Vajrayāna: on the very definition of the tantric path in buddhist scriptures

"In adopting the construct of Vajrayāna scholasticism for the philosophical and exegetical literature on the subject of Vajrayāna, however, we encounter the danger of anachronism and imprecision. The term Vajrayāna itself is of course not uniformly applied to Esoteric Buddhist scriptures and their Indian commentaries, even in the case of the developed literature of the Unexcelled Yoga Tantras. The Esoteric Community Tantra itself makes no reference to a "Vajra Vehicle," or even to a "Mantra Vehicle" (mantrayāna). It claims, instead, to provide practitioners with the means of salvation "in this unexcelled Great Vehicle" (asmin mahāyāne hy anuttare).

Elsewhere, it refers to itself as a "way of mantras and transcendences" (mantranayapāramitānaya). These latter terms, usually in contrast, are in fact far more common in the Tantric Buddhist scriptures and commentarial literature through the eighth century C.E."

Estratto da John R. B. Campbell, Vajra Hermeneutics: A Study of Vajrayāna Scholasticism in the Pradipoddyotana (tesi dottorale, consultabile qui)