Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 108-minute teaching, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides students through the praises to the Twenty-One Taras, a foundational devotional and doctrinal text from the Mahāyāna tradition. He begins with elaborate introductory prayers, then unfolds the structure of the praises: the first verse celebrates Tārā’s life story and her swift compassionate activity; the next six verses honour her peaceful sambhogakaya forms—white Tārā for healing and liberation, golden Tārā for increasing life and prosperity. Dondrub weaves in detailed commentary on the causes that lead to Tārā’s enlightenment, particularly the six perfections (generosity, morality, patience, effort, concentration, and wisdom), explaining how reciting the praises awakens these same qualities in practitioners. He clarifies the difference between an arhat and a Buddha, and between the ten bodhisattva grounds and their relationship to Tārā’s enlightened activity. Throughout, he stresses the importance of bodhicitta motivation and explains how Tārā represents the swift, compassionate energy of enlightened mind working for all beings. The talk includes chanting of the praises and dedication prayers. Pitched at students with some Buddhist background.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 – 21 taras 2014 05 01 1-5-14.mp3
UUID: 3a567a36-cd9a-41da-b887-06ffb1541f25
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Twenty One Taras (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2014-05-01
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 108.3 minutes
Words: ~10,718
Additional practice so we do more elaborate introductory prayers than at other times. So we start on page five with the teaching prayers with the prayer to the lion-faced Dakini. Sorry for those people who are not familiar with these prayers. Can’t explain them now. I do try every now and again to explain their meaning and purpose, but I can’t do that tonight.
I prostrate to the eighth level bodhisattva, king of dakinis and the three kayas who abide in the holy yoga of unmoving space by your powers of clairvoyance and magical emanation. Look after practitioners like a mother her child. Akashamukha Sadhana Svāhā. By the teachings of the three supreme jewels possessing the power of truth, may inner and outer hindrances be transformed. May they be dispelled.
May they be pacified. May they be completely pacified. May all negative forces opposed to dharma be completely pacified. May the host of eighty thousand obstacles be pacified. May we be separated from problems and harmful conditions to dharma.
May all enjoyments be in accord with the dharma, and may there be auspiciousness and perfect happiness here right now. Obeisance to my guru and protector Mañjuśrī who holds to his heart a scriptural text symbolic of his seeing all things as they are, whose understanding shines forth as the sun unclouded by defilements or traces of ignorance, who teaches in sixty ways with a patient love of a father for his only child, all creatures caught in the prison of Samsāra, confused in the darkness of their ignorance, overwhelmed by their suffering. You whose drowning thunder proclamation of the Dharma arouses us from the stupor of our delusions and frees us from the iron chains of our karma, whose powerful sword of wisdom hews down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, clearing away the darkness of all ignorance. I entreat you, O Mañjuśrī, whose princely body is adorned with one hundred and twelve marks of a Buddha, who has completed the ten stages achieving the highest perfection of a bodhisattva, who has been pure from the beginning. O Mañjuśrī, your loving one, with the brilliance of your wisdom, illuminate the darkness enclosing my mind.
Enlighten my intelligence and wisdom so that I may gain insight into Buddha’s words and the texts that explain them. Then we actually it is good to recite the mantra but I’m trying to keep even though we’re doing more extensive prayers, trying to keep it a bit short. So now we offer a mandala of the whole universe to the Buddha as a way to request the teachings, to create the merit to be able to understand them and practice properly and as a way to reduce our attachment which is along with the other delusions connected with it presents so many obstacles to being able to understand and practice the Dharma correctly. So we visualize Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us as our source of refuge, inspiration and guidance thinking that the Buddha is the very embodiment of all our perfect teachers of the past, present and future. So our teaching tonight, the praises to the twenty one Taras, is a teaching from the Mahāyāna tradition.
And particularly it actually, according to Geshe Loden, comes from the tantras. So it s really important that we have a motivation that matches the purpose of the teaching so as much as possible right now trying to correct our motivation and make it the very best one possible, especially trying to generate as much as we can what Lama Zopa Rinpoche calls the effortful bodhicitta which comes about by thinking especially about how we have Buddha nature, how we have the precious human rebirth right now, the optimum chance to realize our Buddha potential and wanting to do so, recognizing how we are interconnected with all sentient beings not just human beings now but all living beings. We are inextricably connected with them because because we have relied on their kindness countless times in beginning-less Samsāra, especially the kindness of the Mother which we have received from every being many many times. But sadly all these kind mother beings are still trapped in cyclic existence, helplessly having to endure all sorts of sufferings in their confusion, trying to be free of suffering but blindly creating the cause for more. So if we think about these things more and more deeply we can generate the wish to realize our Buddha potential, achieve enlightenment so that we are in a perfect position to be able to help every being without exception, to free themselves of all suffering and its causes and to realize their Buddha potential and achieve peerless everlasting happiness.
So to achieve enlightenment this is a very big job. Many aspects to it. We need lots of help and all sorts of Buddhas exist manifest in countless ways to help us along the path or to enter the path and Mother Tārā is one of those particular aspects of the enlightened mind that appears to help us. So it’s really helpful to know more about Tārā and the praises to her. So for this reason, for the sake of all sentient beings, we can study this wonderful text and teaching.
So as we say the Prayer of Refuge bodhicitta as well as visualizing the Buddha in front of us or imagine the Buddha transforms into Mother Tārā and at the same time we think of all sentient beings surrounding us starting with our parents on either side, family, friends and helpers behind us, harmers in front and then as much as possible thinking of all the other beings of cyclic existence who are only kind but unfortunately only suffering. With the help of Mother Tārā I can achieve enlightenment for their sake. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the Supreme Assembly. Assembly. By the merits I create through teaching the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings.
So thinking the Buddha or Buddhatara is very pleased with us, we imagine Mother Tārā approaching us and when directly above our crown she dissolves into blissful green light that pours down into us, blessing our mind. Then we can enhance that positive state of mind by briefly doing some breathing meditation such as the nine round breathing exercise, helping us to develop a calmer, clearer, more concentrated mind so that we can use that mind to listen to and think about the twenty one praises to Tārā. Okay. Thank you. So as I mentioned earlier in achieving enlightenment there are many things to accomplish and trying to accomplish those things practice all the different aspects of the Dharma path we also need some worldly support as well so Mother Tārā can help us in all of those things because Mother Tārā is the embodiment the enlightened mind appearing in the form of Tārā is the embodiment of loving kindness and compassion and wisdom but also she particularly represents that energy of the enlightened activity of all the Buddhas that is able to succeed, to be successful in activities and to succeed as quickly as possible cutting through all sorts of obstacles.
So we need that energy of Mother Tārā and we have the potential for that energy within us. Reciting the praises of Tārā, the twenty one praises to Tārā can help us awaken that energy to bring that connection with Tārā and to be successful and receive protection from negative forces. So there’s so many benefits in reciting the praises to Tārā. So as I said before, one can think there are twenty one praises to Tārā or there are praises to twenty one different Tārā’s but all those twenty one different Tārā’s are emanations of the one Tarah anyway because an enlightened being is able to emanate in countless forms but these are just twenty one particular special ways that Mother Tārā manifests. In the last two weeks we’ve covered the first two verses I think the first two verses.
So the homage to Venerable Ārya Tārā, Homage to you, Tara. So as you can see from the outline, the first verse is a praise by way of her life story. So is is praise to Red Tārā and but it’s also praise to the life story of Ārya Tārā who is said to have manifested from a lotus in order to help Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha of compassion, benefit all sentient beings. So then the next group of six verses are in praise of Tārā’s Sambhogakāya body. So the Sambhogakāya body of a Buddha as I mentioned last week is a manifestation of the pure mind of the Buddha, of a Buddha such as Tārā but that form, the Sambhogakāya form of a Buddha can only be seen by Ārya Bodhisattvas.
Ordinary beings like ourselves are not able to see that aspect of a Buddha. The first six verses are praise of her peaceful enjoyment body, that Sambhogakāya appearing in various peaceful ways and then the next set of verses, well there’s eight of them actually which are in praise of her wrathful aspect. So just going back again a little bit so Red Tārā, the first one which is praising Tārā’s story, her history, her life story Tārā who’s red holding the red vase in her right hand is the swift heroic one is particularly for the purpose of manifesting for the purpose of helping to overcome hindering spirits and injuries also particularly for developing the mind of enlightenment developing bodhicitta. So Tārā appears in the form of this red Tārā. The first of the praises to her peaceful enjoyment body.
This is a white Tārā holding a white vase and she manifests particularly to help defeat diseases and helps free us from the suffering of cyclic existence. About her. So the next praise, the third praise, homage to you Tārā born from a golden blue lotus whose hands are beautifully adorned with lotus flowers, you who are the embodiment of giving, joyous effort, asceticism, pacification, patience, concentration and all objects of practice. So in Tibetan that goes So unfortunately, I don’t know Tibetan much, a bit. Choksi, of course, remember is homage or prostration.
Is gold. Is blue, is water, of course is lotus, is hand, is a Tibetan word for giving Zundru is perseverance Shiwa is pacification, Zorba we should all know is what? Patience, yes! Alright some ten is concentration. Anyway this Tārā, the third one, is golden she manifests particularly for the purpose of increasing life and enjoyments.
So this is why she is gold because gold is the color of increase and expansion. So a little commentary on that verse. So this is the praise with reference to the color of her holy body, the implement she’s holding, and the causes that bring about the attainment of the state of Tārā. So it says Homage to you Tārā born from a golden blue lotus. This particular Tārā’s holy body is golden in color but with a slight slightly bluish hue.
Her body is likened to the gold of the river Jambu that is said to be very clear, refined and pleasant to look at. So it is said in the southern continent so we live believe it or not in the southern continent and the Tibetan term for the southern continent is Tsang Bu Ling Ling actually means an island or sometimes translated as continent. A lot of monasteries are often called something something Ling because like they are an island of morality and peace in the ocean of worldly samsaric confusion. At least in theory they are! Not necessarily but in theory they are.
Right. So according to mythology, in this island continent, the southern continent, Jambuling, one of the reasons it’s called Jambuling is because there is this river Jambu flowing in it. I’m not quite sure where the river Jambu is but there’s somewhere and in that river is this incredibly beautiful gold which is the most golden gold of all. So the Buddha is said to be like has the color of the gold of the Jambu river. So Tārā has this particular Tārā has that color but it also gives off this kind of bluish tinge as well hue.
So her hands are beautifully adorned with lotus flowers which are according to ancient Indian view the most beautiful and meaningful of flowers. In her left hand she holds a lotus stem with her thumb and ring finger, so like that, is the Mudra of granting refuge and then there’s this blue lotus flower blossoming at her left ear. It’s often in the I don’t know if you can see one anywhere but the way they are meant to be depicted lotus is also depicted one part of the lotus that the deity is holding is a fully opened Lotus but there’s also depicted with that a half open Lotus and just a lotus bud. So this is meant to symbolize the Buddhas of the three times. Bud is the future Buddha.
The lotus that Tārā is holding is not just like an ordinary lotus that we find in this world. It is a symbol of her wisdom. Actually the lotus has many symbolisms in Buddhism. It’s the symbol of complete renunciation because the Lotus grows out of an ordinary Lotus grows out of mud so that symbolizes that although we are born in this samsaric situation our mind can rise above that and not be affected by the mud and confusion and whatever slush saṃsāra if we have renunciation we can completely protect our mind. So in that sense the Lotus is a symbol of great renunciation but it can also be a symbol of wisdom because I suppose in a sense to develop that renunciation or even to want to is quite wise.
So someone who’s fully renounced cyclic existence is very wise. If one is fully renounced you also go on to achieve liberation from cyclic existence where one has developed. To develop that, to get out of saṃsāra, one has to have that wisdom. Someone depicted seated on a lotus is indicating that they’re completely free of saṃsāra and why are they free of saṃsāra? Because they have this perfect wisdom which is the direct antidote to ignorance, the very cause of saṃsāra.
So then it goes on: You are the embodiment of giving, joyous effort and so on. So this refers to the causes that bring about the attainment of the state of Tārā bring about the state of Buddhahood. So the causes of Buddhahood are practicing what are called the six perfections, the six pāramitā. So those practices which are normally so the six pāramitā are generosity or giving, then it mentions joyous effort or perseverance, then it says asceticism so this is referring to the practice of morality. Yeah, that’s the asceticism of giving up negative behavior.
Right? And the asceticism of having the courage to engage in everything that is virtuous. Then there is the practice of wisdom, the practice of patience and the practice of concentration. So that’s how they’re listed there. But normally the six perfections are listed as first I mean the same ones but in a slightly different order.
The first is generosity, then comes morality or here the practices of asceticism, then patience, perseverance, concentration and wisdom because that’s how one actually perfects them. First are able to mean one can practice a little bit of all of them and be good at them in different ways but one is able to perfect generosity first, then one perfects morality, then patience, then perseverance, then concentration and finally one is able to perfect wisdom. So those are the essential practices that bring about enlightenment. So the six perfections are practices common to all forms of Buddhism. The teachings that the Buddha gave that lead just to liberation and to the experience of nirvana but also they are practices in the Mahāyāna tradition that lead to enlightenment.
The difference between them is mainly the motivation. In the practices of those people who are just seeking liberation from suffering, wanting to achieve nirvana, the motivation for practicing the six perfections is their own wish to be free of suffering whereas practicing the six perfections in the Mahāyāna, the motivation is bodhicitta, wanting to achieve enlightenment. So that’s the main difference. The practices are basically the same to some extent but really distinguishes them is the motivation but also the dedication. Practitioner following the individual vehicle dedicates the merit for their own nirvana whereas the being trying to follow the Mahāyāna path does it with bodhicitta motivation and dedicates that merit to achieving enlightenment, not just nirvana.
Just quickly just to bore some people and try and enlighten others not trying to bore others, but bore some people. But although I mentioned this many times and people should have probably read this many times I think lots of people maybe no one here but just in case there is don’t seem to see the difference between nirvana and enlightenment and between an Arhant and a Buddha. Right? But there is a great difference. But just very simply, an Arhant is free of Samsāra, has no suffering, has eliminated ignorance and all its causes but an when they die experiences the state of perfect bliss, nirvana.
But in that which one could say in a simple way is a meditative state of incredible bliss and serenity and stillness but in that state one is totally unaware of anything else. One is not aware of sentient beings, saṃsāra and the suffering of sentient beings. So a being dwelling in the state of nirvana cannot benefit others someone who achieves nirvana hasn’t developed the motivation to be of perfect benefit to others. They want to help others, they like others, they have compassion for them but their major motivation is not to benefit others but to benefit themselves and so they become an Arhant. An Arhant is not omniscient.
They have clairvoyance, they have a certain amount of love and compassion, they have all sorts of psychic abilities but they are not omniscient and their mind is still subtly obscured. That s why they re not omniscient. A Buddha is free of all causes of suffering like an Arhant but a Buddha has fully awakened all their positive qualities and an Arhant hasn’t. So a Buddha has this unrestricted compassion for all sentient beings, this unrestricted love but also operating through a mind of omniscience that is aware of everything all the time. And that omniscient mind of the Buddha has that omniscient mind is fully aware all the time of the conventional and ultimate nature of all things.
There actually is a huge difference between our hearts and Buddha’s. The Mahāyāna tradition that we try and follow here contains the teachings that lead to enlightenment. The Mahāyāna teachings encourage us not to become Arhants but to become Buddhas because we have Buddha potential. We can become Buddhas. So to become a Buddha one has to achieve liberation from Samsāra but not get caught up in sinking, to put it just crudely, sinking into the bliss of liberation which is nirvana but to sort of go beyond that Yes, it can involve that of coming back to benefit sentient beings but some bodhisattvas don’t do that.
They hang out in these very ethereal realms in order to sorry my wonderful explanations! They hang out in Akanishtha and achieve enlightenment there. Some Bodhisattvas come back to take rebirth in obvious forms to benefit sentient beings, to work with sentient beings. Others don’t necessarily do but they are still working for sentient beings in different ways. Just like in this earth there are great practitioners who the way they practice varies a great deal.
There are those great practitioners who teach a lot out of great compassion whereas there are others who meditate a lot and don’t teach. They could but they don’t. Not because they don’t want to and don’t want to part but they have another kind of agenda positive one they’re all working for sentient beings in different ways So Tārā trained in these six perfections over a very long period of time, finally perfected them and attained enlightenment. So I’m just reading most of this but I feel kind of like I’m cheating doing this but that’s what the Lamas do so why not me? Than have to can’t make it up!
Tārā became enlightened through the practice that involved the union of both method and wisdom. The first five pāramitā perfections are method relating to basically the practice of morality and developing a good heart and then the other aspect is wisdom. Method particularly refers to the practice of great compassion and bodhicitta. Wisdom refers to the wisdom realizing emptiness. So with the union of method and wisdom, Tārā practiced the six perfections and attained enlightenment.
So what does this mean for us? Reciting this praise if we want to become like Tārā, we need to train in these six perfections. So Tārā, by visualizing Tārā in front of us and praising her, it’s like she is telling us that if you want to be like me, if you want to be successful like me, practice the six perfections. If we practice the six perfections conjoined with both method and wisdom before long we will also achieve the state of full enlightenment. So without practicing the six perfections, there’s no way that we can become like Tārā.
Often when the commentaries are given, the lamas go into quite some detail about the six perfections, but I’m not going to do that because otherwise everything gets too long. I just want to give a quick idea of the praises what they’re referring to. But just very quickly, perfection of generosity is not about being able to as the commentaries always say, it s not about being able to give lots of stuff because if that was the case, only the rich perfect generosity. Generosity is a state of mind. So the perfection of generosity comes when the mind is willing and wants to give anything and everything.
Right? It’s the mind that, you know, enjoys giving. Right? So this is the mind that we need to cultivate, the mind that is happy to give. That’s why there’s, you know, the oh, now I’m starting to rave.
That’s why we have these just basic practices of doing the water bottle offerings in the morning to the Buddha because this is helping in the practice of giving. It’s training our mind to give and enjoy giving and so on. So we start out in these very simple ways. This is also why the mandala offering practice is encouraged to be done. This is a way many many benefits, it s a way to train in practicing generosity.
It also accumulates skies of merit because one imagines offering it to all the Buddhas in the field of merit which is endless and enormous. So by trying to do it with the bodhicitta motivation, imagining many beautiful things, it creates great merit. So the practice of generosity helps us accumulate merit but it is also undermining the greatest obstacle to generating bodhicitta which is the state of mind that leads to enlightenment. That great obstacle is self-cherishing. And of course, aspect of self-cherishing just like Tārā manifests in many ways, our self-cherishing manifests in many ways and one of the ways, one of the deities that our self-cherishing manifests as miserliness, stinginess.
Yeah? So to break that down we try and train the mind in generosity. And if we’re doing it well it will make us happy and that happiness comes from seeing that giving makes others happy. And that leads to the next perfection that if we if we start to enjoy making people happy, why would we want to harm them by engaging in non virtuous actions so it helps us be more virtuous and encourages us to do more virtuous actions that benefit others. Yeah sure, that’s one aspect.
Yeah, instead of insulting, know, of the non virtues is insulting people, harsh speech so there is the virtuous speech of not doing that and the more virtuous way of using one’s speech is to say nice things and praise and encourage and yeah well, it’s yeah I got carried away there that was where are we? I got confused. I got talking about virtue there But, yes, you can also say that there’s different kinds of giving. There’s the giving of stuff, but there’s also the giving of love and encouragement and what is called the the giving of fearlessness. And that can come through praising people, encouraging people, supporting them and so on with your speech or whatever in whatever way.
The commentary I’m reading from is by the wonderful Lama Lhundrup who was the abbot of Kopan monastery in Nepal which is our mother monastery. There are not many commentaries translated in English on the twenty one praises so I’m just scooping through all of them. As I said, basis for doing this is because there’s not much benefit for someone just reading from the book I have received the commentary twice from Geshe Lodin, a quite detailed one and also from Mochok Rinpoche some years later. So in theory there’s some kind of minimal benefit I have the minimal qualification to blab about it. So anyway, Lama Lhundrup says What is morality or ethics?
Ethics refers to the mind of protection. It is not just referring to the mind that wants to abstain from negative actions such as the ten non virtuous actions it’s not limited to that. Here we’re talking about the Mahāyāna practice of ethics that has two major elements, One of which is refraining from following one’s self interest that is stopping the self-cherishing thought. So that is what Mahāyāna morality is really about is overcoming the self-cherishing thought. Because that brings the greatest harm to others and finding the self-cherishing thought blocks all the qualities within us which can be of benefit to others that leads to generating bodhicitta and becoming enlightened.
So there’s the morality of giving that up. All the asceticism, practicing the asceticism, enduring the difficulties of giving up the self-cherishing thought or at least the initial difficulties because if we really manage to give it up we’ll be really great, we’ll be really fine, we’ll be cruising along and the other major element is protecting one’s mind from falling after the thought that grasps at phenomena to be truly existent. Yeah, so the two main problems we have that bring all our suffering and confusion is self-cherishing and self grasping. So self grasping is another term for ignorance. And what does ignorance do?
It grasps at phenomena to be truly existent. Well, it grasps at the sense of self and phenomena to be truly existing? So that’s the morality of protecting the mind from doing that as much as possible by training in developing wisdom. So when we practice in such a way that our practice of morality will be stainless and it becomes the Mahāyāna practice of ethics. Of course also what makes it a Mahāyāna practice is doing it with the bodhicitta motivation.
Just following on the six perfections very quickly so the more we practice morality with the bodhicitta motivation avoiding harming beings in every way especially by reducing our self-cherishing, benefiting them in more and more ways, that leads to be in a position where we can perfect patience because if we are really starting to benefit sentient beings more and more we will have more and more energy to avoid harming them and what harms them most is through our anger and patience is the antidote to that. So the more we practice generosity and morality we’ve got a very strong valid basis to become a more genuinely patient person. And if you think about it which we should patience is also another expression of compassion. Right? Because by being patient with other people’s bad behaviour or what we see as other people’s negative behaviour towards us when we are avoiding harming them and that’s presumably because we have compassion for them or it will build our compassion for them and by practicing wanting to practice patience send that as being incredibly harmful to ourselves.
Our anger harms ourselves far more than how it harms others then that is being compassionate towards ourselves. If we are compassionate towards ourselves we will try to be patient and not give in to our anger. So the more patient we become with others we will also be able to practice every other kind of patience which is being patient with every kind of difficulty: other external difficulties difficulties of getting sick, growing old, the difficulties of just having a berserk mind, a deluded mind and also most importantly we will be able to practice more and more the patience of bearing the difficulties of practicing Dharma especially the difficulties of moving into more advanced Dharma. Is the Dharma of just being a nice person which shouldn’t be too difficult depending on how unnice we are as we start off in life but then there’s more than being just a nice person in Dharma practice one has to learn many things one has to try and learn about emptiness and so on. So these things can be difficult.
Also meditating for long periods of time in order to be able to if one meditates for five minutes that’s fantastic but in five minutes you can’t get very far in one’s understanding and experience of meditation. So if one is able to meditate for longer and longer periods of time, one is able to, you know, have deeper and deeper, more transformative experiences. Well, one’s create not necessarily, but one’s creating the condition, you know, just meditating a long time doesn’t necessarily mean terrific things will happen but if one can and one’s meditating correctly on the correct teachings then one is creating the condition where one could have really deep, very transformative experiences. So to be able to do that we have to be willing experience difficulties. I don’t know if there’s anyone who is able to sit and meditate without pain.
Like every time they sit and meditate there’s no pain, no difficulty. Maybe there are some people and of course at some level you would get to that point but not instantaneously. This is not just applying to westerners or something. See the Tibetan lamas and that they also have difficulties and things and problems but they put up with it. And like Lama Zopa Rinpoche often says, he makes the point that no realized being achieved their realizations without pain and difficulties having the ability to experience, you know, problems hardships hardships is the word hardships so we need this patience the more we’ve got that then then we will really start to enjoy the dharma or hopefully we’ll have started to enjoy it before that but I mean really really enjoy it you know?
And the definition this is about the only definition in the dharma I know so I like to pretend I expound this definition. So the definition of enthusiasm is finding joy in virtue which is a wonderful definition. Finding joy in virtue or in the sense of experiencing joy in doing virtuous things that is practicing the Dharma one experiences this incredible joy and if you check anything that oneself or you look at another person, anything we enjoy we have lots of energy to do. Trouble is we enjoy mostly doing worldly things so we have lots of energy to go shopping, you know, talking and stuff like that but as soon as, you know, holy virtuous dharma but imagine if we really got this incredible joy from it then we have so much energy to do it and we would do it and therefore we would get the benefits and that would lead to being able to perfect the next practice which is developing the ability to concentrate the mind in meditation, to really focus the mind. And once we’ve done that, that leads to we’ve got the foundations to be able to use our intellectual understanding of emptiness if we’ve developed that to single pointedly focus on that and that will eventually lead to the development of real wisdom, penetrative insight into reality.
So that’s a little bit how the six perfections work. Of course once we’ve developed that wisdom then we’re on our way, really on our way to enlightenment especially if we’re doing all these six perfections with the bodhicitta thought. So the next where are we? So the next verse is a praising Tārā with reference to the respect that is shown to her by all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So this Tārā is also gold, also holding in her right hand a yellow vase.
So this Tārā manifests to grant the highest life long life and protection from untimely death. So in Tibetan it says So in English, our translation says: exception, and upon whom the sons of the victorious ones rely. So we are now prostrating, paying homage and remember this prostrating is not just physically but especially is the prostration with our mind of respecting, having faith and devotion and refuge in Tārā who is the victorious crown pinnacle of the Buddhas because she is the mother of the victorious ones. Here it says those thus gone. Those thus gone in Sanskrit is Tathāgata, so this is a term for a Buddha, thus gone to the experience of the complete realization of emptiness, gone beyond completely beyond all samsaric experience.
So they are the ones the one thus gone, the Buddha. So Tārā is a Tathāgata. She has she is one who is thus gone, and she is the mother of all Buddhas. So Geshe Loden says Tārā sits on the crown of all the Tathagatas she has the Ushnisha of all the Tathagatas. So the Ushnisha is one of the thirty two major signs of a Buddha.
A Buddha is said to have thirty two major signs and eighty minor signs Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that the Ushnisha is the most special of all the thirty two major signs the crowning pinnacle which appears above the Buddha’s hair So that crown pinnacle the Ushnisha the crowning pinnacle is actually meant to be part of the Buddha’s actual crown appearing above his hair which is a deep blue color and every hair is individually curling to the right to the right and that which is supposed to symbolize that the Buddha’s mind is never confused, doesn’t get tangled up so each hair is completely separate from every other hair and above that is the Ushnisha and in one teaching it says that the cause the specific cause of achieving because each of the thirty two major and eighty minor signs of the Buddha has a specific cause for that sign and the specific cause for achieving the Ushnisha is respecting one’s Guru. So the more one respects one’s Guru, has devotion to the Guru, the more one is creating the cause to have the uṣṇīṣa. And also very specifically within that context a more specific cause is actually visualizing one’s Guru on the crown of one’s head which is sometimes a commitment one gets with various practices, initiations and so on to actually visualize the Guru on one’s crown.
For example Tārā Tārā is over here I don’t know if it’s depicted properly but she has Amitābha on the crown of her head so she in a sense she is an emanation of Amitābha but also one can also say that Amitābha is her Guru so Amitābha is on her crown. You will read in many many different situations of devotional prayers about the people visualizing their Guru on the crown of their head always doing that practice Because in this way if one is always thinking of the Guru, it doesn’t matter if the Guru is a million miles away, the Guru is always with you, always protecting you, always blessing the mind. So if read Milarepa’s one hundred thousand songs which are fortunate well I shouldn’t say fortunately but there aren’t one hundred thousand of them so it’s quite possible to read them. It’s fortunate in that sense that it’ll take a long time to read one hundred thousand but Milarepa uses that expression quite a bit talking about the Guru on the crown because his Guru was a long way away but the Guru was always on his crown and in his heart. Tārā is like on the crown of all the Buddhas because through her everyone will become a Buddha.
So is the way to honor the Guru. So Mother Tārā sits on all the Buddha’s crowns. She is like the uṣṇīṣa of all the Buddhas. Oh okay, we’ve rung the bell have we? Maybe we’ll take a break there unless there’s a a question?
Small simple question? Yeah? In that case it could be, but in many, many depictions of deities, like for example Mañjuśrī over there next to the Medicine Buddha, they often depicted the deities are always depicted on a lotus and the lotuses are depicted coming out of a lake which is natural because that’s what they tend to do in general. But on the other side of that coming out of river Jambu you may be onto a good thing there. Yeah, great okay thank you tea break is that that’s rain wow abides in the manner of having abandoned the two obscurations, the afflictions and their imprints.
So the two obscurations are called the Obscurations to Liberation which are the afflictions, ignorance and all the other delusions. These are the obscurations to liberation so Arahant gets rid of those but Arahant still has the other obscurations of the mind which are the obscurations to omniscience and they are the subtle imprints of the delusions. So a Buddha such as TAR has removed the obscurations to liberation and the obscurations to omniscience. So she has attained the transcendent perfections without exception and so she’s the one whom the sons of the victorious ones rely so the sons of the victorious ones is referring to the bodhisattvas they are like the sons or daughters of the Buddhas Sorry, just to repeat this again. So she has attained transcendent perfections without exception, and upon whom the sons and daughters of the victorious ones rely in the sense that the bodhisattvas are the ones who have completed the ten perfections.
There are what are called the ten grounds on the path to enlightenment or the ten bhumis. So sorry if I bore you with a bit of technical stuff which I have mentioned before, but the actual path to enlightenment is made up of actually sometimes four or five paths so there is what is called the path. When you actually generate bodhicitta, you actually when you generate spontaneous bodhicitta is when you actually enter the path to enlightenment. So before that we have to develop renounce this life, renounce saṃsāra, develop some understanding of emptiness and work on generating bodhicitta and at some point we will be able to generate spontaneous bodhicitta. The moment we do that we actually enter the path to enlightenment, the actual path and we enter it in what is called the path of accumulation and then comes the path of preparation and then the third path is called the path of insight and this is when a bodhisattva directly perceives emptiness in meditation for the first time directly perceives it not indirectly conceptually but directly and says at that point that a Bodhisattva on the path of insight becomes an Ārya Bodhisattva.
Remember an Ārya is someone who’s directly perceived emptiness so that’s why Mother Tārā is also called Ārya Tārā because she has perceived emptiness not just a little bit but totally and she’s the embodiment of it. Ārya Bodhisattva on the path of insight is a first level Bodhisattva, and then there are or on the first bhūmi, the first stage. Bhumi is the Sanskrit word which can be translated as stage or level. So and so then there are nine more stages. So after the path of insight which only has that is very short, then comes the path of meditation which has these nine stages nine more bhūmis to go.
At the very end of the seventh bhūmi, a bodhisattva completely eliminates ignorance so they achieved liberation from saṃsāra so their realization of emptiness is the same as an arhat but the difference is an arhat will then what won’t progress any further dwell in the state of nirvana whereas an eighth level bodhisattva keeps going. An eighth, ninth and tenth level bodhisattvas are said to be on the pure grounds. The first to the seventh bodhisattva bhūmis are on impure grounds because these beings, although they are, you know, exceptionally unbelievable beings or even just having generated bodhicitta they have all sorts of psychic powers, can manifest trillions of bodies and and, you know, do all sorts of amazing things mind blowing things they are still, believe it or not, in saṃsāra because they still have ignorance. It’s only at the very end of the seventh bhūmi that they get rid of it and pop out of saṃsāra and they are on the pure grounds of the eighth, ninth and tenth so also what happens among other things I mentioned I think was it last week or the week before that a first level Ārya Bodhisattva is able to manifest a hundred bodies and then each of those a hundred bodies is able to manifest a hundred bodies.
I don’t know why they just can’t do ten thousand straight away but they you know, there’s some kind of reason I don’t know what it is kind of machinery involved there, reason that the bodhisattva manifests a hundred and then each of those produces a hundred if they want to. And so as you become a second, third, you know, you are able to manifest more and more bodies. That’s one thing. But also, as you go through the Bhumis from the first to the tenth, you this is when you perfect the perfections. So a first level Arya bodhisattva perfects generosity.
So a first level bodhisattva can like chop off their arm and give it to someone, gouge out their eye no problem. If you want my eye, you can have my eye. Want my heart, you can have my heart. If you want my life, you can have it. There’s no problem for a bodhisattva to do that.
So they have perfected generosity and the second level bodhisattva perfects morality, a third level bodhisattva perfects patience, fourth level bodhisattva perfects perseverance, a fifth level bodhisattva am I right? Yeah it perfects concentration and the sixth level bodhisattva perfects wisdom although I am not sure really really don’t ask me what that means because they haven’t completely. I don’t think. Well, I have in one way. Anyway, that’s what I said.
We could check out what that actually means. They perfect wisdom. So then a seventh level bodhisattva perfects because they so these are the usual six perfections but they also talk about ten perfections which correspond to the ten bhūmis. So a seventh level bodhisattva perfects what is called skillful means. So this is a very very important concept in Mahāyāna Buddhism that this is what a bodhisattva really specializes in Skillful means of benefiting others.
So a bodhisattva is trying to benefit sentient beings in every possible way. I mean, the ultimate aim is to help them achieve enlightenment, but also a bodhisattva wants beings to have every kind of good thing worldly spiritual. As long as it doesn’t cause harm to that sentient being or enable that sentient being to harm others, then the bodhisattva wants to help sentient beings in every possible way. A seventh level bodhisattva perfects that ability of having perfect skillful means. Wouldn’t that be great?
To have perfect skillful means? To be absolutely perfectly skillful all the time in every situation with everyone. Mamma Mia! The eighth level, so this is one ninth level bodhisattva is out of saṃsāra, they’re on the pure grounds, on the path of meditation. An eighth level bodhisattva perfects the quality of aspiration or vows and this is I’m pretty sure I’m not a hundred percent sure but I’m almost sure I’ve mentioned this before in some other classes that it’s at this stage where bodhisattvas make these special vows because this is where they have this incredible power for their vows due to their enormous merit to be successful.
Say for example, know, eight medicine Buddhas made vows to be able to help heal sentient beings and be successful in the degenerate times. Is why Lama Zopa Rinpoche says it’s really good to rely on the practice of the Medicine Buddhas not just for healing but for any kind of success you want in life. As long as the success you want is not going to harm others and you particularly want it it may be some kind of worldly success but that’s sort of necessary for one’s Dharma practice then relying on the Medicine Buddhas is really good because when they were eighth level bodhisattvas they made these special vows. Just like Śākyamūni Buddha made a vow when he was an athe that he would come back and benefit sentient beings in these really degenerate times. But no, others say he made the vow to help the dregs of the dregs which is us I have no idea where the body Well, he is said to be a Buddha not, he is said to be an emanation of Avalokiteśvara so that if that is all one hundred percent true that means he is a Buddha but of course he doesn’t say that but sometimes he says he’s more than a simple monk yeah.
He doesn’t say yeah. He does say interesting things sometimes when people push him because he has said because some people say, well, you know, you’re being so humble is kind of depressing because if you’re nowhere, then we’re away. You know, there’s no hope for us. And then so he told us he said, oh, okay. Well, in that case so he kind of gives little hints.
He said something like he thinks he might have been around when Śākyamūni Buddha was teaching other times he says things like he feels that he has a very very strong connection with the fifth Dalai Lama so Lama Zopa Rinpoche says that that’s his holiness’s way of saying I was the fifth Dalai Lama! Yeah yeah but I mean yeah that’s what he says I was at a teaching in nineteen eighty five in Dharmasala where, his holiness said in front of thousands of people that, Palden Lhamo comes to speak to him regularly complaining about what’s going on in the universe. Sorry? Helen, it was a she. Palden Lhamo is this very sorry, I got distracted.
Some impermanence has occurred. Once again something has disappeared from my glasses. Do you have the same problem of losing these little things? Anyway, that’s what happens when you buy cheap glasses but if you buy expensive glasses you sit on them. So I’ve never sit on cheap glasses but I sit on expensive ones.
Sorry that was rhyme. Palden Lhamo is an extremely wrathful protector of Tibet, Very scary looking lady. But again it must also have to be a manifestation of Tārā. Tārā appears in this very wrathful. She’s not listed here but this is a particularly special form and such Palden Lhamo is said to be one of the main protectors of Tibet but particularly the personal protector of the Dalai Lama’s and His Holiness has a strong connection with her.
So his holiness is not someone who I think lies or pretends things. So when he says Palden Lhamo comes to talk to him that means something because Palden Lhamo doesn’t come around talking to anybody. If she does, they probably don’t have to say that you have to be someone pretty special to be able to kind of have a chat with Palden Lhamo. Oh, yes. Yes.
Yes. Definitely. Yeah. Yes. He he became a Geshe.
He did all the Geshe studies while, you know, the communists are invading invading Tibet. He was, you know, having to deal with that plus he was doing his Geshe studies and became a highest degree Geshe at the age of nine. I think he was nineteen when doing all the exams, passing with flying colors. There was film of him doing the debates. It’s quite beautiful.
Have you seen this? Some of it was quite amazing. And as I mentioned in the I met one of the monks in you can see in one of those films in Tibet when I went there with Rinpoche. Yeah. You probably can.
I think a lot of that is on internet on YouTube. Everything is on YouTube. Yes. Okay. Also, want just a little illustration said with the thirty five Buddhas, also made these vows.
Each of the thirty five Buddhas made the vow that they would help purify the negative karma of beings in the degenerate times so is done at that stage. Also Tārā she said you know, she was encouraged to become enlightened as a man and she said, No way, you know, there’s too many male Buddhas. I’ll be a female Buddha to inspire people. So I assume that vow that she would always take a female form was done at this one. Perfection is the perfecting of spiritual power to have that endless power to benefit sentient beings and then finally the tenth perfection is the perfection of wisdom.
Yeah the transcendental wisdom which in Sanskrit is called Jñāna not Prajñā which is a lesser one. Prajñā is the one that’s perfected on the sixth sixth you know the perfection of wisdom is the Prajñā pāramitā and then there’s Yeshe in Tibetan and Prajñā is Sherab in Tibetan, and Yeshe is like in Lama Yeshe, Thubten Yeshe. Yeshe in English I think sometimes could be translated as gnosis, or however that word is pronounced, gnosis Transcendental Wisdom Okay right where are we? So first said that all the different bodhisattvas abiding on the different grounds, these ten bhūmis, respectfully rely on Tārā so in order to achieve the next stage that the Bodhisattvas rely on Tārā. So this is the explanation of the last two lines of this verse which say Who has attained transcendent perfections without exceptions, and upon whom the sons of the victorious ones rely.
So while Tārā is the object of prostration and homage of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, it goes without saying that we sentient beings must pay attention to this. We need to remember how Tārā is different from all the Buddhas in the sense that her enlightened activities are quicker and faster. That’s her special thing. She’s quicker and faster than any other Buddha. Put her on the track and she’s way ahead.
I don’t know sorry? I had to get up quicker maybe. Yeah. So the next verse is praising Tārā with reference to how she overcomes all opposing factors. So the Tibetan says which can translate as where’s the Homage to you Tārā, who are the masters to Tārā and whom?
Which of course are from her mantra Om Tare Tare Ture Svāhā, fill the realms of desire, direction, and space whose feet trample on the seven worlds and who are able to draw all beings to you. So this Tara is orange in color holding a red vase in her right hand. So this tyra manifests particularly in order to be able to attract people and control them in a nice way and for attracting wealth. So if you want to be a bit richer rely on this Tārā. So Tuttare refers to the mantra garland of Tārā, Tuttare, Ture Svāhā that is encircling her heart.
The syllable hum which is the physical form of the realization of compassion and wisdom in her holy mind is at her heart. She feels the entire cyclic existence of desire, direction and space, with a resonating sound from the syllable together with the light emitted from the mantra garland at her heart. When it says desire, direction and space, desire refers to the desire realms that are made up of the five types of migrators. So there’s the lowest of the beings in the desire realm, the most suffering are the beings in hell. Then there are what are called the hungry ghosts or in Sanskrit called the Preta, then there’s the the animals, the beings in the animal realm, then the humans and the desire realm gods.
And the direction refers to the form realms, and space refers to the beings that are in the in the formless realms. So those beings in the form and formless realm are referred to as gods. So they’re not gods in the sense of the Christian creator god, but gods more in the sense a bit like the Greek gods, but the the gods in the form and formless realm are much more what’s pure than the Greek gods because the Greek gods are always fighting and everything. They’re more like actually the Buddhist concept of the demigods, the asuras. The four realms are five types of beings the Desire Realm, then there’s the Form Realm Gods, and then the Formless Realm Gods.
So that’s how you can talk about seven realms. So when we bestowed for the seven realms with the sound from the syllable Hum and the light from the mantra garland, she also travels on the seven worlds with her holy feet to control effortlessly all the beings in these realms. So this light going from the syllable and the mantra at her heart, one shouldn’t take too literally. It’s just a symbolic way of showing how a Buddha’s enlightened activity compassion goes out to to reach every sentient being in the universe. It it’s it’s not restricted in any way.
So that light symbolizes in a way the enlightened mind of a Buddha. So that enlightened mind is totally unobstructed. So it’s like a ray ray is going it’s not actually, but it’s like rays of light going out touching everyone. So because the enlightened mind is totally aware, you know, clearly aware of every sentient being all the time and that awareness is an awareness that is totally pervaded by love and compassion. It’s not just like Oh, Fred’s over there, who cares?
It’s Oh, that’s Fred, you know, and that you know you got it right. You. Okay. Geshe Loden in his commentary said When it’s such that she travels on the seven worlds it doesn’t mean that she’s got really big feet. It just means that she it’s this very poetic, symbolic way of saying she has enormous amounts of energy to be able to subdue all the difficulties and problems sentient beings are facing.
So is able to hook and control all sentient beings for their benefit. Tārā is working for us all the time. The light rays from her mantra garland are constantly shining on us, and the sound from the syllable Hum at her heart is resonating and filling the whole world even though we do not hear it. When we keep this in mind and have faith and belief in this, then Tārā is always with us, working for us. So I think a really important thing to try and understand is because when you read that or hear it, and there’s similar things relating to Śākyamūni and whatever that you know, like Tārā is always working for us and doing all these fantastic things and then you think, well, I can’t see it and the world is full of suffering and misery, so this is not true.
But I think as it says, that energy is actually there working for sentient beings, but the trouble is that we block it. Sentient beings block that. Just like with ordinary people, there are ordinary people trying to be kind to suffering people and the suffering people block it. They don’t want to be helped. Or maybe they want to be helped but they have a concept of how they want to be helped and it’s not what is coming to them from their friends or family and whatever and it’s blocked and they don’t see it as help and they reject it and particularly they’re not open to it.
So no matter how much is done, that person doesn’t benefit. And we’re like that in general. I think it’s really important to try and understand how that oh, sorry. I’m just gonna do this because I found it you know Lama Zopa Rinpoche says, well, they’re they’re completely ordinary people who are incredibly kind to others. They’re people who are incredibly kind to others and do you know, put so much out to help others.
And they’re not necessarily Buddhist or religious or anything, but they really work hard to be kind to others. Then there are people who have met religious traditions and practice those very sincerely and really work on developing their love, compassion, really work on reducing the things that stop that so they develop more love, compassion and there are people who have been doing that for longer periods of time more intensively so they have awakened their potential for love and compassion and the ability to benefit others more and more and more and more and more. So there are people who generate bodhicitta and then there are the ten levels of bodhisattvas with bodhicitta doing amazing amazing amazing amazing things, manifesting bodies and doing all sorts of things. So Lama Sopa Rinpoche says: How can you not believe that a Buddha who has eliminated every limitation from their mind is not working or acting for your benefit now. When even ordinary people are trying to be nice to you and they have self-cherishing, how could we think that a Buddha who has no self-cherishing, no limitations whatsoever isn’t working for and that’s not the word!
Working implies lots of hard effort and sweating acting for our benefit. The whole problem is us like when we’re screaming in hell there’s very little the Buddha can do. Yeah. As a preta, you know, as an animal, even as a human being, there’s not much the Buddhas can do, especially when the vast majority of human beings aren’t interested. It s only when firstly we become a human being but especially a human being who meets the Dharma and more than meets it or contacts it, they develop faith in it.
And then that person, you know, can really are in a position to be really or to allow themselves to be touched by the Buddha’s teachings because that’s the most way a Buddha can get to us is to to teach the Dharma. As an ant, a Buddha can pick us up in his hand and recite a mantra over us and they did that. Maybe that s why we ve met the Dharma in this life because some Buddha or bodhisattva said om mani padmi hum in our ear when we were a cockroach. Oh not you, me! Right but it’s yeah anyway now where am I?
Yes so to write this to Tārā, Tārā is acting for our benefit all the time but we block ourselves so reciting the praises visualizing Tārā and reciting the praises is a way to tell ourselves Tārā is here, she is acting for my benefit and that helps and developing this devotion to Tārā and what she represents opens our heart to being receiving the Trinley of the Buddha of Tārā and connecting with these qualities already in us. Just get awakened more. Right? So it’s all dependent arising it isn’t magic it’s dependent arising depending on us doing stuff and thinking in a particular way and working on it again and again and again the blessings of Tārā can really come. At that point I’ll stop because otherwise Shell will beat me up.
She threatened at the break time. She threatened. It was it was subtle threat. It was a subtle threat but it was it was noted. Oh, oh, sorry.
I have to do that. We’ve gotta do the praises. So at least once or twice or something. There are okay. So the actual no.
No. I’m lost. Where are we? So we have to go to the chantable part. Can I open up your copy?
So please go to the praises that are chantable, which are page five. This covers the literal translation and that is the chantable ones. Page fourteen So I’ll do it on Tibetan. No, we’ll double time in English. Just the one time tonight.
Sorry, I meant to spend more time on this. I’ll learn one day. But now I have to blame someone so before it’s just I forgot that’s good when people ask questions I like that So we can now, dedicate the the merit of doing the praises and, studying the text. So if you go to the little text the teaching praise we go to page eight first Through the merits of these virtuous actions may I quickly attain the state of Ārya Tārā and all living beings without exception, into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhicitta not yet born, arise and grow, may the Dharma have no decline, but increase forevermore.
The objective refuge of myself and of all transmigratory beings in all our lifetimes is the embodiment of the Three Jewels, the only encompassing three refuges in one, the glorious wish-granting jewel, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, the Guru Padmasambhava, the Dharma King Songtsen Gampo and Trisong Detsen, the abbot Shāntarakshita and the numberless holy beings who preserved and spread the Buddhadharma in Tibet and the Tibetan people who practiced and served Buddhism so faithfully for a thousand years, as well as those who along with many others died sacrificing their lives for Tibet and His Holiness, may all their positive wishes be fulfilled immediately. Due to their relentless kindness, the light of Tibetan Buddhism has now risen in the West, which was a dark land. But now that I have met with the Dharma, I have received the perfect human body, allowing me to lead a meaningful life. I rejoice that the supreme one, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, is so kind to us. Remembering this, we make the following dedication prayers.
That for his holiness, the Dalai Lama’s wishes be successful immediately. May we have Tibetan pure freedom and develop the Buddha Dharma even more than before in Tibet. May all transmigratory beings achieve enlightenment quickly. Snowland teachings and transmigratory beings, who makes extremely clear the path to unification, the stronghold of Ganden, I beseech. May all your wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.
Yongdzin Ling Rinpoche, the subduer, moral guide, who serves the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving, spreading Mañjuśrī’s victorious doctrine, her masterly accomplished magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, Savior of myself and others, your disciples, please, please live long. Lama Dondrub, who in accordance with the various dispositions of those to be subdued, makes good use of your well-spoken advice, the sacred Ganden tradition, essence of Buddha’s teachings, of the highest and holy lama, to you who are supreme. O lama, please, please, live long. Okay. So for those who, feel comfortable and find it meaningful, we, do finish with, three prostrations two