A Guide to the Deities of the Tantra

by Vessantara

Vessantara explains the key characteristics of the Tantra, introduces its many Deities, and explores its symbolism. This guide provides the foundations for a gradual and thorough understanding of Tantric Buddhism, encouraging confidence in the exploration of its many themes and lavish forms. Mantra recitation and colourful visualizations of the Deities lie at the heart of the Tantric practice and Vessantara provides beautiful meditations on each of the key figures while also explaining the reasoning, theory and history behind each practice.

Genres: Buddhism

194 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2008

Reviews

[Suvarghya Dutta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took up reading this book because I was always fascinated by the wrathful imagery of Vajrayana Buddhism (Tibetan Buddhism) and wanted to know why a God would appear like a demon and be such wrathful that strikes fear the moment you look at the deity.

The language is very lucid.
The concepts of tantra broken down to be able to be related to our daily lives.
The way the Vajrayana deities have been introduced and talked about is a pleasure to read. One can almost 'see' the compassionate and gentle Avalokiteshvara transforming into the wrathful Mahakala. The story telling is very engaging and also sheds lights on the three turnings of the wheel of dharma. For anyone interested in knowing about the wrathful forms of Vajrayana, this is an excellent place to start and maybe follow it up with HH The Dalai Lama's book on Tibetan Buddhism (available on Amazon).

Also, having read this book, I have now started reading the two others written by Vessantara, from the same series, titled, Meeting the Buddhas.

[Angel Shrestha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more of a guide to the Tibetan tantric deities as it’s main focus is Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. But a thoroughly enjoyable book nevertheless.

I would assume western audiences would struggle (a lot!) with the symbolisms depicted in the book and they are definitely not for the faint hearted. It would be highly recommended that readers should go through the first two books in the series by Vessantara which “warms you up” to this final edition of the trilogy.

Coming from the east however, this book makes perfect sense as it links various Tibetan schools and their deities and their ‘yiddam’ or central spiritual focus. Readers are advised to keep this in mind as they go through the various Tantric deities scary or otherwise… they ALL point towards enlightenment.

[C. Varn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably my favorite of the three volumes in Vessantara's "Meet the Buddhas" series as it goes into detail about the Tantric deities and visualizations, explains the sadhanas without going into things that break Tantric vows, explaining the art work and the various roles played by the figures as well as the categorical meanings. It also makes comparisons between the four main schools (the recently official Jonangpa having been re-introduced into mainline Tibetan buddhist thought, there are some things that Vessantara did not seem to know about Kalachakra for example) and explains the differences fairly well.

This is from the FWBO/The Triratna Buddhist Community perspective and is going to be inclusive, although I was a little sad Vessantara didn't incorporate more from Shingon and Tendai (although he does mention Tiantai's syncretic tendencies to justify Triratna's approach) into his descriptions. He had mentioned them more in his work about the dhyani Buddhas and the relationship to Sakyamuni. This is a very minor complaint with the book.