Knowra Deity yoga Deity yoga A tantric meditation practice in which practitioners visualize themselves as a buddha or other enlightened figure. It uses that imagined identity to cultivate awakened qualities and transform ordinary perception.
Generation stage : The tantric practice phase in which a meditator constructs a deity and its mandala through visualization. This is the phase in which the imagined enlightened form is developed.
Tantra : A family of esoteric religious traditions and methods that use ritual, mantra, visualization, and initiation. Deity yoga is one practice within tantric Buddhist systems.
Vajrayana : The Buddhist tradition that uses tantric methods, including initiation, mantra, and deity practice, to pursue awakening. Deity yoga is a characteristic method of Vajrayana Buddhism.
Buddhist devotion : Religious practices expressing reverence, trust, or supplication toward buddhas and bodhisattvas. Deity yoga uses a figure as an assumed meditative identity, not only as an object of devotion.
Completion stage : A tantric practice phase that works with subtle-body processes and the dissolution of constructed appearances. It often follows deity visualization by dissolving its forms into emptiness.
Buddha-nature : The Mahayana idea that beings possess a potential or basis for awakening. Deity practice draws on the possibility of awakening already present in beings.
Indian Buddhism : The diverse Buddhist traditions and institutions that developed in the Indian subcontinent. The tantric systems from which Tibetan deity yoga developed took shape in India.
Shamatha : A Buddhist meditation practice that develops calm, stability, and sustained attention. Unlike basic calm-abiding, deity yoga deliberately constructs and transforms a complex image.
Yidam : A meditational deity chosen as the focus of tantric Buddhist practice. The chosen figure supplies the identity and qualities visualized in the practice.
Bodhisattva : A being who seeks buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. Many visualized figures embody the bodhisattva ideal and its altruistic motivation.
Show all 21