Dealing with inner experiences, the Vajrayana texts use a highly symbolic language that aims at helping the followers of its disciplines to evoke within themselves experiences considered to be the most valuable available to man. Vajrayana thus attempts to recapture the Enlightenment experience of the Gautama Buddha.
In the Tantric view, Enlightenment arises from the realization that seemingly opposite principles are in truth one.
The passive concepts Sunyata ("voidness") and prajña ("wisdom"), for example, must be resolved with the active karuna ("compassion") and upaya ("means"). This fundamental polarity and its resolution are often expressed through symbols of sexuality (see yab-yum).
The historical origin of Vajrayana is unclear, except that it coincided with the spread of the mentalistic schools of Buddhism. It flourished from the 6th to the 11th century and exerted a lasting influence on the neighbouring countries of India. The rich visual arts of Vajrayana reach their culmination in the sacred mandala, a representation of the universe used as an aid for meditation.
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