The Sukranitisara, IV, 70-71 (translated in my "Transformation of Nature in Art", p. 113) defines the initial procedure of the Indian imager : he is to be expert in contemplative vision (yoga-dhyana), for which the canonical prescriptions provide the basis, and only in this way, and not by direct observation, are the required results to be attained. The whole procedure may be summed up in the words "when the visualisation has been realised, set to work" (dhyatva kuryyat, ib. VII, 74), or "When the model has been conceived, set down on the wall what was visualised" (cintayet prama?am, tad-dhyata? bhittau nivesayet, Abhilasitarthacintamani, 1, 3, 158)[1]. These two stages in procedure are the same as the 'actus primus' and 'actus secundus’, the "free" and "servile" parts of the artist's operation, in terms of Scholastic aesthetic. I have shown elsewhere ("Technique and Theory of Indian Painting," Technical Studies, III, pp. 59-89) that the same procedure is taken for granted as well in secular as in hieratic art. It is, however, in connection with the hieratic prescriptions (sadhana, dhyana mantra) that the most detailed expositions of the primary act are to be found, and these are of such interest and significance that it seems desirable to publish a complete and careful rendering of one of the longest available examples of such a text, annotated by citations from others.[2] We proceed accordingly with the Kimcit-Vistara-Tara Sadhana[3], No. 98 in the Sadhanamala, Gaekwad's Oriental Series, No. XXVI, pp. 200-206.
Having first of all washed his hands and feet, etc., and being purified, the officiant (mantri) is to be comfortably seated in a solitary place that is strewn with fragrant flowers, pervaded by pleasant scents, and agreeable to himself. Conceiving in his own heart (svar?daye...vicintya) the moon's orb as developed from the primal sound (prathama-svaraparinatam, i.e. "evolved from the letter A")[4], let him visualise (pasyet) therein a beautiful blue lotus, within its filaments the moon's unspotted orb, and thereon the yellow seed-syllable Tam. Then, with the sheafs of lustrous rays, that proceed (nihsrtya) from that yellow seed-syllable Tam, rays that dispel the world's dark mystery throughout its ten directions and that find out the indefinite limits of the extension of the universe ; making all these to shine downwards (tan sarvan avabhasya); and leading forth (aniya) the countless and measureless Buddhas and Bodhisattvas whose abode is there; these (Buddhas and Bodhisattvas) are established (avasthapyante) on the background of space (akasadese).
After performing a great office (mahatim pujam krtva) unto all these vast compassionate Buddhas and Bodhisattvas established on the background of space, by means of celestial flowers, incense, scent, garlands, unguents, powders, ascetic garb, umbrellas, bells, banner, and so forth, he should make a confession of sin, as follows: "Whatever sinful act I may have done in the course of my wandering in this beginningless vortex, whether of body or mind, or have caused to be committed or have consented to, all these I confess."
And having thus confessed, and also made admission of the fault that consists in things that have been left undone, he should make an Endorsement of Merit, as follows : “ I endorse the proficiency (kusalam) of the Sugatas, Pratyekas, Sravakas, and Jinas, and their sons the Bodhisattvas, and that of the spheres of the Angels and of Brahma, in its entirety". Then comes the Taking of Refuge in the Three Jewels : "I take refuge in the Buddha, for so long as the Bodhi-circle endures; I take refuge in the Norm, for so long as the Bodhi-circle endures; I take refuge in the Congregation, for so long as the Bodhi-circle endures". Then comes the act of Adhesion to the way : "It is for me to adhere to the way that was revealed by the Tathagatas, and to none other". Then the Prayer : "May the blessed Tathagatas and their children (the Bodhisattvas), who have accomplished the world's purpose since its first beginning, stand by and effect my total desperation (mam parinirvantu). Then the petition : "May the blessed Tathagatas indoctrinate me with incomparable expositions of the Norm, of such sort that beings in the world-vortex may be liberated from the bondage of becoming (bhava bandhanat nirmuktah) full soon". Then he should make an everlasting Assignment of Merit : (punya- parinama): "Whatever root of proficiency (kusalam) has arisen by performance of the seven extraordinary offices (pujah) and by confession of sin, all that I devote to the attainment of Total Awakening (samyak-sambodhaye)." Or he recites the verses pertinent to the seven extraordinary offices : All sins I confess and gladly consent to the good deeds of others. I take refuge in the Blessed one, and in the Three Jewels of the True Norm, to the end that I may not linger in the state of birth. I adhere to that way and designate the Holy Discipline (subha-vidhin) to the attainment of full Awakening". As soon as he has celebrated (vidhaya) the seven-fold extraordinary office, he should pronounce the formula of dismissal (visarjayet) : "Om, Ah, Muh".
Thereupon he should realise (bhavayet) the Four-fold Brahma-rapture (catur-brahma-viharam) of Love, Compassion, Cheerfulness, and Equanimity (maitri, karuna, mudita, upek?a) by stages (kramena) as follows: "What is Love ?[5] Its character is that of the fondness for an only son that is natural to all beings; or its similitude is that of sympathy in the welfare and happiness (of others). And what is Compassion ? It is the desire to save from the Triple III (tridukhat) and the causes of III, or this is Compassion, to say ‘I shall remove from the pain of the Triple Ill those born beings whose abode is in the iron dwelling of the world-vortex that is aglow in the great fire of the Triple III', or it is the wish to lift up from the ocean of the world-vortex the beings that are suffering there from the pain of the Triple III. Cheerfulness is of this kind : Cheerfulness is a sense of perfect happiness ; or Cheerfulness is the confident hope of bringing it to pass that every being in the world-vortex shall attain to the yet unforeseen Buddhahood, or it is the mental attraction felt by all of these beings towards the enjoyment and possession of these virtuosities. What is Equanimity ? Equanimity is the accomplishment of a great good for all born beings, whether they be good or evil, by the removal of whatever obstacles stand in the way of their kindly behaviour; or Equanimity is a spontaneous affection for all other beings without respect of any personal interest in the friendly conduct, or Equanimity is an indifference to the eight mundane categories of gain and loss, fame and disgrace, blame or praise, pleasure and pain, and so forth, andtoallworksofsupererogation."
Having realised the Four-fold Brahma-rapture, he should realise (bhavayet) the fundamentally Immaterial Nature of all Principles (sarva-dharma-prakrti-parisuddhatam). For all the principles are fundamentally immaterial by nature, and he too should manifest (amukhikuryyat): "I am fundamentally immaterial, etc...." This fundamental Immateriality of all Principles is to be established by the incantation "Om, the principles are all immaterial by nature, I am by nature immaterial." If now all the principles are naturally immaterial, what can have brought forth the world-vortex (samsaram)? It arises in the covering up (of the immateriality of the principles) by the dust of the notions of subject and object, and so forth. How this may be removed is by realisation of the True Way, thereby it is destroyed. So the fundamental Immateriality of all Principles is perfected.
When the realisation of the fundamental Immateriality of all Principles has been effected, he should develope (vibhavayet) the Emptiness of all Principles (sarva-dharma-sunyatam). Emptiness is like this: Let one conceive "Whatever is in motion or at rest (i.e. the whole phenomenal world) is essentially nothing but the manifested order of what is without duality when the mind is stripped of all conceptual extensions such as the notion of subject and object. He should establish this very Emptiness by the incantation : "Om, I am essentially, in my nature of adamantine intelligence, the Emptiness".
Then he should realise the Blessed Aryatara, as proceeding from the yellow seed-syllable Tam, upon the spotless orb of the moon that is in the filaments of the full blown lotus within the lunar orb originally established in the heart. He should conceive (cintayet) her to be of deep black colour, two armed, with a smiling face, proficient in every virtue, without defect of any kind whatever, adorned with ornaments of heavenly gems, pearls, and jewels, her twin breasts decorated with lovely garlands in hundred-fold series, her two arms decked with heavenly bracelets and bangles, her loins beautified with glittering series of girdles of flawless gems, her two ankles beautified by golden anklets set with divers gems, her hair entwined with fragrant wreaths of Parijata and such like flowers, her head with a resplendent jewelled full-reclining figure of the Blessed Tathagata Amoghasiddhi, a radiant and most seductive similitude, extremely youthful, with eyes of the blue of the autumn lotus, her body robed in heavenly garments, seated in Arddhaparyanka pose, within a circle of white rays on a white lotus large as any cart-wheel, her right hand in the sign of generosity, and holding in her left a full blown blue lotus. Let him develope (vibhavayet) this likeness of our Blessed Lady as long as he desires.
Thereupon our Blessed Lady is led forth out of space (akasat aniyate) in her intelligible aspect (jnana-sattva-rupa), by means of the countless sheafs of rays, illumining the Three Worlds, that proceed from the yellow seed-syllable Tam within the filaments of the lotus in the moon of which the orb was established in the heart, and from that Blessed Lady (as above described). Leading her forth (aniya), and establishing her on the background of space (akasadese api avasthapya), he is to make an offering at that Blessed Lady's feet, with scented water and fragrant flowers in a jewelled vessel, welcoming her with heavenly flowers, incense, scents, garlands, unguents, powders, cloths, umbrella, bells, banner and so forth, and should worship (pujayet) her in all manner of wise. Repeating his worship again and again, and with lauds, he should display the finger-sign (mudram darsayet)...of a full-blown lotus. After he has gratified our Blessed Lady's intelligible aspect with this finger-sign, he is to realise (bhavayet) the incantation of our Blessed Lady in her contingent aspect (samaya-sattva-rupava) and is to liberate (adhimuncet) the non-duality of these two aspects). Thereupon the rays proceeding from the seed-syllable Tam that is upon the spotless orb of the moon within the filaments of the blue lotus in the lunar orb--rays that illumine the ten quarters of the Three Worlds, that are of unlimited range, and proper to Lady Tara--remove the poverty and other ills of being existent therein, by means of a rain of jewels, and content them with the nectar of the doctrine of the Immediate Non-essentiality, and so forth (ksanika-nairatmadi)[6], of the Principles.
When he has thus accomplished the divers need of the world, and has evolved the cosmic aspect of Tara (visvam api tararupam nispadya), he should realise again (punah...bhavayet) for so long as fatigue does not prevail (yavat khedo na jayatetavat)[7] whatever has come to be in the yellow seed-syllable Tam, in the stages of expansion and contraction (sphurana-samharana-kramena).[8] If he breaks away from this realisation (bhavanatah khinno)[9] he should mutter an incantation (mantram japet), in which case the incantation is : Om tare tuttare ture svaha. This is the king of incantations, of mighty power; it is honoured, worshipped, and endorsed, by all the Tathagatas.
Breaking off the contemplation (dhyanat vyutthito) and when he has seen the mundane aspect of Tara (jagat-tara-rupam-drstva)[10] he should experience at will the consciousness of his own identity with the Blessed Lady (bhagavaty ahamkarena yathestam viharet)[11]. The longed for Great Proficiencies fall at the practitioner's feet (bhavayatah...caranyoh); what can I say of the other Proficiencies ? these come of themselves. Whoever realises (bhavayet) our Blessed Lady in a solitary mountain cave, he indeed sees her face to face (pratyaksata eva tampasyati)[12]: the Blessed Lady herself bestows upon him his very respiration and all else. What more can be said ? She puts the very Buddhahood, so hard to win, in the very palm of his hand. Such is the whole Sadhana of the Kimcit-vistara-Tara.
The Sadhana translated above, differs only from others in the Sadhanamala in its more than average length and detail. The whole process is primarily one of worship, and need not necessarily be followed by the embodiment of the visualised likeness in physical material; but where the making of an actual image is intended, it is the inevitable preliminary. Even if the artist actually works from a sketch or under verbal instruction, as sometimes happens, this only means that the 'actus primus' and 'actus secundus’ are divided between two persons; the fundamental nature of the representation, in all the details of its composition and colouring and as regards the strictly ideal character of its integration are in any case determined by and can only be understood in the light of the mental operation, the 'actus primus’ by which the given theme is made to assume a definite form in the mind of the artist, or was originally made to take shape in the mindofsomeartist;thisform being that of the theme itself, and not the likeness of anything seen or known objectively. In other words, what the Sadhana supplies is the detailed sequence according to which the formal cause or pattern of the work to be done is developed from its germ, from the mere hint of what is required; this hint itself corresponding to the requirement of the patron, which is the final cause, while the efficient and material causes are brought into play only if and when the artist proceeds to servile operation, the act of "imitation", "similitude being with respect to the form."
Before we relinquish the present consideration of the 'actus primus’ in Oriental art, reference must be made to another way in which the derivation of the formal image is commonly accounted for. It is assumed that upon an intellectual or angelic level of reference the forms of things are intellectually emanated and have an immediate existence of their own. When this is mythologically formulated, such a level of reference becomes a heaven above. Then the artist, commissioned here, is thought of as seeking his model there. When, for example (Mahavamsa, Ch. XXVI) a palace is to be built, the architect is said to make his way to heaven; and making a sketch of what he sees there, he returns to earth and carries out this design in the materials at his disposal. So "It is in imitation of the angelic works of art that any work of art is accomplished here" (Aitareya Brahmana, VI, 27). This is a mythological formula obviously equivalent in significance to the more psychological account in the Sadhanas. And here also it is easy to find extra-Indian parallels , for example, Plotinus, Enneads, V, 9, II where he says that all music is “an earthly representation of the music that there is in the rhythm of the ideal world", and "The crafts such as building and carpentry which give us matter in wrought forms, may be said, in that they draw on pattern, to take their principles from that realm and from the thinking there." And this indeed it is that accounts for the essential characteristics of the wrought forms; if the Zohar tells us of the Tabernacle that "all its individual parts were formed in the pattern of that above", this tallies with Tertullian who says of the cherubim and seraphim figured in the exemplum of the Ark, that because they are not in the likeness of anything on earth, they do not offend against the interdiction of idolatry; "they are not found in that form of similitude in reference to which the prohibition was given" (Contra Marcionem, II, 22).
The emphasis that is laid upon the strict self-identification of the artist with the imagined form should be especially noted. Otherwise stated, this means that he does not understand what he wants to express by means of any idea external to himself. Nor indeed can anything be rightly expressed which does not proceed from within, moved by its form. Alike from the Indian and Scholastic point of view, understanding depends upon an assimilation of knower and known, this is indeed the divine manner of understanding, in which the knower is the known. Per contra, the distinction of subject from object is the primary condition of ignorance, or imperfect knowledge, for nothing is known essentially except as it exists in consciousness, everything else is supposition. Hence the Scholastic and Indian definitions of perfect understanding as involving 'adaequatio rei et intellectus', or 'tad-akarata'; cf. Gilson, Philosophie de Saint Bonaventura, p. 146, "Toute connaissance est, en effet, au sens fort du terme, une assimiliation. L'act par lequel une intelligence s'empare d'un objet pour en apprecier la nature suppose que cette intelligence se rend semblable a cet objet, qu'elle en revet momentanement la forme, et c'est parce qu'elle peut en quelque sort tout devenir qu'elle peut également tout connaitre.[13] It follows that the artist must really have been whatever he is to represent. Dante sums up the whole matter from the mediaeval point of view when he says "He who would paint a figure, if he cannot be it, cannot paint it" (Convivio, Canzone III, 53-54) or as he otherwise expresses it "No painter can portray any figure, if he have not first of all made himself such as the figure ought to be" (ib. IV, 10, 106, p. 309 of the Oxford text). Given the value that we nowadays attach to observation and experiment as being the only valid grounds of knowledge it is difficult for us to take these words as literally and simply as they are intended. Yet there is nothing rhetorical in them; nor is the point of view an exceptional one[14]. It is rather our own empiricism that is, humanly speaking, exceptional, and that may be at fault. Ching Hao, for example, in the tenth century, is expressing the same point of view when he says of the "Subtle" painter (the highest type of the human artist) that he "first experiences in imagination the instincts and passions of all things that exist in heaven and earth; then, in a manner appropriate to the subject, the natural forms flow spontaneously from his hand”. The closest parallels to our Indian texts occur, however, in Plotinus : "Every mental act is accompanied by an image fixed and like a picture of the thought...the Reason-Principle - the revealer, the bridge between the concept and the image-taking faculty - - - exhibits the concept as in a mirror" (Enneads, IV, 3, 30), and "In contemplative vision, especially when it is vivid, we are not at the time aware of our own personality; we are in possession of ourselves, but the activity is towards the object of vision with which the thinker becomes identified; he has made himself over as matter to be shaped; he takes ideal form under the action of the vision, while remaining potentially himself” [15] (ib. IV, 4, 2).
When we reflect that mediaeval aesthetic, that is to say the preoccupations with which the patron and artist alike approached the activity of making things, stems from Neo-platonism through Augustine, Dionysius, and Erigena to Eckhart, it will not surprise us that mediaeval Christian art should have been so much like Indian in kind, it is only after the thirteenth century that Christian art, though it deals nominally with the same themes, is altogether changed in essence, its properly symbolic language and ideal references being now obscured by statements of observed fact and the intrusion of the artist's personality. On the other hand, in the art that we are considering, the theme is all in all, the artist merely the means to an end, the patron and the artist have a common interest, but it is not in one another. Here, in the words of the Lankavatara Sutra, the picture is not in the colours, neither has it any concrete existence elsewhere. The picture is like a dream, the aesthetic surfaces merely its vehicle, and anyonewhoregardedtheseaestheticsurfaces themselves as constituting the art would have been thought of as an idolater and sybarite. Our modern attitude to art is actually fetishistic; we prefer the symbol to the reality, for us the picture is in the colours, the colours are the picture. To say that the work of art is its own meaning is the same as to say that it has no meaning, and in fact there are many modern aestheticians who assert explicitly that art is unintelligible.[16]
We have thus before us two diametrically opposed conceptions of the We have thus before us two diametrically opposed conceptions of the function of the work of art; one of the work of art as a thing provided by the artist to serve as the occasion of a pleasurable sensory experience, the other of the work of art as providing the support for an intellectual operation to be performed by the spectator. The former point of view may suffice to explain the origin of the modern work and for its appreciation, but it neither explains nor enables us to make any but a decorative use of the mediaeval or Oriental works, which are not merely surfaces, but have intelligible references. We may elect for our own purposes to adhere to the contemporary point of view and the modern kind of art, and may decide to acquire examples of the other kind in the same way that a magpie collects materials with which to adorn its nest. At the same time in fact however we also pretend to study and aspire to understand the works of this other kind that are assembled in our homes and museums. And this we cannot do without taking into account their final and formal causes; how can we judge of anything without first knowing what purpose it was intended to serve, and what was its maker's intention ? It is for example only the logic of their iconography that can explain the composition of the Oriental works, only the manner in which the model is conceived that can explain the representation that is not in any sense optically plausible or made as if to function biologically.
We must in fact begin by approaching these works as if they were not works of art in our sense, and for this purpose it will be a good plan to begin our study without regard to the quality of the works selected for study, even perhaps deliberately choosing poor or provincial examples, wishing to know what kind of art this is before we proceed to eliminate what is not good of its kind, for it is only when we know what is being said that we shall be in a position to know whether it has been well said, or perhaps so poorly expressed as not really to have been said at all.
It is not altogether without reason that Professor Jung has drawn a parallel between the "artistic” productions of his pathological patients and the Mandalas of eastern art[17]. He asks his patients "actually to paint what they have seen in dream or fantasy.....To paint what we see before us is a different matter from painting what we see within." Although these productions are sometimes "beautiful" (see the examples reproduced in The Secret of the Golden Flower Pls. 1-10) Jung treats them as "wholly worthless according to the tests of serious art. It is even essential that no such value be allowed them for otherwise my patients might imagine themselves to be artists, and this would spoil the good effects of the exercise. It is not a question of art -- or rather it should not be a question of art - but of something more, something other than mere art : namely the living effect upon the patient himself.--some kind of centring process...a process which brings into being a new centre of equilibrium." This corresponds to the Indian conception of the work of art as a "means of reintegration" (samskarana, Aitareya Brahma?a, VI, 27, Satapatha Brahmana, VI, I, 2, 29, etc.). It is true of course, as Jung freely admits that none of the "European Mandalas"..."achieve the conventionally and traditionally established harmony and completeness of the Eastern Mandala." The Eastern diagrams are in fact finished products of a sophisticated culture; they are created, not by the disintegrated patient as in Jung cases, but rather by the psychological specialist himself for his own use or that of others whose state of mental discipline is already above rather than below the average level. We have here to do with an art that has "fixed ends in view and ascertained means of operation". In what is thus a professional and conscious product we naturally find the qualities of beauty highly developed, viz. those of unity, order, and clarity; we can if we insist upon doing so, regard these products as works of decorative art, and use them accordingly. But if we limit our response in this way, not taking any account of the manner and purpose of their production, we cannot claim to be understanding them; they are not explicable in terms of technique and material, it is much rather the art in the artist which determines the development of the technique and the choice of material, and in any case it is the meaning and logical relations of the parts that determines their arrangement, or what we call composition. After the form has once been conceived, the artist performing the servile operation cannot alter it to better please his taste or ours, and never had any intention to do so. It is therefore that we maintain that no approach to Oriental art that does not take full account of all its purposes, and of the specific processes by which these purposes were achieved, can pretend to adequacy. This will apply as much in the case of
the minor arts as in that of the major arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture. The Oriental art cannot be isolated from life and studied 'in vacuo'; we can only be said to have understood it when we have at least for the time being, so far identified ourselves with its premises as to fully consent to it, taking its kind for granted, until we do this, the forms of Oriental art, will always seem to us arbitrary or at the least exotic or curious, and this will be the measure of our misunderstanding, for it was none of these things in the eyes of those for whom it was made and who knew how to use it. The man who still worships the Buddhist image in its shrine has in many respects a better understanding of Buddhist art than the man who looks at the same image in a museum as an object of “fine art”.
References
1. Cf. also Athasalini, para 203, PTS. ed. p. 64. "A mental concept (cittasanna) arises in the mind of the painter, "Such and such forms should be made in such and such ways'...Conceiving (cintetva) 'Above this form, let this be; below, this; on either side, this, thus it is that by mental operation (cintitena kamena) the other painted forms come into being".
2. Professor G. Tucci has recently discussed the Buddhist methods of visualisation, using Tibetan sources, in Indo-Tibetica, III, ITemplidelTibetOccidentale e ilLoro Simbolismo Artistico, Rome, 1935 (see especially 25, Metodi e significato dell' evocazione tantrica, p. 97).
3. This Sadhana has also been translated, with certain abbreviations, by Bhattacharya, in his Buddhist Iconography, p. 169 f.
4. For a beginning in this way, cf. Sadhana No. 280 (Yamantaka), where the operator (bhavakah) having first performed his ablutions, "realises in his own heart the syllable Yarh in black, within a moon originating from the letter A" (a-karaja-candre-krsna-yarh-karam vibhavya).
The seed syllable is always the nasalised initial syllable of the name of the divinity to be represented. For a general idea of the manner in which the initial visualisation is conceived see my "Elements of Buddhist Iconography", 1935, Pl. XIII, fig. 40. See also the reproductions in Avalon, The Serpent Power. The manner in which the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are thought of as brought forth from emanated rays is often illustrated, e.g. Bhattacharya, Buddhist Iconography, fig. 52.
It will be remarked that the whole process, in which the movement of a sound precedes that of any form, repeats the traditional concept of creation by an uttered Word : cf. St Thomas, Sum. Theol., I, q. 45, a. 6, referring to the procedure of the artist as 'per verbum in intellectu conceptum'.
5. It may appear to the reader at first sight that the religious exercises that are described have little connection with art. They are of real significance in this connection, however, precisely because (1) the immaterial office of personal devotions is actually the same as the imaginative procedure of the artist, with only this distinction, that the latter subsequently proceeds to manufacture, and (2) the nature of the exercises themselves reveals the state of mind in which the formation of images takes place.
6. Maitri, i.e. caritas, rather than amor.
7. Bhattacharya misrenders ksanika by “temporary”; the Non-essentiality is not momentary in the temporal sense, but rather the true now or momentaneity of eternity. The Buddha’s Omniscience is called “momentary” in the same sense.
8. In the Divyavadana, Cowell and Neill ed., p. 547, it is kheda, "weariness" or "lassitude" that prevents Rudrayana's painters from grasping the Buddha's similitude ; and this kheda is of the same nature as the "infirmity of contemplation" (sithila samadhi) that accounts for the portrait painter's failure in Malavikagnimitra, II, 2. The remedy is provided in Sadhana No. 280, "If he is wearied he should mutter an incantation" (khede tu mantrah japet).
9. In Sadhana No. 44, sphurana-sarhharana-nyayena. These expressions do mean as I once thought "eliminating all fluctuation", but rather imply a repeated operation, with alternate development and involution of the forms in accordance with their visual ontology. Cf. Silparatna, XLVI, 39, smrtva smrtva punah punah, "repeatedly recalling". All these instructions imply that the image is to be made as definite as possible, it must be firmly adhered to, never allowed to slip or waver.
10. In Sadhana No. 88, dhyanat khinno mantrarh japet; with the same meaning : dhyana and bhavana being interchangeable terms.
11. Whether the samayattva, visva, and jagat aspects are to be regarded as the same or as successively developed modes of the likeness of Tara is not perfectly clear.
12. A self-identification with the forms evoked may be assumed throughout. In many cases we find atmanam, "himself", in explicit connection with the injunctive bhavayet or participle vicintya. For example, atmanarh sirhanada-lokesvara-ruparh-bhavayet, "He is to realise himself in the likeness of Simhanada Lokesvara", atmanam....mahakalarh bhavayet, "He is to realise himself as Mahakala", trailokyavijaya bhattarakam....atmanarh vicintya, "conceiving himself to be Trailokyavijaya Bhattaraka” (Bhattacharya, Buddhist Iconography, pp. 36, 121, 146); Atmanarh cirarh bhavayet, "He is to realise himself for a long time" (in the intelligible aspect of Yamantaka), Sadhana No. 280, and jambhalarh bhivayet, jambhala eva bhavati, "He is to realise Jambhala, and indeed becomes Jambhala", ib. No. 291. Bhavayet is a causative form of bhu "to become", atmanarh bhavayet meaning literally “let him make himself become". The Sadhanas constantly employ the roots cit, to think, be known, etc., and dhyai, to contemplate, visualise, in the same sense as the causative of bhu. Bhavati, "becomes", is commonly used already in the Rig Veda with reference to the assumption of particular forms corresponding to specific functions, e. g. V, 3, 1, "Thou, Agni, becomest (bhavasi) Mitra when Kindled".
Bhagavaty ahamkarena in the present text is literally "by making the Ego to be the Blessed Lady", or "by having the Blessed Lady for his Ego-concept". In a Sadhana excerpted by Foucher, L' Iconographie Bouddhique, II, p. 10, Note 2, we find tato drdhaharhkaram kuryat: ya bhagavati prajnaparamita so' harh; yo' harh sa bhagavati prajnaparamita "Then let him make a strict self-identification, as follows: 'I am the Blessed Lady Prajaparamita ; what I am, that Blessed Lady Prajnaparamita is”.
13. In Sadhana N. 44, pratyaksam Abhati, “appears before his eyes”, or “appears objectively”. This objective manifestation becomes the artist’s model, in case the operator proceeds from the act of worship to that of execution in material form. The manner in which such a manifestation appears objectively can be seen in my Rajput Painting, Pl. VII. If the operator has been successful, this manifested form will occupy the whole field of vision and attention, to the exclusion of all else.
14. It would be preferable to say “c’est parce qu’elle est tout qu’elle peut egalement tout connaitre”, in accordance with the view that man is the exemplar and effectively the demiurge of all things; meaning, of course, by “man”, that “human nature which has nothing to do with time”, for this is anything but an individually solipsist point of view. It is not that the knower and known are mutually modified by the fact of observation, but that there is nothing knowable apart from the act of knowledge.
15. A remarkable approximation to this point of view may be cited from Sir James Jeans’ Presidential Address to the British Association, 1934: "Nature... is not the object of the subject-object relation, but the relation itself. There is, in fact, no clear-cut division between the subject and the object; they form an indivisible whole which now becomes nature. This thesis finds its final expression in the wave parable, which tells us that nature consists of waves and that these are of the general quality of waves of knowledge, or of absence of knowledge, in our own minds...if ever we are to know the true nature of waves, thesewavesmustconsistof something wealready have in our own minds...the external world is essentially of the same nature as mental ideas". These remarks are tantamount to an exposition of the Vedantic and Buddhist theory of the conceptuality of all phenomena, where nature and art alike are regarded as projections of mental concepts (citta-samjna) and as belonging to a strictly mental order of experience (citta-matra) without substantial existence apart from the act (vrtti) of consciousness : cf. my "An Early Passage on Indian Painting", in Eastern Art, II, p. 218, 1931.
16. "There is no sense of distance or separation from the thing, such as attends purely conceptual knowledge. All the activities of the self are loosed in enjoyment, unanimous in a single activity which breaks through the framework of aspects enclosing our ordinary rational activity, and which experiences for a moment or longer a reality that is really possessed. Now is the mind most alive, and at peace: the thing is present, held and delighted in" (Thomas Gilby, Poetic Experience, pp. 78-79, paraphrasing St Thomas, Sum. Theol., ILI, IV, 9 ad 1).
17. It is inevitable that the artist should be unintelligible because his sensitive nature, inspired by fascination, bewilderment, and excitement, expresses itself in the profound and intuitive terms of ineffable wonder “ (E. F. Rothschild, The Meaning of Unintelligibility in Modern Art, University of Chicago Press, 1934, . 98). It has also been well said that Plato “was actively hostile to all that we mean by art”. It may be inferred that Plato was right.
18. Wilhelm and Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, London, 1932; Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul (Ch. III), New York, 1933.