Deities

by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Exhibitions like this one on Tibet are helpful for introducing people to a culture. We Tibetans have a distinctive culture. Materially, we are rather poor, but in spiritual and cultural development we are quite rich with much to offer the world. For instance, from my own experience, I know that the Tibetan medical system is particularly valuable, especially for a number of chronic diseases. In fact, because of its usefulness, despite the deliberate destruction of Tibetan culture by the Chinese, they have left the Tibetan medical system intact and have even preserved and promoted it.

The objects of a culture represent that culture in part, but the main part of a culture is not in paintings and so forth but inside the mind. If it is alive in the daily life of people, we can know its usefulness. For instance, because of Tibetan culture, Tibetans for the most part are jovial people. We ourselves had not noticed it, but many foreigners who visited India noticed our joviality and asked what our “secret” is. Gradually, I came to think that it is due to our Buddhist culture that emphasises the Bodhisattva ideal of compassion in a great many ways. Whether literate or illiterate, we are accustomed to hearing and speaking of all sentient beings as mothers and fathers. Even someone who looks like a ruffian has “all mothers, all sentient beings” on his lips. I feel that this ideal is the cause of our happiness. It is particularly helpful in daily life when facing serious problems.

However, perhaps you may wonder why we Tibetans keep talking about compassion and yet some of our deities are so fierce. Let me explain this.

In general, in Buddhism gods or deities are divided into two types, mundane and supramundane. Within the mundane, there are descriptions of many types of gods and demi-gods included within the six types of transmigrating beings — hell-beings, hungry ghosts, animals, humans, demi-gods, and gods. In the Desire Realm, there are six types of gods; in the Form Realm there are four types corresponding to the four concentrations which are further divided into seventeen types, and in the Formless Realm there are four. Then, there are bad spirits that are included within hungry ghosts, demi-gods, and animals. There are many different types of spirits which I will not detail here.

Because there are many societies of gods, it is important to make a distinction between mundane and supramundane deities; otherwise, you could mistake a local, mundane deity for a supramundane deity of Highest Yoga Tantra, for instance. There are mundane deities that take possession of people and use them as mediums, but these beings are like us in that they have the afflictive emotions of desire and hatred. In the course of our lives, we have been born as such beings, and they have been born like us. From the Buddhist viewpoint, beings have limitless different types of good and bad karma due to which they come to appear in limitless different ways.

With respect to supramundane deities, there are two main types: those who are Bodhisattvas, who have attained the path of seeing the truth, and those who are Buddhas. Among those who appear as Bodhisattvas, there are two types: those who are actually Buddhas but appear as Bodhisattvas and those who are actually Bodhisattvas. Among those who are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, there are many who appear as protectors such as Mahakala, Mahakali, and so forth.

Deities in mandalas are supramundane ones who have reached the path of no more learning and are Buddhas. In Yoga Tantra, for instance, there are mandalas with even a thousand deities who are appearances of the one central deity. In the Highest Yoga Tantra mandala of Guhyasamaja there are thirty-two deities which are appearances of the factors of purification of the constituents of one person. Thus, even though many deities appear in the mandala, there is really only one being.

Deity yoga is practised for the main purpose of achieving the supreme feat of Buddhahood in order to be of full service to other sentient beings. In general, the tantric path comprises the yoga of the non-duality of the profound and the manifest. The profound is the wisdom realising the profound emptiness of inherent existence, and the manifest is the simultaneous manifestation of that wisdom consciousness as a divine circle. The appearance factor of the consciousness manifests as a deity, mandala dwelling, and so forth, and the ascertainment factor of that same consciousness realises the absence of inherent existence of those.

In Highest Yoga Tantra, the uncommon, special practice involves the usage of subtler levels of consciousness. In the context of this topic, the Guhyasamaja Tantra speaks of the three bodies of the ordinary state which are caused to appear as the three bodies of the path state, in dependence upon which the Three Buddha Bodies of the effect state are actualised. About the three bodies of the ordinary state, our ordinary death — the mind of clear light that dawns at death — is the Truth Body of the ordinary state. Similarly, except for rebirth in a Formless Realm, there is an intermediate state between death and rebirth, which is called the Complete Enjoyment Body of the ordinary state. The point of conception in the new life is called the Emanation Body of the ordinary state. In the same way, within one day, deep sleep is posited as the Truth Body of the ordinary state; dreaming is posited as the Complete Enjoyment Body of the ordinary state, and waking is posited as the Emanation Body of the ordinary state. These factors in ordinary existence are used in the path such that the corresponding factors of Buddhahood are achieved. The practice is done within deity yoga, but in addition, subtler levels of mind are used, making progress over the path to Buddhahood quicker.

In deity yoga the practitioner is seeking to achieve, at best, the supreme feat of Buddhahood; at the middling level, any of the eight great feats; and at the lowest level, an activity of pacification, increase, subjugation, or ferocity — all for the sake of others’ welfare. Among the deities used in such meditation, there are both peaceful and wrathful forms. The reason for these many forms is this: In the scriptures of the Hearers, there is no explanation of using an afflictive emotion in the path; however, in the Bodhisattva scriptures of the Perfection Vehicle, there are explanations of using the afflictive emotions of desire in the path in the sense of using desire as an aid in accomplishing others’ welfare as in the case of a Bodhisattva king’s fathering many children to help the kingdom. However, in the Mantra Vehicle, even hatred is explained as being used in the path. This refers to the time of implementation, not to the motivation which is just compassion. With compassion as the causal motivation, at the time of the actual practice, the practitioner utilises hatred or wrath for a specific purpose. This technique is based on the fact that when we become angry, an energetic and powerful mind is generated. When trying to achieve a fierce activity, the energy and power make a difference. Thus, it is because of the usage of hatred in the path in this way that there come to be wrathful deities.

In the hands of many peaceful and wrathful deities there are skulls and so forth. For instance, Chakrasamvara holds a skull with blood in it; the skull signifies bliss, and the blood symbolises the mind realising the emptiness of inherent existence. The reason why the skull is associated with bliss is that the basis of the bliss of the melting of the basic constituent [that is to say, the basis of sexual bliss] is said to be at the crown of the head. In a similar way, a professor of medicine at the University of Virginia explained that the ultimate source of the generation of semen is in the head. Thus, the skull filled with blood symbolises emptiness and bliss.

In other contexts, a skull symbolises impermanence; a corpse symbolises selflessness. With a supramundane deity, five dry skulls symbolise the five exalted wisdoms and the five Buddha lineages. Such explanations are required for understanding a wrathful deity.

In the praises of wrathful deities, it is always mentioned that they do not stir from the Truth Body or from love. If a practitioner of tantra who did not have the prerequisite of the development of strong compassion attempted such wrathful practice, it would harm rather than help. As the great Tibetan adept from Hlodrak, Namkha Gyeltsen (lho brag nam mkha’ rgyal mtshan), said, if you practice tantra without having great love and compassion and understanding of emptiness, the repetition of fierce mantra can lead to rebirth as a bad spirit that seeks to harm beings. It is extremely important to have the prerequisites and all qualifications for the practice of tantra.

Similarly, the proper practice of the yoga of inner wind, or breath, is difficult and can be dangerous. Therefore, it is said that tantric practice must be done in secret, in hiding. It is easy to look at the pictures and statues in a museum but difficult to do the actual practice.