The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 115
the remaining acts of the ritual: "empowering body, speech and mind
and so on, absorbing the knowledge being, sealing with the initia-
'on, offerings and praise." And he adds: 172
All the yogas which are the foundation of the Process of Generation
are subsumed under these four yogas: the first two (the
evocation of the chief Father-Mother) are considered "little yoga."
After that the third yoga (adding the perfect evocation of the
retinue of deities) is "middle yoga." And finally evoking oneself
as of one taste with the knowledge being, empowering one's eyes
and so on, is "great yoga."
In the Tantra of the Diamond Pavilion 173
the entire ritual sequence
of the Hevajra cycle is arranged under "six limbs," beginning with
the generation of the divine mansion from BHRUM, the seed of the
Buddha Vairocana, and including the further acts of offering and
praise and the "tasting of nectar"—the visualization of the mantra
"issuing forth with light from the HUM in one's heart, traversing the
vajra path through the central channel, circling through the 'lotus'
of the goddess and upward from mouth to mouth." 174
Thus it says:
Having made perfect the foundation of Buddhahood,
the substance of the truth of the All-Beneficent,
having contemplated the five aspects,
one should do the means of evoking the supreme deity,
likewise arraying the mandala,
offerings and praise, nectar, and so on:
if one contemplates with this sequence,
we hold it to be the yoga of "six limbs."
Durjayacandra 175
correlates these six limbs with the six families of
Buddha spoken of in the Mother Tantras:
as
Doing "diamond lust" and contemplating
the separation of the divine mansion of Buddhahood,
initiation and the tasting of nectar,
offerings and praise: contemplate the six limbs.
What is this six-limbed yoga?
By it one quickly gains the magical attainments.
The palace: Buddha Vairocana,
the initiation: Aksobhya Tathagata,
lasting nectar: Amitabha,
praise: glorious Ratnasambhava,
offerings: Amoghasiddhi's perfect offering,
lust: Vajrasattva.
us the first limb is the visualization of the residential mandala;
Indrabodhi says: