In the stream of Buddhism, there are at least three branches; Theravāda, Mahāyāna and Vaijarayāna. This Vaijayāna has further names Tantrayāna and Mahāyāna. The approaches to the problems are different in these schools. It is said thinking about the mentality and the ability of business, the Buddha introduced these three schools of Buddhism. The three words used in Vaijrayāna have different meanings related to the thought in the school. If we take Vaijrayāna, there Vaijra means diamond and it shows that it is very strong and durable. Therefore Vaijrayāna appeared have been the strongest school of Buddhism which will be popular among people.
Mantrayāna is a very short formula which is useful protection. By using the Mantra, one can get protection and face danger. A well known Mantra is “Um! Manipadame Hum! Mantra comes from Man. Man means mind. Tra comes from Tran and Trāna means protection. So Mantra means protection of the mind. Therefore Mantarayāna tries to help to protect the mind of the person. Again, Tantra is a piece of thread. The thread is something that continues, binds and covers all forms of knowledge. Therefore, this particular Buddhist school has these three characteristics.read more
Hence, there are several Sutras as preaching the thought of Vaijarayāna. They are Guhasamāyatan- tra-Sutra, Hevajratantara-Sutra, Kālacakra-Sutra. There is a reason for these texts to appear and to become popular because of two important thinkers; Venerable Nāgārjuna and Venerable Asanga. When Nāgārju- na was born, astrologer said that he would not live more than seven years. Therefore, his parent sends him away. As the child went alone, he was poor place where he met a Vaijrayāna teacher Venerable Saraha who was associated with Nalanda University. Venerable Saraha came to know that this child would die at his age of seven. Therefore he advised him to recite a mantra related to the Buddha’s limitless life.
Thus, he escaped from untimely death. Then, Nāgārjuna started to develop the thought of Vaijrayāna. The other teacher is Venerable Asanga. He continued to practice meditation on loving-kindness. But even after three years, he was not successful what he wanted to see the future Buddha Maitreya. He was taught with rosary, but again he was taught to practice loving-kindness.
After twelve years, Venerable Asanga saw a dog lying ill and covered with worms. He wanted to remove them from the dog with full of compassion. He did not want to give pain to the dog and he did not want to kill the worms also. So he did not use the fingers. He wanted to remove those worms with his tongue and he bent toward the dog.
At that very moment, the future Buddha-Maitreya appeared before him. He was so happy. He asked Bodhisatva-Maitraya where was he all the time. Then he replied I was always with you but you are not able to see me because your compassion was not perfect. Now your compassion is so perfect that you would see me. There are eighty-four perfect teachers associated with Vaijrayāna and they are known as Mahāsiddhas. In the list of Mahāsiddhas, there are people from all walks of life. This is a special characteristic of Vaijrayāna. Thus, they criticized early part of Buddhist thought saying that there was no place in early forms of Buddhism given to ordinary men, especially lay men were given minor place.
Reported By Ven. Punnavamsa
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