Page 1

Jetsun means venerable. Dröl is liberator. Ma refers to mother.

Tara practice is traditionally done on the 8th day of the lunar month in the Tibetan tradition. In Gaden Samten Ling it is often combined with Chenrezig practice and the practice may fall on a different day than the 8th as we try to do this practice on Sundays. As with other peaceful deities, Tara practice is usually done somewhere in the first half of the month during the time of increase.

Tara originally appeared as a princess. Many eons ago a king needed children to look after his kingdom. So he made many aspirations, performed rituals, and made offerings to Buddhas and poor people. Finally he and his wife had a baby girl. However, this girl had a different attitude in that she did not want to look after the kingdom. She wanted to study dharma, practiced generosity and was naturally drawn to the sangha. Due to her spiritual practices she was accumulating a great deal of merit.

A high practitioner told her, “You should aspire for rebirth in a male form then you will be more successful in your dharma practice than you could be in female form.” She replied, “There are so many male practitioners but very few females. I feel it is more important to be a female practitioner. This is more useful.” What she meant was that because female practitioners were so rare, her appearance would draw more people to the dharma, encourage more female sentient beings to practice and thereby would be more beneficial to the dharma. So this princess vowed, “Until samsara ends, I will always work for sentient beings in female form.” She saw this potential benefit countless eons ago and made the commitment that as long as sentient beings remained, she would serve them in the form of a female.

Tara is also a manifestation of Chenrezig. Chenrezig was discouraged one day about how many sentient beings still remained in samsara. He cried and from his tear a female enlightened being manifested. Tara told Chenrezig not to be discouraged, that as long as he worked for sentient beings he could rely on her for support.

Tara has many different manifestations but her principal forms are Green Tara and White Tara. Green Tara represents achieving success in our goals. This is the Tara that we visualize in our practice at Gaden Samten Ling. White Tara is for longevity. In fact there are twenty-one different Taras which were manifested to fight against the twenty-one bad omens. Each one has a different activity and manifests differently to work with sentient beings' understanding.

Tara practice is done to achieve success in our spiritual pursuits, fulfill our dharma practice and ultimately achieve enlightenment. It is not done to achieve worldly success. However, when we do actions like dharma practice to gain merit and remove negative karma then secondary benefits automatically arise. These include removal of obstacles, preventing sickness and stopping bad dreams. We also achieve our goals and our fear will be reduced. These fears can include external fears such as floods, earthquakes, storms, fire, and dangerous animals. There are also internal fears like the afflictive emotions attachment, ignorance, jealousy, pride, and selfishness.

But never practice with the aim to receive these secondary goals. Aim for the main goal of achieving enlightenment and the secondary benefits will automatically come. When you practice always choose the large goal. Do not do dharma practice for selfish temporary benefits.

In this practice we take refuge and cultivate the altruistic intention. We then invoke Tara to appear in front of us and then recite the seven limb prayer. This is followed by the seven offerings as well as the mandala offering. Twenty-one verses of praises are recited to request the blessings of the twenty-one Taras. Mantra recitation is done and we then conclude with auspicious verses and dedication.

Gaden Samten Ling Tibetan Buddhist Meditation Society11403 - 101 Street Edmonton, AB T5G 2A9 ph: (780) 479-0014

info@gadensamtenling.org www.gadensamtenling.org

TT aa rr aa PP uu jj aa(( JJ ee tt ss uu nn DD rr öö ll mm aa ))

Page 1

GGGGGGGGGG aaaaaaaaaa dddddddddd eeeeeeeeee nnnnnnnnnn SSSSSSSSSS aaaaaaaaaa mmmmmmmmmm tttttttttt eeeeeeeeee nnnnnnnnnn LLLLLLLLLL iiiiiiiiii nnnnnnnnnn ggggggggggTT II BB EE TT AA NN BB UU DD DD HH II SS TT MM EE DD II TT AA TT II OO NN SS OO CC II EE TT YY