The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 117
The four remaining limbs are given by Indrabodhi, one in each of
the following lines:
The eight mantra goddesses initiate,
and one should taste the nectar;
the eight goddesses make offerings,
and one should praise the conjured retinue.
And Tsongk'apa again identifies each limb with a Buddha.
Similarly, the Diamond Garland Tantra, 177
part of the Guhyasamaja
cycle, speaks of "three meditations": here first preparations
includes the preliminary acts and the complete generation of the
Father-Mother deity, the highest king of the mandala is the deity
as radiating the divine retinue from within the womb of the
Mother, and the highest king of the ritual is the complete mandala
employed in serving the aims of all beings.
These three meditations, again, are identified with the three
bodies of Buddhahood: in the first preparations, says Tsongk'apa,
there is the emanation of the divine to accomplish first one's own
aim, so this is considered the Essential Body or Dharma Body; then
the first bodies of "form" arise to serve the aim of others through
the power of the Essential Body, so the highest king of the mandala
is considered the Body of Bliss; and then the divine hosts serve the
aim of beings in the ten directions, each one emanating while staying
in his own place, so the highest king of the ritual is considered the
Body of Transformation.
In the rituals based on the Arya commentatorial tradition of
Nagarjuna and his followers, however, the first preparations are
expanded to include the entire generation through the absorption
of the knowledge being, and the two highest kings are together
correlated with the initiation of the deity. Candrakirti's Illumining
Lamp thus says that the great evocation spoken of in the Guhgasamaja
Tantra includes both the highest king of the mandala and the
highest king of the ritual; it is the "great" evocation because these
two highest kings "perform the actions of a Buddha" and accomplish
the great aim of others. The first three of the Guhyasamaja's four
limbs of approach and evocation, then, are all included under first
preparations, and they are "subsidiaries of accomplishing one's own
aim."
In the commentatorial tradition of Buddhajiiana and his Evocation
Named All-beneficent, on the other hand, all four of these