Deity Yoga - Yidam Worship - Theurgy

The arrogant fools of the academic world and many ignorant believers and followers of eastern religions and western esotericism do not know that the gods of the pagans do exist literally and that one has to take their existence very seriously in order to completely understand their philosophical structure. I have been stating for a long time that there is an astonishing degree of similarities between Neoplatonism, Neoplatonic Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism and the historical Vedic religion and in relation to that these three terminologies Deity Yoga in the Vedic religion, Yidam worship in Tibetan Buddhism and Theurgy in Neoplatonism takes my argument to a much more solid level.

Deity Yoga

Yoga itself is a religion, its neither a set of philosophies or a set of stretchy exercises instead it is a set of rituals to achieve union with the pagan deities. 

At each and every step of sun salutations we utter magical spells to pagan gods silently in the mind.

1	ॐ मित्राय नमः	om mitrāya namaḥ
2	ॐ रवये नमः	om ravaye namaḥ
3	ॐ सूर्याय नमः	om sūryāya namaḥ
4	ॐ भानवे नमः	om bhānave namaḥ
5	ॐ खगाय नमः	om khagāya namaḥ
6	ॐ पूष्णे नमः	om pūṣṇe namaḥ
7	ॐ हिरण्यगर्भाय नमः	om hiraṇya garbhāya namaḥ
8	ॐ मरीचये नमः	om marīcaye namaḥ
9	ॐ आदित्याय नमः	om ādityāya namaḥ
10	ॐ सवित्रे नमः	om savitre namaḥ
11	ॐ अर्काय नमः	om arkāya namaḥ
12	ॐ भास्कराय नमः	om bhāskarāya namaḥ
13	ॐ श्रीसवितृसूर्यनारायणाय नमः	om śrīsavitṛsūryanārāyaṇāya namaḥ

This generates a great efficacy in the transformation of our subtle bodies, nadis, pranic flow currents and chakras and pleases the pagan deities existing inside our subtle bodies who aid us in our spiritual enlightenment and in this way we attain the knowledge and wisdom of all the secret mysteries of the cosmos and gain mastery over nature and not become its slaves.

Yidam worship

Most secular Buddhists like Stephen Batchelor and Sam Harris and followers of Theravada Buddhism are not aware of the fact there are deities in Buddhism which exist literally and are not just symbolic or mere creations of the human mind. The modern world blurred by the scientific attitude looks so stupid in front of these traditions which possess ageless wisdom and truths about cosmos.

                         Hundred peaceful and wrathful deities of Tibetan Buddhism

What is Yidam practice?

Yidam (Tib. ཡི་དམ་, Wyl. yi dam; Skt. iṣṭadevatā) — one of the three roots, the tutelary or chosen meditation deity, which is the root of spiritual accomplishment. Yidams are often classified according to whether they appear in peaceful and wrathful form. 

Sogyal Rinpoche writes:

"In Tibetan Buddhism practitioners will have a yidam, that is, a practice of a particular buddha or deity with which they have a strong karmic connection, which for them is an embodiment of the truth, and which they invoke as the heart of their practice. Since in their practice they have recognized the yidam as the natural radiance of the enlightened mind, they are able to view the appearances with this recognition, and let them arise as the deity."

What is the importance of Yidam practice?

Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche explains the importance of the yidam:

When we consider all the great masters of the Indian and Tibetan traditions, we find that in every case, their accomplishment came about through their practice of a yidam. They chose a deity and guarded that practice like their very life force, and on the basis of that complete commitment to the path of deity yoga, they practised the stage of generation, the stage of completion, and integrated these arriving at their final realisation of complete accomplishment and enlightenment.

But nowadays there are people who say, “Oh, what a lot of bother! Deities and mantra, I hate all that. I’m just going to meditate.” And they sit there, and close their eyes, and that’s what they call practice. They say, “I just want to do effortless meditation.” But as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche said, “Although there are people like that, I’ve not seen them gaining any sign of attainment.”

In one of the texts of Ratna Lingpa’s cycle of Vajrakilaya practice, there is a passage which recounts how on one occasion Yeshe Tsogyal asked Guru Rinpoche about the nature of kyérim practice. “Do we really need a yidam deity?”, she questioned. Guru Rinpoche replied, “If there is no yidam, where is the source of siddhis? Without siddhi, how could there be enlightenment?”

In fact, if we look at the great masters of the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Vajrayana practice, we find there is no-one who did not meditate upon a yidam deity.

In the Nyingmapa school, all the great vidyadharas have had a main yidam deity which they practised. If their practice was of a peaceful deity, it was almost always Vajrasattva. If it was a wrathful deity, it was almost always Vajrakilaya. Guru Rinpoche and Vimalamitra themselves attested to the fact that Vajrakilaya was their yidam deity.

Nowadays however, the Nyingmapas are perhaps the worst when it comes to practising a yidam on a daily basis. When Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö was giving the Rinchen Terdzö empowerment, he scolded us as Nyingmapa practitioners and said, “You Nyingmapas don’t do any kind of regular daily practice. You don’t even say the Sampa Lhundrupma prayer; you just lie around all day! We Sakyapas must do the path empowerment practice of Hevajra every day , which takes about two or three hours. You don’t do anything. You just lie around. You don’t do any kind of regular practice.”

He said to us, “If you want yidam deities, you Nyingmapas have more than anybody.” He showed us all the texts of the Rinchen Terdzö, which consists of dozens and dozens of volumes, and said, “This is filled with sadhanas of the three roots—lama, yidam and dakini—but none of you practises any of them.”

What he said was true. Perhaps the reason is that so many of us in the Nyingma tradition place great emphasis on the Dzogchen tradition and its effortlessness. Often we make the mistake of just paying lip service to effortlessness, while really just being kind of lazy.

Look at someone like Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. No-one would question that his realisation was higher than anyone’s, and yet day and night he would recite prayers and mantras and do his practice. And he was inseparable from Vimalamitra! Look at the kind of effort that he put into his practice. Then there are others who just don’t do very much of that at all. They just sit there with their mouths open.

On one occasion, I asked Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “Is it necessary for someone with realization to recite prayers and mantras?” And he replied, “Someone who has that kind of realisation is like space. What harm could recitation possibly do to space?” And he continued, “To recite even a single mani mantra, or to recite the Vajra Guru mantra a few times, is only going to help. It’s not going to hurt, is it?”

I couldn't agree more with what Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche has said here. He is absolutely right when he said that the great accomplishments of Indian and Tibetan masters came only from the worship of a pagan deity. A typical example is Ramakrishna Paramahamsa who was the teacher of Swami Vivekananda and all his accomplishments came only after he obtained the grace of goddess mother Kali. All the modern practitioners blinded by the stupid scientific attitude ignore the pagan gods and blindly go after knowing Brhaman and Nirvana and as you can see despite all their efforts for over a century or so they fail to produce a single mastery over nature or also called as siddhis. Why? its mainly because they follow the path of emptiness and they do not worship the pagan gods because for many westerners it is an embarrassment to worship pagan deities because it would undermine their stupid spiritual but not religious life.

No wonder why many of the extraordinary supernatural powers that can be performed by following eastern mystical practices are rarely demonstrated nowadays.

Eight primary siddhis

In Hinduism eight siddhis (Ashta Siddhi) are known:

• Aṇimā: reducing one's body even to the size of an atom
• Mahima: expanding one's body to an infinitely large size
• Garima: becoming infinitely heavy
• Laghima: becoming almost weightless
• Prāpti: having unrestricted access to all places
• Prākāmya: realizing whatever one desires
• Iṣṭva: possessing absolute lordship
• Vaśtva: the power to subjugate all

Bhagavata Purana

Five siddhis of yoga and meditation

In the Bhagavata Purana, the five siddhis of yoga and meditation are:

1. tri-kāla-jñatvam: knowing the past, present and future
2. advandvam: tolerance of heat, cold and other dualities
3. para citta ādi abhijñatā: knowing the minds of others and so on
4. agni arka ambu viṣa ādīnām pratiṣṭambhaḥ: checking the influence of fire, sun, water, poison, and so on
5. aparājayah: remaining unconquered by others

Ten secondary siddhis

In the Bhagavata Purana, Lord Krishna describes the ten secondary siddhis as:

• anūrmi-mattvam: Being undisturbed by hunger, thirst, and other bodily appetites
• dūra-śravaṇa: Hearing things far away
• dūra-darśanam: Seeing things far away
• manaḥ-javah: Moving the body wherever thought goes (teleportation/astral projection)
• kāma-rūpam: Assuming any form desired
• para-kāya praveśanam: Entering the bodies of others
• sva-chanda mṛtyuh: Dying when one desires
• devānām saha krīḍā anudarśanam: Witnessing and participating in the pastimes of the gods
• yathā sańkalpa saḿsiddhiḥ: Perfect accomplishment of one's determination
• ājñā apratihatā gatiḥ: Orders or commands being unimpeded

Samkhya

In the Samkhya Karika and Tattva Samasa there are references to the attainment of eight siddhis by which one becomes free of the pain of ignorance, one gains knowledge, and experiences bliss. The eight siddhis hinted at by Kapila in the Tattvasamasa are as explained in verse 51 of Samkhyakarika:

1. Uuha: based on the samskaras of previous births, the attainment of knowledge about the twenty-four Tatwas gained by examining the determinable and the indeterminable conscious and the non-conscious constituents of creation,
2. Shabad: knowledge gained by associating with an enlightened person (Guru – upadesh),
3. Addhyyan: knowledge gained through study of the Vedas and other standard ancillary texts,
4. Suhritprapti: knowledge gained from a kind-hearted person, while engaged in the spread of knowledge
5. Daan: knowledge gained regardless of one’s own needs while attending to the requirements of those engaged in the search of the highest truth,
6. Aadhyaatmik dukkh-haan: freedom from pain, disappointment, etc. that may arise due to lack of spiritual, metaphysical, mystic knowledge and experience,
7. Aadhibhautik dukkh-haan: freedom from pain etc. arising from possessing and being attached to various materialistic gains,
8. Aadhidaivik dukkh-haan: freedom from pain etc. caused by fate or due to reliance on fate.

In Yidam practice one surrenders his individuality and attains oneness with the deity as explained below in Advice on Yidam practice.

“I am the great and glorious Heruka!
My food is the life-force of living beings,
My seat, the three worlds and three planes of existence.
I am the Lama. I am the Yidam.
I am Samantabhadra, the mighty Vajradhāra.
Without me, in the time before me,
There was no saṃsāra, no transcendence.
Now, the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa
Are all perfect within me, the great Heruka.
The blazing fire mountain is my realm.
The vīras and ḍākinīs are my retinue.
The Great Perfection is my Dharma.
I am the Heruka of equalness and perfection.”

At all times, such pride is necessary.

By Shenphenpa (Khenpo Shenga).
Translated by Adam Pearcey, Rigpa Translations, 2013.

Theurgy

Theurgy (/ˈθiːɜrdʒi/; from Greek θεουργία) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself.

The great divine Iamblichus, Proclus and Julian the Emperor gave a great deal of emphasis to theurgy in Neoplatonism which the academic scholars still see it with contempt eyes without understanding the supra-rational character of the art of theurgy.

Proclus (c. 480): theurgy is "a power higher than all human wisdom embracing the blessings of divination, the purifying powers of initiation and in a word all the operations of divine possession"

 Julian the Emperor said in his Hymn to King Helios that no one knows about the subject more better than the Neo-platonic philosopher the divine Iamblichus.

The Emperor Julian the Apostate (332-363), embraced Neoplatonic philosophy and worked to replace Christianity with a version of Neoplatonic paganism. Because of his death and the hold mainstream Christianity had over the empire at the time, this was ultimately unsuccessful, but he did produce several works of philosophy and theology, including a popular hymn to the sun. In his theology, Helios, the sun, was the ideal example of the perfection of the gods and light, a symbol of divine emanation. He also held the mother goddess Cybele in high esteem.

Julian favored ritual theurgy, with an emphasis on sacrifice and prayer. He was heavily influenced by the ideas of Iamblichus.

I want to fulfil the dream of Julian, his great desire to revive the pagan mystery religions back to the roman empire which for unfortunate reasons failed to succeed after his reign.

"By magical incantation rapid rivers may be made to run back to their fountains, the sea be congealed, winds become destitute of spirit, the sun be held back in his course, the moon be forced to scatter her foam, the stars be torn from their orbits, the day be taken away, and the night be detained."
- Iamblichus on the mysteries of Egyptians, Chaldeans and Assyrians.

"Theurgic union is attained only by the perfective operation of unspeakable acts correctly performed, acts which are beyond all understanding, and by the power of unutterable symbols which are intelligible only to the Gods"

Iamblichus, De Mysteriis. 2,11

Offering to the Gods: A Neo-platonic perspective by Edward P Butler is a fine study on the subject and demonstrates the wisdom and knowledge that the great divine Iamblichus had on the subject.

Conclusion

As the reader can see these set of pagan ideas are at the core of pagan philosophy and their attitude towards nature and religion. All the pagan religions have a certain affinity towards the art of theurgy and in eastern religions it was called by different names that's all but the theory and the practice remains absolutely identical. I urge scholars, practitioners and believers around the world to not to distort eastern mysticism and western esotericism and undermine the existence of pagan gods and their culture and philosophy.