The Cult of Tara

70 MA GIC A ND RITUA I IN TIBET
deity's body from the top down and from the bottom up; and when
he is able to see the deity formed as a whole, he should concentrate
upon it one-pointedly, neither too slackly nor too tensely, but in
proper moderation.
At first he should visualize only vaguely the parts given in the
text which he is not deliberately making vivid, because it is harmful
to his concentration to chase after them with his mind; and if the
vividness fades, he must nurse it back again until the deity is once
more vividly contemplated. As he practices, all the parts grow more
and more vivid, until finally he should be able to form a picture of
what he is deliberately making vivid and to leave unformed everything
else, the picture becoming so vivid that he thinks he could not
see it better with his own eyes. In order to concentrate his mind
upon this vividness, he must work at it steadily throughout the entire
contemplative period, free from drowsiness or distraction.
Once the deity's body has appeared in this rough way, the practitioner
must practice in the same way the formation of all the
subtle parts, the other faces and hands, the ornaments and so on.
After that he must contemplate the deity's consort in the same
way; then he adds on the other deities of the retinue; and finally he
should be able to settle his mind one-pointedly on a complete and
vivid formation of all the rough and subtle parts simultaneously,
the entire retinue of the residential palace and all the deities who
are its residents. 98
"He should practice this contemplation from beginning to end,"
says Tsongk'apa in another text, "his mind not giving in to drow
ness or distraction, with great effort settling his mind one-pointedly
on the object he is contemplating: because however long he ma
yield to drowsiness or distraction, he will gradually reach the po
in his practice when, from the beginning to the end of each contemplative
period, they will no longer be able to interrupt him." 99
T
Longdo lama Ngagwang lozang describes drowsiness and distract"
as follows: "There are two sorts of drowsiness and distraction, th
coarse and the subtle; and though this designation as such does not'
appear in the Indian texts, it was asserted by Lozang dragpa
[Tsongk'apa] in reply to a question by Lhagsam rabkar.
he says, when one is preserving an unwavering contemplatio
the details of the visualization fade a little, one has been interrupte
by ' subtle drowsiness.' If the details disappear but the brightremains,
'middling drowsiness' has come upon one. And if t