The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 171
the practitioner imposes in turn his pattern of music, chanting,
gestures, and dance—all as formally patterned as the ritual itself.
226
Thus the mandala, the offering of the universe, is the basic motif
around which the Four Mandala Offering is built, a thematic center
that unifies the diverse elements of the ritual (in many ways it is
only the language of dramatic criticism which is finally applicable
to the description of Tibetan ritual). This ritual is one of the most
popular expressions of devotion to Tara and the most constant form
of her worship. It is a ritual of offering rather than of evocation:
here the goddess is generated only in front of the assembled practitioners,
that she may be approached and the "stream of her heart
aroused" with offerings, praises, and prayer. Yet even here the
"paradox of power" functions in the recitation of the mantra, that
she may not only be aroused with hymns but also coerced to confer
her boons. Her very presence before the assembly is a magical
image for the divine power, which may be controlled by the practiced
yogin; but this power is there to be worshiped, to be requested for
protection, and the ritual often includes some of the most moving
poetry of Buddhist devotion. The intention is to worship and not
to control; but control is in the very nature of the ritual act.
As an example of the popularity of this ritual: Lokesh Chandra
has published the catalogue of an anthology (or "cycle") of miscellaneous
rituals, prayers, praises, and so on, all devoted to the goddess.
227
Of the 48 different texts included in the anthology, 13—or
more than 26 percent—are rituals for offering the Four Mandalas;
one of these rituals, the Wish-granting Ear of Grain by Jigme
wangpo, has been translated twice in modern times into Chinese. 228
It is not known exactly when the guru's mandala offering was thus
expanded and applied to the worship of Tara. The author of the
ritual we shall examine in detail was Ts'ewang norbu (1698-1755),
who belonged to the Kat'og branch of the "ancient" Nyingma sect,
and who was renowned as scholar, statesman, historian, and discoverer
of hidden texts. 229
In the colophon to his ritual he writes
that he has heard it said that this offering has a lineage from Guru
Padmasambhava, Dampa jagar, and SakyaSri—that is, a lineage
of the great "ancient" teachers—but that he himself "has never
seen a clear example of a Four Mandala ritual which was authentically
descended from them." The most famous rituals today, he
says, are all descended from Atisa, from whose lineage three separate