Overview of Tantra

Tantra is an advanced method for attaining enlightenment that requires prior practice of both the sutra methods and the preliminaries to cleanse our minds of negative potential and build up more positive potential. With these prior practices as our foundation, we receive an empowerment (initiation) to activate and uplift various factors of our Buddha-nature. These occur through experiences gained during the initiatory procedures, as amplified through the inspiration we receive from the tantric master conferring the empowerment. Then, based on keeping purely the bodhisattva and tantric vows taken during the empowerment, we embark on daily practice of the tantric methods with the aim of achieving the enlightening body, speech and mind of a Buddha. Since these methods resemble the result we are aiming to achieve, tantra is called the “resultant vehicle.”