The Cult of Tara

WORSHIP 31
Thought of
Holy Thing enlightenment Stock Ritual element
thought of
enlightenment—intentional-
refuge sevenfold
thought" office
merit preliminary
four
immeasurables
nonobjectifiable actual knowledge Emptiness
dedication
of merit
ritual
evocation proper
dedication
of merit
conclusion
Perhaps, too, this ritual structuring of basic Buddhist attitudes will
be clarified if, before we go on, we devote several pages to a translation
of the beginning of an actual evocation, composed by Anupamaraksita:
68
First the practitioner arises from his bed and washes his face
and feet; then, purified, he should go to a solitary, pleasing place,
sprinkled with sweet scents and strewn with flowers, and there sit
in a comfortable posture. In his own heart he visualizes the first of
the vowels, the syllable A, which transforms into the orb of the
cold-rayed moon-. In the center thereof he visualizes a beautiful
blue lotus flower, on whose corolla is another orb of the haremarked
moon; and upon that is the seed, a yellow syllable TAM.
Then hosts of light issue from the seed, the yellow syllable TAM,
destroying the darkness of the ignorance of beings, reaching to
the farthest limits of the worldly realms in the ten directions,
illuminating them for the practitioner and inviting the numberless,
the countless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who dwell therein,
arraying them in the sky before him.
And then he should make offerings to the loving Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas who sit in the sky, with great offerings of divine
flowers, incense, perfume, garlands, ointments, powders, clothing,
umbrellas, flags, bells, and banners.
Then he should confess his sins: "Whatever sins I have committed,
caused to be committed or at whose commission I was
pleased, throughout my beginningless whirling in this world—all
those, each one, I confess." And having confessed each one with
this ritual, he should take a vow to do them no more.
Then he should rejoice at the merit of others: "I rejoice in all
virtue whatever, of the Well-gone Ones, the solitary Buddhas, the
disciples and the Bodhisattvas, sons of the Conqueror, and of all
the world with its gods and Brahmas."