Tantric visualization (Yoga)

The aim is to realize the whole through which the world becomes utterly transparent. According to a strict series of formulae, the content of the visualization is an iconographic type representing an enlightened entity with the corresponding level of being. Identification with the vividly imagined deity is the merging with that on which concentrated consciousness rests. This internal image is then dissolved so that it and the yogin's empirical identity are erased together and the yogin enters the great void. The path of form is contrasted with the formless method which does not produce the quantities of potential psychic energy. It may have numerous branches. One system, the Naropa school, distinguishes six.