Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. A five-chakra purification sequence is at the heart of this 33-minute guided meditation, in which Geshe Pema Tsering leads retreat participants through a Tārā visualization. He opens with her form — lotus seat, radiant green body, slightly wrathful eyes that signal active, cutting energy — then guides five rounds of colored light: white from Tārā’s brow purifies body; red from her throat clears speech; blue from her heart burns away delusion and ego-grasping; yellow from her navel dissolves paralysis; green from her secret chakra eradicates neediness. Tārā merges into the practitioner, who radiates compassion to enemies, friends, and strangers, transforming each into Tārā. The session ends with the four immeasurable thoughts as prayer and an instruction to carry bodhisattva intention through every moment of the day.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 20 Meditation.mp3
UUID: 17b7f8ae-9a66-445e-979d-d4913bf6d2a9
Teacher: Geshe Pema Tsering
Collection: Retreat Jan (Geshe Pema Tsering)
Date: 2002 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 32.9 minutes
Words: ~2,352
With this steady mind, visualize in front of us the Buddha, this time in the aspect of the female Buddha Tārā. There are different aspects of the Buddha. We visualized yesterday morning Śākyamūni Buddha in the aspect of the monk. Then last night Vajrasattva, a particular aspect for purification. You can say it’s the same qualities, enlightenment, just different ways of showing, you know, expressing different aspects.
So this morning it’s Tārā in Sanskrit, and it means liberator. And she’s known as the liberator from the fears of Samsāra. So she represents certain qualities that, you know, what we’re trying to do by meditating in this way, we’re trying to develop those very qualities in ourselves. So she represents You can say there are to be successful, very radiant, green light body. She’s sitting on a multi colored lotus, she’s sort of got around the lower parts of her body multi colored silk around her legs and things.
This multicolored lotus, and then her left leg drawn in, in meditation, and her right leg resting out, resting on another multicolored lotus in this very casual posture, which represents this action energy, this willingness to very quickly get up and act to benefit others, to act with wisdom and with power, to cut through the obstacles, to make things happen. She’s got a very beautiful face and slightly slightly wrathful eyes. Her eyes aren’t peaceful. It’s slightly wide open, showing her power. We all need this quality, whether we’re male or female.
It’s just represented as female, but we all need it. This kind of courage, strength, confidence. Again in this bodhisattva style she’s got jewelry in her ankles and wrists and neck five pointed kind of crown, tiara like crown on her head, long black hair partially held up in a top knot. Everything’s very beautiful. Think of it like a mirror image of our own potential.
If we have a spiritual teacher, then she is the representation. Tārā is the manifestation of our own teacher’s mind, our Lama’s mind. We think like that. It makes it very personal. It gives it real meaning for us.
If we don’t have a spiritual teacher, but we feel we’d like one, then even this, imagine this is anyway your teacher whom you haven’t met yet, but who knows you? Think like that. So then from her forehead, she sends very powerful beams of white light enter our forehead, our brow chakra, completely filling us with radiant light and it totally purifies all the suffering and heaviness and the problems of our bodies and all the harm we’ve ever done since beginningless time with our bodies to any sentient being. Feel full of this white light, purifying. Again, she sends the white light.
This time it completely fills us with all the potential of our of a Buddha’s body indestructible light and then capable only of benefiting others whatever form we manifest in only capable of benefiting others impossible to harm harm, is our potential. Feel full of this radiant white light, this energy. Now from her throat chakra, Guru Tārā sends very powerful beams of red light that enter our throat, fill us completely, and this time purify all the uncontrolled speech, inability to express ourselves appropriately, all the rubbish speech pouring out of our mouths, the gossip, the lying, the harming with speech, whatever we’ve done to harm others. Imagine full of this red light completely purifying, totally eradicating all of this. Again, the red light comes, filling us completely, this time with the effortless capacity to say whatever needs to be said to benefit whoever’s in front of us, even if it’s just saying good morning.
Just effortless, appropriate, wisdom, compassionate speech, which is our potential. The ease to explain whatever needs to be explained. Whatever. Full of this. Imagine.
Now from Guru Tārā’s heart chakra, she sends powerful beams of blue light, blue like the sky, that enter our heart, fill us completely. This time purifying all the delusions, all the fears, and the unhappiness, and the depression, and anxiety, and anger, and pride, and attachment. And all the way to the ego grasping. This primordial grasping, and a sense, a mistaken sense of self. All of this, which is the source of our own suffering and of why we harm others, completely burned up, purified by this blue light filling us.
Again, the blue light comes, filling us with all of our potential. Complete eradication of all this, full of all the positive qualities, which are our natural state. They’re who we are, really. All the qualities, we know them, you know: love, kindness, patience, generosity, and complete joy and delight, fulfillment, contentment way beyond what we ever normally think is possible which Buddha says is our natural potential feel full of all this and wisdom complete clarity complete wisdom about reality no fears no confusion full of this blue light Now from her navel chakra which is just below the navel Guru Tārā sends very powerful beams of yellow light that enter ours just below the navel filling us with this yellow light which purifies completely all the kind of sense of hopelessness, fears, inability to act, holding back, putting off, can’t do all of this that paralyzes most of us to some extent in our lives, full of this yellow light, completely eradicating all this energy. Again, the yellow light comes from Guru Tārā’s navel chakra, filling us completely, this time with this effortless power to do whatever needs to be done, to act, to be successful, to benefit others, to do our practice, to achieve all our qualities without any fears, any holding back, any hesitation.
Just act. It’s complete wisdom. Full of this, which is our own potential. Now from her secret chakra, Guru Tārā sends powerful beams of green light then to ours filling us completely and this time purifying all the overwhelming neediness that we that expresses itself in every aspect of our life that actually completely doesn’t bring us happiness at all just causes us more dissatisfaction and causes us to harm others you know harm others Overwhelmed by this bottomless pit of attachment, neediness, completely purified by this green light filling us. Can you imagine that?
Again the green light comes this time filling us with our marvelous potential for absolute joy and delight and fulfillment and satisfaction but therefore causes us only to benefit others, not possible to harm. We’re full of this green light, our own potential. Now you imagine, Guru Tārā very kindly sends from her five chakras simultaneously to ours: white from the brow, red throat, blue heart, yellow navel, green secret. And then these rainbow lights come and completely fill us and eradicate even the subtlest imprints of all delusion. Completely eradicated.
Full of these lights. Now we imagine that the colored the multicolored lotus she’s sitting on and the little one that her right leg is resting on both dissolve up into her body, into light. And she comes very happily to sit above our heads, facing the same way as we are. And then she dissolves into green light, enters our crown, and all of this enlightened energy of Tārā merges with our own being, our own mind. She fills this completely, thinking that my mind, the Buddha’s mind, the Lama’s mind, same thing.
This is me. Now thinking, now that I’m Buddha, what choice do I have but to just simply function as a Buddha, which is to spontaneously benefit others in whatever way is necessary in the most perfect way based on the wisdom that sees their minds and the power to be able to do so. Visualizing in front of us above, behind, below, as far as we can imagine, all directions, all sentient beings it is said that there’s not an atom of space where you won’t find sentient beings all kinds. So we imagine them all in the form of human beings. Right in front are the dear friends, and to the left are the enemies in front the enemies, the people you don’t like, who’ve harmed you, whom you haven’t forgiven, whatever, in front of you, to the right, your dearest friends, and all the rest, all the strangers.
So just visualize this. Make it very real. These real enemies in front of you, sitting there. Now, from our hearts, first we think these people, these friends, enemies, strangers and we think this is the way the world is, isn’t it? Most people, most ants, most dogs, giraffes, every being thinks like this.
There are some people we don’t like who threaten us, some we do like. But the vast majority of all living beings, we simply don’t care one way or the other. They don’t touch our lives at all. So we consciously don’t want the enemies to be happy. We do definitely want the friends to be happy, and we simply don’t care about the rest.
Well, Buddha is saying they’re all equal. All the same. All want to be happy. All don’t wanna suffer. All possess Buddha nature.
Not a fraction of difference between them in themselves. Sure. From my ego’s perspective, big difference. But from their each for each of their own sense of self, no difference. So from my heart, effortlessly, billions and billions of tiny green lights emanate out and enter into the hearts of each of the enemies, the friends, and all these strangers, taking away their suffering, giving them everything they want, and transforming them into their own Tārā.
Billions of Tārā’s in front of you, above, behind, going to all directions. No choice but to do this. Continuing to visualize, as we recite the mantra of Tārā, you think of the mantra as the same energy as the visualization. Representing the same things.
It’s a sound manifestation of it. That’s all. Words, sounds. And as you sing the mantra, you visualize that it goes out, you see it’s almost like going out, all the sound, and green light comes from it, and kind of blesses all these beings as well as the Tārā’s from our heart Transforming all of them, keeping the visualization. Imagine how all these beings transformed their own true nature, Tārā.
So in order to put strongly into our hearts the wishes, the aspirations to do actually this, to develop love for living beings, wish them to be happy, to take away their suffering, to have compassion for them, that they never be separated from joy, from bliss, from liberation, from good rebirths. They always have equanimity. In order to strongly plant this in our minds and also our capacity, our wish to be able to actually do this. Then we say the four immeasurable thoughts as prayer. So just contemplate the thoughts as I say the words.
If it feels comfortable, make them your thoughts. That’s what a prayer is. Just thoughts that we’re having, leave imprint in the mind their wishes and aspirations. So think how wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could abide in equanimity, free of attachment, ignorance, and hatred. May they abide so.
I will make this happen. Please, Guru Tārā, bless me to be able to do this. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could have happiness and the causes of happiness. May they have them. I will make this happen.
Please, Guru Tārā, bless me to be able to do this. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings could be free of suffering and the causes of suffering. May they be free. I will make this happen. Please, Guru Tārā, bless me to be able to do this.
How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were never parted from higher rebirths and liberation’s excellent bliss. May they never be parted. I will make this happen. Please, Guru Tārā, bless me to be able to do this. So now we can visualize that all these living beings who have transformed into Tārā from all directions, above, below, behind, in front, just dissolve instantly into green light and all absorb into my body, enhancing even more brilliantly my own Buddha nature.
Now we make determination to use the rest of the day thinking that you know thinking try to think like a bodhisattva which we’ll talk about today the compassion wing think you know the purpose of my body and my speech which is what other beings see is for them it’s for their benefit think this way Instead of just thinking that it’s an extension of me, you know, for my sake. My own mind is mine. So by doing the day using our body and speech for the sake of others, even just thinking whoever sees me, hears me, talks to me, touches me, tastes me, the insects, the flies, the birds, the dogs, the humans. May they all benefit from my presence. May I be able to lead every single one of them eventually to enlightenment, take them out of suffering.
My mind, which is my own business, then whatever arises in it, to see it clearly, recognize it, label it accurately, increase the virtue, decrease suffering. In this way, making every single moment of the day, making it literally meditation, making it practice, making it worthwhile to have this wish. Everything exists on the tip of the wish. It starts with the wish, thought, the aspiration. And then dedicating this this virtue we’ve created, just these thoughts we’ve had for this past hour.
The breathing meditation, visualizing Tārā, purifying our own delusions, experiencing all the qualities, becoming Tārā, acting as a Buddha, imagining, enlightening every single living being. This is leaving exactly this imprint in our mind. How amazing. Thinking when these fruits do ripen as quickly as possible on the basis of these seeds we planted, may all beings experience the results of all this because it’s for their sake, thinking like this. And we’re singing the prayer that basically says that.