deity yoga. A key meditational practice associated with tantric Buddhism through which the practitioner visualizes a particular deity based on specific tantras or derivative sādhana texts. The visualized image of the deity can be treated as an object of worship (pūjā) or as a model for self-identification to actualize the corresponding enlightened attributes within oneself.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)