The Meaning of Deity, Tsoknyi Rinpoche (may be paraphrased at
times…)
…in the view of the Dzogchen, all of the appearances of samsara
and nirvana never pass beyond the essence of mind…
…just because you do not see something, it is not right to think
that it does not exist. Buddha stated that until you reach
Buddhahood, your various sense faculties are not valid cognizers of
what lies outside their realm of operation…
…Deities and so forth do exist; it would be wrong to say that
they do not. Still, you need to have a way to connect with them. To
connect with them, the thing that you need is direct perception of
the essence of mind in its emptiness aspect… that emptiness is not
merely empty but also has a radiance aspect to it, and it is this
radiance aspect which appears as deities.
… Thus it is not a waste of time to do the
practices involving deities because the deities do exist but it is
equally true that you need to know how they exist so that you can
connect with them properly. If you were to think that they exist in
a really true, solid way, you would never be able to connect with
them. The same is true if you have a very solid desire to meet
them, thinking, “I want to connect with them!” that is just another
form of grasping and will get in the way of connecting with them
properly.
…Deities are insubstantial yet not non-existent…If you think
that the deities do not exist, you have fallen into the view of
nihilism and, conversely , if you think that they do exist, you
have fallen into eternalism. Deities are beyond extremes.