Soyeah. Do not meta this topic, please.
Mahayana and Vajrayana (or Tantric) are two schools of Buddhism that appeared some few hundred years. The Mahayana bodhisattva and the Vajrayana siddhi are the enlightened masters for their respective schools. Being their ideal beings and their end goals, a comparison between the two masters will tell us a lot about the differences between the two schools.
Buddhists believe that life is suffering, and thus to stop one's suffering and be happy, one must detach from samsara (the world of sensations, or the cycle of rebirth) and achieve nirvana (extinguishment of the self). To detach oneself from samsara, one must realize that the world is not "real". Enlightenment is this deep realization, which is required to lose one's attachment to samsara.
In Mahayana Buddhism, the act of leaving the world behind, and all its people, upon reaching enlightenment is considered selfish. The bodhisattva is first and foremost a creature of compassion. A monk's hope is to achieve enlightenment and then, instead of achieving nirvana, stay in samsara so that he can help others be released from samsara. Thus a bodhisattva can leave the cycle of rebirth at any time, but chooses to be reborn again and again to be able to help others to nirvana.
Vajrayana Buddhism, on the other hand, expands on the idea of detaching from samsara. The siddhi is unrestricted by the laws of the world that we would take for granted, such as gravity, and has magical powers after enlightenment. The siddhi also has no need for inhibitions, and even murder is not a problem as the world is just Mara (illusion). The Vajrayana monk, in pursuit of this, may engage in ritual sex, which is typically forbidden to other Buddhist monks, and other acts which are considered impure, using impurity to create purity. In fact, one text of the school compares it to washing away dirt with more dirt, or using venom to expel venom from a wound.
JERKS ASK ME SOMETHING!
Expand upon the practices of each. You mostly spoke about the beliefs, and what little you spoke of the practices (assuming there is more) really seems to cast what could be seen as a negative light upon the Vajrayana school.
Because of Vajrayana's reasoning for disregarding, and even actively going against, social and ethical norms, it had some difficulties being adopted by the Tibetans, who would later become a center of Tantric thought. However, Vajrayana is, in some ways and some forms, a follow-up to Mahayana Buddhism. The siddhi is still concerned with compassion, and the "defiling" acts of murder and sex are often performed with the mind, rather than committed against/with a person.
That said, many of the early Tantrics, especially the Indian Tantrics, had a sexual partner, which might have started as a master-student relationship. In fact, outside of Vajrayana Buddhism, female monastics were relegated to a second-class position (for example, a nun is not allowed to scold a monk) and kept separated from the males; however, Vajrayana has the male and female as mutually necessary counterparts. Vajrayana was even founded by a princess, according to Buddhist history, and female teachers may have been more important than male teachers.
The reason for the male-female pairing was because of a belief in the relationship between sexual bliss and the bliss of nirvana. Sexual climax was a chance to lose self-awareness and reach nirvana. From this focus on spiritual sex came the famous Tantric sexual practices that captivate Westerners today, though in reality the ritual sex may only take place with a bell and thunderbolt as a metaphor.
What about the Mahayana school's practices?
How large is one school compared to the other? What are some of the methods of each to help achieve enlightenment?
Less open questions, please.
Stop trying to be teachers and try to be interested.
I am interested. You said a lot of the "defiling" acts in Vajrayana are committed with the mind. Do you mean they're imagined acts? Acted out mentally, perhaps during meditation?
I wasn't directing the last statement at you. Your question actually got me to respond.
Rewrite of the last paragraph from my current draft:
The male-female pairing came about from a belief in the connection between sexual bliss and the bliss of nirvana. Sexual climax was a chance to lose self-awareness and reach nirvana. From this focus on spiritual sex came the famous Tantric sexual practices that captivate Westerners today, though in reality the ritual "sex" may only take place symbolically, with a bell in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. Sutra Mahamudra used meditation to bring together a person's internal male and female sides as a way of sexual union without a partner.
Mahayana and Vajrayana (or Tantric) are two schools of Buddhism that appeared some few hundred years after the initial founding of Buddhism. The Mahayana bodhisattvas and the Vajrayana siddhis are the enlightened masters for their respective schools. Being their ideal beings and the end goals for their monks, a comparison between the two masters will tell us a lot about the differences between the two schools.
Buddhists believe that life is suffering, and thus to stop one's suffering and reach happiness, one must detach from samsara (the world of sensations, or the cycle of rebirth) and achieve nirvana (extinguishment of the self). To detach oneself from samsara, one must realize that the world is not "real". Enlightenment is this deep realization, which is required to lose one's attachment to samsara.
Compassion is Mahayana Buddhism's key feature that distinguishes it from the earlier Buddhists. Before Mahayana, Buddhists would try to achieve enlightenment, and perhaps have a few disciples, leaving the world after death. Mahayana Buddhists declared that it is more noble to stay in samsara and be reborn. In Mahayana Buddhism, the act of leaving the world, and all its people, behind upon reaching enlightenment is considered selfish. The bodhisattva is first and foremost a creature of compassion. A monk's hope is to achieve enlightenment and then, instead of going to nirvana, stay in samsara so that he can help others be released from samsara. Compassion is a corollary of selflessness, which is a corollary of the idea of nirvana being a detachment from the idea of a self.
Mahayana compassion also extends to animals. With Mahayana came the argument that one should not eat meat at all, as, in the cycle of reincarnation, one or one's family might have been or might become one of those species. Before Mahayana, Theravada Buddhist monks accepted meat as charity, as long as the animal was not killed to feed them.
Vajrayana Buddhism followed Mahayana Buddhism. Vajrayana emphasizes compassion, but it expands on the idea of the world being empty. The siddhi is unrestricted by the laws that we would take for granted, such as "don't headbutt that giraffe", and gravity. Being unrestricted by the laws of the world, the siddhi is thought to have magical powers like levitation and making a peach tree grow from a seed overnight. Being unrestricted by the law of ethics, the siddhi is free to do what he/she wants, to whom he/she wants. The siddhi has no need for inhibitions, and even murder is not a problem as the world is just Mara (illusion). Vajrayana Buddhists, like their Mahayana counterparts, see meat-eating as defiling. But it is considered an indulgence, like sex, and so the siddhi may indulge as part of the path to nirvana.
The Vajrayana monk, in pursuit of becoming a siddhi, may engage in ritual sex--while sex is typically forbidden to Buddhist monks--and other acts which are considered impure. The idea is to reach purity using impurity. One Vajrayana text compares it to washing away dirt with more dirt, or using poison to fight poison.
Because of Vajrayana's reasoning for disregarding, and even actively acting in spite of, ethical norms, it had some difficulties being adopted by the Tibetans, who would eventually become a center of Tantric thought. However, Vajrayana is still a follow-up to Mahayana Buddhism. The siddhi is still concerned with compassion, and the "defiling" acts of murder and sex are often performed within the mind, rather than commited against/with a person.
That said, many of the early Tantrics had a sexual partner, a relationship which might have started as a master-student relationship. In fact, outside of Vajrayana Buddhism, female monastics were relegated to a second-class position (for example, a nun is not allowed to scold a monk) and kept separated from the males; however, Vajrayana has the male and female as mutually necessary counterparts. Vajrayana was even founded by a princess, according to Buddhist history, and female teachers may have ben more important and prolific than male teachers.
The male-female pairing came about from a belief in the connection between sexual bliss and the bliss of nirvana. Sexual climax was a chance to lose self-awareness and reach nirvana. From this focus on spiritual sex came the famous Tantric sexual practices that captivate Westerners today, though in reality the ritual "sex" may only take place symbolically, with a bell in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other. Sutra Mahamudra used meditation to bring together a person's internal male and female sides as a way of sexual union without a partner.
Sahajayana Buddhism, a school of Tantricism, shows us that despite the reasoning that seems to invalidate morality, Vajrayana still maintains Mahayana compassion. Lack of compassion, to them, is selfishness, and selfishness requires the idea of the self. If one is enlightened, one cannot be selfish, so if one is to be enlightened, one must release the concept of "other than myself". In this way, a buddha is everything, and everything is the buddha. Compassion is so important that it's impossible to achieve the "highest level" even if one gives oneself to the void.
As Sahajayana was the last phase of Indian Buddhism, it brings us full circle to Mahayana. So perhaps Vajrayana should not be thought of as a new form of Buddhism, but as a new form of Mahayana Buddhism.