Tantra cast colors
Only then do they have access to tantric rituals and "secret knowledge," which has been repurposed as a way to achieve "enlightenment" and become a Bodhisattva or Buddha. They typically restrict tantra to a tiny elite who have spent decades as celibate monks mastering the sutras.
These sects claim to be tantric, but they are in fact mostly sutric. Tibetan monastic Buddhism is one example of this. They aim to do this through purity, self-denial, proper ritual and behavior, and the annihilation of fear, desire, pleasure, and all other emotions. Most vedic and sutric sects and religions are ascetic, aimed at escaping from this world and from what they believe is the illusion of reality that chains us to samsara, the endless cycle of rebirth. However, this distinction is not clearcut and often leads to some confusion, because the Tibetan monastic traditions, in particular, are heavily sutric, but still claim to be tantric for historical and traditional reasons. In Vajrayana (or "Tantric") Buddhism, the opposite of "tantric" is "sutric," referring to the texts and teachings known as the Sutras, most of which were written in the 1st through 5th centuries, before most of the tantras were written.
Vedic traditions emphasize caste and purity, while many tantric traditions were open to all castes, even those considered "unclean," and practiced rituals that involved "impure" substances and actions. In Hinduism, the opposite of "tantric" is "vedic," referring to the mainstream Hindu traditions that are based on the great sagas known as the Vedas and the later scriptures in the same tradition.
In many ways, looking at original texts from the First Millennium, tantra was thought of as a kind of practical spiritual technology, not as a religion, which explains why it was adopted by so many different religions. One meaning of "tantric" is "based on the tantras," a variety of traditional texts and teachings mostly concerned with ritual technique. Tantra: from the Sanskrit tantram, literally "loom, warp," hence "groundwork, system, doctrine," from tan "to stretch, extend," from PIE root *ten- "to stretch, extend" (see tenet). Please read and respect our subreddit rules.