The Cult of Tara

132 MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
he has spent six months or a year in ritual service, his visualization
and understanding reinforce each other: he is the deity because
he can create the deity, and he can create the deity because he
is the deity.
This rapid increase of understanding—this quick path of Buddhahood—is
based upon his magical power, for it is only through the simulacra
of the Process of Generation that he can magically manipulate
the fruition of the Process of Perfection; out of this spiraling
ability comes the power to control all realities, to apply his visualization
and recitation upon the public world, to own the universe in
his body.
The process of Perfection is generally subsumed under the two
headings, "with signs" and "signless." As Tenpe nyima says, quoting
the Oral Teachings of the Lord of Secrets: "To turn impure
appearances into pure appearances, and to contemplate them as
the retinue of one's mandala, is the Process of Generation. But
these must be understood in the knowledge of Bliss and Emptiness:
hence to contemplate the deep contemplation 'with signs' (the
channels, winds, and drop) and 'signless' (Suchness) is the Process
of Perfection." 190
The Process of Perfection with signs refers to the physical yoga
that the Buddhist Tantras share with many Hindu traditions, the
control of the "winds" within the "channels" and the manipulation
of the "drop" through the central channel to "pierce the vital
centers" of the divine body. The signless Process of Perfection is the
"gathering in" of the body of the god and "arising" therewith from
the Clear Light of Emptiness. As Tsongk'apa says: 191
Thus if one knows the main points of the technique of bringing
forth the channels, winds and drop, and is able to utilize the winds
and drop in the yoga which pierces the vital centers, then one is
able to produce the deep contemplation of the four joys based
upon reversing the evolution of one's bodily elements, and to
adorn that contemplation with the Great Bliss and Clear Light,
imposing upon it no mental constructs.
But to do nothing else is not the contemplation: rather must one
base oneself on those techniques, and then move on to produce the
entirely pure view which sets forth the meaning of "essencelessness",
because—in other words—even with those two sorts of contemplation
one is still unable to cross over from this world. As it
says in the Discourse on the Thought of Enlightenment: 1
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