What is Tibetan Buddhism?

thanks to nordvpn for sponsoring this video, this is Tibet, located northeast of India, bordered by the Himalayas to the south and extensive grasslands to the north and east with an average elevation of approximately 14,000 feet. Most of Tibet is located on the highest plateau on the planet. That is why it is sometimes called the roof of the world and Tibetans refer to their homeland as the land of snow. The vast majority of Tibetans practice a form of Buddhism that scholars call Tibetan Buddhism and which is also practiced by many people in the Tibetan cultural sphere. influence in Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia and the Himalayan parts of India and the traditions and beliefs associated with Tibetan Buddhism are strikingly visible on the world stage.

You may recognize Tibetan prayer flags or mandalas or perhaps you have heard of the esoteric practice of Tantra, but chances are you will have encountered Tibetan Buddhism if you recognize this man, Tenzen Gyatso, also known as His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He is the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism and is known for traveling around the world speaking to audiences of tens of thousands of people at a time, sometimes meeting with celebrities and world leaders at the United Nations and, although he is sometimes confused with A sort of Pope of all Buddhism, he is actually a specifically Tibetan Buddhist leader, the fourteenth person to hold the title of Dalai Lama in a lineage that dates back to the 15th century, but

what

is Tibetan Buddhism that distinguishes it from other Buddhist traditions and where their unique practices and concepts come from.

Buddhism was established in Tibet in the 7th century AD, this is significant because it is quite later than the rest of Asia. Buddhism was prevalent in China in C. and between the 3rd and 6th centuries they reached Korea and Japan, so when Buddhism reached the top of the world, Tibetans could draw on centuries of already well-established Indian Buddhist philosophy and traditions that we know. We will cover later, before their arrival, Tibetans engaged in highly localized practices of praying and making offerings to spirits and deities thought to inhabit the Tibetan landscape. Scholars call these pre-Buddhist beliefs and practices bun, which is often characterized as the local indigenous religion. from Tibet, although this era of Tibetan religion is very little understood, the earliest evidence of the word bun does not refer to a religion but to a type of priest who performs specific ceremonies, such as funerals;

In fact, some scholars question whether Bowden was actually simply another form of Buddhism mixed with local indigenous traditions, but however we characterize these indigenous practices, there is no doubt that pre-Buddhist beliefs and practices had a significant influence on the development of Buddhism in Tibet, many of the rituals we find in Tibetan Buddhism today, such as Tibetan prayer flags. may be linked to pre-Buddhist traditions and Bun and Buddhism have continued to influence each other in Tibetan religious communities to this day, so some Buddhist influence may have reached Tibet before the 7th century, but official sponsorship of Buddhism It came through a king named Song Sengampo.

It was actually the king's two wives who are credited with introducing Buddhism there. Princess Wang Chung came from China and brought with her a Buddha statue named Joo to this day, the statue is still enshrined in the capital city of Lhasa, in the jokang. The temple and Tibetans worship it as the most sacred image of Buddha. This statue is believed to have been personally blessed by the Buddha himself and was carved in his image. Song Sengampo's second wife came from Nepal and brought with her her own Buddha statue and both. These women are revered by Tibetan Buddhists as incarnations of the bodhisattvatara, while Song Sengampo is revered as an emanation of the bodhisattva of compassion.

Ava locate known as chenresig in Tibet and one of the most prominent bodhisattvas of Tibetan Buddhism according to tradition. Avila kachora was in charge of The Dalai Lama is also believed to be an incarnation of the sporisatva and the Potala Palace. The Dalai Lama's Winter Palace located in Lhasa is named after the pure land of Avalok Deshra which, as we explored in a previous article. video are the purified realms, spheres of influence of specific Buddhas and bodhisattvas that we can consider as a kind of Mahayana Multiverse After the reign of Song Tengampo, the next king Tree Song Detsen took the throne in the 8th century and immediately set to work to establish Buddhism as a state religion.

He was particularly interested in the forms of Buddhism that were practiced in India, so he recruited Buddhist scholars and practitioners from India to come to Tibet according to tradition. He attempted to build a monastery, but the construction encountered innumerable difficulties. Saying that any progress made at the monastery during the day was mysteriously undone each night, the locals began to believe that local spirits were sabotaging the construction because they did not want to see a new religion take root in Tibet, so the king invited . The semi-legendary Tantric Master Podma Sambhava reportedly traveled through Tibet and subjugated the local spirits turning them into protectors of Buddhism, allowing the construction of the monasteries to be completed and here we will take a quick detour to explore Padma Zambhava because it is of vital importance in Tibetan.

Buddhism Padma sambhava, whose name means Born in Lotus, was supposedly an Indian Buddhist practitioner and tantric master. He was believed to have supernatural powers. Tibetan Buddhists call him Guru Rinpoche or precious teacher and venerate him as a figure on par with the Buddha himself. He is even believed to be an emanation of Amitabha Buddha, the most prominent Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism and the most prominent Pure Land Sukavati Buddha. Padma sambhava is sometimes even referred to as the second Buddha because without him Buddhism would never have taken root in Tibet, there really is no such thing.

There is much we can say about Padma sambhava as a historical figure, but his story is an important part of the Tibetan Buddha's conception of his religious history. He is considered the founder of the Nygma school, one of the four main monastic orders of Tibetan Buddhism, the other three being kagu. Galok and Shakya after the visit of Padma Zimbaba, Buddhism began rapidly to spread as a state-sponsored religion. Eventually, Tibetan Buddhism was organized into several different sects. In the following centuries, fierce political battles occurred between these groups as their leaders attempted to gain power and control. We will jump to the 15th century, when a new sect formed that changed the course of Tibetan Buddhism, a school that eventually became known as the Gaelic school, also known as the Yellow Hats.

We're skipping ahead to this point in the story. because this is when the Dalai Lama comes into the picture, the Gaelic School finally got into the political infighting and after a couple of hundred years and with the patronage of the Mongol rulers they rose to the top as the largest Buddhist sect and politically dominant in Tibet in particular. Sonam Yatso, the leader of a prominent Gaelic monastery allied with the Mongol leader Altan Khan and Sonongyatza, was given the title Dalai Lama. The word Dali is actually a Mongolian title meaning ocean, while flame is the Tibetan equivalent of the Sanskrit word guru in Tibetan Buddhism. to religious teachers who guide the spiritual life of the individual and the community, the title can be applied to monks, nuns, tantric practitioners, landowners or even lay people, the most prominent being the Dalai Lama, so Dalai Lama means Guru oceanic and is a title intended to convey. the vast oceanic wisdom of the leader, although Sonam gatso is the first to be called Dalai Lama, the title was applied retroactively to two previous men and Sonam gyotso was identified as his reincarnation and this is where we must talk about

what

is called the tulku system or reincarnation identified.

This is the custom of identifying a baby as The Rebirth of a specific leader and raising the child to assume the title and function of her predecessor. Basically, a toolku is an individual in a reincarnation lineage. The Dalai Lama is the most prominent example of such a lineage today. The Dalai Lama, like his predecessors, is believed to have been a tulku; He was identified by other monks and formally installed as leader of the Tibetan people when he was only three years old following a system of tests in which he selected a series of items that had belonged to him. to the previous Dalai Lama, but there are other reincarnation lineages such as the ponchon Llama, a spiritual leader second to the Dalai Lama and who is charged with finding the next Dalai Lama and, in fact, there have been thousands of tolkus throughout history Tibetan in the four main schools. of Tibetan Buddhism in the 17th century, the fifth Dalai Lama Lobzengyatso was installed by the Mongol leader as ruler of Tibet and since then the Dalai Lama functioned as the religious and political leader of Tibet, so in this brief sketch of History we have seen some unique elements that would influence this branch of Buddhism, from the influence of bun practices to the tulku system and the lineage of the Dalai Lama, who still chooses to be reborn again and again to serve as a teacher, below we will look at some of the main philosophical ideas of the Tibetan Buddhism Philosophically, Tibetan Buddhism falls under the umbrella of Mahayana.

This is a development of Buddhism that occurred in India sometime around the turn of the millennium, about 500 years after Buddha lived. The word Mahayana means great vehicle. Here it means the thing. that will take you to your goal of Awakening and has a great expansive or great meaning, so the Mahayana is the vehicle in which everyone can travel. It is large enough to encompass all beings so that everyone can achieve Awakening, just as the Mahayana Buddha is distinguished from previous forms. of Buddhism for its emphasis on two related ideas, emptiness and compassion, we will begin with the concept of emptiness that arises from the philosophical tradition called madhyamaka, the teachings of the Indian Buddhist philosopher nagarjuna, who is extremely influential in Tibetan Buddhism, in fact , Manyamic philosophy is part of the basic curriculum of Tibetan monastic universities, we do not have time now to do a complete philosophy course on this topic, but for our purposes the important thing we must understand is that emptiness or shunyata means nothing.

When Tibetan Buddhists say that all things are empty, what they are really saying is that everything that exists exists in an intimate and intricate network of connection. Tibetan Buddhists call this interdependence so empty which basically means that all things are empty of any kind of independent existence as an example, let's think about a bicycle we can understand that a bicycle is actually composed of a lot of other parts, wheels, handlebars. , brakes, etc., and all those things were made by different people in different places with different materials now, if we zoom out even further and think about a person who works in the rubber factory who helped make the tires and the person who helped extract the aluminum for the painting, we soon realized that they actually depend on other things to exist and those people need food to eat, so they depend on the farmers who grow their food and the truckers who ship it to them. the stores and those farmers who depend on water to irrigate their crops and those truckers who depend on oil to fuel their trucks.

If you think about it enough, you will soon realize that something as simple as a bicycle actually depends on an infinite number of other things to exist, which is why a Tibetan Buddhist teacher might say that the bicycle is not something that exists independently, but exists interdependently, depends on a whole network of other things to exist and is therefore empty of any kind of independent existence now this type of reasoning applies to people too if I think about any aspect of my identity I can see that it depends on others to exist I am a YouTuber who exists interdependently with the existence of the YouTube corporation and all of you, the audience, all the things that make me dependent on people other than myself, so Buddhists Tibetans would say that I am also empty of an independent existence, all the different aspects of my identity exist interdependently, so if we take these connected ideas of emptiness and interdependence and apply them broadly to people, we begin to see that in some sense , we all depend on each other and this is where the next key idea in Tibetan Buddhist philosophy comes into play, compassion, once you start to realize that everyone depends on everyone else, then you start to realize that your Your own happiness and suffering are wrapped up in the happiness and suffering of others and therefore the quest for awakening is no longer just about you, but about everyone, which is why we need to seek compassion.

Awakening for yourself is notenough, you need to practice compassion and try to help all beings without exception overcome their own suffering and find lasting happiness. Another tool, Shakya's 41st betrayal, says that we don't even need to get too philosophical about this idea, not even from one point of view. worldly perspective if only we are safe and enjoying great Pleasures but the rest of our family suffers a lot if we are good-hearted people we will not be happy with this we can recognize that it is not right to seek happiness or Liberation only for ourselves we must consider the well-being of all sentient beings.

A person who dedicates his life to cultivating compassion and working for the benefit of others is called a bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas promise to spend their life or many lives dedicated to understanding emptiness and interdependence and practicing the passion of the enterprise. All of the practices that Tibetan Buddhists practice are based on this basic framework of the bodhisattva ideal, so we talked about some of the philosophy of Tibetan Buddhism, but what about their practices? When people imagine practicing Buddhists, they tend to imagine calm and collected meditators sitting alone on a mountain top. You can watch our video on meditation to learn more about why this is not the most accurate way to think about Buddhist meditation and the practice of Tibetan Buddhism involves a lot more than this, in general, we can talk about two basic frameworks for the practice of Tibetan Buddhism: there is the practice of paramitas or perfections, what we can call paramitayana, and then there is the practice of Tantra, sometimes called vadriyana.

Let's start with paramitayana or gradual cultivation. of the paramitas or perfections, generally speaking, perfections are the type of qualities that Buddhists believe should be cultivated or perfected through their religious practice. Some Buddhist traditions establish 10 perfections, but in the form of Mahayana Buddhism that reached Tibet, these are condensed into six generosity discipline patience diligence meditative concentration and wisdom bodhisattva is in his attempts to understand the philosophical ideas of emptiness and compassion are dedicated To work sincerely and deliberately to perfect these six qualities This is believed to take many lifetimes These types of qualities are perfected through different types of practice: If you visit any Tibetan Buddhist temple, monastery or pilgrimage site, you will probably see people participating in everything. types of rituals, such as bowing in front of flames or statues, lighting lamps made of butter, burning incense, or making offerings of food or money.

Some of these activities may be linked to the six perfections. Giving money or food, for example, is a fairly explicit practice and generosity, but more generally, many Tibetan Buddhists see these types of practices as activities that will allow them to earn merit, a kind of spiritual currency that can help. In this life and in future lives, matter can be accumulated by practicing the six perfections, performing rituals, or engaging in other types of virtuous activities. Some virtuous merit-generating activities are unique to Tibetan Buddhism and are probably remnants of a practice that existed before the start. Tibet, for example, prayer flags.

These are squares of multicolored fabric with printed prayers that are often hung in windy places. The flags that come in five different colors represent the five elements and are believed to send prayers to the world for everyone. Every time the beings wave in the wind, the people who hang these flags gain merit for doing so. Prayer wheels are another common sight at Tibetan Buddhist sites. These wheels can be small enough to hold in your hand or large enough to require dozens of people to move them. The spins work in a similar way, prayers are inscribed on and within the wheels and when they spin they send those prayers to all beings.

If you visit a Tibetan Buddhist temple or monastery, you will often find prayer wheels lining the exterior. the building and you will see people walking around the building over and over again spinning the wheels as they go to accumulate Merits. Moving now to vadriana vadriana is a disc course that talks about tantric ritual practice. The tantras are esoteric ritual manuals focused on quick achievement. of Awakening, the word vadra is often translated as Lightning Bolt or Diamond, it is a word that refers to something powerful and indestructible, which is why vadriyana is considered an incredibly powerful framework of practice, unlike the cultivation of the six perfections, that can take many lives.

Adriana's practice can bring about Awakening in a single lifetime Buddhism scholar Aaron Prophet Compares paramitayana and vadriyana to lighting a fire if paramitayana is like lighting a fire slowly with a stick vajrayana is throwing a lighter into a barrel of gasoline rituals that can have quick results, but are potentially dangerous if not performed correctly, for this reason these practices are esoteric, they are usually transmitted directly from a teacher to students and students can enter tantric practice only after the teacher has determined that The students are sincere, dedicated and sufficiently prepared, at which point they go through a consecration ritual and take special vows despite what you have heard.

Tantra is not just about sex, although some tantric practices involve sexual practices; In reality, it is a complex system of philosophy and ritual that, Ben said, Buddhists believe when properly practiced has the potential for significant spiritual transformation. A common form of tantric practice involves specific types of visualization meditations. Now visualization is practiced in all branches of Buddhism, but tantric visualization involves imagining that you are becoming a particular deity or bodhisattva, a Tibetan tantric master says that during tantric visualization while focusing on a particular deity, one transforms into that deity, all objects that appear also become the deity, then one's enjoyment is the light deity that merges into the deity during tantric visualization as one becomes one with the deity or bodhisattva one is imagining or more precisely, as one You literally become the deity, it is believed that you can assume its attributes and use its power, perhaps achieving rebirth in the Pure Land, achieving Buddhahood in this very life or obtaining and exercising supernatural powers such as clairvoyance telepathy, the ability to fly or transmute medals.

The things that tantric practitioners are asked to visualize in their meditations can be incredibly complex, so ritual aids are sometimes used to help, such as mudras, esoteric ritual hand gestures, mantras, the recitation of specific formulas, and Finally, the use of visual aids called mandalas. These elaborate patterns are actually representations of heavenly palaces believed to be inhabited by particular bodhisattvas. They are usually bird's-eye representations of multi-story structures, so when a tantric meditator looks at a mandala, he is supposed to imagine it. like a three-dimensional place. They can be painted on canvas or on temple walls, but are sometimes constructed from brightly colored sand.

These sand mandalas can take a team of trained tantric specialists from one or two days to several weeks to construct and are made by careful placement. brightly colored sand, a few grains at a time, once the mandala is constructed and used in its ritual contexts, it is swept and thrown into the nearest body of running water, the creation and destruction of sand mandalas represents in part the impermanent nature of all things. and the return of the Sands to the water represents the idea of ​​interdependence because all things are interdependent. You do not simply become one with a God or a bodhisattva during tantric visualization.

You may realize that you have always been a part of them. Vadriana has sometimes been used synonymously. with Tibetan Buddhism but this is not entirely correct Vajrayana is a component of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition but a component that has played an important role in its history Padma Sambhava who, as we mentioned before, is one of the central figures of Tibetan Buddhism, was a tantric teacher who was believed to be the creator of the terma or treasure texts a tradition of esoteric texts believed to be hidden by Padma sambhava only to be revealed to later tantric masters years later the skull of

tibetan

studies dr.

Don López Compares this process to Joseph Smith discovering the Book of Mormon, a text that, according to him, was revealed to him supernaturally. Tantric practice is also highly regulated. The different Tibetan Buddhist orders have a system of tantric colleges where you can go and train. This looks different depending on the monastic order. The Nygma Order. runs retreat centers where students go on multi-year retreats where they are guided by a teacher. The style of the Gaelic order is more academic. There you go to a tantric university to train and study tantric texts, as is often the case with these basic videos.

We have barely scratched the surface, although it makes sense to end the current situation of Tibetan Buddhism. Part of the reason the Dalai Lama is such a prominent figure on the world stage is due to the tumultuous events of the 20th century in 1912, after the fall of the Qing dynasty, the previous Dalai Lama, the 13th Dalai Lama , declared the independence of Tibet. This de facto self-government lasted until 1951, when the Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army or PLA invaded Lhasa and annexed the region in 1955, many Tibetans took up arms against the PLA. Tibetan Buddhist monasteries became centers of resistance as many fighters They took refuge in the monasteries and many of the monks themselves joined the fight.

In 1956 the PLA bombed the main Gaelic monasteries in Tibet, such as Sampling Monastery and Litang Monastery and then in March 1959, the Chinese government He suppressed a revolt that broke out in Lhasa, prompting the Dalai Lama to flee to India, where he established a Tibetan gubernatorial government in exile. During the cultural revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, the Communist Party destroyed thousands of Tibetan Buddhist monasteries and demolished their libraries and imprisoned their monks and nuns. The current government repression of Tibetan culture periodically erupted into protests and violent clashes, such as in 2008, in the months before China hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, and because the current Dalai Lama and the Chinese government have taken advantage of two different called Pancham which traditionally elects the next Dalai Lama a succession crisis looms on the horizon amidst all this the 20th century also witnessed the enormous growth of Tibetan Buddhism outside the region shortly after the 1959 uprising of Tibetan Buddhist monks who He fled Tibet and began building Tibetan Buddhist infrastructure abroad.

Many of these teachers were successful in teaching Tibetan Buddhism to Western audiences, not through monasteries but through grassroots organizations based in small centers where people could gather to hear the Buddha's teachings and practice meditation. An important popularizer of Tibetan Buddhism. In the West he was the high-ranking Llama dejum rimpoche, he was a tolku, a tantric Master, a revealer of the Terra texts and was even believed to be an incarnation of Padma sambhava. He established Tibetan Buddha centers in France and the United States and led the United States and Europe. students during the retreats, but perhaps the greatest popularizer is none other than the Dalai Lama.

Today, the Dalai Lama has formally renounced his role as political head of state and serves only as spiritual leader for Tibetan Buddhists; However, through his travels, lectures, books and activism. he helped make

tibetan

buddhism

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