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This chapter explains the sense in which Mahāyāna practitioners must go beyond ethics, relating this concept to the doctrine of no self. Advanced Mahayanists internalize morality so completely that they do not have to think about moral rules, and will ignore them when doing so produces benefits for sentient beings. This model allows us to understand Vajrayāna ethics. The outrageously unconventional behavior of Tantric siddhas such as Padmasambhava is not amorality, but the perfection of act-consequentialism. Beings in such a state neither deliberate nor think of themselves as moral agents. This state requires the freedom and creativity made possible by a deep, experiential understanding of emptiness. Despite appearances, the Madhyamaka teaching of emptiness does not destroy ethics, though it may eliminate self-defeating attachments to following ethical rules.

This chapter introduces readers to the problem of the visual, not only in the contemporary period but also in the premodern era when Buddhism flourished throughout the pan-Asian sphere. It provides a cursory overview of the key historical developments in Buddhist art and doctrine. It mentions the so-called an-iconic stage of Theravadin nonfigural art of early classical Indian Buddhism (fifth century BCE onward) and the early Mahāyāna figural depictions of embodied enlightenment beginning in the early centuries CE. It then chronicles the explosion of elaborate esoteric Vajrayāna (Mikkyō) iconography beginning in the seventh century CE, and the contrasting minimalistic spirit of Zen Buddhist artistic expression in China and Japan in the tenth century onward. It then outlines the content of each chapter in the book to follow.

The study of tantric Buddhism in the Euro-American academic world has grown immensely over recent decades, with new research on its origins in ancient India, its development in Nepal and Tibet, and then its evolution in China and under the Shingon school in Japan. The instructor covering Buddhism faces a host of difficult questions about how to introduce and convey this esoteric Buddhist tradition: Is it appropriate to introduce the typical undergraduate to teachings and initiation practices that are not routinely revealed to a typical Buddhist from Nepal or Tibet? Can any individuals who are not grounded in the teachings and meditation practices of Mahayana Buddhism be expected to grasp the symbolic and coded meanings in tantric Buddhism? How to handle the exposure of students to images of deities and saints in sexual embrace? David Gray presents a useful overview of how this tradition is now understood by its historians and reflects on how esoteric or Vajrayāna Buddhism can be most effectively taught in the undergraduate classroom.

Since around 900 CE, the Kathmandu Valley has been an important center of Buddhist tantric traditions, and the only non-ethnic Tibetan region of South Asia in which tantric Buddhist traditions have survived to the present day. For this reason, it played a major role in the preservation and dissemination of tantric Buddhist traditions across the Indo-Tibetan region. Just as the vast majority of surviving Sanskrit Buddhist manuscripts have been preserved there by the Newar Buddhist community, so are many other cultural traditions associated with tantric Buddhism still extant. Since Newar tantric traditions remain among the least explored in Asia, this chapter seeks to remedy this lacuna by summarizing what is known about its history, focusing on the major texts, ritual practices, and distinctive religious sites. The sangha of Newars, especially its Vajrācārya (New. Bajrācārya) sub-community, receives detailed description, including portraits of its notable modern religious scholars and tantric masters.