GUHYASAMAJA-TANTRA

( (Sanskrit: Treatise on the Sum Total of Mysteries), ) also called Tathagataguhyaka (The Mystery of Tathagatahood [Buddhahood]), oldest and one of the most important of all Buddhist Tantras. These are the basic texts of the Tantrican esoteric and highly symbolicform of Buddhism, which developed in India and became dominant in Tibet. The Tantric form stands, along with the Mahayana and Theravada, as one of the main branches of Buddhism. The Guhyasamaja Tantra is ascribed by tradition to the sage Asanga. Much of its symbolism, appearing at the beginning of the Vajrayana tradition, exercised a normative influence over that tradition's development. The first of 18 chapters presents the text's mandala (literally, circle), a visual image used in ritual and meditation and understood as the symbolic embodiment of a Tantric text. In the centre of the mandala of this text stands Aksobhya, the Imperturbable Buddha, the central celestial figure in Tantric Buddhist symbolism. Surrounding him are Vairocana, the Illuminator Buddha, in the east; Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, who dwells in the Western Paradise, the Pure Land; and the celestial Buddhas, Amoghasiddhi in the north and Ratnasambhava in the south. Other chapters present sexual and horrific symbolism, spiritual techniques, the nature of enlightened consciousness, and other central Tantric concerns.