Why 21 Tara in specific and not random numbers ?

 

OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA

OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA

OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA

OM to the transcendent subduer, Arya Tara, I prostrate,

Homage to the glorious one, who frees with TARE,

With TUTARE, you calm all fears,

You bestow all success with TURE,

To the sound SOHA, I pay great homage. 

  

Green Tara is known as the “swift One” or the “swift Liberator” due to her immediate response to those who request her help. Green Tara reaches out her hand in the gesture of granting protection, freeing one from fear, obstacles, and difficulties. With her right foot stepping forward, she is alert, determined and ready to actively help all who call upon her.

There are so many inner obstacles to the development of our minds and these inner obstacles create many outer obstacles. Therefore, for the success of our Dharma practices, of our actualizing the graduated path to enlightenment, we must rely upon a special Yidam or Buddha such as the Compassionate Goddess of Mother Tara.

Many great Indian Yogis, an example is the great Pandit Lama Atisha relied upon mother Tara. Lama Atisha was able to bring extensive benefits to the Buddha’s teachings and sentient beings. All his success came from Tara. So it is important to have a full trust, confidence and devotion when reciting the mantra, and the praises to the twenty-one Taras prayer at dawn or dusk, at any time of the day or night.

Reciting the Tara mantra or praises to the twenty-one Tara’s practice. Tara can be able to help us overcome many problems in our life. She will liberate us from the untimely death, help us recover from diseases, bring success in business, help us to get jobs.

One might ask "Why 21 Tara in specific? And not 22 or 23 or 40 or any random numbers?

At the basic level, Buddha had taught us 21 techniques with which we are able to attain Enlightenment. According to the Mahayana Sutra system, as we practice, we traverse the ten different levels (Bhumis), eventually reaching the enlightened state. The basis for our enlightenment is right where we find ourselves now, with the precious endowment of our own human body and our own Buddha-nature.

Vajrayana or Tantra is similar to the sutra system, but its methods are more specifically targeted. According to Tantric teaching, within this human body we have twenty one knots. These are in pairs and they obstruct or block our channels. Through practice, as we release each of these pairs of knots, we obtain a specific experience or realization.

After we have released all of the 21 knots, we are known as enlightened beings, having attained Buddhahood.

Buddhahood is not some force that is outside us, waiting for the knots to be untied in order to come in. From basic Buddhism all the way to Dzogchen, it is made perfectly clear that Buddhahood is an innate state, already within us.

Our inherently awakened state is an already enlightened being, a Buddha, Tathagatagarbha. When we release those 21 knots, we attain the ultimate awakening known as the Dharmakaya state. 

The Dharmakaya, in turn, has 21 spontaneously inherent qualities. They transcend duality, the compound state, permanence and impermanence, and effort or striving. Unceasingly, they arise as necessary for the benefit of all sentient beings. 

These twenty one active Dharma kaya qualities appear as the twenty one emanation of Tara. Thus Tara combines all the active energies of the three kayas by which we release our own knots and those of other beings, the energy by which we achieve enlightenment and help other beings to achieve it. 

The Praise to Tara with Twenty-One Verses of Homage, and the Excellent Benefits of Reciting the Praise is usually abbreviated to Praises to the Twenty-One Taras. It is a twenty-seven-versed tantra that is dedicated to the female Bodhisattva Tara, who has twenty-one emanations; Ranging from peaceful to wrathful forms. These poetic verses describe her physical appearance, iconography, attributes, and mantra; and pay homage to the great Tara.

This article aims to provide general introductions to each of the twenty-one Taras, so that the new practitioner can gain a rudimental understanding of these emanations.

For the details of all emanations of Tara, please visit our blog at the following :-

http://max-tibetanbuddhism.blogspot.com/search?q=Emanation+of+Tara

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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.


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