18/08/2026
All "deities" are aspects of our own true nature. They are like a mirror to us. A reflection of who we really are, if only we understood it.
If you were doing a particular sadhana, for example say Tara practice, right? Then you're visualising yourself as a deity, you're visualising yourself as Tara. And in your mind you're thinking, "Okay, now I'm me, and I'm going to pretend to be Tara." So you're visualising yourself as Tara. But the fact of the matter is that you are not "you" pretending to be Tara, you are Tara pretending to be "you". And that's the point!
Actually, we are the deity. The deity is a reflection of our innate Buddha nature, but we just don't really recognise it. So by visualising oneself as a deity, reciting the mantra, and so forth, it helps us to reconnect with our true nature which is completely open and spacious and it's not this very limited "me".
Somebody I knew asked a Lama, "Okay, if you tell me to practice Tara, then I will do it wholeheartedly, but first answer me one question, is Tara real? Does Tara really exist?" And the Lama thought, and then he smiled and said, "Tara knows that she does not really exist."
- Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Photo: Jetsunma standing in front of a Thangka featuring various aspects of Tara. DGL Nunnery, 2010
