[From a teaching on Essence of Wisdom: Stage of the Path, Part 6 taught by Lama Tashi Topgyal. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]
There is only one reason to receive authentic vajrayana empowerment, and that is that you care so much about other beings that you are in a hurry to achieve buddhahood for their benefit. Sometimes people think that vajrayana is intended for those who are frightened by the common path, which takes three periods of innumerable eons. That’s incorrect. Vajrayana is for those who are in a hurry to help beings as much as possible and therefore who do not want beings to continue to suffer unnecessarily while it takes you three periods of innumerable eons to achieve buddhahood. (Innumerable means ten to the power of sixty in this context, which is what it will take according to the path of the sutras.) Because if you receive empowerment, keep samaya, and pursue the vajrayana path properly, it has been taught by Vajradhara that you can achieve buddhahood in this one life. This is not something I’m making up or that scholars have made up, this was said by the Buddha. You do that; you subject yourself to the intense discipline of the vajrayana, which begins with empowerment, because you care so much about beings that you cannot stand to take your time achieving buddhahood.