Different Views of Shakyamuni Buddha as a Teacher

A major source of confusion in trying to ascertain the source of the tantras seems to be that Western Buddhologists, Hinayana scholars, and Mahayana authorities each regard Shakyamuni Buddha differently. Buddhologists accept Shakyamuni as a historical figure and a great teacher, but do not consider him as having

possessed superhuman powers, as having instructed even nonhumans, and as having continued to teach after his death. Although Hinayana scholars grant that Shakyamuni Buddha had extraordinary powers and could teach all beings, they place little emphasis on these qualities. Moreover, they say that Shakyamuni's passing away marked the end of his teaching activities.

Mahayana scholars of both the sutras and tantras explain that Shakyamuni became a Buddha many eons ago and merely exhibited the stages for becoming enlightened during his lifetime as Prince Siddhartha. He has continued to appear in various manifestations and to teach ever since, using a wide assortment of paranormal abilities. They cite The Lotus Sutra, in which Shakyamuni proclaimed that he would manifest in the future as spiritual masters,

whose teachings and commentaries would be as authentic as were his own words. Moreover, Mahayana scholars accept that Buddhas can manifest in several forms and places simultaneously, with each emanation teaching a different topic. For example, while appearing as Shakyamuni propounding The Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) Sutras at Vultures' Peak in northern India, Buddha also manifested in southern India as Kalachakra and set forth the four classes of tantras at Dhanyakataka Stupa.

The Mahayana vision of how Buddhas teach extends beyond personally instructing disciples. Shakyamuni, for example, also inspired other Buddhas and bodhisattvas (those fully dedicated to achieving enlightenment and to helping others) to teach on his behalf, such as when Avalokiteshvara expounded The Heart Sutra in Buddha's presence. He also allowed others to teach his intended meaning, such as Vimalakirti in The Instructions of

Vimalakirti Sutra. Further, in later times, Shakyamuni and other Buddhas and bodhisattvas permitted to teach on his behalf appeared in pure visions to highly advanced disciples and revealed further sutra and tantra teachings. For example, Manjushri revealed Parting from the Four Types of Clinging to Sachen Kunga-nyingpo, the founder of

the Tibetan Sakya tradition, and Vajradhara repeatedly appeared to masters in India and Tibet and revealed further tantras. Moreover, Buddhas and bodhisattvas transported disciples to other realms in order to instruct them. For instance, Maitreya led the Indian master Asanga to his pure land and transmitted to him there his Five Texts.

Because the audience for Buddha's teachings consisted of a variety of beings, not only humans, some of them safeguarded material for later, more conducive times. For example, the half-human half-serpent nagas preserved The Prajnaparamita Sutras in their subterranean kingdom beneath a lake until the Indian master Nagarjuna came to retrieve them. Jnana Dakini, a supranormal female adept, kept The Vajrabhairava Tantra in Oddiyana until the Making Sense of Tantra

Different Views of Shakyamuni Buddha as a Teacher

Indian master Lalitavajra journeyed there on the advice of a pure vision of Manjushri. Moreover, both Indian and Tibetan masters hid scriptures for safekeeping in physical locations or implanted them as potentials in special disciples' minds. Later generations of masters uncovered them as treasure-texts (terma, gter-ma). Asanga, for

example, buried Maitreya's Furthest Everlasting Continuum, and the Indian master Maitripa unearthed it many centuries later. Padmasambhava concealed innumerable tantra texts in Tibet, which subsequent Nyingma masters discovered in the recesses of temples or in their own minds.

When the Tibetan tradition asserts Shakyamuni as the source of the tantras, it means Buddha as described in common by the Mahayana sutra and tantra traditions. If potential tantra practitioners approach the issue of authenticity from the stance of accepting merely the descriptions of the Buddhologists or the Hinayana scholars, then naturally such a Buddha could not have taught the tantras. This is irrelevant, however, to such people.

Tantra practitioners do not aim to become the type of Buddhas that Buddhologists and Hinayana scholars describe. Through tantra practice, they aim to become Buddhas as depicted in the Mahayana sutra and tantra teachings. Since

they accept Shakyamuni as having been such a Buddha, they certainly accept that he taught the tantras in all the miraculous ways in which tradition relates.