system
A chat on 4chan
human
Are garchen's empowerments needed only for diety yoga?
gpt
There are some you can do without empowerment, I think the ones from the sutras like Amitabha and Medicine Buddha etc. just that you can't do any self-generation without empowerments. Instead you can visualize the deity either in front of you, or at your crown.
Other things like ngöndro, any highest yoga tantra, mahamudra, dzogchen generally require empowerments.
Ape or the other Vajrayana anon can perhaps give you more information.
human
>sutras
>sounds like 'surah'
>mahamudra
>sounds like the name Muhammad

Is Islam crypto-buddhist?