The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 81
completion of the stocks of merit and knowledge. . . . Her right
hand in the gift-bestowing gesture is the completion of the Perfection
of Charity; her left hand in the protection gesture is the
guarding of all beings from terror. Her holding the lotus flower
is the giving of joy to all beings. Her being sixteen years of age
is the ability to accomplish the aims of all beings. Her throne of
the orb of the moon is the possession of Wisdom, and her throne
of a varicolored lotus is the possession of an essence of Compassion.
THE CONTEMPLATIVE REALITY
This symbolic reality is rendered even more potent by the process
of its creation, the way in which the divine power is given form and
directed toward an end. It is the power of the deity which after all
is evoked from the realm of Emptiness by the Process of Generation;
it is a divine reality the practitioner creates, and into which he
gives himself birth.
Even more striking is the assertion that the yogin not only
creates his own reality but also imposes it at will upon others, that
his ability to control the universe extends also to the appearances
perceived by other people: he may make himself appear invisible, or
beautiful, to them; he may subjugate or destroy simply by visualizing
the effect he wishes to bring about; he may generate a person or a
demon into an effigy and destroy it utterly. Here is a present
danger in uncontrolled contemplation, and the texts are full of
warnings of the dreadful fate of practitioners who misuse their
power; but here too the social benefits are clear, for a practitioner
may exercise his reality-creating -power, for example, to trick a
demon into thinking that a "substitute" or "ransom" is—that is,
"appears as"—the real object of his malevolence. The yogin can
change the weather, remove spiritual hindrances from his followers,
and spread virtue among his people. So potent is the visualization
of a great yogin that he may appear to his disciples as the very deity
whose vivid appearance and ego he has grasped. This happens
especially, we are told, during initiations, where the yogin first
generates himself as the deity before transmitting the divine power
to his followers. In his autobiography, Mila repa gives the following
account of his departure from the home of his guru Marpa: 113
My guru said to his wife: "Damema, set out the food and the
excellent offerings upon the altar. Mila is about to go now, and
I have given him my permission."