Religious Scholarship & Literacy's video: UULA Adult RE: Buddhism Part 7: Vajrayana Buddhism

UULA Adult RE: Buddhism Part 7: Vajrayana Buddhism, Lecture delivered February 21st, 2020 at 6:30 at the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos The topic was Vajrayana Buddhism. Vajrayana Buddhism refers to a form of Buddhist Tantra. Vajrayana is sometimes translated as the "Diamond Vehicle", or "Thunderbolt Vehicle". (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajrayana) Vajrayana Buddhism can perhaps be seen as an extension of Mahayana Buddhism, mixed with Tantric traditions which became the dominant form of Buddhism in Tibet. We discussed Mahayana Buddhism in last month's class (for the recording see: https://youtu.be/00aaYxBdaI8). Vajrayana Buddhism extends the Mahayana concept of "emptiness" to the idea of extreme "non-duality", which the Tantric traditions explore by unifying male and female, pure and impure, passionate emotions and calmness, etc. In a previous lecture, we discussed the Tantric tradition in relation to Hinduism (see: Hinduism, Part 4: Sex, Sexuality, and the Divine Feminine https://youtu.be/oG2XpCu-Sz4). The Buddhist implementation of Tantra is similar, but has its own flavor which we will explore. Course Web Page: These classes are part of a larger Comparative Religion series taught at the UULA Church. For more resources, links to a calendar of future classes, links to older lectures, etc. visit the UULA Comparative Religion Course Web Page: https://sites.google.com/view/comparativereligion Buddhism Annotated Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_GFUAydrBGfwWPab5tzAL8GQWF1baK6Fvir_cIFXH8o/edit?usp=sharing