The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan

"The Vajrayana Buddhist pantheon comprises a wide variety of divine figures. Many of these are the focus of practices such as meditation, visualization, mantra recitation, sacred dances, and elaborate rituals. In this context, yoga means the technique or method of employing deity practices for spiritual development. One of the most frequent is the generation of the personal deity by the practitioner via meditation. In such cases, the practitioner follows specific techniques to embody the deity him- or herself. From one perspective, these divine beings can be understood as expressions of one’s own enlightened mind. The visual elements with which these deities are portrayed are richly symbolic, and to the initiated these images convey important aspects of the Buddhist teachings."

http://www.rmanyc.org/exhibitions/dragons-gift.xml?context=exhibitions/dragons-gift.xml