Devotion functions as a stabilizing quality that deepens attention, trust, and sustained engagement in meditation practice. Stability is necessary to navigate and integrate experiences of groundlessness without reactive collapse. Deities can be understood in varying ontological registers, serving as skillful means, archetypal energies, and precise contemplative supports. Common failure modes include clinging, aversion, conceptual fixation, and lack of methodological rigor. For experiences of formless panic, practical grounding techniques and compassionate reorientation to the body and breath can restore equanimity. The concept of a 'magical matrix' frames interdependent fields of experience that support transformative practice. Deity yoga maintains enduring power and aesthetic resonance within Vajrayana contemplative lineages.
Host Michael Taft talks with meditation coach Peter McEwen about devotion in meditation practice, the need for stability in groundlessness, the ontological status of deities, common failure modes of practice, how to handle formless panic, the magical matrix, and the lasting power and beauty of deity yoga in the Vajrayana tradition. Peter McEwen is a meditation coach and the founder of The Field, which offers training, community, and the demystification of basic contemplative practices.
Peter McEwen has been an ordained Vajrayana yogi since 1993 under the tutelage of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Lama Pema Dorje Rinpoche, and Bruce Tift. He has completed the traditional 3-year retreat curriculum of Vajrayana Buddhism. Peter's website The Field You can support the creation of future episodes of this podcast by contributing through Patreon.
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