Becoming the Gods: Visualisation and

Healing in Tibetan Deity Yoga

Dawn H. Collins
University of Wales Trinity Saint David

ABSTRACT: This article explores aspects of visualisation and healing practices

found within Tibetan Tantric traditions of deity yoga, with particular focus
on the deities Avalokiteśvara, Par aśavarī and Tārā. The article looks at some
innovations and continuities between contemporary developments of these
practices and their more ancient counterparts, through the lens of their use for
healing. It explores the relationship of Tantric visualisation practices to waking
life, dreamtime, and death processes, identifying some ways in which they were
employed in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

KEYWORDS: Tibetan Tantric Practice, visualisation, healing, dream yoga, death

process, bardo, Avalokiteśvara, Chenrezig, Par aśavarī, Loma Gyönma, Tārā,
Drölma, COVID-19, the natural world

Introduction

T his article explores some responses of contemporary Tibetan Buddhist prac-

titioners to the COVID-19 pandemic. Founded in ancient Tibetan religious
traditions, such responses call upon traditional practices to answer the urgent
global call for healing. It should be noted that such religious responses to heal-
ing are not “alternative” or “new” from the point of view of Tibetan religions,
although they may well be considered so from the perspectives of biomedicine
and organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO). Central to these
responses is the use of a wide range of Tantric deity yoga practices that draw upon
the visualisation practices of the Mahāyāna Buddhism established by the second
century (Samuel 2008, 291). Often entailing elaborate visualisations, these were
further developed in traditions still practiced today in the four main schools of

© Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 14:1 ISSN 1946-0538 pp. 96–113
doi: 10.5840/asrr20231110104
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 97

Tibetan Buddhism: the Nyingma (T. rnying ma), Kagyü (T. bka’ brgyud), Sakya
(T. sa skya) and Gelug (T. dge lugs).1 Through Tantric visualisation, a practitioner
refines perception of their psycho-physical self as deity by identification with
or indeed the personification of its enlightened principle—they thus transcend
the ordinary human form and limitations to become deity. This is underpinned
by a Buddhist philosophical frame maintaining a view of self and deity identi-
ties as not existent in any intrinsic or inherently permanent way. Becoming the
gods does not entail becoming anyone else, but rather engaging in a profound
psychophysical transformation. Yogic techniques found in tantric practice aim
to combine visualisation with the direction of inner winds or breaths, “lung”
(T. rlung), along the energetic channels of the body. These are intimately con-
nected to the tantric practitioner’s quest for spiritual attainment, health, and for
a transformative sense of identity.
Tantric practice was historically undertaken within groups sworn to secrecy
with textual traditions written in a genre of esoteric yogic practices characterised
by metaphor, symbolism, coded language, and paradox. Therefore, it is often un-
clear what precise relationship textual traditions would have born historically to
their attendant practices. This applies in the case of non-tantric material, so even
more so in respect of esoteric traditions such as those relating to tantra (Samuel
2008, 225–6). For traditions within the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism, the
Nyingma school, living Tantric textual traditions can be characterised as modu-
lar. They are developed by tradents rather than authors, through the Tibetan
revelation traditions of Treasure Revealers (T. gter ston) who recompile rather
than invent. This can be done through “discovering” teachings given by ancient
teachers and hidden in the landscape or receiving a transmission from revered
teachers or deities in dreams. Effective continuity of the tantric practices relating
to any textual tradition or its modular recompilation entails “oral transmission”
(T. snyan brgyud) (cf. Cantwell 2020, Chapters 3, 11).
The process of revelation as transmitted through oral transmission lends itself
to a certain amount of flexibility and innovation in contemporary interpretations
and applications. Without the guidance that oral transmission provides to supple-
ment textual traditions and their commentaries, it is not possible to ascertain
what was actually done during any particular Tantric practice in the past with
any degree of certainty. Insofar as this is the case, to gain insight into Tantric
practices as described in historical as well as contemporary texts, it is necessary
to have access to connected oral teachings and practices. The texts themselves
caution against attempting to practice without appropriate initiation, empower-

1
Abbreviations used for bracketed terms are as follows: T.: Tibetan (Wylie); S.: Sanskrit
(Romanised). Since neither Tibetan nor Sanskrit terms are pluralised by the addition of a letter
s, the English pluralising letter s will not be added to them.
98 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

ment from an accomplished practitioner. Therefore, I have chosen to focus the

discussion of specific Tantric practices in this article to those for which I have
received oral instruction and “empowerment” (S. abhiṣeka; T. dbang) from an
authorised teacher.2
The first experience of I had of receiving such empowerment was given by
Tokden Rinpoché for the Tibetan Deity of Compassion, literally “Lord who Looks
Down [upon the World]” (S. Avalokiteśvara; T. spyan ras gzigs). This took place
during 1991, in London, at Jamyang Buddhist Centre, which is part of a Tibetan
Gelug organization known as the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana
Tradition (FPMT). The FPMT was founded in 1975 by two Tibetan teachers from
the Gelug school, Lama Thubten Yeshe and Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche. It
was one of the first organisations actively introducing Tibetan Buddhist tantric
practices to Western followers (Eddy 2019, 171, 177). The practice of visualisation
is focal to the rite of initiation into tantric practices across the four main Tibetan
lineages. Common to tantra within all these Tibetan Buddhist traditions is the
practice of deity yoga in which deities and their abodes or realms (S. maṇḍala; T.
dkyil ‘khor) are visualised. As Glenys Eddy has highlighted in her research into
perceptions of deity amongst FPMT teachers and practitioners, these can range
from viewing deity as meditative objects with no ontological existence, as objec-
tively existent beings who are objects of devotion and as aspirational symbols of
enlightened qualities (Eddy 2019). This raises the question as to what precisely
the nature of deity is. What does it mean to become deity and to what purpose
does one generate oneself as such during tantric practice?

Becoming Deity
What it means to “become deity” through visualisation in Tibetan tantric tradi-
tions will now be explored through the lens of an actual tantric practice manual
for the deity Avalokiteśvara. The author, Losang Kälsang Gyatso the Seventh
Dalai Lama (1708–1757), compiled this manual relying on oral traditions from
India and on Tibetan texts. These relate to one of the traditions of deity yoga
originated by the tenth or eleventh-century nun Bhik u ī Lak mī, known as
Gelongma Palmo in Tibetan (Dalai Lama et al 1995, 187). This practice manual
is very much in use today as “means of accomplishment” (S. sādhanā; T. sgrub
thabs) for a two-day fasting retreat called Nyung nyé (T. nyung gnas), literally
“abiding in less.” This retreat is performed by international students in FPMT
centres worldwide and by Tibetans in settlements in India alike. I have received
instruction in this practice and participated in Nyung nyé, both alone and with
other practitioners in Europe and with Tibetans of the diaspora in India. The

2
Initiation into a Tibetan Buddhist tantric practice traditionally entails the receipt of
oral instruction from a lineage holder authorised through realisation to offer the initiatory rite.
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 99

retreat involves intensive practice of deity yoga using the sadhana of the deity
Avalokiteśvara, Chenrezig, conjoined with fasting. Participants fast after midday
on the first day and completely on the second. Tantric practices that can broadly
be umbrellaed under the term deity yoga practices do not all unfold in precisely
the same manner as the one described here. However, all tantric practice follows
the same essential process of generating deity through visualisation; using inner
sight to see beyond ordinary appearances.3 Therefore, it will be possible to offer
some insight into the nature of deity, the visualisation practices central to deity
yoga, the process of becoming deity and the use of deity yoga in healing through
examining one particular practice manual and its mytho-historical context.
The practice starts with preliminary visualisations of the “field of merit,” the
lineage holders past and present, making offerings to them and requesting that
they accept the practitioner into the deity’s maṇḍala and bless the practice. The
practitioner also sets the Mahāyāna altruistic motivation foundational to Tibetan
Buddhist Vajrayāna, in which the practitioner vows to practice for the benefit and
enlightenment of all. These preparatory practices aim to purify motivation and
mind-stream sufficiently to enter the subtler sphere of deity. The first whole day
of any tantric empowerment rite is usually spent on these, with the participants
only being invited to “enter the maṇḍala” on the second day, once sufficiently
purified and so prepared. After dissolving these preliminary visualisations, one
visualises the deity Chenrezig in front of oneself, concentrating on six aspects of
the deity: Ultimate, Sound, Syllable, Form, Mudra, and Sign. Meditation upon
the “ultimate deity” refers to viewing the deity and all phenomena as lacking
substantial or inherent existence (S. śūnyatā; T. stong pa nyid) (Tsong Kha pa
1980, 117–138). The visualisation is then built upon this view, as follows. Firstly,
the Sound of the deity’s sacred syllable or mantra starts to pervade the senses
and surrounding space. Its form in seed syllables comes to rest upon the mind,
visualised as a translucent moon disc. These syllables transform in one instant
into a thousand-petaled lotus with the deity’s mantra oṃ maṇi padṃe hūṃ at its
heart. Rainbow lights radiate from this, offering gifts to all deities and solace to
those who are suffering, transforming the environment into deity bodies. The de-
ity bodies ride rainbow lights back to the mind-moon-mantra, becoming in that
instant the Form of Chenrezig, blessed by Mudra. Light rays from the heart-mind
as deity evoke Chenrezig and mandallic entourage to absorb into self as deity,
completing the Deity of Sign. Once the visualisation is clear in all six aspects of
deity, the practitioner stabilizes it by focusing with a more profound concentra-
tion that does not engage in analysis. At this point, yogic breathing techniques

3
As I have suggested elsewhere, visualisation in the context of tantric practice can be
understood as a type of non-sight-dependent ‘seeing’ that occupies a liminal space between
imagined worlds and waking visions (Collins 2020).
100 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

are used to deepen concentration, training to visualize self as at one with the deity
Chenrezig. This is called the “Yoga of non-Dual Profundity and Clarity” (Dalai
Lama et al 1995, 88–99).
As can be seen, the role of visualisation is core here to deity yoga in Tantric
practice, but this raises the question as to its purpose. One work attempting to
explain this is that of the nineteenth-century Tibetan Tantric teacher, Jamgön
Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye, with commentary by the contemporary Kagyü Tantric
adept and teacher Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoché (Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye
2002). According to this commentary, the Tantric visualisation process aims
to focuses on three aspects of visualisation, translated into English as clarity
(T. rnam pa gsal ba), purity (T. rnam dga dran pa’o) and stability, or “divine
pride” (T. nga rgyal brtan pa). The first of these is described as the “vividness” of
the visualisation. The commentary advises focus on aspects of the generation of
deity in the form of mind to reach a stage where all aspects are clearly vivid in
the mind’s eye. The second is the purification of the view so that any objectifica-
tion of the visualisation as somehow having substantive independent existence
is purified. This is described as a state wherein the deity is viewed as rainbow,
appearing with great clarity although temporal. The third aspect to focus on is
the eradication through visualisation of any sense of the deity as unreal. As this
third realisation dawns, the practitioner’s visualisation of self as deity stabilizes as
the confidence, or “divine pride,” in being deity arises (Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö
Thaye 2002, 100–101).
The practitioner’s perception is transformed from that of an ordinary, un-
enlightened being into that of self as being in the nature of deity. Insofar as the
self that the practitioner normally identifies with lacks substantial or inherent
existence or permanency, it can be re-envisioned to reveal the visualised deity
self. At the completion stage of these practices, breathing techniques are used
to align elements of the subtle body (S. vajradeha), sometimes referred to as the
“body of mind” (S. manomayakāya). Consciousness moves through this subtle
continuum in patterns reflecting gender and karmic propensity in “endless dance.”
(Simmer-Brown 2001, 168–172). These subtle elements, the bodily channels,
winds (T. rtsa rlung), and drops (T. thig le), are subdivided into those “with sign”
and those “without.” The term “sign” refers to the appearances of the maṇḍala of
the deity and its inhabitants without realisation of śūnyatā. Deity yoga without
sign is clear cognition of śūnyatā in relation to divine confidence as a deity self
with an entourage and maṇḍala (Panchen Sonam Dragpa 1996, 34). On the basis
of the material body, viewed as both container and reflection of the universe,
subtle levels of being are transformed, and the practitioner embodies deity in a
psychophysical transformation or revelation. During these concluding medita-
tions, the practitioner dissolves the wisdom-beings and absorbs the deity created
in initial stages of the generation or creation stage, finally arising as deity from a
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 101

“signless” yoga.4 The arising as deity with wisdom, meaning with full knowledge
and realisation of its nature as empty of intrinsic or inherent existence, is necessary
for full attainment in this practice. In his “Great Exposition of Secret Mantra,”
Tsong Kha pa emphasises this point, quoting Jnanapada’s “Self-Achievement”
as follows: “Since a Subduer having immeasurable effulgence of light serves as
a source of limitless marvels for oneself and others, even if this which has the
character of being the supreme right method were manifestly cultivated but bereft
of wisdom, it would not be a means of achieving all marvels; therefore, the nature
[of the divine body] should be known without mistake.” (Tsong Kha pa 1980,
127). The visualisation purifies all (mis)understanding of self as non-divine and
the practitioner generates “divine pride,” with supreme confidence that thinks,
“I am this deity.” The “I” here is understood in the context of śūnyatā in which it
lacks ordinary perceptions of “I’’ as a substantial, permanent entity. Tsong Kha pa
elucidates that “one should increasingly gain the ability to cut off one’s ordinary
ego through (1) the vivid appearance of the deity, and (2) the ego of the deity:
and for that reason it is not enough just to concentrate on forming the deity’s
body, but one must also concentrate on making firm his ego.” (Beyer 1978, 77).5
Through developing the profound conviction in self as deity, the practitio-
ner actualises their visualisation to become deity; to fully embody their nature
as deity (Palmo 2002, 239–40). This embodiment as deity, whilst visualised or
imagined into being, is not imagined in the sense of lacking reality. Oral teach-
ings on Tantric practice are very clear on this point.6 Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé,
a contemporary Tibetan Tantric adept and teacher from the Gelug school, has
described this process in the context of the Nyung nyé fasting practice. Guéshé
Tengyé indicates that the meditator aims to continue the visualisation of deity
into every aspect of their lived reality. Food, drink, and clothes are offered to the
deity-self and a continued perception of appearances as deity realm is maintained
as best as possible (Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé 1995). The visualised process of
dissolution, absorption and then arising is akin to the process of dissolution at
death and subsequent arising as deity in the intermediate stage between death
and rebirth, the bardo (T. bar do). Visualisation thus purifies material aspects of

4
This process is described in detail by Tadeusz Skorupski, who relates “signless” yoga
more to the completion stage. See Skorupski (2002).
5
Tsong Kha pa, snags rim chen po, P. 6210, vol. 161, 186.5.6 187.1.7, in Collected Works
WA 111b–112a, quoted in translation in Beyer (1978, 77).
6
I have heard this a number of times during oral teachings, but the teacher who most
impressed this point upon me was the late Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé, resident Tibetan Buddhist
teacher in France, at Institut Vajrayogini, the FPMT centre in Marzens, for over a quarter of a
century. He repeatedly emphasised that, when using visualisation as a method to evoke deity,
the practitioner needs to believe in the evocation as a real experience rather than an ‘unreal’
imaginative creation.
102 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

conception and birth, habits of body, speech, and mind, death, and the bardo. For
Tantra, all that appears “is the natural display of the mind and therefore partakes
of its essential purity” (Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye 2002, 136). The evocation
of deity worlds in Tantric practice is none other than the revocation or revelation
of what is already present: the essentially enlightened nature of being and natural
world. Through visualisation, the practitioner comes to abide as deity embodied
in a landscape of maṇḍala.

Dream, Death, and Healing

The process of visualising oneself as deity bears some similarity to the way in
which, when falling asleep, one enters a liminal space between waking and dream.
It could be described as consciously accessing, through visualisation, that liminal
place wherein one’s ordinary sense of self dissolves and one’s dream self emerges.
In fact, Tantric visualisation practices aim to influence the dream life of a prac-
titioner—to (re)create it through deity yoga as a continuation of practice. For
example, in the Nyung nyé described earlier, practitioners visualize themselves as
Chenrezig just before sleep to extend practice into their dream lives (Dalai Lama
et al 1995, 180–181). The hagiography of Gelongma Palmo, the tenth to eleventh
century nun who originated the Nyung nyé, describes her receiving instruction
for the Nyung nyé in such a practice-inspired dream. It goes on to say that she
became cured from leprosy by intensive engagement in Nyung nyé.7 The way in
which Tantric practice is attributed with healing here is echoed in more recent
events in Lahaul. In the early 1950s, one village there had been renamed Simol-
ing by neighbouring peoples, translatable as “Realm of the Demoness,” after the
unknown spirit cause of the leprosy epidemic that had ravaged the village. The
Tantric adept Tulshuk Lingpa divined the cause of the epidemic to be a male
nāga or water deity named Nagaraksha. The nāga’s anger had been aroused by
villagers’ cutting trees in spring. According to local people, after he had finished
a ten-day Tantric ritual, Tulshuk Lingpa announced that the epidemic was over.
His prediction was correct since the area was free of leprosy from that time (Shor
2017, Chapter 6).
As can be seen, the practice of deity yoga is attributed with the power to heal
oneself and others and the attainments of waking life can be supplemented or
continued by practice in the dreamtime. Tibetan practices of yoga for dream and
sleep that have emerged and developed from the “Six Yogas of Naropa” (na ro’i
chos drug), a tantric text elucidating technologies to transform ordinary sleep,
transform dreaming and dying into means for realisation. These “dharmas,” or
“yogas,” were compiled by the great Indian Tantric adepts Tilopa and Naropa

7
This hagiography is retold by Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche (Dalai Lama et al 1995,
193–196) and by Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé (Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé 1995, 13–17).
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 103

(1016–110 CE) and inherited in unbroken lineage through Marpa and Milarepa
by the Kagyű tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. They have since spread beyond
this lineage to become part of other Tibetan traditions, such as the Gelug, whose
founder Tsongkhapa received their transmission and penned a commentary on
them. Over the past five and a half centuries, the six practices—inner heat, illusory
body, clear light, consciousness transference, forceful projection and bardo yoga—
have gradually come to pervade Buddhist Vajrayāna practice throughout Central
Asia. According to these six practices, the death process closely corresponds to the
process of falling from waking into dreaming and arising as a dreamer (Karma
Lingpa 2005). The thoughts arising for the practitioner as s/he falls to sleep take
on an experiential reality for the dreamer, shaping their dream realm and bringing
it into reality for them, just as at death the person’s thoughts create their bardo
reality (Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thaye 2002, 129–130). The Tantric dream yoga
techniques founded in the Dzogchen traditions of the “Great Perfection” school,
both Buddhist and Bön, aim to allow the natural, clear, primordial state of mind
(T. rig pa) to spontaneously arise. They use a sequence of breath control tech-
niques and visualisations in which mantric symbols and other imagery, such as
lotus flowers, are visualised upon key energetic centres (S. cakra; T. khor la) of
the subtle body. These are visualised in colours that mirror the dissolution of the
elements (space, air, fire, water and earth) and their correspondent senses dur-
ing the death process (Dalai Lama et al 1997; Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche 1993;
Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche 1998). As can be seen, a core aspect of the practice
of Tantric visualisations in deity yoga is to facilitate the death process, enabling
the practitioner to pass with lucidity into the intermediate stage between this life
and next in a body of her own visualisation. In short, both the lived experience,
dream life and the death of a practitioner is transformed through the power of
Tantric visualisation.
To summarise, through Tantric visualisation conjoined with control and
direction of the breath, practitioners transform their identity into that of deity,
or enlightened principle, a principle entailing health in a perfect sense; this is
what it means to “become the gods.” This attainment, through realisation, can be
described as an embodied realisation; practitioners become the gods through the
blessing and power of deity yoga—seeing both self, others and world as such. In
Tibetan Tantric practice, the notion of “blessing” (T.: byin rlabs) is integral to the
idea of transmission during initiation; it is focal to empowerment (Gerke 2012:
231–4). The deities imbue that power with its attendant ability to heal and be
healed, as exemplified in the tenth-eleventh-century hagiography of Gelongma
Palmo and the 1950s account of Tulshuk Lingpa in Lahaul. This is also why highly
realized tantric adepts can be attributed with the power to heal. In Tibetan world-
views, they are considered able to transmit blessing through breath or spittle or
the power of their prayer since they are on some subtle level inseparable from the
104 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

deity. Embodiment in this sense described above entails one person being capable
of energetically acting upon another. Benefits and blessings of deity yoga, such as
increased health and longevity, healing, and protection from harm, thereby fall
not only to those engaging in Tantric practice but to their intended recipients and
those in their environs. Such benefits are referred to in Tibetan as descending
from the gods, literally “blessings descend,” chinbab.8

Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Since the advent of the novel coronavirus and ensuing pandemic, Tibetan Bud-
dhist leaders across the world recommended Tantric practices to counter the
effects of the virus. In traditional Tibetan medicine and religions, the causes of
illness can be characterized as an onslaught by nefarious beings or as a reaction
to the abuse of the natural world by humans on the part of the spirited agencies
who protect it. As has been pointed out, such perspectives are not considered
“alternative” or representative of an “alternative spirituality” in the context of Ti-
betan and Himalayan communities. Indeed, the practice of Tantric deity yoga is
embedded in the practice of traditional Tibetan medicine, Sowa Rigpa. Its seminal
texts, the Four Tantra, the Gyüchi (T. rgyud bzhi), contain sections dedicated to
conditions caused by spirit harm and ways to both diagnose and cure them. An
analysis of diaristic accounts created by a traditional Tibetan doctor in New York
at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States demonstrates how
integral deity yoga is to his healing work. Whilst he says that traditional Tibetan
medicine can be effective in controlling the symptoms of COVID-19, he also ad-
vocates prostration, the recitation of Buddhist texts and the benefits of meditation
as remedies. In fact, as is usual for practitioners of traditional Tibetan medicine,
his work is framed by deity yoga practice. In his diaries, he says that he practices
the deity yoga of Medicine Buddha, Sangye Menla (T. sangs rgyas sman bla) and
reads Buddhist texts on a daily basis (Craig et al 2021).
In the early stages of the pandemic, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama recommended
the evocation, through Tantric practice, of the deity Tārā, known as Drölma (T.
sgrol ma) in Tibetan. He advised this practice of deity yoga either to prevent illness
or to lessen its worst effects.9 As is usual with Buddhist deities, there are a variety
of forms and visualisation practices accompanying deity yoga practice with Tārā.
One that is of particular relevance here is the White Tārā practice often used as

8
This section is derived from my doctoral research based on over three years spent living
and working amongst Tibetan communities in India and China (Collins 2014, PhD Thesis).
9
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s early public response to the pandemic was
to recommend the recitation of the Tārā mantra; https://www.facebook.com/CTATIBETTV/
videos/178932059983757/ (accessed 12/10/2023).
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 105

a longevity ritual designed to extend the lives of practitioners.10 In certain forms

of this practice, elements of the natural world and the practitioner’s subtle bodily
systems are realigned through visualisation of coloured lights. This recalls the
readjustment or return to luminosity of psychophysical elements through the
dream yoga practice of visualising them in coloured forms.11 One aspect of the
deity yoga practice with Tārā is said to enable conquering the mind-made fears that
obstruct enlightenment. This again recalls the practices of dream yoga in which
the mind is prepared for the death process and bardo by utilizing visualisation
to reveal its fears as illusory.
Alongside the practice of Tārā, another deity whose practice has been highly
recommended by Tibetan Tantric adepts across the four main lineages to coun-
ter the pandemic is the Indian Par aśavarī, known to Tibetans as Ridröma or
Ridrö Loma Gyönma (T. ri phrod lo ma gyon ma), a form of Tārā.12 Par aśavarī
appears in Indian iconography and textual traditions as a tribal woman cloaked
in leaves (Shaw 2006, 201). One of the oldest extant texts dedicated to her is The
Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī, dated approximately as pre-eighth century.13 In
the textual frame for the essence formula (S. dhāraṇī; T. gzungs) recited to evoke
her, Par aśavarī is described as a piśāci, which refers to a wrathful, female, semi-
divine figure who lives in the wilderness and eats flesh (T. sha za mo, lit: Female
Flesh Eater). Her traditional attributes include the capacity to heal disease, calm
conflicts and to dispel epidemics, troublesome astrological influences, obstacles
to life and misfortunes in general. The opening homage of The Noble Dhāraṇī of
Parṇaśavarī, venerates Amitābha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta. serv-
ing to denote that Par aśavarī belongs to the lotus family of deities. Par aśavarī
literally translates as “leaf-clad mountain woman,” appearing in this early dhāraṇī
as having two arms holding a noose and an axe. Later Indo-Tibetan tradition

10
Geoffrey Samuel describes this process generically found in practices relating to White
Tārā, emphasising the import of visual imagery (Samuel 2005, 235–241).
11
Based on oral teachings and guidance I received in a Gelug version of these practices
from Guéshé Lobsang Tengyé, with whom I completed a three-week long 100,000 mantra
White Tārā retreat in the late 1990s.
12
These include the Gelug lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche of the FPMT, the Karma Kagyu
lama Gyaltsap Rinpoche, the Nyingma lama Orgyan Tobgyal Rinpoche, the Rime lama Dzong-
sar Khyentse Rinpoche and the head of the Sakya lineage, Sakya Gongma Trichen. Gyaltsap
Rinpoche comments that in the Kamtsang Kagyu tradition, this mantra is repeated seven times
at the beginning of any group ritual to prevent or mitigate the effects of diseases. At: https://
fpmt.org/fpmt/announcements/resources-for-coronavirus-pandemic/mantra-recitation-
practice-to-protect-from-the-coronavirus/#vajraarmor (accessed 12/10/2023); https://www.
rigpa.org/posts-rigpa-news/2020/3/10/6civjuaj6w2pt4qtzo0pl6rlne71ko (accessed 12/10/2023).
13
An annotated translation of The Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī (Damron and Mical,
trans. 2020) has been completed under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the
Words of the Buddha. At: https://read.84000.co/translation/toh736.html (accessed 12/10/2023).
106 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

depicts her in a three-faced, six-armed form, yellow or green in colour, with a

central yellow or green head, a white face to the right and a red to the left. She is
threatening, holding a vajra, axe, and arrow in her three right arms and a noose,
bow, and bundle of leaves in the left. In keeping with her habitation of wilderness
spaces, she has matted locks, wears a tiger-skin sash, leaves cling to her body and
she is crowned with woven flowers.14 In a practice connected with a variant of her
name, Loma Kyongma (T. lo ma kyong ma), the deity is linked to an empowerment
to prevent infectious diseases and epidemics. As described by Barbara Gerke in
her ethnographic account of one such empowerment, it is performed to extend
life through such protection (Gerke 2012: 269–85). According to an informant of
Gerke, her name can be used as a mantra and her practice was famous in Tibet.
A “precious pill” made from conite would be distributed during her long life
empowerment, to confer blessings (Gerke 2012: 269, n.1).
The form of Par aśavarī practice suggested by a number of high-profile Ti-
betan leaders in their advice regarding responses to the COVID-19 pandemic,
is the wrathful one embedded in the Vajra Armor practice known as Dorje
Gotrab. This form is attributed to a terma revelation of the wrathful aspect of
Guru Rinpoché, Guru Drakpo.15 Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoché of the FPMT
prescribes this practice, in which the practitioner visualises themself protected
by a Vajra Armor Protection Wheel. He also describes the creation of medicinal
substances through the practice by means of blowing mantra on them.16 The notion
underlying this type of Tantric healing is that the practitioner’s breath becomes
blessed as deity through visualisation whilst reciting mantra. This blessed breath
can then infuse pills, amulets,17 and/or water with deity winds, bestowing upon
them healing potential.

14
For further details and background to her textual traditions, see the introduction to
and full English translation of The Noble Dhāraṇī of Parṇaśavarī in the reading rooms of 84000:
Translating the Words of the Buddha. At: https://read.84000.co/translation/UT22084-094-013.
15
At: https://drukpachoegon.org/padmashawari-prayer (accessed 12/10/2023).
16
See his explanation of the practices he recommends here. At: https://fpmt.org/lama-
zopa-rinpoche-news-and-advice/advice-from-lama-zopa-rinpoche/lama-zopa-rinpoche-
offers-advice-to-protect-from-the-coronavirus/ (accessed 12/10/2023).
17
In the case of Par aśavarī, these are usually made by writing the Vajra armour mantra
in gold on dark paper and then encasing this in a form that can be worn around the neck.
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 107

Figure 1: Vajra Armour Mantra

Alongside this practice, the Sakya prayer for the elimination of epidemics at-
tributed to Thangtong Gyalpo18 has also been propagated by Tibetan adepts as
an effective method to counter the pandemic. As well as proposing the regular
recitation of this prayer, the forty-first head of the Sakya lineage, Kyabgon Gongma
Trichen Rinpoché, was joined by his son, Gyana Vajra Sakya Rinpoché, and other
adepts at the Sakya Centre in India in offering a Par aśavarī practice (S. pūjā) as a
counter to the pandemic. This practice was said to have been successful due to the
appearance of lights in the skies like those of the Tantric visualisations themselves.

18
https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/thangtong-gyalpo/prayer-pacifying-
fear-illness (accessed 12/10/2023).
108 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

Figure 2: Sakya lineage holders leading a Parṇaśavarī pūjā

Sakya Trichen followed this by offering a Par aśavarī initiation on 17 April
2020, an event that was live streamed both on Facebook and YouTube. This is an
example of how technological advances have led to a paradigm shift in tradition
surrounding Tantric empowerment. Such events are now able to be held on a
global scale that could run to millions of participants since the open online format
delivers participation without necessarily involving travel. Having said that, this
Par aśavarī empowerment was attended online by less than two hundred people.19

Figure 3: Sakya Trichen Parṇaśavarī Initiation (17 April 2020)

19
The numbers in attendance were noted at the time of attendance. The event was adver-
tised on Facebook. At: https://www.facebook.com/sakyacentreindia/photos/a.5909341377500-
01/1540575816119157/?type=3&eid=ARBXnnthMwcpAj-RllDqm1G7G6qnH59A7VmzTOv
RkG-wErMgN9NqRVYT2JmUYzYKl4FxJFe7QTwn_GRh (accessed 12/10/2023).
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 109

Par aśavarī’s name reflects her closeness to nature, particularly wilderness.

Her six-armed yellow form is often portrayed surrounded by other forms. Char-
acteristic for deity insignia, these objects reflect her qualities. She carries a noose
to lasso harmful spirits and local deities who cause disease, entrapping them with
a fierce gesture (S. tarjanī mudra) and destroying them with her axe and arrow.
Her tribal aspect can be traced back to the Śavara tribal peoples of Orissa and
Bengal whose songs had healing properties. However, as Miranda Shaw notes, this
historical contextualization could be read as a trope for being outside the normal
societal restrictions (Shaw 2006, 201). Such framing would reflect early traditions
of Tantra in which practitioners exist without being bound by the restrictions of
ordinary conventions, as wild-hearted outsiders. As in the case of Tārā, during
Par aśavarī practice, elements of the natural world and the practitioner’s subtle
bodily systems are realigned through visualisation of coloured lights. These are
visualised as creating shields that surround the practitioner/deity, as well as both
absorbed and sent out, healing one’s own subtle body and those of others.20 Dur-
ing this era of planetary crisis, the negative effects of both climate change and the
pandemic may be considered in a Tantric worldview as a retributive response by
the spirited agency of the natural world. In this context, it does seem important
to highlight here that Tantric adepts and dream yoga practitioners suggest Tantric
visualisation practices as a remedy. As Miranda Shaw comments, Par aśavarī
“embodies the close relationship with nature that must be maintained if the heal-
ing arts are to flourish” (Shaw 2006, 188).
Par aśavarī is recognised by later Indo-Tibetan traditions as a manifesta-
tion of the goddess Tārā. She is included as one of the twenty-one Tārā figures
renowned in Tibetan traditions for their compassionate action in the world. She
appears as the twentieth in the series, in an iconographic form that resembles her
appearance as an independent deity.

20
The practices are discussed in greater detail by Shaw (2006, 194–195).
110 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

Figure 4: Eighteenth-century thangka depicting the twenty-one Tārā montage

Tibetan mytho-histories surrounding Tārā also evidence her in leaf-clad form
coming to the aid of those who call upon her. On occasion, she employs great
healing powers when offering aid.21 Tibetans indeed consider Par aśavarī, or
Loma Gyönma, to appear as the twentieth of the twenty-one forms of Tārā that
comprise the renowned praises evoking all of them in the tradition of mantra
recitation (Beyer 1978, 231–232). The visualisation of the twentieth Tārā in this
series of praises does share characteristics with Par aśavarī. She is also visualised
as living in a mountain retreat, a yoginī dressed in leaves and with the power to
heal contagious diseases.22 She is coloured golden-red saffron and wears leaves as
befitting her mountain retreat. The utpala flower she holds in common with all
Tārā figures, contains a round vessel filled with nectar. Her right eye is like the
sun and from it shines a radiant light that destroys any beings bearing disease.

21
For example, the story of a poor farmer to whom Tārā appeared in leaf-clad form,
turning his fortunes around (Beyer 1978, 234); and that of an Abbott cured of horrendous
skin disease when appealing to Tārā for aid (Beyer 1978, 236).
22
At: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/words-of-the-buddha/twenty-one-tara-praise (ac-
cessed 12/10/2023).
 BECOMING THE GODS: VISUALIZATION AND HEALING IN TIBETAN DEITY YOGA 111

Her left eye, like the full moon, emits a stream of healing nectar which eliminates
all diseases, causes of diseases and their consequences.23 This can be visualised
whilst her mantra-praise is being recited. As has been discussed, when Tibetan
Buddhist adepts advise Tantric practitioners to recite a specific mantra, visuali-
sations and deity yoga practices are understood as integral to such recitations.
For mantra recitations to be most effective, they would be performed within the
ritual practice of deity yoga by fully initiated Tantric practitioners.

Conclusion
This article has explored aspects of visualisation and healing practices found
within Tibetan Tantric traditions of deity yoga, with particular focus on the deities
Avalokiteśvara, Par aśavarī and Tārā. It has considered innovations and conti-
nuities between contemporary developments of these practices and their more
ancient counterparts, through the lens of their use for healing, identifying some
ways in which they were employed in response to the outset of the COVID-19
pandemic in 2020. As has been discussed, the Buddhist Tantric practitioner aims,
through the practice of deity yoga visualisations, to completely transform the lived
experience of living, dreaming, and dying. Revealed as being the deity, the clear
light of primordial wisdom the practitioner always was, the practitioner comes
into union with the natural world experienced as deity realm. By visualising self
as deity and overcoming the mind-made fears that obscure one’s deity nature, the
practitioner trains, in both waking and sleeping life, to experience deity realms no
more or less real than those that are ordinarily inhabited. The practitioner thus
aims to become empowered to influence the experience of others and, through
practicing the yoga of deities such as Avalokiteśvara, Par aśavarī and Tārā, to
develop a closer relationship to the natural world and strong abilities to enable
healing. The above makes deity yoga and the visualisation practices that are em-
bedded within it a natural choice for contemporary Tantric adepts in response to
challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Practitioners, in becoming the gods
through such practices, aim to (re)align with the natural world in the fullness of
all its beings as deity presences embodying the power to heal.

Acknowledgments
For comments on earlier drafts of this paper, I gratefully acknowledge Paula Arai,
Kevin Trainor, Miranda Shaw and Carole Cusack.

23
At: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jetsun-drakpa-gyaltsen/brilliant-
light-tara-praise-commentary (accessed 12/10/2023).
112 ALTERNATIVE SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION REVIEW 14:1 (2023)

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