The Cult of Tara

34 MAGIC AND RITUAL. IN TIBET
essence.' And he contemplates the 'actual' thought of enlightenment."
Thus Anupamaraksita continues his ritual:
After he has contemplated the four "abodes of Brahma," he
should contemplate the perfect inherent purity of all events. He
should realize that all events are perfectly and inherently pure
of essence, and that he too is perfectly and inherently pure: and
he establishes this perfect and inherent purity of all events with
the mantra OM SVABHAVA-SUDDHAH SARVA-DHARMAH
SVABHAVA-SUDDHO 'HAM ! But if all events are perfectly and
inherently pure, from whence is this world produced ? From being
obscured by the dirt of "subject" and "object" and so on. The
means to the cessation thereof is the contemplation of the True Path,
for thereby it ceases: it is thus that one accomplishes the apprehension
that all events are perfectly and inherently pure.
Then, having contemplated the perfect inherent purity of all
events, he should contemplate the Emptiness of all events. Here,
this Emptiness means that he should reflect upon the fact that
everything, animate or inanimate, is inherently but an appearance
of a wondrous non-duality upon which have been imposed mental
constructions and fabrications such as "subject" and "object" and
so on: and he establishes this Emptiness with the mantra OM
SUNYATA-JNANA-VAJRA-SVABHAVATMAKO 'HAM!
This mantra (which Anupamaraksita does not explain) is held to
contain within itself the most profound doctrines of the Great
Vehicle, here placed again within a dramatic and magical context;
these words dissolve the "construed and fabricated" universe into
omnipotent Emptiness, an intense and personal actualization of the
thought of enlightenment rendered all the more effective as an incantation.
Tsongk'apa explains the meaning of this mantra as
follows: 70
Therein, SUNYATA is Emptiness: because events are free of any
"essence" or "cause and effect," they are "empty" thereof.
JNANA ["knowledge"] is a mind of one taste with Emptiness: it is
empty, unlabelable, wishless. VAJRA ["diamond"] is simply the
indissolubility of the "Emptiness" of the objective world and the
"knowledge" of the subjective viewer: it is "diamond" because it
is unchanged by adversity, it overcomes adversity, it is beginningless
and endless. These same words ["diamond of the knowledge
of Emptiness"] are used, again, to describe a mind focused on the
Dharma realm, which is likewise beginningless and endless,
because a mind focused on Suchness takes on the form of its object.
SVABHAVA is "essence": any "essence" which is without adventitious
defilement is essentially pure. ATMAKA is the self, and
AHAM is "I": hence, "Any self which is essentially pure, that is 11"