The Cult of Tara

76
THE CULT OF TARA
say that it takes more than a year. Hence, if one who has accepted
his vows and pledges, and who knows enough to keep them well
puts forth an uninterrupted effort with great striving, no very
great time is ne cessary for him to complete the vivid appearance
of the deities of "the mandala. But if one is rubbing sticks of wood together
to make a
fire, yet does not do it energetically and for a long
time, if he stops to take a rest in between times, then the fire will
not come: this is
the example that AryaSura used to show the
necessity of working at it continuously.
This constant practice has its inevitable psychological effect. "In
general," says Tsongk'apa, "the vivid appearance of any abject of
e d
perception is gain simply by concentrating upon that object more
and more: it is tlms the result of nothing but practice. As Rigpe
wangch'ug says:
When one is
shaken with wishes, fears and sorrows,
worried by thieves and dreams,
then one will see them as if placed before one
even though they are not there.
This means that one who has lust, for example, may concentrate his
attention more and more upon the object of his lust, until he actually
sees that object as clearly as if it were in front of him. . . .
Thus, too, it is not necessary that one practice upon a proper object
to produce its vivid appearance: for if one practice upon any object,
whether it be perverted or not, its vivid appearance is produced
naturally." 105
This awareness of the psychological dangers of uncontrolled
visualization is one of the reasons for the erection of
preparatory standards and for the constant insistence upon the
necessity for preliminary practices, not only because the unprepared
practitioner is a danger to himself, with the ever-present possibility
of self-induced hallucinatory schizophrenia, but also because he
presents a real threat to others, should he happen to achieve any
control over reality without being morally prepared to handle his
power.
Divine Ego
Not only must the practitioner visualize the deity as vividly as
possible, but he must also, in any ritual of evocation (that is, whenever
he generates himself as the deity), exchange for his own ordinary
ego the ego of the deity, which is the subjective correlative of
the exchange of ordinary appearances for the special appearance of