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Vajrayāna Buddhism, also known as Tantric Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism, is often viewed as the third major school of Buddhism, alongside the Theravada and Mahayana schools. This classification is useful when talking about schools by geographic areas. Others classify Vajrayana as a subset of Mahayana Buddhism, a sensible scheme when studying the actual practices of the schools. Vajrayana Buddhists often classify their own school as the culmination of a progressive evolution of Buddhist theory which they enumerate as Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana. None of these classification schemes are particularly inconsistent with each other when the context is understood.

Vajrayana exists today in the form of two major sub-schools (adherents found in other countries are generally associated with one or the other of these two):

• Tibetan Buddhism, found in Tibet, Bhutan, northern India, Nepal, southwestern China, and Mongolia
• Shingon Buddhism, found in Japan

What is Vajrayana? A faster path to enlightenment

The key advantage Vajrayana Buddhism claims to offer is an accelerated path to enlightenment. This is achieved through use of tantra, which are practical aids to spiritual development, and esoteric transmission (explained below). Whereas earlier schools might provide ways to achieve nirvana over the course of many lifetimes, Vajrayana techniques make this possible in a much shorter timeframe, perhaps as quickly as a single lifetime. Vajrayana Buddhists do not claim that Theravada or Mahayana practices are invalid in any way, only that these schools offer a slower path to the same goal.

First speed-up technique: Tantra

Vajrayana relies on various tantric techniques rooted in scriptures known as tantras, written in India. Tantric techniques include:

• repetition of special ritual phrases (mantras),
• use of various yoga techniques including breath control (yantra) and the use of special hand positions (mudras)
• us of an extensive vocabulary of visual aids, such as cosmic mandala diagrams which teach and map pathways to spiritual enlightenment
• the use of sacred objects such as relics, vajra scepters , sacred bells (drillhu), and spirit daggers (phurpa)
• use of specialized rituals rooted in the Vajrayana belief system

The sensational techniques of tantric sex are not widely attested by outside observers of Vajrayana, nor reported by practitioners. Thus we must conclude that this is not an element of Vajrayana. Sexual symbolism, however, is indeed common in Vajrayana iconography where it typically represents the marrying of wisdom and compassion.

It is from the techniques of tantra that Vajrayana Buddhism picks up its alternative names as Mantrayana and Tantrayana. The word "Vajrayana" itself comes from vajra, a Sanskrit word which can mean "diamond", or "thunderbolt" which also has the connotation of "reality". The vajra (or dorje in Tibetan) is an important ritual object held by the lama to sybolize power and insight. This gives rise to two more names for Vajrayana Buddhism: the Diamond Vehicle and the Adamantine Vehicle (adamantine means "diamond-like").

Second speed-up technique: Esoteric Transmission

The other conspicuous aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism is that it is esoteric. In this context esoteric means that the transmission of certain accelerating factors only occurs directly from teacher to student and cannot be learned from a book. Many techniques are also commonly said to be secret, but many Vajrayana teachers will emphasize that the secrecy itself is not important but is only a side-effect of the fact that it makes no sense to attempt to use these techniques outside the context of a lineage of teacher-student relationships. The esoteric aspect of Vajrayana Buddhism results in several more names for the school: Secret Buddhism, Esoteric Mahayana, and Esoteric Buddhism (its most common name in Japan).

The esoteric transmission framework can take varying forms. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism uses a method called dzogchen. Other Tibetan Buddhist schools and the Shingon school in Japan use an alternative method called mahamudra.

Vajrayana is part of Mahayana

While tantra and esoterism distinguish Vajrayana Buddhism, it is nonetheless primarily a form of Mahayana Buddhism. The sutras important to Mahayana are generally important to Vajrayana, although Vajrayana adds their own texts (see Buddhist texts, list of sutras, Tibetan Buddhist canon). The importance of bodhisattvas and and a pantheon of deities in Mahayana carries over to Vajrayana, as does the perspective that Buddhism is not just for monks but for laity too.

History of Vajrayana

India

Vajrayana/Tantric Buddhism began in southern India in the early 4th century, developing alongside Tantric Hinduism. Soon Nalanda University in northern India became a center for development of Vajrayana theory (although it is likely that university followed, rather than lead, Indian folk practices that contributed to tantricism).

Vajrayana Buddhism mostly died out in India by the 13th century, its practices merging with Tantric Hinduism, and both tantric religions experiencing pressure from the rising importance of Islam in northern and north-western India.

In the second half of the 20th century a sizeable number of Tibetan exiles fled the Communist Chinese to establish Tibetan Buddhist communities in northern India, particularly around Dharamsala. They remain the primary practitioners of Tantric Buddhism in India.

China

Vajrayana followed the same route into northern China as Buddhism itself, arriving from India via the Silk Road some time during the first half of the 7th century. This arrival coincided with the great elevation of Buddhism in general in China, as the religion gained favor with the emperors of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang capital at Chang'an (modern-day Xian) became an important center for Buddhist studies, and the latest Vajrayana import fresh from India no doubt received great attention as it arrived in the capital. (see Buddhism in China).

Tibet and other Himalayan kingdoms

In 747 the Indian saint Padmasambhava traveled from Afghanistan to bring Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet and Bhutan, at the request of Trisong Deutson, king of Tibet. This was the original transmission which anchors the lineage of the Nyingma school. During the 11th century and early 12th century a second important transmission following the lineage of Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa which gave rise to the other schools of Tibetan Buddhism, namely Kagyupa, Kadampa, Sakyapa, and Gelukpa (the school of the Dalai Lama).

Japan

In 804, the Emperor Kammu of Japan sent the intrepid monk Kukai to the Tang capital at Chang'an to receive the latest Buddhist knowledge. Kukai absorbed the Vajrayana thinking and synthesized a version which he took back with him to Japan, where he founded the important Shingon school of Buddhism, a school which continues to this day.

Java

At approximately the same time, Indian models of Vajrayana traveled directly to the Indonesian island of Java where the huge temple complex at Borobudur was soon built. Vajrayana Buddhism would survive in Indonesia and Malaysia until eclipsed by Islam in the 13th century.

Mongolia

In the 13th century, long after the original wave of Vajrayana Buddhism had died out in China itself, the Tibetan lama Sakya Pakpa visited Kublai Khan, the emperor of Mongolia, who also hosted Marco Polo at the same time. In a competition between Christians, Moslems, and Buddhists held before the royal court, the Khan found Tibetan Buddhism the most satisfactory and adopted it as his personal religion, although not requiring it of all his subjects. Kublai Khan had just conquered China to establish the Yuan Dynasty (with its new capital in Beijing). With his adoption of the faith he led the way for the revival of Vajrayana Buddhism in China.

Vajrayana would decline in China and Mongolia with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty, replaced by Daoism, Confucianism, and Pure Land Buddhism. However, Mongolia would see another revivial of Vajrayana in the 17th century, with the establishment of ties between the Dalai Lama in Tibet and the remnants of the Mongol Empire. This revived the historic pattern of the spiritual leaders of Tibet acting as priests to the rulers of the Mongol empire.