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Nyingma, Tibetan Buddhism and Vajrayana each hold a variant, differently accounted stance toward Raga, attachment, in this atlas. Reading each account individually finds one position, not three, because the three bodies are nested rather than separate: Nyingma is one school of Tibetan Buddhism, and Vajrayana is the tantric vehicle both Nyingma and the wider Tibetan tradition practice.

The Same Idea in Near-Identical Language

Nyingma teaching "presents the afflictions as self-liberating when recognised, so attachment is worked with rather than only opposed." Vajrayana teaching holds that the afflictions are "not only to be abandoned but recognised in their own nature and transmuted, attachment answering to a wisdom of discernment rather than being merely cut off." These are not two independent traditions arriving separately at a shared conclusion. They are a school and the vehicle it practices within, stating the identical tantric-transformation idea in language close enough to be the same sentence twice.

The One Account That Admits Its Own Duality

Tibetan Buddhism's own account is the broadest of the three and the only one honest that it does not hold this position alone within itself: it "carries a tantric stream in which the afflictions are transformed rather than only renounced, ALONGSIDE the sutra path on which they are abandoned." Nyingma and Vajrayana each state the tantric position as if it were simply the teaching; Tibetan Buddhism names the sutra path sitting beside it, unresolved, in the same tradition. One position, held by two nested voices in nearly identical words, and a third, wider voice that is the only one to admit the opposite view lives inside it too.

Where To Read More

• Raga (Attachment)Dharmic VicesThe affliction itself; three bodies counted, one position, nested rather than independent
• NyingmaBuddhismThe afflictions are self-liberating when recognised, worked with rather than only opposed
• Tibetan BuddhismBuddhismThe one account that names its own internal duality, a tantric stream alongside the sutra path that abandons rather than transforms
• VajrayanaBuddhismThe afflictions are recognised in their own nature and transmuted, not only abandoned