Levy’s Reviews > The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead: A New Reference Manual for the Soul > Status Update

Deities are not gods but embodiments of the various facets of enlightenment that inhere within our own primordial minds. They are projections, whether they appear in peaceful loving forms or wrathful terrifying shapes. Just as we project our beliefs and paranoias upon the world during our lifetimes, so also when we are dead do the true qualities of our primordial mind appear in whatever forms we clothe them in.

"Deities are not gods but embodiments of the various facets of enlightenment that inhere within our own primordial minds. They are projections, whether they appear in peaceful loving forms or wrathful terrifying shapes. Just as we project our beliefs and paranoias upon the world during our lifetimes, so also when we are dead do the true qualities of our primordial mind appear in whatever forms we clothe them in."