In a single instant, the light of a lamp can illuminate A house that has been dark and uninhabited for a thousand years. Just so, realizing the luminous nature of your own mind for even an instant Will purify an eon’s worth of negativity and obscurations.
—Shabkar Tsokdruk Rangdrol
The only difference between us and buddhas is that they recognize their true nature while we do not. The good news is that Mahayana Buddhism generally, and Vajrayana Buddhism specifically, offer us many effective methods for working directly with the mind to realize our buddhanature.
There are three main Tibetan traditions of meditation that work with the mind in this way. In Tibet, we refer to these as the chenpo sum, the “three great traditions”: the Great Seal (Mahamudra), the Great Perfection (Maha Ati or Dzogchen), and the Great Middle Way (Mahamadhyamaka). These traditions have different styles and methods, but their purpose is the same: to help us recognize the true nature of our own minds, which is to say, to directly experience our buddhanature.
Generally, Vajrayana, or tantric,
