Already before the mission of Gautama Buddha the stupas with the four elements and the flame of akasha (meditated with seed-syllables like KHA, RA, HA, WA und A ) were known and were used in Buddhism and in local groups.
Other techniques like Qi Gong, as later practiced by the chinese Kung-Fu-Monks, came from mixtures of Buddhism with Taoism and other religions like the tibetan BÖN - Nature - Religion, which was a kind of magic training.
Therefore we find several branches nowadays which represent only aspects of buddhism like Zen and Chan.

Literature : "Dalai Lama, Introduction into Buddhism" or: "The essence of Meditation"

The basis of the buddhist teachings of Gautama Buddha ( Shakyamuni ) are the four nobly truthes :

It should not be overseen that the oldest scriptures of buddhism come from a time of more than 200 years after the death of buddha Gautama. Original buddhism was not so complicated.
Every buddhist scool has developed a specific system, and there were influences of hinduist tantra into the later buddhism, sometimes even of the left path of Tantra.

The well known story of the life of Gautama and the temptation by Mara can be interpretated as a secret INITIATION-SCRIPTURE of the first 20 steps of the UNIVERSAL PATH !

[ please read --> Rudolf Steiner : Christianity as a mystical fact , page 77:

Buddha Gotama was a son of his 40 years old mother MAYA , the main woman of his father Suddhodana , the Raja of the kingdom Sakya . From this name comes his name Sakyamuni.

At the time of his birth (Step 2 of the U. P.) MAYA is already "ill". She gradually loses her influence on Gautama because he has selfrealization comparable with YAMA of Raja-Yoga. Therefore she has the dream of a white elephant. Otherwise the aspirant Gautama would not be not born.

(Similar ist the birth of C.R. (Christian Rosenkreutz) in the old rosicrucian book Fama Fraternitatis).

Seven days after his birth (step 9) his mother MAYA dies(unlike the teacher P.A.L in the Fama Fraternitatis), because the aspirant Gautama becomes master of his KARMA and of her delusive forces.

After the death of Maya he is brought to his aunt Prajapati. He leaves back Maya and now "spins the wheel" standing above the Samsara (step 10)

In this vicinity he becomes a "siddharta" ("wish fulfilled", one who has tamed his self (step 11 -> Lion). The Tarotcard 11 shows "Prajapati" and the Lion.

At the entrance of many buddhist temples we can see several lions. These lions symbolize the human SELF. Anyone who wants to enter the temple (step 12) must leave his small SELF behind himself (step 11), his bindings at the material body. First then he can pass the two columns, ie. build the temple into himself and with that - seen Buddhistic- developing the strength of the goodness which he needs on the step 13. So the lions are a kind of guardians of the threshold. Well, true goodness is based on selflessness.

At the age of 16 he is married with his beautiful cousine Yasodhara (step 12) who has a son Rahula ( meaning "fetter", ie. he tames the four elements) from him after 13 years.

This is a very special spiritual "son" out of the esoteric sight...(step 14; 1st initiation; Horus)

Being 30 years old the material world looses all importance for him. He orders his favourite charioteer Channa to saddle the horse Kanthaka and leaves his home. He rides to the river Anoma and leaves everything back there. He assumes the simple yellow garb of an ascetic and leads a life of voluntary poverty (ie. he goes on the path, and finally he is temptated by MARA, Step 15).

The "horse" stands here as a symbol of the power of the spiritual All-LOVE, which should not to be changed with the human love, which is a kind of desire.

His tree fasting companions are equivalent to the three indish "Gunas" of Maya , which take part at the "Opus Magnum ".
From Step 17 on they are superfluous , and therefore Gotama leaves them.

He recovers from the "fasting", ie. he builds a new spiritualized body, and then he goes to "Bodhgaya", ie. he becomes a Bodhisattwa (at the beginning of step 18).

After meditating for six days and six nights, on a morning after(!) full moon in May, he attains the enlightenment.

The tarotcard 18 shows this "full moon". At the begining of the next step (19) the enlightenment is attained.
Then he stays for three weeks under the spiritual "TREE" - to finish the process of step 19 (Double enlightenment). The Sarwa Buddha Dakini is the transformed etheric body(Just like the christian whore "Maria Magdalena").

After initiation and conversion of all of his "friends, his family and a large number of Sakyan people" he has transformed his "lower bodies" (step 20).
(On step 18 he had already "slayed mother and father", ie. he had destroyed self-preservation and kind preservation.)

Then he "dies" and reaches "Paranirvana" through stages of deeper and deeper meditation. He leaves no questions back (ie. the initiation and transfiguration of his bodies is perfect), and he ends with the statement : "Transient are all conditioned things".(Comparable with this end is the ascension of Christ.)

This interpretation is nearly unknown in modern buddhism(the tradition of the diamond sutra had this knowledge) and lets the lamas appear as not deeply initiated into the original tradition. Therefore i will not continue these thoughts here, especially because this does not mean that modern buddhism like Kagyü cannot lead to enlightenment. On the other hand many tibetan buddhists see themselves as spinners of the third rotation of the wheel of their tradition.

Of course modern techniqs like Kagyü-Meditations and Mahayana-Meditations can lead to enlightenment for true seekers with strong aspiration and surrender.
But it must be said that traditional "Vipassana-Meditation" alone cannot lead to enlightenment. It is a technique for beginners without the final force of transformation. Enlightenment is not a sudden event.
The techniques for progressed students were traditionally given personally and not written down.
Therefore i have put a combined traditional technique on this website. There were realistic reasons for the formation of Mahayana and Vajrayana, because there existed no enlightened buddhas and at that time it was like a new beginning.
So i risk a wrinkle of the brows from many sides, and therefore i ask those buddhists to think pragmatic like Buddha Shakyamuni did.

More details and Sutras can be found in the "Weblinks for study" : Buddhism of this website !

The refuge mantra of the Vajrayna-Scool is well known :

Namo Guru bei
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Dharma
Namo Sanghaya

I pay homage to the guru, i pay homage to the buddha, i pay homage to the dharma, i pay homage to the Sangha.

But a guru was not typical for traditional buddhism.

Finally it mst be stated that the meaning of the BODHISATTWA is mostly completely misunderstood nowadays.

A Bodhisattva is a person who is prepared for enlightenment before becoming a Buddha. Figures of Bodhisattvas usually appear in the company of a sitting or meditating Buddha. However, they are sometimes depicted on their own. Bodhisattvas can be male or female, like Avalokiteshvara, or Goddess of Mercy, and Manjusri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.
In China, Avalokiteshvara is generally accepted as being female and she is known for her feminine qualities of mercy and generosity. Normally she is depicted in the company of Amitabha. She may be portrayed with thousands of hands and eyes and many heads and she is said to have 32 avatars. She usually holds a lotus, a vase or a willow branch in hand.
Manjusri is usually depicted to the left of Buddha Sakyamuni. He wears a purple and gold gown and his hair is tied in a knot at the top. He normally rides on a lion and holds a green lotus in his left hand while brandishing a sword in his right.

Behind this scenery stands the well know symbolism of Sushumna(Buddha) and Ida-Pingala in the hight developed form before enlightenment. Often the Budhha has his position above the two Bodhisattwas(Kagyü) and represents the spiritual soul.

In Mahayana and especially in Vajrayana classic buddhism has been altered or developed.
The latter direction pretends to intend to liberate all beings from their suffering, but tibetan traditions are very separatistic.

Buddhism can nowadays be a disturbing mixture with hinduist tantra, lamaism, teachings of other buddhas (like Avalokiteshvara or Chenresi), tibetan siddhas and bodhisattwas and ZEN-Traditions. The multitude of mudras and rituals can be too time consuming and can block the understanding of that what is really essential for the spiritual progress !
But the tibetan pictures of a buddha in unification with a black female person (and around are various gods and demons) is not the left path of Tantra Yoga (maithuna) but the UNIFICATION of "Jiva and Paramatma", the individual purusha and the individual soul (around them the different personificated higher and lower forces) - i.e the enlightenment !

For many seekers Buddhism serves as an atheistic enlightenment-religion which avoids a personal god and has Nirvana or the big emptiness as a goal.
But modern Budhism leaves some questions open. The origin of the "Big emptimess" and the origion of the Spirit are unexplained.

The reason is very simple that the spiritual soul cannot reach the AGAMA-plane and so buddhism ends in the highest spiritual heavens (big emptiness; Hansa). In the Kabbalah a similar emptiness is known as RESCHIT, but above it is the En-Sop-Aur.
First further developements to reach the "ADI-Buddha" with steps like Mahapara-Nirvana and Parasamvit could lead to a final UNITY, but they are not widely accepted in Buddhism.
Sometimes the Adi-Buddha is just understood as a final buddha behind space and time.

Hark! . . . from the deep unfathomable vortex of that golden light in which the Victor bathes, ALL NATURE'S wordless voice in thousand tones ariseth to proclaim:
JOY UNTO YE, O MEN OF MYALBA (of hell..).
A PILGRIM HATH RETURNED BACK "FROM THE OTHER SHORE".
A NEW ARHAN IS BORN.
Peace to all beings.

H. P. Blavatsky : The voice of silence ; (Link 2) ; (as PDF !)and a WIKI

I see all the different religious traditions as paths for the development of inner peace, which is the true foundation of world peace. These ancient traditions come to us as a gift from our common past. Will we continue to cherish it as a gift and hand it over the the future generations as a legacy of our shared desire for peace?
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama ( From "The Pocket Dalai Lama," edited by Mary Craig, 2002. Reprint Shambhala Publications.)

A prophecy of the tibetan oracle says that buddhism will be the only religion which will survive the next 200 years.

Lama Ole Nydahl from tibetan Kagyü -Tradition has written "How things are ", (german titel), with a well known tibetan technique(OM AH HUNG) - and of course many other tibetan Lamas as Angarika Govinda have written books about tibetan buddhism.