Within the Kagyu tradition, Mahamudra and tantric deity yoga are understood as complementary dimensions of a single path rather than as rival approaches. Deity yoga, in its generation and completion stages, functions as a powerful preparatory discipline: by visualizing the yidam, reciting mantra, and dissolving the visualization into emptiness, the practitioner purifies obscurations, stabilizes concentration, and becomes familiar with pure appearance inseparable from emptiness. This gradual refinement of mind creates the most conducive basis for the direct recognition of Mahamudra, the nature of mind as empty and luminous. In this sense, deity yoga is the path of skillful means that ripens the mind, while Mahamudra is the direct insight that those means are designed to reveal.

At the same time, Mahamudra is regarded as the ultimate view and fruition of what tantric practice is pointing toward. The deity, the mandala, and the pure realm are understood not as something external, but as the expressive display of the very mind that Mahamudra recognizes: awareness that is empty, clear, and free from conceptual elaboration. When this is understood, the apparent distinction between “form” in deity practice and “formless” Mahamudra loosens, and both are seen as different gateways into the same indivisible union of emptiness and luminosity. In advanced stages, practitioners are encouraged to sustain Mahamudra recognition within the very midst of deity yoga, appearing as the deity while knowing that appearance and mind are not two.

Kagyu presentations sometimes distinguish between approaches that emphasize tantric methods and those that rely more directly on the sūtras, yet both converge on the same realization. In one approach, Mahamudra is introduced on the basis of extensive generation and completion stage practice, including the classic yogas of the completion stage; here deity yoga is the primary method, and Mahamudra is the culminating recognition of what those practices have been enacting symbolically. In another approach, Mahamudra is introduced chiefly through calm abiding and insight meditation grounded in the sūtras, with deity yoga present but not structurally indispensable. In either case, deity practice remains a supportive method, and Mahamudra remains the decisive insight into the nature of mind and phenomena.

From the perspective of result, the relationship between these two is seen even more intimately. When Mahamudra is realized, the “deity” is no longer conceived as other, but as the spontaneous, compassionate display of awakened awareness itself. The forms of the deity and the formlessness of Mahamudra are then recognized as non-dual, like waves and water. Thus, in Kagyu understanding, deity yoga and Mahamudra differ in emphasis and method, yet they converge in view and fruition, each illuminating the other and guiding the practitioner toward the same awakened ground.