The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP
Then the flowers are thrown toward the image on the altar, but at
this point the benediction is changed to the following one, "found
in the old writings," which the monks recite (or sing) as they make
their offering:
Holy blessed compassionate one !
I pray you, for myself and all infinite beings:
cleanse our obscurations, perfect our two stocks
and let us attain perfect Buddhahood 1
Until we attain it, through all our future lives
I pray you let us gain the highest bliss of gods and men;
quickly pacify, let there not be
obstacles to the accomplishment of omniscience,
evil spirits, hindering demons, diseases, epidemics,
the various things that make untimely death,
evil dreams and evil omens,
the eight great terrors, or any harm.
I pray you let us all effortlessly attain
all at once our aims in the augment and increase
of mundane and supramundane
sublime happiness and good fortune.
Let there grow and increase like the waxing moon
our efforts at evocation, the spread of the holy Law,
the continual evocation of you,
and the sight of your most excellent face,
the precious thought of enlightenment
which understands t he meaning of Emptiness.
Let us attain a clear prophecy of future Buddhahood
in the beauteous and joyous mandala of the Conquerors
where we are born from "a beautiful holy lotus:
let the Conqueror Amitabha say so !
Let there be the good fortune
of the Mother who holds the lotus flower,
the deity I have evoked through all my lives,
the active power of the Buddhas of the three times,
the green one-faced, two-handed quick one, the heroine !
2.2222 Arousing her heart with her mantra, praises, and prayers
2.2222.1 Arousing her heart with her mantra
The foregoing concludes the offerings m ade to Tara, and now the
ritual proceeds to "arouse the stream of her heart" with the recitation
of her mantra, praises, and prayers, that she may fulfill all the
desires of the assembly and of its sponsor. Tara's mantra is here
called a vidya, simply in the sense of a mantra for a female deity; 251
but since the word "mantra" has for all practical purposes been