Tantra

View on BuNay + Add to BuNay + Add to BCA

Key Term	tantra
In Tibetan Script	རྒྱུད།
Wylie Tibetan Transliteration	rgyud
Devanagari Sanskrit Script	तन्त्र
Romanized Sanskrit	tantra
Tibetan Phonetic Rendering	gyu
Chinese Script	密宗
Chinese Pinyin	mìzōng
Richard Barron's English Term	tantra
Jeffrey Hopkin's English Term	continuum
Ives Waldo's English Term	continuum
Basic Meaning	Tantra, when juxtaposed with sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism.
Has the Sense of	The terms implies a continuum or stream and is thus used to refer to scriptures which teach the substrate nature such as Buddha Nature which underlies empirical phenomena.
Definitions

Tantra, when juxtaposed with Sūtra, generally refers to the scriptures and texts which discuss esoteric topics. While the term is used to refer to texts on other topics, it is mostly used to refer to the genre of scriptures and texts on themes and topics associated with Vajrayāna Buddhism.