The diamond path — enlightenment at full speed.
Tantric Buddhism, dominant in Tibet: visualization, mantra, and the guru's direct transmission, aiming at buddhahood in this very life. The vehicle that says the poison can be the medicine.
DeitiesA vast iconography of buddhas and protectors — meditational, not creators
Founded700 CE · India and Tibet
AfterlifeRebirth — navigable, per the bardo teachings
TextsTantras · Tibetan Book of the Dead
The map
Vajrayāna’s corner of it — solid lines are descent; dotted lines are resemblance only, ideas held in common across unrelated faiths. Click a node to recenter; ✕ returns here. All 171 faiths →
c. 1500 BCE Vedic Religion c. 480 BCE Buddhism 700 CE Vajrayāna
Buddhahood is reachable in one lifetime.
Tantra accelerates the path — the poison, rightly handled, becomes the medicine.
Go deeper — context →
The teacher's transmission is essential.
Without the lama's empowerment the techniques are just calisthenics.
Go deeper — context →
Empowerment (abhisheka).
The tantric methods are locked by design: a lama transmits the practice, deity, and mantra in ceremony, because this vehicle holds that realization travels person to person, not page to person.
Go deeper — context →