OverviewAs with bodhisattva vows, there are root and secondary tantric vows, which we promise to keep until reaching enlightenment and which continue on our mental continuums into future lives. The Gelug, Kagyu, and Sakya traditions confer these vows with any empowerment (dbang, initiation), subsequent permission (rjes-snang, permission), or mantra-gathering (sngags-btus) for any practice from one of the two higher classes of tantra - yoga or anuttarayoga - according to their fourfold classification scheme. The Nyingma tradition confers them with any of the above three rituals for any practice from one of the four higher tantra classes - yoga, mahayoga, anuyoga, or atiyoga (dzogchen) - according to its sixfold scheme.
[See: Basic Features of Tantra.]
Most details from the discussion of bodhisattva vows pertain to the tantric vows as well.
[See: The Root Bodhisattva Vows.]
The root tantric vows are to refrain from fourteen actions which, if committed with the four binding factors (kun-dkris bzhi), constitute a root downfall (sngags-kyi rtsa-ltung) and precipitate a loss of the tantric vows. Without these vows shaping our lives, we cannot gain attainments or realizations from tantric practice. This is because our practice will lack the necessary supporting context. Except for one of the tantric root downfall actions, giving up bodhichitta - the same as with the root bodhisattva vows - a transgression of any of the other thirteen, without the four binding factors being complete, merely weakens the tantric vows. It does not eliminate them from our mental continuums.
There are two variations of the root tantric vows, one specific to Kalachakra and one common to all yoga and anuttarayoga tantras, including Kalachakra. Here, we shall follow the explanation of the common root tantric vows given in An Explanation of Secret Mantra Ethical Discipline: A Cluster of Fruit of Actual Attainments (gSang-sngags-kyi tshul-khrims-kyi rnam-bshad dngos-grub-kyi snye-ma) by the early fifteenth-century Gelug founder Tsongkhapa (Tsong-kha-pa Blo-bzang grags-pa). We shall supplement it from A Lamp to Illuminate the Closely Bonding Practices (Dam-tshig gsal-ba'i sgron-me) by the late fifteenth-century Gelug master Kaydrub Norzang-gyatso (mKhas-grub Nor-bzang rgya-mtsho).
