Deity Meditation
Lama Gursam visited Baltimore the weekend of August 1st to 3rd in 2025. On the last day he gave a talk on deity yoga, the meditation practice where you visualize a deity in front of you, or yourself as a deity. These are my notes from his talk. They have been edited to read like a transcript, but they are notes and only the highlights from his talk.
Sadhanas start with the generation stage, either the deity is in front of you or you perform a self generation. Then you invoke the wisdom deity. Your visualization is called the samaya being. The wisdom being dissolves into the samaya being. "Dza hung bam ho" invokes the wisdom being to unite with you inseparably. Then there is the blessing of the offering. "Om ah hung" invokes the Buddha's body speech and mind to bless the offering. Sometimes there is the outer, inner, and secret offerings. But shorter sadhanas, usually don't have this. Then follows the seven fold prayer and sometimes other prayers. Then comes the recitation of the mantra. Then there is the confession prayer followed by the dissolution of the visualization. So that is the general structure of a sadhana. But sometimes a sadhana is just prayers.
A few words on the practice of Achi Drolma. Achi is not only Achi. Achi is the guru, yidam, and dakini. So she is inseparable from the yidam. After Atisha cme to Tibet hewondered why he needed to come, because his students were so knowledgeable. He asked how they performed the deity practices and they explained how they did many practices according to each of the different texts. Atisha explained that when doing one practice it should encompass all practices.
The subtle body is like the rainbow body. It is not a body of flesh, it is the channels. The subtle speech is the wind energy. The subtle mind is the energy of the drops. The body includes every form and appearance. That energy comes from the subtle body. The subtle sppech contains every sound. The most difficult for the meditator is the sound. If the meditator can remain in meditation regardless of the sounds, they are really accomplished. The energy of the drop creates all the thoughts, gross and subtle. Everything arises from the energy of the mind. So that is deity yoga practice.
In Tibetan opractice normally there are five chakras, crown, throat, heart, navel, and secret. They control the five primary winds. The downward miving wind is the secret chakra, which represents space. The navel chakra is the earth wind. The heart chakra represents the water energy. The throat chakra represents the fire energy. And the crown chakra represents the wind energy. The five winds are the downards moving wind (secret) the upward moving wind (throat) the digestion wind (navel) the all pervading wind (crown) and the life wind (heart) The five are also the five Buddhas and five wisdoms, also the five poisons.
Jigten Sumgon says visualize the body as empty then the central channel, then the right and left channels and then the chakras and finally the drops. Visualize hung at the crown chakra and ah at the secret channel. The four joys represent the motion of the drop through the four higher chakras. So that is the subtle wind energy. The important poin is not torush the practice. Give a week to each stage of the practice. This practice is followed by various breathing exercises, which is combned with the sadhana practice. There are many different breathing practices, but only a few are necessary. So at least try to learn the five primary winds and their function.