The Yidam (Tibetan), or Ishta-devatā (Sanskrit), Déité of predilection, is a support of Méditation in the tantric practical of the Vajrayāna. The Sanskrit expresses the bond of devotion, whereas the Tibetan term insists on the firmness of the psychological and moral bond (Samaya) with the deity.

Buddhism

It is of a Bouddha or a Bodhisattva chosen, or given, like object of meditation. Within the framework of a liturgy including prayers, Mantra S and Mudrā S, the meditation on the yidam consists primarily of a visualization, often very elaborate, during which the practitioner seeks to be identified with intrinsic qualities of yidam (compassion, wisdom, power, etc) like to the various symbols of the Mandala of the deity, i.e. of its crowned environment.

The nature of a yidam is such as when the spirit of the practitioner establishes a bond with this one, it or it can count without restriction on this connection, and the yidam can grant the benefits for which this connection was established. Ultimement it does not act however of a bond with an external deity, but well with its clean Nature of Buddha, expressed under certain aspects of predilection, i.e. in agreement with the temperament of the practitioner. This is why it is often preferable that the practice (Sādhana) of the yidam is granted by the LAMA, or Gourou.

Hindouism

By their length côtoiement historical, and the play of the mutual influences which followed, the hindouism and Buddhism share many techniques and spiritual approaches. In this case it is starting from the hindouism that the meditation and the devotion towards a deity were reintroduced in Buddhism.

Here also the various deities are personifications of certain aspects of ultimate reality called Brahman in the sight Non-duelle, or of God or the single Goddess, Īshvara or Mahādevī, in the multiple forms of Shiva, Vishnu, etc

See too

• Avalokiteshvara
• Five dhyani Buddhas
• Dharmapāla
• Guan Yin (Tārā)
• Shingon
• Vajrasattva
• Vajrayoginī

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