The Cult of Tara

134
Contemplative Reality
image —» object
Process of Generation -•Process of Perfection
MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
with signs • signless
gathering in —•arising
These varied experiences of bliss, light, and sound tumble upon
the yogin as he nears the goal, whether they are coerced by manipulation
or occur spontaneously in contemplation. Thus we find
the texts speaking of "the experience of Light and Emptiness
adorned with Bliss," and we read biographical accounts such as the
following: 194
He entered the gate [of initiation] and began to contemplate,
and he gained possession of a body of form which was "appearance
and Emptiness." He was without outer or inner, above or below,
front or rear, before or after; he was unmade, unlimited, undivided;
he was without essence in appearance, without bias in
Light, without defilement in Bliss; his glow was the Clear Light,
his nature the unproduced, his prowess manifold. And in this
realm of undefiled Great Bliss he saw the play—the residence and
its residents, gods and goddesses, dakas and dakinis—the subtle
and self-sprung understanding, the miraculous knowledge. All
events—inner and outer—were the appearance of his mind, occurring
as the manifold prowess of his understanding.
From the mqment he gained this appearance and Emptiness he
penetrated it as the Clear Light, unconstrued, unfathomable,
empty of arising, abiding, and perishing; he comprehended the
natural pace of his ordinary knowledge as a genuine and innate
nature, and whatever appeared as the play of the Dharma Body,
Bliss, and Emptiness, the pith of conditioned coproduction. . . .
In this state he purified away subject and object, and he perfected
his prowess of great knowledge; as an attainment from this
realm of the Clear Light of contemplation, from then on he knew
that whatever occured—at the very moment of its appearance
—was itself light and itself clarity, unfathomable, unproduced,
the nature of Great Bliss, self-sprung, self-erected.
He realized many "gateways to contemplation": the shining of
gems, the lamp of gems, the shining of the moon, the lamp of the
sun, the seeing of all things. There appeared in his mind endless