The practices of deity, mantra, and wisdom are also known within the Tibetan system as the "development stage, because the practitioner is said to attain spiritual insight by developing meditative visualizations that bring the experience of awakening directly into one's present life, without having to wait for later spiritual fulfillment.

Vajra Wisdom presents the commentaries of two great nineteenth-century Nyingma masters, Kunkyen Tenpe Nyima and Shechen Gyaltsap IV, which guide practitioners engaged in development stage practice through a series of straightforward instructions. The rarity of this kind of material in English makes it indispensable for practitioners and scholars alike.

The goal of the development stage of meditation in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is to realize the inseparability of phenomena and great emptiness. Using the methods of deity visualization, mantra recitation, and meditative absorption, the practitioner arrives at this nonconceptual view.