Esoteric movements in Buddhism, which fall under the general category of Vajrayana Buddhism, employ esoteric training into Buddha's teachings, through use of symbols, mantra and hand-gestures, or mudra.

Yet another notable esoteric strain stems from the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and P. D. Ouspensky.

According to Jewish esoteric teachings, the Hebrew letters are the lifeforce of all things created, determining their essence.

Kabbalah is a set of esoteric teachings meant to explain the relationship between an unchanging, eternal and mysterious Ein Sof ( no end ) and the mortal and finite universe ( his creation ).

Kabbalah originally developed entirely within the realm of Jewish thought and kabbalists often use classical Jewish sources to explain and demonstrate its esoteric teachings.

Gnosticism was an important development of ( and departure from ) early Christianity, blending Jewish scriptures and Christian teachings with traditional pagan religion and esoteric Greek philosophical concepts.

Some researchers add that Nichiren strongly criticized the esoteric rituals of other schools: “ As Sasaki notes, Nichiren ’ s view of the shift of authority from GoToba to Yoshitoki was inseparable from his criticism of the esoteric teachings.

During this period, Steiner maintained an original approach, replacing Madame Blavatsky's terminology with his own, and basing his spiritual research and teachings upon the Western esoteric and philosophical tradition.

Blavatsky combined Eastern religious traditions with Western esoteric teachings to create a synthesis she called the Perennial Religion.

Mao's godlike status during the period yielded him ultimate definitional power over Communist doctrine, yet the esoteric nature of his writings led to endless wars over its interpretation, with both conservatives and liberals drawing on Mao's teachings to achieve their divergent goals.

The mudrā, a series of hand symbols representing different Buddhas, was applied to the kuji by Buddhists, possibly through the esoteric Mikkyō teachings.

These three masters brought the esoteric teachings to their height of popularity in China.

During the Tang Dynasty in China, when esoteric Buddhist practices reached their peak, Japan was actively importing Buddhism, its texts and teachings, by sending monks on risky missions across the sea to stay in China for two years or more.

In 804, monk Saicho came back from China with teachings from the Tiantai sect, but was also trained in esoteric lineages.

When he later founded the Japanese Tendai sect, esoteric practices were integrated with the larger Tendai teachings, but Tendai is not an exclusively esoteric sect.

Vajrayana Buddhism is esoteric, in the sense that the transmission of certain teachings only occurs directly from teacher to student during an initiation or empowerment and cannot be simply learned from a book.

According to Master Hsuan Hua, the most popular example of esoteric teachings still practiced in many Zen monasteries of East Asia, is the and its dhāraṇī (), along with the Great Compassion Dharani (), with its 42 Hands and Eyes Mantras.

Although the Tendai school in China and Japan does employ some esoteric practices, these rituals came to be considered of equal importance with the exoteric teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

Longchenpa was a critical link in the exoteric and esoteric transmission of the Dzogchen teachings.

There is currently in existence an esoteric group of loosely affiliated individuals who engage in what is called " The Work ", which is the doing part of Gurdjieff's teachings.

Tibetan Buddhist ascetics consider that the state pointed to by these teachings is very difficult to describe, and can only be discovered through the esoteric transmission and pointing-out instruction by an authentic Vajra Master.

The Mount Hiei monasteries had become politically powerful but appealed primarily to those capable of systematic study of the sect's teachings, while the Shingon sect and its esoteric ritual continued to enjoy support largely from the noble families in Kyoto.

The main theme of the NGE doctrine spoken on hip hop records were the teachings that black people were the original or first human life to walk the planet, that the Blackman is God, the Black Woman is Earth, and through the inner esoteric powers of the Gods and Earths, the youth can transform and possess its true potential, which seems to overthrow the overbearing oligarchy by becoming just rulers of themselves.

Since the mid-1980s, Peart has used MIDI trigger pads to trigger sounds sampled from various pieces of acoustic percussion that would otherwise consume far too much stage area, such as a marimba, harp, temple blocks, triangles, glockenspiel, orchestra bells, tubular bells, and vibraslap as well as other, more esoteric percussion.

" Dorothy L. Sayers incautiously entered the closed world of bell-ringing in The Nine Tailors on the strength of a sixpenny pamphlet picked up by chance -- and invented a method of killing which would not produce death, as well as breaking a fundamental rule of that esoteric art by allowing a relief ringer to take part in her famous nine-hour champion peal.

" There are two ways of reconciling the difficulty: either we may suppose him to have thrown out such aphorisms as an exercise for his pupils, as Sextus Empiricus, who calls him a Sceptic, would have us believe ; or he may have really doubted the esoteric meaning of Plato, and have supposed himself to have been stripping his works of the figments of the Dogmatists, while he was in fact taking from them all certain principles.

According to a former student, Stephen Butterfield, " Trungpa told us that if we ever tried to leave the Vajrayana, we would suffer unbearable, subtle, continuous anguish, and disasters would pursue us like furies " Other Vajrayana teachers, as well, also warn their students about the dangers of the esoteric path.

Spare would grow to dislike Crowley, with some rumours arising within the British esoteric community that Crowley had actually made sexual advances toward the young artist, something Spare had found repellent, although these have never been proven.

Before the 1955 invasion of Tibet, many of the texts and information that are now available would have been esoteric and restricted.

" Lefty would then begin to make his sales pitch for an esoteric item, such as a letter of the alphabet, a box or a snowman.

It was in 805 that Kūkai finally met Master Hui-kuo ( 746 – 805 ) the man who would initiate him into the esoteric Buddhism tradition at Chang ' an's Qinglong Monastery ( 青龍寺 ).

Huiguo died shortly afterwards, but not before instructing Kūkai to return to Japan and spread the esoteric teachings there, assuring him that other disciples would carry on his work in China.

He also granted a second-level initiation upon Saichō, but refused to bestow the final initiation ( which would have qualified Saichō as a master of esoteric Buddhism ) because Saichō had not completed the required studies, leading to a falling out between the two that was not resolved, this feud later extended to the Shingon and Tendai sects.

After returning to Japan, Kūkai collated and systematized all that he had learned from Huiguo into a cohesive doctrine of pure esoteric Buddhism that would become the basis for the Shingon school.

Apart from exposing users to esoteric technicalities, it was inefficient, since an application would grab ( unwillingly ) all of its allotted RAM, even if it left most of it subsequently unused.

Believers of this esoteric prophecy maintain that the Harmonic Convergence ushered in a five-year period of Earth's " cleansing ", where many of the planet's " false structures of separation " would collapse.

While he would continue to sign contracts with established record labels, he would begin to release more esoteric projects independently.

Later in life, as writer, lecturer and Gnostic teacher, he would demonstrate a profound esoteric knowledge of both Eastern and Western classics.

Some notable shows over the years have included Locals Only ( a current show featuring bands from South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia ), The Columbia Beet ( local bands played live in the studio ), the Red Bank Bar and Grill ( an alternative country program ), The Weekend Kicker ( on Friday afternoons ), Musical Mutiny ( Sunday afternoons 1977-8, a progenitor of experimental / mash-up / sampling /" difficult " sounds ; " Knox Abbott " was doing guerrilla radio about 30 years before it would become fashionable ) and Blast From the Past ( one of the earliest shows to focus on more esoteric music from the 1960s, first aired 1978, featuring groups such as the " Chocolate Watchband " and " Lothar and the Hand People "; a few years after the originator of the show had graduated and moved on, more recent listeners remember his apprentice, Freewheelin ' Frank assuming the role of host ).

* Self-described renegade scientist and esoteric author Michael Tellinger sells the most radical opposing theory, stating that the " millions " of stone circles and walls constituted a massive power grid covering southern Africa, which an ancient civilisation would have used to resonate and conduct the sound frequency of earth into another form of energy that was presumably harnessed to mine gold.

Strict churches, which often impose costly and esoteric requirements on their members, are able to solve this problem by weeding out potential free riders, since only the very committed would join the church in the face of such requirements.

Although Morals and Dogma is an esoteric book, it was not a secret one ; Pike's original preface was clear that any Mason could own the book, but only Scottish Rite Masons would be encouraged to own one.

proper ) would be organized parallel to the highest degrees of the Rite of Memphis-Misraim and would teach the esoteric Rosicrucian doctrines of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light, and Kellner's " Key " to Masonic symbolism.