Barbelith Underground > Temple > Deities within buddhism

While researching this , i have found a notion appearing that the deities within buddhism represent elements of the stages of human enlightenment or figures that achieved various states within there life time, yet i am finding the vajrayana tradition employs in some instances an altar similar in some manners to the cultures in which that tradition is prevalent.

i am confused as to wether thay are aspects of the human enlightenment process, icons representing various virtues etc or they can be approached on a working with gods/ spirits basis.

At the moment i am tending to think both, that the deities represent aspects of human enlightenment and are fully alive spiritual forms.

The below quote is from the khandro website>

Why call them deities; why not gods?
Although the word deity was originally a synonym for god, experience has shown that some practices such as those performed by Buddhists consist of a type of address in which the intent is rather different from the usual ancient one. That is, the general intention is not to propitiate; not to flatter, placate or enter into contracts.

There is another important difference between Buddhist deities and mythological gods or goddesses. The latter are, or were once, considered real -- described as motivated by jealousy, power and other appetites and not very different from physical creatures such as people. The deities of Buddhism are ultimately regarded as manifestations of Emptiness. Some practitioners eventually abandon deity devotion as a method for attaining an enlightened state when it has outlived its utility.

The below is taken from a response to a similar question to mine from the e-sangha community>

Shakyamuni Buddha didn't teach us to pray dieties. He didn't even teach us to pray him. When you see people knee down and bow before Buddha's statue, it is not the same as worshiping god, because the meaning of knee down and bow Buddha's statue is because we want to show respect to our kind teacher. We thank him for his Dharma teaching. Buddha statue is there not for idoling and worship. Buddha statue is there to remind us that we should always be thinking about how to be enlightened like the Buddha himself and out of these sufferings. Buddha statue is there to help us keep our 5 preceptions. Buddha statue is there to always constantly remind monk and nuns to do the right things, to listen to his dharma teaching. Buddha statue is there everyday to AWAKEN us. Buddha's statue is not there to perform worship. We recite sutras in front of Buddha's statue because we want all living beings to be able to listen to the dharma that buddha had taught to benefit them. We recite sutras in front of Buddha's statue is to help us remember the teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha. We recite Sutras everysingle word to awake us up and to imagine that Shakyamuni Buddha is still there teaching us these Dharma Sutras. There are more meaning than this. I'm not a monk but I understand these things a little bit. Monks will be able to tell you more the meanings of this.