Thangkas and sculptured images fall into six general categories according to their subject matter: 1) enlightened beings, 2) yidams, 3) dharmapalas, 4) mandalas and stupas, 5) illustrations of the teaching, 6) yantras.

The iconography of tantric Buddhism, as all other aspects of it, is inspired by the teaching of the five Buddha principles: vajra, ratna, padma, karma, buddha. These are the five basic energies present everywhere. There are often known as the Buddha families. Each is particularly associated with a certain ordinary emotion which can be transmuted into a certain definite wisdom or aspect of the awakened state of mind. The Buddha families are also associated with colors, elements, directions, seasons, landscapes – with any aspect of the phenomenal world.

As has been said, thangkas are mainly for the purpose of refining visualization, which is a tantric or vajrayana meditation technique. The vajrayana is the third and most advanced level of Buddhist spiritual training. To arrive at this stage, students are expected first to undergo intellectual and meditative training on the hinayana and Mahayana levels. In hinayana they must understand the basic truths of egolessness, impermanence and suffering as well as practice samatha and vipasyana meditation. In mahayana, a competent master must show them a different way of seeing reality, from the perspective of sunyata, or emptiness.

At this point, tantric practice begins with the four foundation practices: one hundred thousand prostrations, one hundred thousand repetitions of the refuge formula, one hundred thousand repetitions of the one-hundred-syllable Vajrasattva mantra, one hundred thousand presentations of mandala offerings. Some schools also add one hundred thousand repetitions of the bodhisattva vow. All of these tantric practices are accompanied by a visualization.

Visualization is not a magical practice nor worship of an external deity. It is a process of identification with a particular principle of inspiration and energy, with conviction in its presence. The visualization is preceded and terminated by the sunyata experience, which dissolves the ego’s tendency to hang onto something solid. It has been said that visualizing without sunyata is dangerous; it accumulates fixed ground for ego and leads to the achievement of egohood.

There is a progress of sophistication in the practice of visualization as the practitioner develops through the tantric levels of teaching. It begins with regarding what is visualized as an object of devotion; the process then becomes the acknowledgment of a transcendental presence; finally visualization means unifying with the wisdom-body of a deity.

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Essay © 1975 Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche
copyright © 2003 Shelly and Donald Rubin Foundation