Please note that although sutra often speaks of emptiness and clear light as well, this view of the mandala of the buddhas is never mentioned, nor will it ever be mentioned. According to sutra, upon reaching the state of the eighth-bhumi bodhisattva, when the mind is pure enough, the world around us will naturally turn into pure phenomena. But still, this is a rather unfamiliar and unexpected state; sutra has never provided any method to attain this state. Tantra, on the other hand, offers the practice of purification, that is, the generation stage, to quickly accomplish this goal. Furthermore, in the view of tantra, it is not that phenomena are purified via such practice but they are inherently pure in the first place. What the eighth-bhumi bodhisattvas perceive is, like the nature of mind, something we cannot see now but it is the true state of reality at the present moment.

~Depicted from GATEWAY TO VAJRAYANA PATH - A Compendium of the Vajrayana