhidharma (scholastic analysis of mental and physical phenomena) and vinaya (monastic rule) texts were already discussed and are known as the ‘first turning of the wheel of dharma’. We left off with the Mauryan Empire, and during the last century BC, the first Mahayana texts emerged in India, with the earliest being the Prajnaparamita ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ Sutras.The central concepts in the Mahayana sutras are emptiness which was explained briefly earlier, the superiority of the bodhisattva path which focuses on helping others reach enlightenment before oneself, and the emphasis on compassion and wisdom as the core Buddhist virtues. Compassion is expressed as ‘skilful means’ (upaya), which is a collective term for every method used to teach Buddhism. Wisdom is developed through a personal understanding of Buddhist philosophy paired with increasing capacity to meditate and actualize what is learned. The Mahayana sutras which teach the bodhisattva path and emptiness are considered the ‘second turning of the wheel of dharma’. The Mahayana sutras are not considered part of the Pali Canon of the Theravadins, though Mahayana Buddhists consider them the authentic words of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas because they are written as dialogues and sayings of the Buddha just like the sutras of earlier Buddhism. Finally, later Mahayana sutras which emerged around the 2nd century AD introduce the concept of buddha-nature, and this is considered the ‘third turning of the wheel of dharma’. Buddha nature is another complex topic I will refrain from elaborating on. In short, it is the idea that since all beings have the potential to become enlightened, there must be some aspect of Buddhahood that mundane beings share, even if it is out of their reach in the vast majority of cases. This idea becomes integral to Vajrayana Buddhism.

An indispensable figure for Mahayana Buddhism was Nagarjuna, who lived during the 2nd century AD and whose work influenced all Buddhists who came after him, even the Theravadins through his attempted refutations of their beliefs. Nagarjuna established how the concept of emptiness described in the Prajnaparamita sutras and other Mahayana literature should be interpreted. In doing so he created the Madhyamika school of Buddhist philosophy which became incorporated into Mahayana and Vajrayana monasteries as a field of study. The other school of Mahayana philosophy to rival the importance of Madhyamika was the Yogacara, founded by the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu who lived in the 4th century. The key feature of Yogacara philosophy is applying the concept of emptiness to phenomenal experience, and analysis of consciousness that goes beyond Abhidharma texts. Many Buddhist philosophers would attempt to synthesize Madhyamika and Yogacara philosophy.

During the first five centuries AD, everywhere Buddhism spread, Mahayana followed. In China and Japan, schools of Buddhism emerged based on the sutras that each school viewed as most important. It wasn’t so much sectarianism, rather it was a culture that was absorbing a huge body of scriptures and trying to make sense of them. Influential Chinese schools included the Tiantai which focused on the Lotus Sutra (grew to prominence in the 6th century), and Huayan which focused on the Avatamsaka Sutra (grew to prominence in the 7th century).

Meanwhile in India, Vajrayana Buddhism was the last major branch of Buddhism to emerge. Like the rise of Mahayana before it, Vajrayana Buddhism is distinct because it adds a whole new corpus of scripture to its religious canon. These new texts are the tantras, which is why Vajrayana and Tantric Buddhism are synonymous. Tantras are a type of religious scripture which emerged around 600 AD in India, and underwent a process of development and refinement, with the last major tantras being dated to the 11th century. By the 13th century, factors including Muslim invasions in the North almost entirely wiped out Buddhism from India and West Asia. However, Vajrayana Buddhism spread to Tibet, Southeast Asia, China and Japan.

The final major stage of Buddhist development is the fading away of Vajrayana in East and Southeast Asia, in favor of Theravada in Southeast Asia and new Mahayana schools in China and Japan. Many people don’t know that the most recognizable East Asian forms of Mahayana Buddhism such as Pure Land and Chan Buddhism actually grew in popularity in China during the 7th century, as reform movements that increased in popularity because they promoted simplified types of practice for both monks and laymen, in comparison to elaborate Vajrayana rituals and tantric techniques. In Japan, Pure Land is known as Jodoshu and Jodoshinshu, and Chan is known as Zen, with both of these schools first gaining prominence during the 12th century.

Since then, the core of Theravada Buddhism is in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, Mahayana in East Asia, and Vajrayana in Tibet and Mongolia.

(SAH) Of the three main branches of Buddhism - Mahayana, Theravada and Vajrayana - it's intriguing that the most esoteric of them has unknowingly become the most popular in the West. Most people have heard of the Dalai Lama, and assume he's the equivalent of the Pope but for Buddhists. Can we start by trying to explain what Vajrayana is in some more detail, and how Tibet, Japan and Mongolia fit into the picture?

(Lin Kai) Interestingly, there was an Italian missionary called Friar Odoric who explored Asia at almost the same time as Marco Polo, and he spent a brief time in Tibet. In his account, Odoric also referred to the leader of Tibet as the “pope of the idolaters”, because he had just spent many months in China and knew the Yuan empire was ruled by Mongolians who were Tibetan Buddhist. So, even though this was written centuries before the first Dalai Lama, this misconception actually has a precedent.

As mentioned earlier in my timeline, Vajrayana Buddhism is defined as Buddhism which includes the study of the tantras. I've done a thread on the Indian Buddhist masters of this era known as the Mahasiddhas. They are considered the first human teachers of tantra, but the texts themselves are canonical because they are said to be divinely revealed teachings which originated directly from enlightened beings, i.e either the historical Sakyamuni or other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Philosophically, the tantras expan on Mahayana sutras, and a proper understanding of the concepts of emptiness and buddha-nature are essential to Vajrayana theory and practice. However, tantras are distinguished from sutras because of their content, which can range from rituals often classified as magic, to complex teachings which combine symbolic verse and stages of meditative practice. Tantras more concerned with isolated rituals and material benefit are considered more ‘mundane’, while the ‘highest’ tantras are those which all Vajrayana practitioners aspire to learn eventually because they lead to enlightenment. Like all forms of Buddhism, this is the ultimate goal of Vajrayana, enlightenment being synonymous with the state of Buddhahood.

Another essential principle of tantra is the concept of “turning poison into medicine”. This traditional metaphor refers to a central idea in tantra that certain actions prohibited in Buddhism may be purposefully used in controlled practice as a method to achieve enlightenment. Essentially, the idea is that since enlightenment entails eliminating all attachment, an enlightened being could perform spontaneous acts which seem transgressive but do not generate any attachment. These acts are only discouraged by the early Buddhist texts because they are what usually impede progress towards eliminating attachment. For example, if a practitioner had a wife but practiced and studied just as well as a celibate monk, the practitioner is not considered inferior. In fact, it is considered an achievement to have the ability to have a wife while simultaneously resisting the attachment of emotional love or physical sex. The ‘poison’ of attachment-generating actions and corresponding mental states, such as anger and violence, or lust and sex are seen as opportunities to progress towards enlightenment, which turns them into ‘medicine’. The ability to resist forming attachments while performing the act, by examining the act’s ‘emptiness’, is the key. I used this example because there are many misconceptions about the term ‘tantric sex’, but it is known that certain tantras describe techniques of actual intercourse with a woman in an elaborate ritual setting as a form of practice. In special circumstances, Tibetan monks of certain sects marry wives for this purpose and have children. However, the Dalai Lama's sect prohibits this and in general many of these types of practices have been replaced by mental visualizations meant to achieve a similar result. Not to mention, there are many examples of respected Vajrayana masters who never actually took monk vows of celibacy, they are known as ngakpas in Tibetan.

As you can imagine, the danger of antinomianism is apparent, which is why Vajrayana tantric techniques are highly detailed and ritualized. Tantric practitioners undergo extensive preparation and take vows of conduct to their teacher called samaya, and there are severe karmic consequences if they are broken (a rebirth in hell is often used as a warning). Masters are very careful about who they teach these challenging tantric techniques to. For the practitioners, the risks are worth taking because within Vajrayana, the practice of tantra is considered the fastest method to reach enlightenment. A comparison that Vajrayana teachers cite very often is that tantric practitioners can theoretically achieve enlightenment within a single lifetime, whereas those who follow the path of only studying sutras may have to be reborn for three eons (kalpa) before they achieve Buddhahood. Whether or not this is hyperbole, it certainly helped the spread of Vajrayana from India to the rest of Asia.

Vajrayana Buddhism spread from India to Tibet during the latter's imperial era from the 6th to the 9th century AD. As mentioned earlier, the key figures during this time were Songtsen Gampo, Trisong Detsen, Santarakshita and Padmasambhava. To oversimplify Tibetan history, eventually the Tibetan Empire collapsed in the 9th century and the nation was split into local kingdoms. After 2 centuries or so of this destabilized era, around the 11th century, a new wave of Buddhist teachers and texts came into Tibet from the Indic world. This period where new texts became popular and new sects were founded is known as the ‘new dispensation’ (Sarma in Tibetan), in contrast to the other Tibetan Buddhists who kept to Imperial-era traditions, the Nyingma. The Nyingma are the least centralized of the four major Tibetan Buddhist sects, with the three Sarma sects: Gelug, Sakya and Kagyu all having larger organizational hierarchies and heads of the sects. Throughout Tibetan history, all four sects have either been highly influential or directly involved in governing Tibet. The Tibetan emperors were in a sense Nyingma because that was the only Tibetan Buddhism around back then, the next rulers of a unified Tibet were the Sakya, after them it was the Kagyu, and since the 17th century the Gelug have been in control, which is the Dalai Lama's sect.

Mongolia comes into the picture of Vajrayana Buddhism at two crucial moments in Tibetan history, the rise of the Sakya and the Gelug. As Genghis Khan's empire swept over Asia, eventually it came time to conquer Tibet. The Mongols were still Tengrists at this time and were famously brutal and practical about managing the different races and religions they conquered. Eventually, when the great Kublai Khan became the foremost descendant of Genghis, it was a member of the Sakya sect who traveled to the Khan's capital in China and won his favor. The Tibetan's name was Drögon Chogyal Phagpa (1235-1280) and there are many stories of him healing the Khan and debating Chinese Buddhists and Taoists. From then on the Mongol rulers of Yuan China were Tibetan Buddhist, and Phagpa was sent back to Tibet to establish Sakya rule backed by the Mongol military. The Khan had essentially offered to his religious teacher the entire nation. Phagpa became the first Imperial Preceptor, a title which would be handed down to later Sakya patriarchs until the collapse of the Yuan dynasty. The Sakya are unique because they were founded by a local king from the clan of Khön during the sarma period, and so Sakya leadership has been passed down dynastically since the 11th century, rather than by reincarnations of their leader.

After the end of their empire, the Mongols closest to Tibet were reduced to a local central Asian power, but they were still militarily significant enough for Tibetans to desire alliances with them. The Gelug, the newest of the Tibetan Buddhist sects first took advantage of this when the Gelug master Sonam Gyatso (1543-1588) converted Altan Khan, the leader of the Tumed Mongols, to the Gelug sect. This is actually how the title of Dalai Lama was created, as a title Altan Khan bestowed upon his teacher Sonam Gyatso. The word Dalai is Mongolian for ‘ocean’, which is Gyatso in Tibetan. The phrase ‘ocean of wisdom’ is a common honorific for Tibetan Buddhist masters. Sonam Gyatso was the first to be called the Dalai Lama, but the title is retroactively applied to his two previous reincarnations, so he is actually the third Dalai Lama. Since then, all Dalai Lamas have had Gyatso as part of their personal name. This relationship between the Gelug and the Mongols caused tension within Tibet. At this time the rulers of Tibet were a dynasty supported by and members of the Kagyu sect. This came to a head at the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso (1617-1682), who had allied with Gushri Khan the leader of the Khoshut Khanate. The Khoshuts invaded Tibet to place the Fifth Dalai Lama on the throne and so all of Tibet was unified under Gelug rule. The Great Fifth as he is known oversaw the building of the Potala Palace in the capital Lhasa and expanded the Gelug to become the largest Tibetan Buddhist sect. Mongolian Buddhists have mostly been Gelug since then and the head of Mongolian Buddhists is the Bogd Gegeen, also known as the Jebtsundamba Khutukthu, a position created by the great Fifth.

The origin of Japan's Vajrayana tradition is completely different, and begins in China. In the Tang dynasty, esoteric Buddhism was popular and became mainstream. It was seen as the latest development from India, the holy land of Buddhism. So during the Tibetan imperial period, China was also receiving the esoteric Buddhist tradition. The founding masters of the Vajrayana tradition in China were Subhakarasimha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra, all active during the 8th century, with the latter being the personal teacher of the Tang emperor. The news of the Chinese Vajrayana tradition eventually reached Japan, where Buddhism had only spread relatively recently. To convey the timescale, it had taken India roughly a millenia to go from the Buddha's original teachings to the first tantras. And now Japanese monks were seeking out Vajrayana teachings only 200 years after Buddhism first arrived in Japan. The most significant Japanese monks who went to China to study Vajrayana were Saicho (767-822) and Kukai (774-835). Saicho was taught by the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism and so he founded the Tendai sect in Japan, which emphasizes the Lotus Sutra as the highest teaching of the Buddha but also historically incorporated tantric texts into their study and practice. Kukai was the founder of the Shingon sect, well known for being the only major surviving sect of Vajrayana outside the Tibetan sphere of influence. Because the Shingon school's origins are different from Tibetan Vajrayana, its canon of tantras is also different and does not include the later tantras that were to gain the most prominence in Tibet. The most important Shingon tantras center around the Buddha called Vairochana, but in Tibet they are not classified as the ‘highest class’ of tantra.

(SAH) Tibetan Buddhism is often described as 'esoteric' by scholars and practitioners. What does this mean, what does it encompass?

(Lin Kai) At the most basic level, the term ‘esoteric’ in Vajrayana Buddhism simply refers to the concept that certain teachings are taught only to certain followers. Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhism is also called ‘Secret Mantra’ in Tibetan, which shows the importance of keeping certain teachings private. However, it should be made clear that in the history of Vajrayana, the most important teachings were never truly ‘secret’ in the sense that people didn't know they existed. On occasions such as a famous master's visit or the opening of a new temple, mass initiation ceremonies could be held authorizing large groups to practice certain tantras. The most important tantras were known to laymen and monks alike, but much of their actual contents weren't taught except to select groups. We can see this today in how people in the West might have heard the name Kalachakra Tantra, but have little idea of its contents. To understand why this barrier to entry is crucial, we need to go into more detail about the tantras I mentioned earlier.

All tantras warn that only certain people should be taught their contents, those who have been granted permission by their personal guru (lama in Tibetan). Firstly, there is a large body of tantras and their contents can vary widely, so a guru ideally recommends only the relevant ones for that specific Buddhist practitioner seeking to progress on the path to enlightenment. To know which teachings will be helpful, the guru must have a relationship with his student in order to analyze his strengths and weaknesses. The guru is the final word on whether or not a practitioner is qualified to study and practice certain tantric teachings. The guru grants this permission through initiation, a concept familiar to readers of the traditionalist authors such as Evola and Guenon. These initiations are often lengthy ritual ceremonies known as empowerments, and may be conferred upon large groups at once. Multiple initiations may be required for the ‘highest class’ of tantric texts, conferred upon practitioners if they show signs of progress. This gatekeeping, for the student's sake, is the ‘esotericism’ that is the core of Vajrayana.

If a student is unqualified it wouldn't only be a waste of time for a guru to teach them, they could harm themselves and others if they misinterpret the tantric text. Many tantric practices require both mental and physical training, and commonly cited consequences of improper practice include illnesses both physical and psycho-somatic, or even some forms of insanity. Additionally, if someone had no guru and read the tantras by himself with no background education, he could come up with a misleading interpretation and proclaim it authoritative. People could end up following these incorrect teachings not knowing that their teacher was unqualified. They would be led astray, trapped in samsara and making no progress. Furthermore, the unqualified teacher could abuse his power by demanding wealth or excessive favors from his followers, or using certain techniques described in the tantras for material gain or to harm others. Many Tibetan narratives include these abusive, unqualified teachers who reincarnate as villainous demons.

To avoid all these dangers, the legitimate guru must maintain the secrecy of his teachings and have full authority over who is initiated into them. He has this authority because he is a master of the tantra in question, with the ability to explain its symbolism and philosophy through study, and the ability to achieve the spiritual states described in the tantra through meditative and ritual practice. Most importantly, the guru must be able to provide evidence for his authority and mastery by tracing his own lineage of gurus, i.e the guru who taught him, the guru who taught that guru and so on. In Tibetan Vajrayana, the farthest back these lineages go is usually to the Mahasiddhas which I mentioned earlier as responsible for the origin of Vajrayana in India. The system of lineages is a natural result of the ‘esotericism’ in Vajrayana. The existence of these lineages is not only public, it is the cornerstone of religious authority, and yet to become a member requires initiation.

There can be many different lineages of gurus who taught the same texts, but explained them in slightly different ways. These different lineages are thoroughly recorded, and throughout the life of a monk, he may receive multiple different lineages of teachings, and pass on those lineages to his students. Naturally, practitioners are first initiated into the lineages of the sect of Tibetan Buddhism their guru belongs to: either Gelug, Kagyu, Sakya or Nyingma. Although most monks don't receive teachings from outside their own sect, many religious figures in Tibetan history received teachings from masters of other sects. Membership within a lineage may be more personally significant for the student than membership to a sect. The famous 20th century master Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991) was known to constantly seek out lineages he hadn't previously been taught, and thereby preserve them within his memory so he could teach others according to those specific lineages before they went extinct.

All of this is the traditional way the esoteric nature of Vajrayana has been maintained, and this is still how they are taught in Tibetan Buddhist temples and monasteries all over the world. However, in the modern age and with a large diaspora, Tibetan Buddhists had to adapt, and so the current Dalai Lama has appealed to Western scholars to work with Tibetans on translations of tantras. His reasoning is that if people are going to read them anyway without permission from a guru, either out of curiosity or academic study, the translations had better be accurate to reduce misunderstanding. If the student attempts to practice based on these translations without a guru, although this is considered reckless and unlikely to produce results, they at least have a better chance of doing it right. Some of the highest tantras such as the Hevajra, Cakrasamvara, Guhyasamaja, Vajrabhairava, Guhyagarbha and Kalachakra have been translated wholly or in part for anyone to read, though it's not expected that a layman would understand them.

(SAH) One of the appeals, as far as I can see, of the Tibetan/Vajrayana tradition is that it remains one of the last few truly initiative religious practices. By which I mean there is a huge body of practices, exercises, writings and so on which will never be made public. Some examples do exist but only in outline, such as deity yoga, sexual acts, use of taboo substances and so on. As well as these the preparatory work of ngondro seems to set the Tibetan schools aside from the rest of the Buddhist world. Could you elaborate on this?

(Lin Kai) Yes, as I explained with regard to esotericism, initiation is a central concept in Vajrayana, which from the practitioner’s perspective is largely defined by the tantric teachings that one is initiated into. Hidden knowledge is alluring everywhere in the world, and historically many Vajrayana masters were aware of this and played down their accomplishments so their teachings remained truly hidden. Nevertheless, the allure was crucial to Tibetan Buddhism’s survival and spread in the West.

At the same time, I also mentioned that several of the most important tantras have been translated and published. There does not exist a tantric text or system that is simultaneously important and yet completely unknown to the uninitiated. The different types of deity yoga, also known as the “generation stage”, and the “completion stage” of tantra have been described quite thoroughly. Of course there is still a huge body of Tibetan theological texts, revealed teachings and commentaries on tantras that remain untranslated, but the fixed canon of tantras will be fully translated eventually. These texts are mostly of academic interest of course, because practitioners would receive these teachings in appropriate stages from their personal guru. Ultimately, it is this understanding and experience from a practitioner’s perspective which will never be made public. Even as more and more tantras are translated and Tibetan lamas give public talks, the specific oral teachings of the tantric master and his relationship with his students will by their nature always remain private.

To clarify some terms, a sadhana refers to a distinct system of tantric teachings, including the ngondro, generation stage and completion stage. Ngondro as preparatory practice refers to a series of meditations, mantra chants, offering rituals and visualization practices including guru yoga. These practices are the foundation of further tantric teachings, so they are continually practiced regardless of the practitioner’s level of attainment or experience. The abhiseka is the empowerment ceremony wherein the tantric master initiates practitioners, giving them permission to practice the tantra in question. A samaya refers to vows taken by initiates as part of their tantric practice. These are distinct from monastic vows, and in Vajrayana it is considered much more karmically negative to break samaya vows. The details of the ngondro, samaya, generation stage and completion stage will of course vary depending on the tantra, such as Cakrasamvara, Kalachakra, Hevajra, etc. Masters of different Tibetan sects may also teach these tantras differently, as explained earlier regarding different teaching lineages. It should be mentioned that Shingon Vajrayana shares these features, though their canon of tantras is different.

To explain the contents of the tantras in more detail is challenging, as I don't have an experiential knowledge of these texts inside and out. Though I'll try to describe the basic types of tantric practice you mentioned. Firstly, deity yoga is common to all tantras of the highest class (anuttarayoga), and consists of imagining oneself as the main tantric deity in the text. These visualizations increase in complexity until the practitioner should be able to visualize every detail of the deity's color, number of limbs, unique objects in each hand, the deity's retinue of other enlightened beings and the complete mandala diagram which arranges this hierarchy in concentric squares and circles that represent the walls of the palace at the center of the mandala. The purpose of this practice is to cultivate intense and stable focus on a complex image, and a sense of ‘divine pride’ necessary for the ‘completion stage’ of tantra. Visualization is meant to actualize the concept of Buddha nature, to generate the confidence that one can become enlightened.

The ‘completion stage’ consists of advanced meditation techniques which require understanding of tantric physiology. It involves controlling the “winds” (prana) believed to circulate within the body and bring them all into the central “channel” (nadi) which runs up the spine, passing through the “cakras” that are the nodes where many minor channels meet. This process from the subjective side is said to be accompanied by visions of different types of light, culminating in a state known as the mind of clear light. This state is temporary but can be extended with training, and exiting it returns one back to regular phenomenal experience. The various Buddhist tantric systems have similarities and links to Taoist “internal alchemy” and the Shaivite tantras which developed alongside them. The methods to achieve this manipulation of the body's winds vary according to the tantra. Other texts such as Naropa's Six Yogas describe these methods, and have been incorporated into several schools of Tibetan Buddhism. It includes the well known practice of tummo, which increases inner body temperature and has been shown to be effective for monks who perform retreats in isolated hermitages during the Tibetan winter.

It is also associated with the practice of tantric sex with a woman designated as a consort, a “karma mudra”. The karma mudra practice is considered part of the completion stage, and it is always described as requiring the utmost care from both the man and woman, and a similar level of previous experience with ngondro, deity yoga and tantric initiations. The emphasis is on the male practitioner using the experience of sexual pleasure to achieve a meditative state, remaining unattached to the sensual feelings. There are also accounts of consorts being taken on as wives by tantric masters who say that this is necessary for specific practices including those to extend one's lifespan. This practice is linked to Hindu deities having female counterparts usually described as wives, who are not always individuated characters, rather they may represent the energies or shakti of the main male deity. In Buddhism, tantric Buddhas can be depicted as solitary or with a consort, with the female deity representing wisdom and the male representing skilful means. When the male deity is solitary, he absorbs these functions. When with a consort, they are shown in sexual union, and in paintings this is shown as an embrace.

Use of taboo substances is again more complex, but for instance does feature in the Guhyasamaja tantra. Menstrual blood and semen hold an important place in tantric literature because they are interpreted as equivalent fluids, red and white, which come from each parent and are part of every person's tantric physiology in the form of “red and white bodhicitta”. Bringing these two together within the body is another part of the completion stage process. Human flesh or blood generally is mentioned in depictions of deities holding skull cups filled with those substances, but this is largely symbolic. Actual use of any of these substances in rituals has been mentioned in some lower tantras concerned with creating medicines said to bring supernatural qualities.

Finally, there is a common phrase originating from the tantras which states that masters who truly have no attachments could consume human waste and remain unperturbed. Such a test has been turned into a kind of joke even among monks, as taking it literally as a sign of enlightenment would eventually become rote. This would be counterproductive and wouldn't serve the purpose of acting spontaneously as a sign of removing attachments. Nevertheless, it is common for monks who are personal attendants to eat the leftovers of their gurus, and in one case I read a monk tasted from his guru's chamber pot. This behavior all stems from the common tantric vow to view the guru as equivalent to the Buddha, such that even his waste is beneficial, much in the same way that eventually one must visualize oneself as the deity.

Despite this list of practices that may seem unusual, at its core, Tibetan Buddhism isn't radically different from the types of Vajrayana Buddhism that at one time was spread all over Asia from China to Indonesia. However, the whole of Tibetan civilization has been Vajrayana ever since it was converted to Buddhism, unlike the situation in Chinese and Japanese Vajrayana. Tibet also received the last teachings and writings from the Indian Buddhist masters who fled the Muslim invasions of India.

(SAH) Tibetan Buddhism seems to have adopted some syncretic pre-Buddhist religious elements from Bon or the various unknown 'shamanic' religions of Tibet. Do we know what these are and what their influence has been?

(Lin Kai) The complexity of this topic has resulted in a significant body of literature, by authors such as Samten Karmay and Namkhai Norbu, both of whom try to isolate early elements of Bon. I haven't explored this subject in great depth, but I can provide the clearest observations. First of all, people should be aware of the complexity of analyzing syncretism wherever Buddhism spreads because in many cases, the religion that Buddhism encountered upon being first transmitted to say Tibet or Japan, is largely different from the current iterations of Bon and Shinto respectively. The canonical systemization, emphasis on written scripture and monastic structure of Buddhism were comparatively much more developed than these native religions, even if all this information was transmitted piecemeal.

Nevertheless, a ubiquitous form of Buddhist syncretism is the incorporation of local deities wherever it spreads. This process was moreso a tactic of conversion rather than a compromise with the local religion. Within the Buddhist scheme of reincarnation, the gods (originally the Indian devas and asuras) are included as beings who still experience suffering regardless of their powers and long lifespan. This concept allowed for very flexible adaptation to any deities or spirits worshiped by less developed native religions , which could be slotted into the categories of devas, more rarely asuras or beings such as nagas. This is how the indigenous Tibetan river and water spirits (called Lu) became considered nagas, the mountain gods (nyen) and sky gods (lha) could be classified as devas. If a particular deity was popular it was often elevated to the status of worldly protector, a term which means a god who is also a practitioner of Buddhism who has made an oath to Buddha and other enlightened beings to protect Buddhists. In contrast, there are enlightened protectors who often originate in the Indian tantras and therefore are originally Buddhist. They are more worthy of worship, because of their enlightened status, like the bodhisattvas in Mahayana texts, and may be seen as manifestations of other enlightened beings who take on a wrathful form. The hagiography of the tantric master Padmasambhava, who Tibetan tradition holds to be the key figure in the conversion of Tibet, is replete with examples of him overpowering the local Tibetan gods with his own powers, turning them into Buddhist worldly protectors. These ‘repurposed’ deities are the most obvious aspect of Bon absorbed into Buddhism. An interesting consequence of this is the tradition of oracles in Tibet, most famously the Nechung Oracle, a position passed down over generations to advise the reincarnations of the Dalai Lama. The deity that possesses the oracle and sends him into a prophetic trance is a worldly deity said to be in the retinue of Pehar, a well known protector god who Padmasambhava tamed. There are many more examples of pre Buddhist Tibetan deities being incorporated within the Buddhist scheme. Contemporary Bon also has a large number of deities that have no Buddhist parallel, and many are depicted iconographically with animal heads and features.

Aside from this significant influence, the other contributions of Bon to Tibetan Buddhism are less systematic. For instance, the “wind-horse” (lung rta) is a Tibetan symbol commonly found on Buddhist prayer flags, depicting a horse carrying a jewel on its back. But the wind-horse also symbolizes each individual's good fortune, and there are rituals for increasing one's personal wind-horse. Tibetan Buddhism has taken this symbolism and added layers of meaning to it corresponding to Buddhist teachings, for example identifying the “wind horse” with the “winds” (prana) described in tantra as part of our physiology.

Another concept which I've recently read about is the drala. These are a class of warrior deities with pre Buddhist origins, and they have peculiar characteristics such as the idea that they inhabit weapons, armor, and even the limbs and body of warriors. These drala feature heavily in the national epic of Tibet, the story of Ling Gesar, which is about the titular warrior sent by the Buddhist deities to restore order to the land. The idea of spirits inhabiting the weapons and bodies of warriors is not unique to Tibet, and it is interesting to draw parallels with other cultures. Additionally, although Vajrayana Buddhism has many worldly and enlightened protector deities who are invoked in times of war, there are no gods whose character is solely focused on war like Ares for the Greeks for example. In this case however, the drala clearly have their origin in the warrior culture of the Tibetan empire and its predecessors on the Tibetan plateau. Some worldly protectors may be referred to as drala, and worship of these would be detached from any particular historical warrior.

An important feature of Tibetan Buddhist rituals related to this notion of spirits inhabiting objects is the idea of a ‘support’. The idea being that ritual instruments, vestments and procedures are necessary for proper tantric initiation and some of these ritual items are considered a ‘support’ or material vessel which can be blessed by enlightened deities. This could probably be analyzed anthropologically by comparison to other cultures of relics or magic items, and Buddhism has a rich tradition of relic worship ever since the death of the historical Buddha.

Speaking of rituals, the lhasang smoke offering has pre Buddhist origins, consisting of burning juniper branches. Its function is for purification, and general blessings, and is fully incorporated within Buddhism, with Buddhist deities being invoked. The idea of smoke connecting the heavens and earth is linked to the origin myth of the first Tibetan king, Nyatri Tsenpo, who is said to have descended from the heavens on a divine rope or ladder.

As a note about ‘shamanism’, your articles on the subject reminded me of the specific definition of Siberian and Central Asian shamanism, which has also been noted in the literature on Bon, and it is generally agreed that Bon is not within that specific category. Certain animistic spirits like the drala, and narratives about ascending to the realm of the gods or descending to the underworld of Buddhist hell are both present in Tibetan culture. There are also certain funerary practices which have the purpose of guiding the dead to a fortunate rebirth or possibly to an enlightened state, such as the recitation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as well as the practice of phowa. But all these elements do not reflect a shamanic character of a “spirit guide”

These are just some examples, but more broadly whenever anyone looks at an element of Tibetan Buddhism and suspects Bon influence, it is often the case that it is an aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism they are unfamiliar with. After all, the imagery of wrathful deities and the use of bones to make ritual items originate in the Indian tantras. And even the famous Tibetan sky burial was easily incorporated into Buddhism because of the Indian practice of meditating in charnel grounds and cemeteries to cultivate detachment from worldly things.

(SAH) Finally, a thorny topic for contemporary Buddhism is the theological and pragmatic relationship with violence? One key 'fact' everyone in the West knows about Buddhism is that it stands for peace and non-violence, but there are some who have pointed out a more nuanced relationship, particularly where Buddhism has run up against Islam in current nationalistic movements, and within the Tibetan tradition more broadly. Does this seem a fair description?

(Lin Kai) Yes it is certainly fair. My first thread about Tibetan Buddhism was inspired by this question actually, and since then it's become a vast topic I continue to investigate. The subject of that thread was a book called Taming the Demons by Jacob Dalton, which I recommend to anyone as a good introduction to the subject of violence in Tibetan Buddhism.

First, we need to clear up the misconception about non-violence, which is often conflated with the core Buddhist virtue of compassion. In Indian religions, the idea of pacifism comes from the moral conduct of ahimsa, non-violence, and it is true that most modern lay Buddhists take this at face value. However, compassion is a much broader and more significant concept in Mahayana and Theravada. It has been misconstrued as ‘non-violence’, ‘love’, ‘kindness’ and even ‘pity’. In reality, compassion refers to the desire to alleviate the suffering of all beings. Considering removing suffering once and for all entails following the Buddhist path, it essentially means that one of the core Buddhist virtues is to encourage people to be Buddhist by any means necessary. Buddhism's presence across Asia reflects this true meaning of compassion. Additionally, a conversion to Buddhism ideally requires understanding of its doctrines, so it would not be fruitful to convert people too rapidly. Of course, it would not make sense for a monk to develop negative attachments towards the goal of conversion, because that would mean losing a Buddhist and people would not have faith if Buddhists couldn’t control themselves.

Compassion for ‘all beings’ also really means all beings including one’s enemies. Yet because the goal is alleviating suffering this is not any kind of naive kindness or altruism. There are two interesting stories which illustrate the extent of compassion.

A well known episode from the Buddha's biography is his miracle at Sravasti. The traditional account states that on this occasion the Buddha was challenged to a contest of magical powers by six rival religious teachers. He accepted, while preventing his monks from assisting lest they become too confident in their own powers prior to enlightenment. The Buddha performed miracles such as flying, shining with rainbow colored light rays and emitting fire and water from his body. In several versions of the biography the bodhisattva Vajrapani is said to have attended the Buddha in an invisible form, and destroyed the place where the rival teachers sat with strong winds. Knowing they couldn't overcome the Buddha's display, the six rival teachers fled and all accounts mention that several killed themselves out of shame by jumping into a river. Given that Buddha didn't stop this, nevermind his omniscient foreknowledge of the situation, this was obviously an acceptable outcome for the purpose of establishing Buddhism's superiority. This story is known to all Buddhists, and shows that the Theravada tradition can also draw on such examples of necessary violence or displays of power.

There is also a lesser known but influential story from a Mahayana sutra of a bodhisattva who kills a bandit who was about to rob and murder a ship full of merchants. The bandit would’ve been reborn in hell for this negative karmic act, and there was no peaceful solution, therefore it was compassionate for the bodhisattva to prevent it from happening. This is a clear canonical text which establishes an early precedent for violence that is explicitly considered virtuous by Buddhists. Granted, this example is not the most well known among modern lay followers, though it is entirely justified from an interpretation of compassion, and therefore bodhicitta. Bodhicitta is the key Mahayana concept referring to the motivation of a bodhisattva to lead others towards enlightenment. This notion of right motivation is the core Buddhist justification for violence when necessary, and is elaborated the most in Vajrayana where it is also used to explain the efficacy and legitimacy of tantric practices which may seem transgressive, as I explained earlier.

In Vajrayana there is a highly influential account of necessary Buddhist violence in the myth of Rudra. This narrative is what Dalton's book revolves around, in which he examines examples of violent Buddhist practices and their justification throughout Tibetan history. The story goes that in the distant past, the demon Rudra reigned on earth and was so powerful that no worldly god (those still within samsara) could defeat him. Rudra's powers came from his practice of non Buddhist systems of magic, and eventually the enlightened Buddhist deities sent one of their own to defeat him: the wrathful enlightened protector Hayagriva. Hayagriva mimicked the gruesome appearance and powers of Rudra to make him understand the superiority of Buddhism and then finally destroyed him, with the right motivation of preventing him from committing anymore evil deeds. This act of killing with the right motivation is called liberation, and from then on violent Tibetan Buddhist rituals which reference liberating someone refers to the idea that some people have no hope of being taught Buddhism in their current life and it would be better if they were killed to reincarnate in a new life. Over time this was modified by the idea that the Buddhist practitioner conducting the liberation ritual is able to affect the rebirth of the person being liberated, so that it isn't left solely to the latter's own negative karma.

It should be clarified that though we have the texts which describe these liberation rites, their literal performance was largely confined to the Era of Fragmentation, directly after the fall of the Tibetan Empire. During this time, there would have been little institutional oversight preventing people who claimed to be tantric practitioners from using the excuse of ‘liberation’ to attack their personal enemies. Even in this era however, for practical reasons it is unlikely that a significant number of literal ritual killings would have been performed even if the ritual was intended to cause an enemy's death. This is because of the practitioner’s confidence in their own abilities to cause death through the supernatural rite, wherein the enemy would be represented by a symbolic effigy. In any case, using rituals this way cannot strictly be said to be Buddhist violence, because it is not violence seen as necessary and virtuous by a tradition of Buddhism.

For that, we turn to the much more interesting and well documented Buddhist rituals during war time. Separating theological and pragmatic justifications of violence is not easy in any religion, especially when it comes to war. I'm sure most people who read enough history realize the legitimacy of a war is often as much a religious issue as a political one, inasmuch as political leaders seek support from religious institutions when war is waged. For this same reason, Tibetan monasteries performed large scale rites to not only avert war, but to destroy the opposing side. Whether the monasteries were in direct control of the government and military or they were patronized by the local aristocracy, these ceremonies were mandatory for large scale conflicts. This could take the form of rituals meant to cause bad weather or disease to afflict enemies, or simply for them to be defeated in battle. These rituals required miniature effigies of the enemies and even their horses, which were destroyed in the ceremony, a symbolic performance of the liberation rite. They could go on for days and at times when Tibet was more unified such as in the Fifth Dalai Lama's time, they could be extremely elaborate. These rituals could also signify that all enemies killed in the course of the war would be considered liberated, having been sent to a more fortunate rebirth even if they were killed by a common soldier. The theological and pragmatic justifications for tantric war rituals reinforce each other, because an enemy army is much more of a legitimate threat to the survival of Buddhism than an individual. An enemy army cannot be negotiated with or converted like an individual either, so their destruction is the only option. With the right motivation it becomes the compassionate course of action.

Historically, these rites were conducted against invading Mongols, Chinese and even against Bön armies when Buddhism was still new to Tibet. This brings us to the issue of Buddhism's historic conflicts with Islam. Though the contemporary situation in Myanmar is the most notorious, it is also fairly well known that the Kalachakra Tantra devotes its first chapter to a prediction about a future crusade by the mythical Buddhist kingdom of Shambhala against Muslims. The Kalachakra text first emerged in the 11th century, during the height of Muslim invasions into North India, which almost completely eliminated Buddhism in India and caused the destruction of the most famous and ancient Indian monasteries such as Nalanda. The symbolism of the Kalachakra is highly complex, and the literal interpretation of Shambhala as a kingdom on Earth somehow hidden from the rest of the world is not always taken at face value. Nevertheless, it is another example of Buddhist justification of violence, more specifically war.

However, putting war against enemies of Buddhism aside, Tibetan Buddhism still has a complex relationship to violence that can't be as easily explained. For instance in the numerous cases of civil war, such as the Fifth Dalai Lama's defeat of the primarily Kagyu sect rulers of Tibet, Buddhists warred against each other and the pragmatic justifications of war waged by religious leaders would've been more obvious. Neither side could be completely demonized, because their sects were respected throughout Tibet. In my cursory reading of the Sengoku period in Japan, the large military forces controlled by monasteries belonging to the Pure Land and Tendai sects also could not could not hide behind religious authority when it came to the reality of war.

Additionally, in the biographies of several Tibetan Buddhist scholars and leaders, their violent exploits are recounted, and not necessarily as a cautionary tale. For example the most famous forefather of the Kagyu sect, Milarepa, has an extremely popular biography in which he used black magic to kill a whole family of greedy relatives that stole his and his mother's property. While on the run for this crime, he sought out Marpa the translator of Buddhist scripture and became his most accomplished student. Marpa's harsh lessons are considered necessary to purify the bad karma generated by Milarepa's use of this magic. But there are other respected Tibetan Buddhist masters such as the translator Ra Lotsawa who is said to have assassinated one of Marpa's sons, and Lama Zhang who waged several battles during his rule in the 12th century. I plan to investigate the biographies of these figures more closely and I'm sure their use of violence will be justified religiously. Yet on another level, the fact that violence, even when it comes from religious leaders, does not have to be explained or moralized away reflects a mature approach to history.