Classes of Tantra in Tibetan Buddhism
The Sarma, "New Translation" schools of Tibetan Buddhism (Gelug, Sakya, Kagyu, Jonang) classify tantric practices and texts into four classes.
Tantras are classified according to the capacity of persons, the deities they use, the specific types of methods they employ and how they use desire (kama).
bya ba, Action) tantras were taught for practitioners of lower ability who have an inclination for performing many external ritual activities for protection and purification purposes, such as ritual bathing, the sprinkling of scented water, the creation of a circle of protection, the use of mudras and the chanting of mantras.
Importantly, during the Caryā tantra class and literary period, there developed the salient innovation wherein the sadhaka is to cultivate identification with the deity in meditative absorption (known as "self generation").
This class of literature was also important to Chinese Zhenyan Buddhism and tantric masters such as Śubhakarasiṃha (637-735), Vajrabodhi (671–741) and Amoghavajra (705–774).
This focus was later imparted by Amoghavajra's disciple Huiguo (746-805) to the monk Kūkai (774–835), leading to the development of Japanese Shingon Buddhism.
Guarisco & McLeod explain Jamgon Kongtrul's codification of this class as follows: Conduct tantra, where conduct encompasses both outer ritual activity and inner contemplation, involves training in a vast range of deeds while entering the inner reality that presents itself in visual and audible divine representations.
This limited view is overcome by visualizing oneself as the deity, understanding that form to be the appearance aspect of emptiness.
Various "meditations with signs" are part of this practice including: bija (seed syllable) and mandala visualization, mudra (hand seals), repetition of mantras, etc.
According to Miranda Shaw, Anuttarayoga Tantra texts "have remained at the forefront of contemplation, ritual, and interpretation throughout the Himalayan Buddhist sphere".
Earlier Sakya masters and Kagyu scholars had viewed Father Tantras as emphasising the practice of blissful awareness.
[27] Father Tantras have also been seen as emphasizing the use of anger (pratigha) as the path of practice, focusing on the emptiness aspect of Buddha nature.
They are considered to emphasize the utilization of desire (tṛṣṇā) as the path of practice, focusing on the brilliant (prabhāsvara) aspect of Buddha nature.
Non-dual tantras utilize both anger and desire as an antidote to delusion (avidyā), focusing on both the physical and mental, void and brilliant, aspects of enlightened mind.
According to Jean-Luc Achard, "in the Nyingma tradition, there are several ways of classifying the teachings of the Buddha into nine, ten, and sometimes twelve Vehicles.
"[30] The first three categories are essentially the same as the Sarma classification (Kriyā, Caryā or Ubhaya, and Yoga) and are called "Outer Tantras".
[31] According to Longchenpa's Great Chariot: Mahāyoga, the father tantra, the nature of method [related to] appearance, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is aversion and who are subject to excessive discursiveness.
Anuyoga, the mother tantra, the wisdom of the completion phase [related to] the essential reality of emptiness, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is desire and who delight in stillness of mind.
Atiyoga, the nature of nonduality, [is taught] to benefit those whose strongest emotional affliction is delusion and who are tarnished by [attachment to] effort.
[32]Longchenpa's Finding Comfort and Ease in the Nature of Mind states: Mahayoga emphasizes winds and the methods of the generation phase.
Such references to higher categories of Dzogchen teachings, said to surpass those of Ati yoga stricto sensu, have survived at least down to the revelations of mChog gyur gling pa in the 19th century.
