The Cult of Tara

180
MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
1.3 Therewith empowering the place and the utensils
The altar server sprinkles the water on the dwelling, the utensils,
and the offerings on the altar, which are cleansed with this potent
water and with the fierce mantra,
OM VAJRA-AMRTA-KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT!
"OM Diamond Swirling Nectar: kill! kill! HUM PHAT I"
Once the dwelling and ritual materials have been cleansed of defilement
and hindrance, they are purified of all substance with OM
SVABHAVA-SUDDHAH SARVA-DHARMAH SVABHAVA-
SUDDHO ' HAM! Thus they are immersed in Emptiness, and
they must be re-created as a divine mansion filled with divine
offerings suitable to the gods, and no longer simply bowls of water
and grain upon the altar. The assembly recited the visualization
of this process:
From the realm of Emptiness comes BHRUM, arising from which
the dwelling becomes a divine mansion, a palace of liberation
made of divers precious gems, perfect in all characteristics. In the
midst thereof is OM, from which come jeweled vessels, broad and
great; within them is HUM, which melts into offerings of divine
substance: water for oblation, water for the feet, flowers, incense,
lamps, perfumes, food, and music, materials whose form is offerings
but whose essence is knowledge; and being thus the supreme
cause of inhexhaustible great Bliss they pervade the entire realm
of space.
These visualized offerings are empowered with their mantras, recited
in rapid succession by the monks as they perform the appropriate
hand gestures, the motions of their hands flowing into the semblance
of a dance:
OM VAJRA-ARGHAM SVAHA! OM VAJRA-PADYAM SVA-
HA! OM VAJRA-PUSPE AH HUM ! OM VAJRA-DHUPE AH
HUM ! OM VAJRA-ALOKE AH HUM I OM VAJRA-GANDHE
AH HUM ! OM VAJRA-NAIVEDYE AH HUM ! OM VAJRA-
SABDA AH HUM!
At §ABDA "music" (as always at the end of this series of offerings )
the music that is not represented on the altar is presented in actuality:
the head monk rolls the cymbals in a great crash, the monks
beat the great drum, blow conches and the long brass trumpets, and
the Diamond Master—the high lama who sits at the head of the
hall—beats out a rolling tattoo on the damaru, while all the rest