Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 31-minute sadhana instruction, Ven Lobsang Namgyel walks through the short Tārā practice step by step, beginning with visualization of the guru as Tārā above your head in a rainbow-light sphere. He then guides the foundational refuge and bodhisattva intention, followed by detailed visualization of offerings and confession of negative actions. The core of the teaching focuses on purification through light rays from Tārā’s three places — white light from her brow purifying body, red light from her throat purifying speech, and blue light from her heart purifying mind — each absorbed into corresponding parts of yourself. He concludes with the main practice: either visualizing yourself as Tārā or Tārā above your crown, with the seed syllable Tam and the complete mantra at her heart, then radiating green light to purify and bless all beings while reciting Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svāhā. Suited to practitioners who have already received Tārā initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 24 Short Tārā sadhana.mp3
UUID: 057bbac7-fa46-4e14-8893-2001552a9a78
Teacher: Ven Lobsang Namgyel
Collection: VenNamgyel Thought Transformation (Ven Lobsang Namgyel)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.6 minutes
Words: ~1,077
Above the crown of your head you visualize a lotus and a moon disc appearing out of emptiness. Sitting on these is the great treasury of compassion, Ārya Tārā, mother of all enlightened beings, who is in oneness with your kind root guru. Your guru is seated in the full lotus position within a transparent bubble of rainbow colored light. He’s pink in complexion and wears golden robes and a hat.
In his right hand is a vajra and the stem of a white lotus that blooms beside his right ear. In his left hand is a bell and the stem of another white lotus that blooms beside his left ear. At my guru’s heart is Ārya Tārā in female aspect, green in color and seated in the dancing posture within a rainbow bubble. Her left leg is in meditational posture and her right leg is outstretched, resting on a lotus.
Her left hand is at her heart in the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem, holding the stem of a blue utpala flower. Her right hand, extended over her right knee, is in the mudra of granting sublime realizations. She’s beautifully adorned with jeweled ornaments and scarves, and at her three places are the syllables Om Ah Hum.
At our heart is a lotus and moon seat, on which stands a radiant green syllable Tam. Rays of green light radiate in all directions from the Tam and invoke all the enlightened beings of the ten directions. They are all absorbed into Ārya Tārā and become one. And then you make a request to Guru Tārā.
Please remain above my head until I receive enlightenment. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. By my merit from giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. With my body, speech, and mind, I devoutly prostrate. I offer all offerings, both real and imagined.
All sins and offenses amassed from beginningless time, I confess. I rejoice in all virtuous actions of holy and ordinary beings. O gurus and buddhas, please remain until saṃsāra ends and turn the wheel of Dharma for sentient beings. All my virtues and those of all others, I dedicate to the great enlightenment. This ground, anointed with perfume, strewn with flowers, adorned with Mount Meru, four continents, the sun and the moon—I imagine this as a Buddha field and offer it. May all living beings enjoy this pure land. The objects of my attachment, aversion, and ignorance—friends, enemies, and strangers—and my body, wealth, and enjoyments, without any sense of loss, I offer this collection. Please accept it with pleasure and bless me with freedom from the three poisons.
And then for the purification: thinking from beginningless time we have created non-virtuous actions, now we must purify, relying on Guru Tārā to purify all those negative actions so we don’t need to experience even one second of suffering. Please bless me to purify all obscurations of my body so that it will become one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra body. White light emanates from the Om at Ārya Tārā’s brow and curves in an arc to enter your brow. Your body is purified completely of all obscurations and becomes one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra body.
Please bless me to purify all obscurations of my speech so that it will become one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra speech. Red light emanates from the Ah at Ārya Tārā’s throat and curves in an arc to enter your throat. Your speech is purified completely of all obscurations and becomes one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra speech. Please bless me to purify all obscurations of my mind so that it will become one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra mind. Blue light emanates from the Hum at Ārya Tārā’s heart and curves in an arc to enter your heart.
Your mind is purified of all obscurations and becomes one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy vajra mind. Please bless me to purify all subtle obscurations and delusions to omniscience so that my body, speech, and mind will become one with Guru Tārā’s holy body, speech, and mind. Now three colored beams emanate simultaneously from Om Ah Hum, completely purifying all your delusions and subtle obscurations to omniscience. Your body, speech, and mind become one in essence with Guru Tārā’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind. Your root guru dissolves into Ārya Tārā, who melts into green light.
And that green light flows into you. Instantly, all your wrong conceptions that I and all other phenomena are self-existent, together with your dualistic mind and its views, disappear, becoming completely empty. Not even a trace of them remains. And then you concentrate single-pointedly on this empty state with the wisdom that is indistinguishably one with Guru Tārā’s blissful omniscient mind. And then, if you can, visualize yourself as Tārā: out of that emptiness, your wisdom manifests instantly as Ārya Tārā’s holy body, seated upon a lotus and moon cushion. In your heart is another lotus and moon, in the center of which stands Tam and the syllables of the mantra.
Otherwise, visualize above the crown of your head Tārā appearing, sitting on a lotus and moon. In her heart is a lotus and moon disc. In the center of the moon disc is the seed syllable Tam, surrounded by the syllables of the mantra: Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svāhā.
And the Tam and the mantra are manifestations of Guru Tārā’s holy mind, which is in oneness with your mind—same nature, empty. Green light radiates from all the letters, spreading in every direction. It purifies the negative karmas, gross delusions, and subtle obscurations to omniscience of all sentient beings, who become Tārā. Again, light radiates, bearing manifold offerings to the six transcendental senses of all the Buddhas and sentient beings who have become Tārā.
The enlightened beings are extremely pleased and shower down the superlative qualities of Buddha Tārā’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind—her omniscient wisdom, supreme power, and infinite compassion—in the form of a great shower of light rays. As you recite the mantra, you absorb and you’re blessed by this rain of qualities. And you continue to recite the mantra, absorbing all the positive energy from all Taras—countless Taras—in whichever direction you look, there’s a Tārā.