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"An esoteric path within Hinduism and Buddhism that harnesses ritual, mantra, visualization, and the currents of subtle energy to bring about rapid spiritual transformation." Tantra, the practice, is formally linked to three religions in this atlas, Buddhism, Hinduism and Thelema. Read through its own denomination links, this is a partial differentiation.

A Buddhist Path Named at the Level Already Published

Buddhism's own Vajrayana denomination link states: "Vajrayana is Buddhist tantra: mantra, mandala, mudra and deity visualisation transmitted by initiation under a guru, offered as a swift path to enlightenment within a single lifetime and closed to the uninitiated." This atlas carries a live restricted-tradition fact on the neighbouring Tantra discipline page, limiting what is withheld to "the empowerment-bound visualization or sadhana practice" and keeping the tradition's existence and its deities openly described; this essay stays inside that same public line, naming the closure without describing what is transmitted within it.

Two Hindu Schools, Not One

"Shaiva tantra runs from the nondual Kashmir schools, which read the world as the play of one consciousness, to the Nath and other yogic orders, and it supplies the Agamas that govern much ordinary Shaiva temple worship." "Shaktism is bound to tantra more closely than any other Hindu tradition, working with mantra, yantra and ritual to rouse the divine energy within, and some of its lineages keep the transgressive left-hand rites that the orthodox refuse."

Thelema's Link Carries Nothing

Thelema is the third of the three counted religions, and neither its own link nor the rest of its own description mentions it at all. Named honestly as a gap rather than filled with what is commonly said about Thelemic magick elsewhere.

Where To Read More

• TantraMeditative PracticesThe practice; two of three counted religions differentiated through their own denominations, the third bare
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)Elaborated through its own Vajrayana denomination, named at the level the neighbouring restricted discipline page already publishes
• VajrayanaBuddhismBuddhist tantra proper, closed to the uninitiated, named without describing what is transmitted
• HinduismDharmic (Polytheistic)Elaborated through two distinct denominations, Shaivism and Shaktism
• ShaivismHinduismThe nondual Kashmir schools and the Nath yogic orders, supplying the Agamas of ordinary Shaiva worship
• ShaktismHinduismBound to tantra more closely than any other Hindu tradition, some lineages keeping the left hand rites
• ThelemaEsoteric / OccultThe third counted religion; neither its edge nor its own text carries anything for it