The Cult of Tara

APPLICATION
2.212 Basics
2.212.1 Process of Generation
2.212.11 The yoga with the deity (self-generation)
2.212.111 Fourfold generation
2.212.112 Offerings and praise
2.212.113 Vivid appearance and firm ego
2.212.12 The yoga with the recitation (contemplation
of the mantra)
2.212.121 Visualization of the mantra
2.212.122 Recitation of the mantra
2.212.2 Process of Perfection
2.212.21 With signs
2.212.22 Signless
2.213 Concluding acts
2.213.1 Arising in the body of the deity
2.213.2 Others
When this portion of the ritual outline is subordinated to the evocation
that follows, it stops with the practitioners "arising in the body
of the deity" after their dissolution into the sources of the power
they will evoke. When used as a ritual service in solitary contemplation,
however, the secluded yogin will perform the ritual over
an entire contemplative period—about four hours—reciting the
mantra as much as he can in the time allotted and concluding the
whole period with the Process of Perfection. Between these contemplative
periods there are many subsidiary concluding acts he can
perform, to "fill in" the recitation; the outline provides a sampling
of these miscellaneous ritual functions:
2.213.21 Torma offering
2.213.22 Mandala offering
2.213.23 Praise
2.213.24 Circumambulation
2.213.25 Bathing the deity
2.213.26 Prayer
2.213.27 Water offering
The ritual then proceeds to the second part, which is here the
structural analogue of the Four Mandala Offering examined in
chapter i. It consists, again, in the following:
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