Esoteric Buddhism is not Buddha’s Secret Dharma

   Esoteric Buddhism is not Buddha’s Secret Dharma
Mar /4/ 2023 – Mar/ 5/ 2023

Hello everyone, welcome to our Dharma talk at Dharma Rain Meditation Center.

Talking about Esoteric Buddhism, Some people assume that we will talk about god and ghost, all kinds of secret or wired cultivation method now, well, this is sort of the regular opinion for most people, even the Buddhism practitioners, they think esoteric Buddhism is the Buddha’s speechless teaching, is theurgy, is following root guru without keeping any precepts and more efficient than those down-to-earth efforts.

We do not judge it first; let’s see what esoteric Buddhism school is.

Tantra, also known as Vajrayana, is a tribe of Mahayana Buddhism, rose during the Gupta Empire of India, which is, at the same time as the Hinduism of Catechism. Tantra was developed by some Shaktism practitioners who mixed partial theory and practice of Brahmanism and Shamir sect; its characteristics are full of mystery, emphasis on supernatural powers, excommunicating with ghosts and gods, yoga, and the mysterious experience and one to one teaching between the master and student. This sectarian of Hindu is also known as Miyajisu because of its own secret practice, not its theory but its secret teachings that are not allowed to be spread to the public and so many mysterious contents. Relative to the Tantra, the regular Buddhist school is called explicit Buddhism. The practitioner of Tantric Buddhism believes that “All beings nature are clean in nature” just like Zen Buddhism. However, they consider that all other teachings of Buddha are “teaching for convenience” only teaching they followed are “real secret teaching”, which of course more advanced and effective for the practice. Because these secret teaching can not easily show, need to be taught in secret, they called themselves esoteric Buddhism.

In modern times, the well-known Tantric tribe is divided into three major categories: Dongmi, Tangmi and Tibetan. In the 8th century, at Emperor Xuanzong’s age, three great masters (acaryas) came from India to China: Śubhakarasiṃha, Vajrabodhi and Amoghavajra. These three masters brought the esoteric teachings to their height of popularity in China. Major tantric texts introduced by these masters included the Mahavairocana Tantra and the Vajrasekhara Sutra, as well as numerous commentaries and ritual manuals. They translated the largest number of texts in the Xinshan Temple (located in Xi’an today）spread the esoteric Dharma and started Tangmi. Tang Mi has mainly two esoteric Dharma: vajradhātu and garbhakosa-dhatu, which known as the two pure esoteric Dharma. Of course, there are also some miscellaneous practices such as giving food to starving ghosts and Mengshan giving food, etc., but they are not regarded as orthodox schools. While Dongmi was spread to Japan by Master Kūkai who was originally from Japan and came to Tang China to learn the complete esoteric teachings expounded by the three Indian masters, it is claimed that he learned the complete teachings in two years before returning to Japan. The transmission to Japan later became Shingon Buddhism, which is often referred to in Chinese as Dōngmi. The concept that separated explicit and esoteric was brought up by Master Kukai. Dongmi believes that the monks should keep their desires of regular life, strictly observe the precepts. Unlike the monks who could even marry in other Japanese temples, the monks in the Koya-soo temple have been living orthodox monks’ life until today. Tibetan esoteric is familiar with people from China, Europe and North America; the originator was padmasambhava, he believed that explicit Buddhism emphasis on theory, which is the cause Dharma; esoteric Dharma is the effect Dharma which focuses on practical methods and auxiliary practice of various ritual procedure, mantras, etc., therefor compare with explicit Buddhism, it is more practical and efficient. Tibetan esoteric advocates that greed of human being should be used as an aid to practice so that the practitioner will be given freedom of opinion and attain the enlightenment through secret ceremonies, magical powers and meditations.

Nowadays, most people would like to choose esoteric Buddhism as their cultivation. Why? Because the Tantra means secret, it is easy, it is a shortcut, it does not require complicated precepts, it is encouraging people to release their desires, and it is magical. What a huge misunderstanding! When Buddha Sakyamuni attained the enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, he told us that all beings are Tathagata wisdom has Buddha’s nature, which is to tell us the biggest secret of cultivation: our own treasure is our self-nature which equals Buddha’s nature. Therefore, esoteric Buddhism is not a secret; on the contrary, the real secret Buddha told us is to find out our own self-nature. Where is our self-nature? We do not really know as a human being; scientists dissect the human heart; they use electromagnetic analysis equivalents to scan the brain; they cannot find our self-nature. Because our self-nature is formless, we cannot see it by eyes. We often say that “Dependent Origination and the Emptiness of Nature” which means virtuous causes and conditions result in good retribution, there is no ontology. The essence is empty, just like Buddha’s nature, which is, the big secret that Buddha Sakyamuni told us. As for the practice of using the trini guhyani blessing, open the gate of our heart, see our self-nature, cannot rely on so-called “esoteric Dharma” and their strange cultivation method, we have to keep our heart honest, sincerity, kind and clean, corresponding to the Buddha and Bodhisattva, get the blessing of Buddha and Bodhisattva, and establish a secret channel that between you and Buddha. This is the original intention of Buddha esoteric teaching.

We cultivate by ourselves is like walking to somewhere, with Buddha’s blessing would be like taking a train or an aeroplane, it increases our progress and saves our effort, it is our luck to know it. However, modern people bring their Unitarian opinions to the Dharma practice; they want to choose a practice that is simple, effective, and no bound rules. As a result, modern Tantric Buddhism, such as Tibetan Tantric came into being, hundreds of thousands of guru Living Buddha came into being. As long as you believe, as long as you give enough financial support, they will tell you that your Buddhism root is extraordinary you have special connections with guru’s from your pre-life, you do not have to keep any precepts, you can follow your desire and do anything you want. With the blessing of the Guru and the living Buddha, you can make reborn to a pure land or even become a Buddha directly. People are so smart to choose a super high-end short cut; however, they are not wise enough to consider some details like: is this really from the teaching of Buddha Shakyamuni? Which guru or living Buddha is proved by Buddha Shakyamuni? Did the teachings they sold to you come from the Buddha Shakyamuni? If yes, from which sutra?

I think most of the practitioners realized it, however the magical powers and so-called “Convenient Dharma gate,” are so tempted, at the same time, the gurus claim that if do not follow or suspect you will go to hell eventually. With temptation and panic, most people followed. This is sad of religious, the tragic of the believers. And as a genuine spiritual practitioner, we need wisdom, actually even not great wisdom here, but a common sense of life: no pay, no gain, paying no effort to enlightenment and become Buddha It is the impossible story. From the very first day of this Dharma talk, we have said that Buddhism cultivation is learning from Buddha Shakyamuni, studying the Dharma from Shakyamuni Buddhism himself, go to the origin Dharma of Buddhism. From the teaching of Buddha Shakyamuni, we can learn Zen, pure land, and speechless teachings. Why do we say it is speechless? Because we cannot see it from words, we have to feel it, sense it then eventually understand it. Therefore, those Dharma people can say it to you and sell it to you, is not real teaching from Buddha. Zen, pure land and esoteric teaching are the one; we want to see the secret of it, instead of asking from those gurus and living Buddhas, we can just follow the sutra from Buddha Sakyamuni.

Zen, pure land and secret Dharma’s source is in your tathata-citta, in the Buddha’s nature, in the self-nature of Buddha.
Zen, pure land and secret Dharma’s source is in the heart of Buddha and the countless self natures, is in the origin of the universe, in the noumenon of great truths.
Zen, pure land and secret Dharma’s source is under the Bodhi tree, is in the Sarnath, in the Rajgir Mountain.
Zen, pure land and secret Dharma’s source is the attaining the enlightenment when Buddha was watching the star, is the flower sermon, is the 8-phase Buddha-ship.

If you do not know them, you will be a traveller in the Samsara.
When you understand the Zen, pure land and secret Dharma, you would be your own master.

 thank you for the listening!