page_title: Vajrayana
section_title: Deity yoga
hierarchical_section_title: Vajrayana / Tantra techniques / Deity yoga
caption_attribution_description: Українська: Частина ілюстрації практик (вправ йогінів) із стародавнього тібетського видання (X-XII стт.н.е., імовірно практики Міларепи)English: Illustration of the yogic practice of Tummo from an ancient Tibetan edition, X-XII centuries AD, probably of the sage Milarepa
context_page_description: Vajrayāna, Vajrā-Mahāyāna, Mantrayāna, Tantrayāna, Tantric Buddhism and Esoteric Buddhism are terms referring to the various Buddhist traditions of Tantra and "Secret Mantra", which developed in medieval India and spread to Tibet, Bhutan, and East Asia. In Tibet, Buddhist Tantra is termed Vajrayāna, while in China it is generally known as Tángmì Hanmi 漢密 or Mìzōng, in Pali it is known as Pyitsayãna, and in Japan it is known as Mikkyō.
  Vajrayāna is usually translated as Diamond Vehicle or Thunderbolt Vehicle or Indestructible Vehicle, referring to the vajra, a mythical weapon which is also used as a ritual implement.
  Founded by medieval Indian Mahāsiddhas, Vajrayāna subscribes to the literature known as the Buddhist Tantras. It includes practices that make use of mantras, dharanis, mudras, mandalas and the visualization of deities and Buddhas. According to Vajrayāna scriptures, the term Vajrayāna refers to one of three vehicles or routes to enlightenment, the other two being the Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna.
context_section_description: The fundamental, defining practice of Buddhist Tantra is “deity yoga” (devatayoga), meditation on a chosen deity or "cherished divinity" (Skt. Iṣṭa-devatā, Tib. yidam), which involves the recitation of mantras, prayers and visualization of the deity along with the associated mandala of the deity's Buddha field, with consorts and attendants. According to Tsongkhapa, deity yoga is what separates Tantra from sutra practice.
  A key element of this practice involves the dissolution of the profane world and identification with a sacred reality. Because Tantra makes use of a "similitude" of the resultant state of Buddhahood as the path, it is known as the effect vehicle or result vehicle (phalayana) which "brings the effect to the path".
  In the Highest Yoga Tantras and in the Inner Tantras this is usually done in two stages, the generation stage (utpattikrama) and the completion stage (nispannakrama). In the generation stage, one dissolves oneself in emptiness and meditates on the divinity, resulting in identification with this divinity. In the completion stage, the visualization of and identification with the deity is dissolved in the realization of luminous emptiness. Ratnakarasanti describes the generation stage cultivation practice thus:
  [A]ll phenomenal appearance having arisen as mind, this very mind is [understood to be] produced by a mistake (bhrāntyā), i.e. the appearance of an object where there is no object to be grasped; ascertaining that this is like a dream, in order to abandon this mistake, all appearances of objects that are blue and yellow and so on are abandoned or destroyed (parihṛ-); then, the appearance of the world (viśvapratibhāsa) that is ascertained to be oneself (ātmaniścitta) is seen to be like the stainless sky on an autumn day at noon: appearanceless, unending sheer luminosity.
  This dissolution into emptiness is then followed by the visualization of the deity and re-emergence of the yogi as the deity. During the process of deity visualization, the deity is to be imaged as not solid or tangible, as "empty yet apparent", with the character of a mirage or a rainbow. This visualization is to be combined with "divine pride", which is "the thought that one is oneself the deity being visualized." Divine pride is different from common pride because it is based on compassion for others and on an understanding of emptiness.
  
  Following mastery of the "generation stage", one practices the "perfection stage". The tantric commentator Buddhaguhya, 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. Or it is also acceptable to do this by way of the reasoning that is unborn and unarising from the very beginning, or similarly by way of the technique of drawing-in the vital energy (prana) through the yoga of turning your mind inside, or by way of not focusing on its appearance [as colour and shape]. 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.
  
  As noted by David Germano, the practices which are associated with the "perfection stage" actually cover two distinct rubrics, "an earlier body of practice focused on the absence of images and a later system of techniques focused on the human body as a directly sensed reality." Germano outlines these thus:
  The first aspect indicates form-less types of contemplation directly on the ultimate nature of one's mind utterly devoid of any fabricated or spontaneous visual images. Often discussed as the dissolution of visual images back into the visionary, one could explain them as a felt experience of being grounded in the body, guided by the felt gravity of the body's presence without any 
caption: A Tibetan depiction of the perfection stage practice called Tummo (Skt. candali, inner heat).
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