Limitless Tara, Beyond the Green: Bodhisattva, Savior, Mother of all the Buddhas

Most Buddhists know Tara—simultaneously, a friend, savior, caring Bodhisattva and enlightened being.

She manifests in endless forms: she can be action-hero Green Tara who saves us from worldly harm; or blessed White Tara, who heals and brings longevity, to fierce protector Palden Lhamo, and she is also the great Wisdom Mother Prajnaparamita. Even though we honor her as the Great Mother Buddha, she is, without contradiction, an intimate and treasure friend. 

The Vastness of Tara: Beyond Definition, Friend to Everyone

Do we really comprehend the vastness that is Tara? She is one of the most popular devotional and meditational deities, honored all around the world, practiced by all schools of Vajrayana Buddhism, many Mahayana Buddhists, Hindus, and others.

She is so popular, she is called “Mama Tara”—and She never takes Herself seriously. She’s a daily good friend, ready helper, saving hero, precious guide. She always has “time” for everyone—after all, time is relative. She is just as quick to help the prisoner in jail as the faithful practitioner, without discrimination. If Her name is called, She answers.

Yet, Tara goes beyond any constraints of conception, and even imagination: Parajnaparamita, wisdom Dakini Varjayogini, Female Buddha, Consort of great Amoghasiddhi Dhyani Buddha, Hindu great mother, angel to those in distress — all of these and thousands more. There are 21 famous Tara manifestations, one of which is the beloved White Tara. In Vajrayana’s higher tantras she is Chittimani Tara and also, Vajrayogini (Vajra Varahi).

It can be confusing, Her endless labels, but at the same time it defines Her perfection. She is known by endless names, but consistently as Tara, Arya Tara, and, in Tibetan, Jetsun Drolma. She is simultaneously the spiritual child of Avalokiteshvara, born of tears of compassion, and the Mother of the very same Buddha. Mother and child of the same Enlightened Being. Simply meditating on the vastness of these concepts is, in itself, challenging and rewarding.

Her Practice Is as Simple or Complex as Tara

As with Her vast array of names, appearances and roles, Her practice can be simple or profound. She responds well to just the calling of Her name. Or a simple thought. Her ten-syllable mantra, chanted millions of times each day around the world, is associated with everything from rescues to achieving Enlightenment.

Simplified Sadhanas for the devout include Green Tara and White Tara practices that can be practiced with or without empowerment. As a practitioner progresses, Tara meditations can become more intense, with Highest Yoga Tantra practices such as Chittamani Tara. Even the famous 21 Taras, can be practiced simply—as a daily verse—or at the ultimate level, with 21 separate sadhanas and mantra

She can be practiced in the form of the great Black Dakini, Throma Nagmo, the wrathful form of Prajnaparamita—a Highest Yoga Practice (mana annut tantra). She can be practiced even without a name, just by simply imagining Her. There is, literally, a Tara, and a Tara practice, for everyone.

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Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

Ekajati is one of the fiercest protectors of Vajrayana Buddhist mythology

*Ekajati is one of the most powerful and fiercest  protectors of Tibetan Buddhist mythology.

Ekajati is depicted as one plait woman or one who has one knot of hair also known as Mahacinatara, she is one of the 21 Taras. Ekajati is one of the most powerful and fierce protectors of Vajrayana Buddhist mythology. According to Tibetan legends[citation needed], her right eye was pierced by the tantric master Padmasambhava so that she could much more effectively help him subjugate Tibetan demons.

Ekajati is also known as "Blue Tara", Vajra Tara or "Ugra Tara". She is generally considered one of the three principal protectors of the Nyingma school along with Rahula and Vajrasadhu

Often Ekajati appears as liberator in the mandala of the Green Tara. Along with that, her ascribed powers are removing the fear of enemies, spreading joy, and removing personal hindrances on the path to enlightenment.

Ekajati is the protector of secret mantras and "as the mother of all" represents the ultimate unity. As such, her own mantra is also secret. She is the most important protector of the Vajrayana teachings, especially the Inner Tantras and termas.

As the protector of mantra, she supports the practitioner in deciphering symbolic Dakini codes and properly determines appropriate times and circumstances for revealing Tantric teachings. Because she completely realizes the texts and mantras under her care, she reminds the practitioner of their preciousness and secrecy. Dusum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama meditated upon her in early childhood.

According to Namkhai Norbu, Ekajati is the principal guardian of the Dzogchen teachings and is "a personification of the essentially non-dual nature of primordial energy."

Dzogchen is the most closely guarded teaching in Tibetan Buddhism, of which Ekajati is a main guardian as mentioned above. It is said that Sri Singha he entrusted the "Heart Essence" teachings to her care. To the great master Longchenpa, who initiated the dissemination of certain Dzogchen teachings, Ekajati offered uncharacteristically personal guidance.

In his thirty-second year, Ekajati appeared to Longchenpa, supervising every ritual detail of the Heart Essence of the Dakinis empowerment, insisting on the use of a peacock feather and removing unnecessary basin. When Longchenpa performed the ritual, she nodded her head in approval, but corrected his pronunciation. 

When he recited the mantra, Ekajati admonished him, saying, "Imitate me," and sang it with a strange, harmonious melody in the Dakini's language. Later she appeared at the gathering and joyously danced, proclaiming the approval of Padmasambhava and the Dakinis.

 Footnote 

For those who had received the empowerment of this Tantric practice, you are reminded not intentionally or unintentionally to disclose the mantra to the public or anyone who may not have the empowerment or permission to practice, and by disclosing the mantra intentionally or unintentionally is a form of breaking your Tantric Samaya vows to the lineage masters and Dharma protectors. 

Please consult your Guru or a qualified lineage master for Vajrayana practice! Should a devotee even want to start studying and contemplating the Vajrayana practice, then it is truly necessary to first have completed the preliminaries and to be certain and sure that Bodhicitta has arisen and developed in one’s mind.

Vajrayana features countless skillful and powerful methods which, if they are practiced in the proper way, can make the process of accumulation and purification incredibly swift and direct. It is absolutely necessary to have the pure motivation and to know that Vajrayana practice is not carried out to increase one’s own ego, power and self-interests.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

The uncountable Benefits of Arya Tara Practice

The uncountable Benefits of Arya Tara Practice

In the new book The Power of Mantra: Vital Practices for Transformation, Lama Zopa Rinpoche guides students through understanding the power and benefit of mantras. Rinpoche explains many popular mantras, giving specific instructions for practicing them, including Shakyamuni Buddha, Chenrezig, Manjushri, Tara, Medicine Buddha, Vajrasattva, and more. In an excerpt from the chapter on Tara mantra, Rinpoche discusses Mother Tara.

The benefits of practicing Tara are uncountable. By reciting the Praises to the Twenty-One Taras with devotion, at dawn or dusk, and remembering Tara and reciting her mantra at any time of the day or night, we are protected from fear and danger, and all our wishes are fulfilled. If we pray to Tara, Tara will grant help quickly. 

She is especially quick in granting us success in obtaining the ultimate happiness of enlightenment, but there are also many temporal benefits of reciting the Tara mantra or the Praises of the Twenty-One Taras prayer. Tara can solve many problems in life: liberating us from untimely death, helping us recover from disease, bringing us success in business. 

Somebody with a serious problem, such as a life-threatening disease, who relies on Tara will very commonly be freed from that problem. For instance, His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged us to recite Tara’s mantra as a protection for ourselves and others against the coronavirus COVID-19.

Story with Mother Tara

Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo tells a story of one of his students who didn’t know much Dharma, but had faith in Tara and so received help from her, but not as much as he might have. One day during his journey to Mongolia, while walking along reciting Tara prayers, he heard a dog barking and saw a tent. Because he needed some water to quench his thirst, he went there, where he saw a young girl, alone, tending many yaks.

Seeing the monk was weak and hungry, she insisted he stay with her for a few days and she fed him. When it was time to leave, she gave him some tsampa and other food. Because he was completely lost, she gave him very explicit directions on how to get to his destination and, as he was leaving, she gave him a large bunch of grass. She explained that when he awoke each morning, he should drop some grass on the ground and head in whichever direction it fell.

He only had a little food, enough for a day or two, but each day, when he opened the sack, his food was never depleted. Following the directions the girl had given him, he managed to find his way to his destination. When he looked in his sack at the very end of his journey, there was not one speck of food left. He was so surprised by this that he sent a letter to his guru, Pabongka Rinpoche, in Lhasa.

Pabongka Rinpoche wrote back and said that it was a pity he hadn’t followed the girl’s instructions completely. If he had, he would have been in a pure realm already. That yak herder was a manifestation of Tara, but he was unable to see this. Tara manifests in many aspects, not just the green and white forms that are commonly depicted.

The best way we can become close to Tara, what pleases her the most, is when we fervently try to develop the mind of bodhichitta. The more we are able to practice Bodhichitta and cherish others more than ourselves, the closer we will be to Tara, and the easier it will be for her to offer us help quickly.

The Praises to the Twenty-One Taras begins, “I prostrate to the noble transcendent liberator.” That means that Tara herself is completely liberated from the whole of Samsara and the cause of Samsara through having completed the both the method and wisdom sides of the practice.

Not only that, by having overcome the two obscurations, gross and subtle, she is also free from being bound to lower nirvana. Liberated from both Samsara and the peace of lower nirvana means she is fully enlightened. And because she in turn liberates all of us, allowing us to attain full enlightenment, she is called Tara the Liberator, the mother who liberates.

For Arya Tara prayer mantra, please feel free to visit our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/mOr5qNWFR0s

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease

But increase further and further.

Dedication of Merit

By this merit may we obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrong-doings.

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness and death.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.

The Unsolved Mysteries in Tibet

In this post, we’ll introduce the top 9 Tibet’s unsolved mysteries for you, including Tibetan yeti stories, red snow in Himalaya, rainbow body phenomenon, Mount Everest flag cloud, Zhang Zhung culture, King Gesar storyteller, Guge Kingdom, gterma mystery, Shambhala and shaman of Tibet.

Tibetan Yeti or the abominable snowman of Tibet

As one of the world’s greatest unsolved mysteries, the abominable snowman of the Himalayas (Tibetan Yeti) has been always a hot topic among adventurers and explorers to tour Tibet. As early as 1784, the Tibetan abominable snowman has been mentioned in the written records for the first time. 

It’s reported that several people in the Himalayan region have witnessed Tibetan Yeti walking around and robbing local men for marriage. In recent years, some expedition groups have gone to eastern Tibet for further investigation, but whether the abominable snowman really exists is still a mystery.

Himalayas red snow

The surface of the Himalayas is often decorated with blood red spots. Seeing from a long distance, you would think it as red snow. Those red spots are made up of various algae, such as Chlamydomonas nivalis, Chlorococcum infusionum, Ankistrodesmus and so on. Widely distributed in the permanent ice and snow, the plateau algae have a strong cold resistance, making them alive even at -36℃. And due to red pigment in their bodies, they seem to be blood-like.

Mysteries of the Rainbow body

In Tibet and Central Asia, the Buddhist rainbow body tradition goes back to the 8th century, beginning with the great master Padmasambhava, but 20th and 21st-century documentation shows that this is no myth or legend — practitioners, from the highest lamas to the most humble lay people, have attained rainbow body.

Rainbow body is a mysterious phenomenon in Tibetan monasteries. It’s believed that only the senior Lamas who have made great achievements would pass away into a rainbow and enter the boundless palace at their parinirvana.

Mysterious Flag Cloud over Mount Everest

When it’s sunny, you can see a milky banner-shaped cloud floating on the top of mount Everest. That is called as mount Everest flag cloud, forming by convective clouds. Based on its location and height, we can deduce the wind force of Mt. Everest summit. If the flag cloud flutters upwards, the wind is much lighter, and vice versa. Thus, it gains the reputation as the world’s highest vane.

The Epic of King Gesar, a Legendary Tibetan Hero King Gesar is a heroic epic created by the Tibetans from a collection of ancient legends, myths, verses, proverbs and various other folk cultures of Tibet. Originating via folk oral traditions, history of King Gesar was passed down from generation to generation orally in a combination of song and narration for over 1,000 years. Meanwhile, kinds of legends about King Gesar storyteller also came out.

Among numerous narrators, the ones who are able to tell more than one version of King Gesar epic boast themselves as divine artists. That’s to say, the story of King Gesar they told is bestowed by the Gods. Some illiterate Tibetan teenagers, especially in Kham Area can unexpectedly narrate for King Gesar of ling with millions of words after illness or a dream. Till now, no one can explain this mystery.

Terma Tradition - This tradition of mystical discovery is known in Tibetan

Terma texts contain Buddhist teachings intended for troubled times as a source of renewed wisdom and blessings. Although there are antecedents in Indian Buddhism–most famously Nagarjuna’s discovery of the Prajnaparamita literature–terma is primarily a Tibetan phenomena.

The Tibetan word, terma, literally means “treasure” and refers to Buddhist (or Bon) scriptures and relics retrieved from the distant past through a process of revelation. There are two principal types of treasures: earth terma, discovered in the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape, and mind terma, discovered in the mind of the terton or “treasure revealer.” The latter should be distinguished with pure visions, or daknang, which appear in the mind of realized masters.

As Buddhist teachings, terma are most frequently traced to the eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhava, also known as Guru Rinpoche (literally “precious teacher”). According to treasure lore, during each of the tantric initiations he conducted, Padmasambhava appointed one of his disciples to reveal the associated set of teachings in a future lifetime. Afterwards, his principal disciple and consort, Yeshe Tsogyal, transcribed and hid these teachings throughout the Tibetan and Himalayan landscape.

Shambhala or Shangri-La is the mythological world

Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise, particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia – an enduringly happy land, isolated from the world. In the novel, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living hundreds of years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging.

The mysteries of Tibetan Shamans

Tracing back to Tibetan primitive religion, Tibetan ancestors held that deities existed everywhere, like in the heaven, under the earth, in the waters, and all the living beings in the world are subject to those deities. With the development of human society, people had a fantasy of controlling the objective things and natural phenomena. 

The violent treatment of shamans by the Buddhist lama has a long history of Tibet and neighboring Mongolia. At one point, shamans were burned at the stake. However, in the mountainous Himalayan terrain, especially in the difficult to reach areas geographically distant from the Buddhist monastic urban centers, shamans were respected and their work revered.

Dana (Donations for our Buddhist research and development) 

Do you earnestly cherish our devoted work? Assuming this is the case, we are delighted that you are finding our blog useful and valuable. Would you consider making a donation for our Buddhist research and development?  

We need your help to secure the future of scholarly interaction with Buddhism. Since our very first publication of Dharma works and activities in the year 2008, we had been effortlessly providing free distribution of Dharma posts and articles throughout the previous 13 years.  We have exceptionally constrained supports and do not receive subsidized or funding from people in general. 

Please help us and to develop our Dharma activities that will not only benefit you, but to all Dharma readers on the planet. Please consider showing your support. Your generosity will certainly help us to enhance our work and to accomplish for a better and brighter prospect to come. 

Thank you for reading, may you find peace and great bliss. With your support it helps to spread the Buddha’s precious teachings and turning the Dharma wheels in the world.

*Note

I do not own or infringe any copyright of the picture(s).

Picture(s) courtesy and credit to the rightful distributors and or studios.

Picture(s) is/are intended for editorial use only.