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Meditational Deity (yi dam)

• One of the three roots (rtsa ba gsum) of spiritual practice, along with the spiritual teacher and the ḍākinī. The meditational deities (Skt. iṣṭadevatā) are said to confer supreme accomplishment on the meditator, in contrast to the spiritual teacher who confers blessings and the ḍākinī who confers enlightened activities. After receiving empowerment and guidance concerning an appropriate meditational deity from an authoritative spiritual teacher, the practitioner of the tantras then seeks to experientially cultivate union with that deity through the generation stage of meditation. The diverse meditational deities assume diverse forms, corresponding to the different classes of tantra (Kriyātantra, Ubhayatantra, Yogatantra, Mahāyoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga). As such, they may be peaceful or wrathful, single or united with a consort, alone or accompanied by retainers. In all cases, however, it is essential that the meditational deity should not be percieved as an externally existing or independent being but rather as a form or resonance of buddha-mind itself. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)