When we speak of employing desire, we’re speaking of the functioning of energy. The intrinsic energy of desire is none other than the enlightened state. This is what is meant by transformation or transmutation in Tantra. To be a tantrika you have to be a good warrior; you have to be able to use whatever is at your disposal in terms of what you are – in terms of how you happen to be.So if you’re an egomaniac, then you become an eager maniac. You let your Lama make fun of your egomania; and you give up your investment, either in being embarrassed by it or in being defensive about it.
Your ego, or egomania, then becomes an aspect of your energy with which the Lama conjures. There is nothing with which the Lama cannot conjure if the student is prepared to follow through – if the student is open to that process.
p125-126, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4