A Commentary on “Blessing the Speech According to the Instructions of Great Yogi Khyungpo”

Visualizing Yourself as a Deity

Visualization

I clarify myself as the deity.

To do this practice, you need to transform yourself into the form of a deity. You don’t just change a truly existent human body into a truly existent deity body; it is not like that. First you purify the truly existent I in emptiness by looking at the real I as empty, as it is empty. Then, your wisdom realizing emptiness, which is nondual with great bliss, manifests as a deity. Usually you arise as the main deity with whom you have a karmic connection and by means of which you will achieve enlightenment most quickly. However, if you are doing a deity retreat, you can arise as that deity.

You are only allowed to clarify yourself as a deity after having received a great initiation of a lower tantra or highest yoga tantra deity. If you haven’t received a great initiation, you can visualize yourself as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. My guru Kyabje Denma Locho Rinpoche said that this is an exception based on Buddha being the founder of the present Buddhadharma. However, for Medicine Buddha, Chenrezig, and all other deities, you must have received the initiation of the deity in order to visualize yourself as that deity. If you haven’t received a great initiation, it might also be okay to do the blessing of the speech with your ordinary body, but I haven’t actually heard that.