The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 107
In all the Tantras of yoga
ever praised by yogins
the ritual of approach is first,
near evocation is second,
evocation too is third
and great evocation is fourth.
Elsewhere the Guhyasamaja Tantra elaborates upon each of these
"four limbs," and we read: 160
1) To apply the meditation of approach
one should contemplate the highest enlightenment.
Candrakirti, in his commentary The Illumining Lamp, m
explains
this term as follows: "Approach: it is practiced by those who desire
liberation, and so it is called an 'approach'thereto." And Tsongk'apa
glosses this: 162
Hence "approach" is the thought of enlightenment taking Emptiness
as its contemplative object: and since one fixes one's mind
one-pointedly thereon, the verse calls it a "meditation." Thus
"highest enlightenment" is the actual enlightenment which comes
about through examining the meaning of the SCNYATA mantra:
to contemplate this is to "approach." . . . "Approach" is thus
considered the generation of the symbolic being.
Next is "empowering the senses" of the visualized deity, and the
Guhyasamaja Tantra says:
2) In near evocation, the highest attainment,
one examines the Diamond Senses.
Here the empowered symbolic being, says Candrakirti, is the deity
called the Ritual Manifestation, the body now "perfect" in power:
and Buddhajnana says: 163
"Near" means "close": it means "close to the Great Manifestation,"
and refers to the first [the symbolic] Lord, who is "near" to
the absolute purity of the Great Manifestation.
Empowering the symbolic being brings it near to the knowledge
being and prepares it for the entry of the real deity, the Great Man-
'festation of the divine power in contemplative reality. Thus
Tsongk'apa says:
jHie "place" to which it is "near" is the completely pure divine
b°dy. called the "body of knowledge," the Great Manifestation,
what is "near" thereto is the body of the first Lord.