If we wish to become enlightened in this very lifetime we must practice the Vajrayana or "Tantric" path.

It is the quick path to enlightenment because by practicing vajrayana we accumulate both the collection of merit and the collection of wisdom within one concentration on emptiness, thus create simultaneously all the causes for the Form body and the Truth body of a Buddha. This practice of concentration is revealed only in Vajrayana.

Shakyamuni Buddha taught four classes of Tantra, in accordance with the various inclinations and capacities of his students:

Action Tantra

Performance Tantra

Yoga Tantra

Highest Yoga Tantra

Action Tantra is so-called because it mainly stresses external ritual, Performance Tantra places equal emphasis on Both ritual and internal performance, Yoga Tantra emphasizes internal unions ("Yoga" means "Union"), and Highest Yoga Tantra is the supreme class of Internal union practice.

Action Tantra has four main root texts:

General Secret Tantra, Excellent Establishment Tantra, Tantra requested by Subahu, Concentration Continuum Tantra.

All Action Tantras are included within three lineages - Tathagata family, Lotus family, Vajra Family.

These are fully described in Je Tsongkapa's Great Exposition of the Stages of Secret Mantra, where the practices of all the Tantras are explained.

Performance Tantra has only three main root texts:

Vairochanabhisambodhittantra and it's Condensed Vairochana Tantra

Vajrapani Empowerment Tantra

Yoga Tantra main texts are:

Condensation of Thatness Tantra and it's commentary Vajra Peak Explanatory Tantra.

There are three divisions of Highest Yoga Tantra - Father Tantras, Mother Tantras, non-dual Tantras.

Father Tantras, such as Guhysamaja Tantra mainly emphasize Illusory Body

Mother Tantras, such as Heruka Tantra mainly emphasize Clear Light

Non-dual Tantras, such as Kalachakra Tantra combine both Illusory Body and Clear Light.

The practice of Highest Yoga Tantra is very extensive, but all the practices are included within five:

1. Generating special Bodhichitta

2. Receiving an Empowerment

3. Maintaining Vows and Commitments

4. Practicing Generation stage.

5. Practicing Completion stage.

To full fill the practice of Vajrayana or Secret Mantra we need to generate Bodhichitta, so experience of the preceeding stages of the path (LamRim) which lead to realiztion of Bodhichitta is necessary. Bodhichitta is like the outer door to Secret Mantra and receiving empowerment is like the inner door.

When we receive an empowerment, which empowers us to engage in the actual practices, we take a number of Vows and commitments such as the Bodhisattva vows and the Tantric vows. Subsequent success in our Tantric practice depends upon maintaining these vows and commitments purely. Just as crops cannot grow easily in a field that is full of stones and weeds, so it is difficult for us to gain the special realiztions of Secret Mantra when our discipline is impure.

The first three are preparations. The actual practices of Highest Yoga Tantra are the yogas of generation stage and completion stage. Generation stage meditations are paths that lead to completion stage and cause the realizations of competion stage to ripen. It is the yogas of completion stage that actually liberate us from samsara and lead us to Buddhahood.

To understand how Tantric practices lead to Buddhahood it is necessary to understand the Basis, the path, and the result. The basis is the object to be purified, the path is the means of purifying, and the result is the purified effect. The basis to be purified is Samsara - that is, ordinary birth, living, and death. Bu practising the yogas of generation stage and completion stage we can purify these and transform them into the three bodies of a Buddha: he Truth body, the Enjoyment body, and the emanation body. The yogas of generation stage purify ordinary birth, living, and death indirectly. And the yogas of completion stage purify them directly.

Generation stage practice has three features:

1 Bringing the three bodies of a Buddha into the path.

2 Meditating on Clear appearance and Divine belief.

3 Overcoming ordinary appearence and ordinary belief in dependence upon Clear appearance and Divine belief.

The first is accomplished by three yogas - bringing ordinary birth into the path of the Emanation body, bringing ordinary living into the path of the enjoyment body, and bringing ordinary death into the path of the Truth body. With these yogas we generate ourselves as the meditational Deity and then, with concentration, train in clear appearance and divine belief. Through training in clear appearance we overcome ordinary appearances, and through training in divine belief we overcome ordinary conceptions.

In completion stage there are three corresponding path bodies to the three bodies in generation stage. The two stages of the completion stage yoga of clear light - ultimate example clear light and meaning clear light - are known as the path Truth body. These two clear lights purify ordinary death directly. The impure illusory body and the pure illusory body are known as the path enjoyment body, and these purify ordinary living directly. The gross physical Deity bodies of those who have attained the impure or pure illusory body are known as the path emanation body, and these purify ordinary birth directly. The practices of Clear Light, Illusory body, and the Deity's gross body are the main yogas of completion stage.