Totoro wrote:What I understood from a Gelugpa teacher is that we all have Buddha nature i.e. the potential to become Buddhas. The reason we are not Buddhas at the moment is due to the two obscurations or obstructions - delusion obstruction and obstruction to knowing. The first level of delusion we can remove by meditation on emptiness as per Sutra path. The obstruction to knowing we can only remove by meditating using the very subtle mind via completion stage meditation. I hope I got that right. So I'm not sure where growing buddhahood like a seed comes in.
Not wanting to complicate things further, where does the Kagyu Mahamudra fit in all of this?
And clearly I don't understand the Nyingma view since I haven't received any teachings on Dzogchen yet but thanks for all the replies thus far.
We are writing here how to investigate Madhyamaka and Yogacara. So it is sutra only. Whatever your Vajrayana lineage/tradition is, Gelug or non-Gelug, so far as genuine Madhyamaka is concerned, it is crucial to not take it for granted, but investigate. Here in the end you have to rely on your investigation only.
In your case, it seems you are mixing 2 different methods sutra and tantra together. Both methods are suitable to remove all delussions and obstructions to knowing. In sutra it takes time of 3 countless eons during bodhisattva/s rebirths, in highest yoga tantra even one lifetime:
-path of accumulation
stage of generation
-path of preparation
physical isolation, verbal isolation, mental isolation, impure Illusory Body
-path of seeing
actual clear light
-path of meditation
learner's union
-path of no more learning
non-learner's union
However, it is written in some tantras and its commentaries, no matter in what Tibetan Vajrayana tradition, finally after 3 countless eons of sutra's practice in the last bodhisattva's rebirth, bodhisattva has to use tantra method to remove the subtlest obstruction to knowing. Please ask perhaps Namdrol for more details.