davcuts wrote:I'm having doubts about the nature of tantra. Why is tantra not apart of Theravada Buddhism? I'm having doubts Buddha ever taught tantra. The fact tantra was first taught in Hinduism makes my doubts even stronger. How can a person prove tantra was or wasn't taught by Buddha? If this question goes against the TOS moderators please delete it.
Thanks,
David
If I may be blunt, tantra was a later corruption of Buddhism. It comes even after the age of Nagarjuna's scholastic Buddhism. At best, (right-handed) tantra is merely an unnecessary superstition. At worst, (left-handed) tantra is outright evil and demonic. If you read some of the tantras, some of them seem to expound wrong views, especially eternalism. In the
Kulayarāja Tantra, Samantabhadra essentially makes the same ridiculous utterance of being a creator god, which was previously stated by a Maha-Brahma and refuted, in the Brahmajala Sutta. In some of the other tantras, there are bizarre descriptions of concoctions involving blood and semen, and ritualistic sex.
Some of the Tibetan Buddhists' techniques and teaching styles are interesting, and worth taking a look at, but I don't think their grandiose claims can be taken seriously. After all, some of their Lamas, when they're sick, won't tell their followers and while preaching various superstitions, they'll secretly run off to western hospitals.
Oh, but tantra isn't simply Tibetan, though, to make that clear. The Mahayana canon has some tantras as well and there is Vajrayana in Japanese, under Shingon, too. From what I've seen, Shingon Buddhists tend to be a bit more reasonable.