Talk:Vamachara

Extract from "Antinomianism", embedded section on Buddhadharma which could be re-written for Dharmic Traditions
Among Buddhists there are three main types of 'antinomianism' which may act as a gloss for 'left-handed attainment' (Sanskrit: Vamachara): naturalist/spontaneous antinomianism, ritualist/philosophical antinomianism, and empirical antinomianism. There may also be those who subscribe to all or some combination of these three types.

Naturalist antinomians believe that enlightened beings may spontaneously break monastic codes of conduct while living out a natural state of enlightenened mind. Another view is that an enlightened mind responds to circumstances based on Buddhist morality, rather than the legalism of the monastic codes, and that the "break" is not therefore spontaneous. There are tales of Buddhist masters throughout history who perform acts that appear to be bizarre or immoral, known in English as 'crazy wisdom' (Tibetan: yeshe chölwa).

Ritualist antinomians, such as some Tantric Buddhists, may break codes of conduct in specific religious rituals designed to teach non-duality or some other philosophical concept. They may, for example, have sex during a religious rite (refer Panchamakara; Ganachakra) or perform some other ritual inversion of a rule, while such acts would be unacceptable to them outside the ritual context.

Empirical antinomians may break or disregard traditional ethical or moral rules that they believe are unconducive to the individual's contemplative life. They view such codification as having arisen in specific historical-cultural contexts and, as such, not always supportive of Buddhist training. Thus the individual and the community must test and verify which rules promote or hinder enlightenment.

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on Vamachara. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110713134552/http://www.kapalika.com/qanda.html to http://www.kapalika.com/qanda.html#4

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 10:14, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Vama means north AND left
Daksina and vama, in addition to meaning north and south, are the actual words in sanskrit for left and right. It is not an implied meaning here but the literal definition to say daksina means right and vama means left. That added background is superfluous in defining vamachara.Iṣṭa Devatā (talk) 09:00, 4 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Agreed: vAma and dakSiNa are also literally "left" and "right", as any old dictionary would confirm. The following is a rather pointless excursion:
 * Vāma means "pleasant, lovable, agreeable" and Dakṣiṇa means "south". Facing the rising sun towards east, Dakṣiṇa would be the right side.
 * ...even if M-W gives the logic of: "south (as being on the right side of a person looking eastward)", this is of little relevance here. It's also unclear what, if any, of the etymology in the section aside the quote is Bhattacharyya's. Perhaps noteworthy is that vAma also means "reverse, contrary, opposite" etc. -- though someone may need to fish up a source noting this as a relevant meaning (even if obviously so)? (Sorry, I've no time to burrow into this at edit-worthy depth right now.) ~ Baba Bom (talk) 13:33, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

different photo?
Hello everyone. I'm thinking that the image of the dakini on the article page isn't the most appropriate image as the dakini is mostly found in Vajrayana Buddhism. I am up for looking for another more relevant photo to put there (perhaps fierce Tara or Kali or a Mahavidya?) yet wanted to ask you all for input before I change it out. Best, AD64 (talk) 17:30, 11 May 2016 (UTC)


 * What about this photo? The caption could read something like: "Puja at the temple of the left-handed Goddess Kamakhya."



Best, AD64 (talk) 17:34, 11 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Good idea. I've swapped in the image. Skyerise (talk) 15:23, 12 November 2022 (UTC)