The Cult of Tara

186
MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
The Assembly of the Great Vehicle is truly practiced in virtue,
practiced in reason, practiced in honesty, practiced in propriety,
worthy of reverence, worthy of homage, the glorious field of
merit, the great purifier of gifts, the place of offering, the great
place of offering wherever they may be.
And, as the author of our ritual adds in a note, "by recollecting
these qualities according to the meaning of the recitation, the
energy of devotion is awakened."
2.2 Making offerings and prayers to the field for offerings
2.21 Making Offerings and prayers to the Three Jewels in general
Now that the field of hosts—the Chief Lady and the general
guests—have been assembled and vividly visualized, the ritual
proceeds to the next section, the offerings and the prayers that are
made to them, beginning with the Three Jewels in general. This
portion of the ritual incorporates many of the most popular and
beautiful works of Buddhist devotion, and we may see, once again,
how these set pieces gain in intensity by their dramatic placement
within the structure of the ritual: they are no mere flourishes of
poetic piety, but expressir is of faith set out in the very presence of
their object, evoked in ret ity by the visualization of the assembly.
2.211 Offerings
2.2111 Homage
The offerings to these guests begin with a homage, whose verses
the monks first empower by joining their palms and reciting the
following mantra three times:
OM NAMO MANJUSRIYE SVAHA ! NAMO UTTAMASRIYE
SVAHA! NAMAH SUSRIYE SVAHA 1 "OM Homage, sweet
glory SVAHA 1 Homage, highest glory SVAHA ! Homage, splendid
glory SVAHA I"
This injunction has the power to increase the merit derived from the
recitation of any verse that follows it; and so the monks continue by
reciting (or singing) the following verses of homage to the guru and
the Three Jewels, repeating each stanza three times:
The body which is the gathering together of all Buddhas,
whose inherent nature is the Bearer of the Vajra,
the root of the Three Jewels:
homage to the gurus!