THE EXTRAORDINARY OR INNER PRELIMINARIES For that would be like a boatman without oars and also: Without empowerment there's no accomplishment; You can't get oil from pressing sand The empowerment that we receive when we are first introduced into the mai)Qala by an authentic Vajra Master is the ground empowerment The fourfold empowerment that we take by ourselves when we practise Guru Yoga, without depending on anyone or anything else, is the path empowerment The empowerment that we obtain at the moment of the ultimate fruit, called the "great ray of light empowerment" or the "empowerment of indivisible profundity and radiance," is the fruit empowerment, perfect and total Buddhahood 273 These empowerments possess three inconceivably profound characteristics: they purify, perfect and mature 274 Even when you are doing the main practice it is a mistake to dispense with any of the preliminaries It is particularly important, when you are meditating on practices such as the generation or perfection phases, always to start each session with the path empowerment of Guru Yoga Anyone whose devotion and samaya are completely pure and who completes the path up to Guru Yoga, even without doing t.he main practice, will be reborn in the Glorious Mountain of the South Western Continent 275 In that pure Buddhafield they will travel the path of the four Vidyadhara levels even more swiftly than the movements of the sun and moon and reach the level of Samantabhadra III THE HISTORY OF THE ADVENT OF THE EARLY TRANSLATION DOCTRINE At this point, for the enjoyment of the listeners and for other reasons, it is traditional to relate-neither too briefly nor in too much detail-the history of how the teachings in general, and the three inner yogas in particular, came into being So I will now describe briefly how the three inner yogas of the Old Translations-known as Mahayoga, Anuyoga and Atiyoga and corresponding to the generation, perfection and Great Perfection phases