Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 30-minute teaching, Venerable Sangye Khadro guides practitioners through a complete Tārā sadhana. She opens with refuge and bodhisattva intention, then walks step-by-step through the visualization: dissolving ordinary self-identity into emptiness, generating yourself as Tārā in emerald green form with the mantra syllables at your heart, invoking the principal Tārā and the twenty-one Taras into the space before you, and absorbing them through light rays into yourself to merge inseparably with Tārā’s enlightened mind. The heart of the session is the recitation of the twenty-one homages to the different Taras and aspects, chanted first in English then in Tibetan, each honoring distinct qualities—fearlessness, swiftness, compassion, wrathful power against obstacles. The teaching concludes with dissolution of the visualized forms and a series of aspirational dedications to benefit all beings. This is a live practice session suitable for practitioners who have received Tārā initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2000 01 01 Kathleen McDonald – Practice of Tārā.mp3
UUID: aee639e5-9c16-4df3-86f5-b302c6296421
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Practice of Tārā (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Date: 2000-01-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 30.2 minutes
Words: ~1,864
To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I’m enlightened. Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I’m enlightened. Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections, may I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, I go for refuge until I’m enlightened.
Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections. May I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings. May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all beings never be separated from the happiness that knows no suffering.
May all beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment and anger that hold some close and others distant. So you are in your ordinary form. At your heart appears a white letter ah made of light. And this transforms into a white moon disc. At the center of the moon disc is the syllable tam, and around the edge of the moon disc, the letters of the mantra, om, tare, tuttare, ture, Svāhā, standing in a clockwise direction.
All of the letters are made of green light. From the syllable tam at your heart, rainbow colored light goes out in all directions and invokes Tārā to appear in the space in front of us. She’s seated on a lotus and moon disc. Her body is of emerald green light, youthful and exquisitely beautiful. Her right hand on her right knee is in the gesture of giving.
Her left hand at her heart is in the gesture of refuge and holds the stem of a blue Utpala flower that blooms by her ear. Her left leg is drawn up and her right leg slightly out. Her face is very beautiful, and she smiles with loving kindness for all sentient beings. Surrounding her in space are twenty-one other Taras and Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Surrounding you are all sentient beings praying along with you.
Now recite the seven-limb prayer. Reverently, I prostrate with my body, speech, and mind, and present clouds of every type of offering, actual and mentally transformed. I declare all my negative actions accumulated since beginningless time and rejoice in the merit of all holy and ordinary beings. Please remain until saṃsāra ends and turn the Wheel of Dharma for sentient beings. I dedicate the merit created by myself and others to the great enlightenment.
So let go of your ordinary self image, identifying with this body and mind, personality and name. Imagine that that dissolves into emptiness. And then in one instant, your mind transforms into the form of Tārā. So visualize yourself as Tārā and identify with being Tārā. At your heart, a white ah appears and transforms into a white moon disc.
At the center of the moon disc is the green syllable tam, and around the edge, standing in a clockwise direction, the letters of the mantra, om tare tuttare ture Svāhā. From the tam, countless light rays go out to all directions and bring back all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas in the form of Tārā. All of these dissolve into you like snowflakes dissolving in a lake. You are now one with all the enlightened beings. So now we’ll recite the homage to the twenty-one Taras, once in English and once in Tibetan.
Om, I prostrate to the noble, transcendent liberator. Homage to Tārā, swift and fearless, with eyes like a flash of lightning, lotus born in an ocean of tears of Chenrezig, three worlds protector. Homage to you whose face is like one hundred autumn moons gathered and blazes with the dazzling light of a thousand constellations. Homage to you born from a gold blue lotus, hands adorned with lotus flowers, essence of giving, effort, and ethics, patience, concentration, and wisdom. Homage to you who crown all Buddhas whose action subdues without limit.
Attain to every perfection. On you, the bodhisattvas, rely. Homage to you whose tuttare and hum fill the realms of desire, form, and space. You crush seven worlds beneath your feet and have power to call all forces. Homage to you adored by Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayu, and Ishvara.
Praised in song by a host of spirits, zombies, sanitizers, and Yakshas. Homage to you whose traya hum phat destroy external wheels of magic, right leg drawn in and left extended. You blaze within a raging fire. Homage to you whose torrent destroys the great fears, the mighty demons. With a wrathful frown on your lotus face, you slay all foes without exception.
Homage to you, beautifully adorned by the Three Jewels gesture at your heart. Your wheel shines in all directions with a whirling mass of light. Homage to you, radiant and joyful, whose crown emits a garland of light. You, by your laughter of Tutara, conquer demons and lords of the world. Homage to you with power to invoke the assembly of local protectors.
With your fierce frown and vibrating hum, you bring freedom from all poverty. Homage to you with crescent moon crown, all your adornments dazzlingly bright. From your hair knot, Amitābha shines eternal with great beams of light. Homage to you who dwell in a blazing wreath like the fire at the end of this age. Your right leg outstretched and left drawn in.
Joy surrounds you who defeat hosts of foes. Homage to you whose foot stamps the earth and whose palm strikes the ground by your side with a wrathful glance and the letter hum, you subdue all in the seven worlds. Homage to the blissful, virtuous, peaceful one, object of practice, nirvana’s peace, perfectly endowed with svaha and hum, overcoming all the great evils. Homage to you with joyous retinue. You subdue fully all enemies’ forms.
The ten letter mantra adorns your heart and your knowledge hum gives liberation. Homage to Ture with stamping feet whose essence is the seed letter hum you cause Meru, Mandara, and Vindya and all three worlds to tremble and shake. Homage to you who hold in your hand a moon like a celestial lake, saying Tārā twice and the letter Pei. You dispel all poisons without exception. Homage to you on whom the kings of gods, the gods themselves, and all spirits rely.
Your armor radiates joy to all. You soothe conflicts and nightmares as well. Homage to you whose eyes, the sun and moon, radiate with pure brilliant light. Uttering huru twice and tutara dispels extremely fearful plagues. Homage to you adorned with three natures, perfectly endowed with peaceful strength.
You destroy demons, zombies, and yakshas. Oh, Ture, most exalted and sublime. Thus, the rudimentary is praised and twenty one homages offered. Om to the transcendent subduer, Ārya Tārā. I prostrate.
Homage to the glorious one who frees with tare. With, you calm all fears. You bestow all success with tore. To the sound Svāhā. I pay a great homage.
Tutare ture Svāhā. Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā. Om tare tuttare ture Svāhā. Om Tare, Tutare Om Tutare, Om Tare Tuttare. Om Tare, Turiso.
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svāhā. Those endowed with perfect and pure respect for the goddesses, the intelligent who recite these praises with most supreme faith, both in the evening and upon waking at dawn, will have fearlessness bestowed on them by this remembrance. After being purified of all evils completely, they will attain the destruction of all lower realms, and the seven million conquering Buddhas will quickly grant them every empowerment. Thus, they will attain greatness and go forth to the ultimate state of supreme Buddhahood. As a result, all violent poisons, whether abiding within or spreading to others that they have eaten or drunk, by this remembrance will be completely removed, and they will eliminate complete affliction by spirits, epidemics, poisons, and all various sufferings.
If for oneself or for the sake of others, these praises are read two, three, or seven times sincerely, those wishing a child will have one, and those wishing wealth will attain this as well. Without obstruction, all their wishes will be granted, and every single hindrance will be destroyed as it arises. O compassionate and Venerable subduing goddesses, may the infinite beings, including myself, soon purify the two obscurations and complete both collections so that we may attain full enlightenment. For all of my lifetimes until I reach this stage, may I know the sublime happiness of humans and gods, and so I might become fully omniscient. Please pacify quickly all obstacles, spirits, obstructions, epidemics, diseases, and so forth, the various causes of untimely death, bad dreams, and omens, the eight fears and other afflictions, and make it so that they no longer exist.
May the mundane and super mundane collections of all excellent, auspicious qualities and happiness increase and develop, and may all wishes be fulfilled naturally and effortlessly without an exception. May I strive to realize and increase the sacred Dharma, accomplishing your stage and beholding your sublime face. May my understanding of emptiness and the precious mind of enlightenment increase like the moon waxing full. May I be reborn from an extremely beautiful and holy lotus in the joyous and noble mandala of the conqueror, and may I attain whatever prophecy I receive in the presence of a Buddha of infinite light. O deity, whom I have accomplished from previous lives the enlightened action of the three times Buddhas, blue green, one face and two arms, the swift pacifier, oh, mother holding an Utpala flower, may you be auspicious.
Whatever your body, o mother of Buddhas, whatever your retinue, lifespan, and Pure Land, whatever your name, most noble and holy, may I and all others attain only these. By the force of these praises and requests made to you, may all diseases, poverty, fighting, and quarrels be calmed, and may the precious Dharma and everything auspicious increase throughout the worlds and directions where I and all others dwell. So the twenty one Taras and the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas dissolve into the central figure of Tārā in front of us. And then she comes to the space above our heads, becomes light, and this light comes down through the top of our heads and dissolves into our heart. And feel that your mind and Tārā’s mind are inseparably one.
And dedication. By this merit, may I quickly become the Venerable Tārā, and may I lead every migrating being without exception to her most supreme state. By whatever virtue I have collected from venerating these subduing goddesses, male sentient beings without exception be born in Sukhāvati, the joyful Pure Land. You who have abandoned all bodily defects and possess the major and minor marks of a Buddha. You who have abandoned all defects of speech and possess a beautiful melodious voice.
You who have abandoned all the defects of mind and see all the infinite objects of knowledge. Oh, brilliant mother of auspicious glory, please bring your auspicious presence to us.