The Cult of Tara

182
MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
It becomes Emptiness. From the realm of Emptiness there is
before me an ocean of nectar, in the midst of which is PAM, from
which there arises the stalk of a lotus, and A, from which there
arises a moon. Above the moon is the blue-green syllable TAM,
from which there arises a blue-green lotus flower marked with TAM.
From that syllable TAM light radiates forth, making offerings
to the Noble Ones and serving the aim of beings.
The light is gathered back in and dissolves in the syllable, and
from the transformation thereof arises the holy Tara: her body
is colored blue-green; her peaceful face is smiling; her right hand
is in the gift-bestowing gesture; her left hand holds over her
heart, with thumb and ring finger, the stalk of a lotus whose flower
blossoms into sixteen petals at the level of her ear. She is sixteen
years of age; she has an essence of the thirty signs and eighty
secondary signs; 243
her manner is charming and sensuous; she is
adorned with two swelling breasts. She has a crest of divers
jewels, earrings, necklaces, pearl necklaces, amber necklaces,
bracelets, girdles, anklets, and a garland of tiny bells; she is made
beautiful with many divine flowers. She is dressed in an upper
garment of blue silk and lower windings of varicolored silks; her hair
is bound on her left side, swirling and hanging down on her right.
She is seated in the posture of royal ease, her right foot slightly
extended and her left drawn up, and behind her is a halo of an
undimmed full moon.
2.112 Contemplating the syllables
I visualize a white OM on the top of her head, a red AH on her
throat, a blue HUM on her heart, and, on a lotus and a moon,
a green syllable TAM in the center of her heart.
2.113 Inviting the knowledge being
From that syllable TAM light radiates forth, inviting the knowledge
being—who is like the symbolic being already visualized
—from the vast field of Potala Mountain, her "natural abode,"
surrounded by all of Tara's divine multitudes.
Here the monks pick up their vajras and bells (fig. 24), and the bells
are rung as they say, VAJRA-SAMAJAH 1 "Diamond gathering!"
Then, as they recite the following verse (or here sing it to one of the
standard melodies that fit its meter), the bells are rung at the end
of each line, ending with a great peal of sound as they call out her
name:
From the highest place of Potala,
born from the green syllable TAM,
saving beings with the light of the syllable TAM,
Tara and your retinue: I pray you come!
ARYA-TARE!