[Vajrayana Buddhism's exalted priesthood, pomp and circumstance, and nearly forgotten nuns often lead to easy comparisons with Roman Catholicism, in form if not function.] Vajrayana Buddhism involves esoteric visualizations, symbols, and
complicated rituals that can only be learned by study with a master. This explains why Vajrayana is also referred to as Esoteric
Buddhism. Vajrayana Buddhism lays great emphasis on mantras
(incantations), mudras (hand gestures) and mandalas (diagrams of deities and cosmic forces), as well as on magic and a multiplicity of deities...
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Meeting the current Dalai Lama (left) in Washington, D.C. (japanese-buddhism.com)
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Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning American actor
Richard T. Gere has another identity. In the spiritual dimension of his life, far from his worldly Hollywood fame, he is a Vajrayana Buddhist.
Gere was raised by Methodist Christian parents. He began his search for the beauty of Buddhist tranquility in 1978 when he was traveling in Nepal with a Brazilian painter named Sylvia Martins.
Since then he became an active supporter of the 14th Dalai Lama, the former spiritual-political leader of Tibet, now the head [quasi "pope"] of the Gelug branch of Tibetan Vajrayana, the "Diamond Way" or "Thunderbolt Vehicle."
Tibetan Buddhism is composed of four principal schools, namely, the Nyingma (ancient) School, the Sakya School, the Kagyu (Oral Tradition) School, and the Gelug (Tradition of Virtue or "Yellow Hat") School.
Tsongkhapa is the pioneer of this Buddhist school.
After spending about 20 years studying with Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu, and Kadam (Oral Instruction) teachers, the concept of
Gelug came into being through the insight of Tsongkhapa in the early 15th Century.
More
Short history of Vajrayana Buddhism
Wisdom Quarterly (Wikipedia edit)
Although the first
tantric
Buddhist texts appeared in India in the 3rd Century and continued to
appear until the 12th century (Williams, 2000, p. 194), scholars such as
Hirakawa Akira assert that the Vajrayana school probably came into
existence in the 6th or 7th Century (
History of Indian Buddhism, 1993, p. 9), while the term
Vajrayana itself first appeared in the 8th century (
Macmillan Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 2004).
Vajrayana was preceded by the Mantrayana, and then followed by the Sahajayana and Kala-chakra-yana (
Schumann, Buddhism: an outline of its teachings and schools, 1974). The period of
Indian Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth (Akira, 1993) or final (Macmillan, 2000) period of
Indian Buddhism. The literature of Vajrayana is absent from the oldest Buddhist literature of the
Pali Canon and the
Agamas.
But practitioners claim
mythological origins for the
Tibetan Buddhist tradition. Those origins claim that the historical
Shakyamuni Buddha
taught tantra. But since these are "secret," occult, or esoteric
teachings, confined to the guru/disciple relationship, they were
generally written down long after the Buddha's other teachings -- the
Pali Canon and the
Mahayana sutras.
The Vajrayana tradition holds that its teachings were first expounded
by the Buddha 16 years after his great enlightenment. Historians have
identified an early stage of Mantra-yana beginning in the 4th Century,
and they argue that assigning the teachings to the historical Buddha is
"patently absurd" (
Kitagawa, The Religious Traditions of Asia: Religion, History, and Culture, 2002). More
American actor Richard Gere (whose real name is Richard Tiffany Gere), winner of Emmy Awards and Golden Globes, has another identity in the world of spiritualism, far apart from the rest of the worldly life and fame. He is a Buddhist.
Gere, who was raised by Methodist parents, began his search for the beauty of tranquility in 1978 when he was traveling in Nepal with a Brazilian painter named Sylvia Martins. Since then, he became an active supporter of his holiness the Dalai Lama who leads religious officials of the ‘Gelug’ branch of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhism is composed of four principal schools, namely, ‘ the Nyingma (ancient) School’, ‘ the Sakya School ’, ‘ the Kagyu (Oral Tradition) School’, ‘ the Gelug (Tradition of Virtue, sometimes known as the 'Yellow Hat') School’. Tsongkhapa is the pioneer of this last born ‘Gelug’ Tibetan Buddhism school.
After spending around 20 years studying with Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Kadam (Oral Instruction) teachers, the concept of ‘Gelug’ came into being through the insight of Tsongkhapa in the early fifteenth century.
- See more at: http://www.japanese-buddhism.com/richard-gere-buddhist.html#sthash.4XcrciX7.dpuf
American actor Richard Gere (whose real name is Richard Tiffany Gere), winner of Emmy Awards and Golden Globes, has another identity in the world of spiritualism, far apart from the rest of the worldly life and fame. He is a Buddhist.
Gere, who was raised by Methodist parents, began his search for the beauty of tranquility in 1978 when he was traveling in Nepal with a Brazilian painter named Sylvia Martins. Since then, he became an active supporter of his holiness the Dalai Lama who leads religious officials of the ‘Gelug’ branch of Tibetan Buddhism.
Tibetan Buddhism is composed of four principal schools, namely, ‘ the Nyingma (ancient) School’, ‘ the Sakya School ’, ‘ the Kagyu (Oral Tradition) School’, ‘ the Gelug (Tradition of Virtue, sometimes known as the 'Yellow Hat') School’. Tsongkhapa is the pioneer of this last born ‘Gelug’ Tibetan Buddhism school.
After spending around 20 years studying with Nyingma, Sakya, Kagyu and Kadam (Oral Instruction) teachers, the concept of ‘Gelug’ came into being through the insight of Tsongkhapa in the early fifteenth century.
- See more at: http://www.japanese-buddhism.com/richard-gere-buddhist.html#sthash.4XcrciX7.dpuf
