Kyerim and dzogrim function as the underlying structural grammar shared across the whole of highest yoga tantra practice in Tibetan Buddhism, so that understanding this two stage framework is foundational to understanding how virtually every specific deity practice, and several of the other completion stage yogas catalogued elsewhere in the atlas, actually operate, even though the specific visualised deity, mandala and detailed technique differ considerably from one tantric cycle to another. Both stages require formal empowerment before a practitioner may properly undertake them, and the generation stage in particular is generally taught as preparatory training a student must complete under a qualified teacher's guidance before undertaking the subtler, more advanced completion stage practices, a graduated structure the tradition maintains consistently across its many specific tantric lineages and deity cycles.
The atlas records here the conceptual architecture of generation and completion stage practice, its central place in Vajrayana tantra as a whole, and its empowerment bound transmission, without offering the specific visualisation content, mantra or subtle body technique belonging to any particular deity practice, material that remains, across the tradition, bound to formal transmission from a qualified teacher.