Deity yoga

The Indian commentator Buddhaguhya (c. 700 CE), in his commentary on the Mahavairocana Tantra, outlines the "perfection stage" practices thus: First you should actualize all the four branches of recitation for a while as before, and then analyze the manifestation of the created (parikalpita) colour, shape, and so on, of your tutelary deity who is identical to yourself, breaking them down into atoms.

In accordance with that realization, you should then actualize the mind which is just self-aware, free from the body image of your tutelary deity and without appearance [as subject and object], and mentally recite your vidya mantra as appropriate.

[6] The Tibetologist David Germano outlines two main types of completion practice: a formless and image-less contemplation on the ultimate empty nature of the mind and various yogas that make use of the subtle body to produce energetic sensations of bliss and warmth.

They are engaged by various means such as pranayama (breath control) to produce blissful experiences that are then applied to the realization of ultimate reality.

This method undermines habitual grasping to a solid and fixed reality (i.e. to inherent existence, svabhava), enabling the practitioner to purify spiritual obscurations (klesha).

Since "all appearances are viewed as manifestations of the luminous and empty nature of mind, and so the divine pride of deity yoga does not lead to attachment, greed, and other afflictions.

[27] The fact that the deity is a reflection of qualities already inherent in the practitioner is what makes this practice different from mere deluded or wishful thinking.

"[12] According to the Indian master Buddhaguhya, there are three techniques which may be used to settle the mind on emptiness in the yoga without signs:[12] The generation stage or creation phase (Tib.

[29] The Nyingma scholar Ju Mipham defines the generation stage as follows: "accessing the purity and equality of appearance and existence through conceptual creations and training in accord with the view that ascertains the meaning of the natural continuum of the ground.

[32] Generation Stage is a visualisation practice utilising "all the senses and the totality of the meditator's body, speech, and mind...[to develop]... confidence in the reality of the deity's world.

[40] As to the main practice of generating the image of the deity, Mipham writes that "one begins by resting one's attention on a focal support, such as a buddha statue placed before oneself.

[46] According to Kongtrül, whenever one trains in the generation phase, one must see everything that arises as a relative and empty appearance, devoid of inherent nature, and one must also see them all as illusions.

Clothing, jewelry, food, drink, and all other such factors should be transformed into the play of wisdom by utilizing mantras, visualizations, and mudrās.

"[51] Jamgön Kongtrül writes that the main characteristic of Completion Stage practice is non-conceptual great bliss arising from the melting of the vital essences (bindus) in the subtle body which allows the yogi to realize the true nature of reality, bodhicitta.

"[54] Before practicing the completion stage, most masters agree that one should first gain stability in the generation phase, having developed clear appearance of the images and firm divine pride.

[55] This is because, as Kongtrül writes "the creation-phase contemplations, once a special connection has developed act as ripening agents for the arising of the realization of the completion phase.

The second type refers to various meditations using features of the subtle body to produce energetic bodily sensations of bliss and inner warmth.

[58] The embodied energetic practices associated with the completion stage make use of a tantric schema of human psycho-physiology composed of "energy channels" (Skt.

rtsa), "winds" or vital currents (vāyu, rlung), and "energetic drops" or charged particles (bindu, thig le) which are said to converge at certain places along the central channel called chakras (lit.

[8] The subtle body energies are seen as "mounts" for consciousness, the physical component of awareness and are engaged in order to generate the 'great bliss' (bde-mchog; maha-sukha) which is used to attain enlightenment.

When the winds dissolve, the process of dissolution of the different levels of subtle and coarse [psycho-physical] constituents occurs, along with many experiences of extraordinary bliss ensuing from the melting of vital essence [bindu].

This ignites the inner heat, which moves up the central channel and melts the white vital essence (bindu, thigle) located in the head.

Alexander Berzin explains (from the Gelug perspective) how the vital wind practices lead to the other yogas: On the complete stage, we cause the energy-winds (rlung, Skt.

This enables us to access the subtlest level of mental activity (clear light, ‘ od-gsal) and use it for the nonconceptual cognition of voidness – the immediate cause for the omniscient mind of a Buddha.

[65] Luminosity or 'clear light' (Tibetan od gsal, Sanskrit prabhāsvara) refers to the radiant nature of mind, also described as the primordially pure ground, which may be experienced through meditation, through inner heat yoga, during great bliss, in sleep and during the dying process.

[73] All Tibetan traditions agree that qualified lay practitioners (including former monks) can use physical consorts as the Indian mahasiddhas ("great adepts") did.

The other concerns the "lower door," a method of simultaneity to elicit innate pristine awareness by means of the union of the "space" [of the female] and the "secret" [of the male].

[85] Mipham states that the emphasis of the path of liberation is "exceptional study, contemplation, and meditation, which lead to a decisive insight into the spontaneously perfected great maṇḍala, in which all phenomena are primordially enlightened as self-occurring wisdom.

Another method refers to directing the vital essence into the central channel and discursive thought into luminous clarity, which leads to "the nondual pristine awareness dimension of awakening.

Moreover, the master's key instructions enable one to recognize, directly and nakedly, that the nature of one's own mind is empty yet aware, that it is self-occurring wisdom, innately free from constructs.

An 18th-century Mongolian miniature which depicts a monk generating a tantric visualization
A Japanese depiction of the Amida Triad in Seed Syllable form ( Siddham Script ). Visualizing deities in the form of seed syllables is a common Vajrayana meditation. In Shingon, one of the most common practices is Ajikan (阿字觀), meditating on the syllable A.
A Tibetan depiction of the perfection stage practices of tummo (Skt. candali , inner heat) and phowa (transference of consciousness)
Chöd ritual, note the use of damaru and hand-bell, as well as the kangling (thighbone trumpet)
TAM the seed syllable ( bija ) of the deity Green Tara. In some practices, one first visualizes the seed syllable, and the deity arises out of this.
A statue of Green Tara, a common meditation deity in Tibetan Buddhism.
Painting of Vajrayoginī (Dorjé Neljorma), a female Buddha and a ḍākiṇī used as a meditation deity in Highest Yoga Tantra.
Chemchok Heruka, one of the eight Herukas which are key yidams in Nyingma.
Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Cycle, c. 1429–56, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order .
Mañjuvajra mandala with 43 deities.
A Tibetan illustration depicting the central channel and the two side channels as well as five chakras where the channels loop around each other. The bindus are tiny subtle particles of energy found in the subtle body.
A depiction of the heart chakra from a Tibetan Medicine text
A section of the Northern wall mural at the Lukhang Temple depicting tummo , the three channels ( nadis ) and phowa
Mañjuvajra and consort, central deities of the Guhyasamaja cycle
A vajra-cross, or "double vajra" ( vishva vajra )
Dzogchen master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu interacting with students