The Cult of Tara

APPLICATION
he can become invisible by making a mark upon his forehead:
hence this item includes both invisibility and magical transformations
of form.
6) Alchemy comprises three different magical attainments:
a) Alchemy of life: he can make his life last as long as the sun
and moon.
b) Alchemy of body: he can make his body eternally be but
sixteen years old.
c) Alchemy of enjoyments: he can turn iron and copper into
gold.
7) Summoning the holy maiden is the same as evoking the
female nbjin spirits.
Among the items on the above list, Dragpa jets'en says, the
magic pill and invisibility are the same. Thus, if one considers
"summoning the female nbjin spirits" to be included under the
general magical attainments, and if one counts the three sorts of
alchemy separately, one arrives at eight items; alternatively, if one
includes "summoning the female nbjin spirits" among the eight, one
may combine the alchemy of life and alchemy of body into one unit,
and there too get eight items. The remaining three items in the
verse—walking in the sky, holding the mantra, and universal
sovereignty—Dragpa jets'en considers to be the upper-class ordinary
magical attainments, the height of achievement before reaching
enlightenment itself. To walk in the sky, he says, is to travel in the
air with a "magical emanation" of oneself. To hold the mantra is
to be able to prolong one's life with the mantra as long as the sun
and the moon shall last. The quality of these two magical attainments
is that one's body becomes quite beautiful, appearing as if one
were eternally sixteen years old, that whatever enjoyments one
wishes come to one from the sky, and that by the strength of one's
magical emanations one may travel from Buddha field to Buddha
field, to hear the Buddha's Bodies of Transformation preach the
holy Law. And finally, to exercise universal sovereignty, he adds
almost parenthetically, is to enjoy great fame and renown upon the
earth. 29
These higher magical attainments are generalized abilities that
do not depend upon specific ritual techniques for their accomplishment;
they are talents that seem to appear spontaneously in the
course of contemplation, and they are symbols of the acquisition
of comprehensive divine power. As one text says: 30