One Sole Purpose

There are many different kinds of creation-phase and completion-phase meditations - hundreds of gods and goddesses, and all kinds of things to meditate on. Creation phase is more connected with relative truth, completion phase with absolute truth. But in any case, it doesn't matter which one and which kind one is doing; all of those methods and practices are for one sole purpose: to reverse clinging to the 'reality' or 'truth' of these confused appearances. That's the purpose of all those practices. If those practices aren't in fact reversing that kind of clinging, which is arising due to the notion of their true existence, then we have attachment (or desire) to those appearances that seem pleasant and we have aversion (or hatred) to those that seem unpleasant. If that kind of ordinary outlook - seeing everything as solid, actually existing and responding to reality in terms of either attachment or aversion - is not reversed, if there is no realization of that as being like a dream, and if grasping is as strong as ever, then all that meditation is meaningless. All those practices are of no benefit.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, 1995, Creation & Completion, Boulder, Colorado, p. 12. Translated by Sarah Harding