Mantra Method or Vajra Vehicle: On the self-perception of Indian Tantric Buddhism
Harunaga Isaacson will talk about the ways in which Indian Tantric Buddhists saw and defined their own practices viz a viz non-tantric forms of Buddhism.
This presentation will consider the ways in which Indian Tantric Buddhists saw and defined their own practices viz a viz non-tantric forms of Buddhism. It will show a tension between, on the one hand, a self-presentation as a form of Mahāyāna Buddhism, parallel to the Method of the Perfections (pāramitānaya, i.e what is now most commonly called simply Mahāyāna Buddhism) and leading to the same goal as that, though much more swiftly, and, on the other hand, a tendency to claim that tantric practice can, alone, lead to a state higher than that attainable through non-tantric practice.
Harunaga Isaacson studied philosophy and Indology at the University of Groningen, and was awarded a PhD in Sanskrit by the University of Leiden. After holding teaching positions at Hamburg University and the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed Professor of Classical Indology at Hamburg University in 2006. He is also director of the the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project. His main research areas are: tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism; classical Sanskrit poetry; classical Indian philosophy; and Purāṇic literature.