The Indian Buddhist Iconography, Mainly Based on the Sadhanamala and Other Cognate Tantric Texts of Rituals c23.20

c23.20

Buddhists of the Vajrayāna consider Śūnya as the Ultimate Reality, and they believe that the host of gods and goddesses, including the Dhyāni Buddhas, are Śūnya in essence. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the Vajrayāna pantheon are all manifestations of Śūnya. The gods have no real existence, the images have no real existence, and therefore, it may be positively asserted that a true Vajrayānist never worshipped an image or god. Naturally, since these, paintings, images, or even the deities themselves have no real or independent existence, they are merely manifestations in a veriety of forms of the One, Undifferentiated Śūnya. But it cannot be denied that these images were very useful, since the forms they presented, in accordance with the Dhyānas, to the gaze of the worshippers undoubtedly helped the latter to visualise the deities with whom they were asked to identify themselves. As they had no real existence, these deities had to be attracted to the mind-sky from unknown regions in the firmament by the luminous rays of light issuing from the Bījamantras uttered by the worshipper. The Śūnya takes the form of a divinity in accordance with the germ-syllable uttered, and exists only as a positive idea in the mind of the worshipper who identifies himself with that transformation of Śūnya.