Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour-fifteen-minute teaching on the Twenty-One Taras, Ven Thubten Dondrub provides a detailed Tantric commentary on the praises to these manifestations of the enlightened activity of Tārā, accessible to those with refuge and ideally Tārā initiation, though increasingly taught without formal empowerment. He opens with preparation prayers and the correct motivation of bodhicitta, then systematically moves through the first six praises praising Tārā’s peaceful enjoyment body—the Red Tārā who destroys obstacles, White Tārā for disease, Gold Taras for longevity—then turns to the wrathful manifestations, particularly the Black Tārā who subdues black magic and harmful spirits. Throughout, Dondrub emphasizes the protective benefits of each Tārā, explains her iconography (posture, colours, ornaments, mantra syllables), and anchors the practice in dependent arising: blessings and results come through the interdependence of the Buddha’s compassion, the practitioner’s faith, ethical conduct, and sincere motivation. The teaching culminates in a guided chanting of all twenty-one praises, first in Tibetan and twice in English, with visualization of each Tārā blessing all sentient beings.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 – 21 Taras 2014 05 08 080514.mp3
UUID: d5fe8c14-7961-4d0c-9c86-ef4e13e0d106
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Twenty One Taras (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2014-05-08
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 135.9 minutes
Words: ~11,155
Jan, I don’t think I have the, prayer book. Thanks Welcome everyone to our Thursday night class on the praises to the twenty one Taras. So this is a Mahāyāna teaching and actually within the Mahāyāna this in fact is a teaching of from the tantric tradition and of the four classes of tantra. It comes from the first class, the Kriyā class of tantra. So the praises were actually spoken by the Buddha himself in praise of Tārā.
Since it is Mahāyāna teaching in fact from the Tantric tradition it’s really important that we should have refuge in the Triple Gem in order to listen to this commentary and also strictly speaking one should have a Tārā initiation but it seems that even though this is from the tantric tradition, tantric commentary, lamas seem to give it to people, give the commentary to people these days without initiation. So if they do that, I think I’m allowed to as well. They’ve set the precedent. To repeat again, sorry. Since this is a Mahāyāna teaching it’s really important that we have the right the appropriate motivation for listening to a tantric or a Mahāyāna teaching which is having the bodhicitta thought.
The Mahāyāna teachings of the Buddha emphasize using our life, the series of precious lives that we have, to realize our Buddha nature so that we can achieve enlightenment, that we are in a position to be of perfect benefit to all sentient beings. The tantric teachings in particular enable us to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible so that we can help bring about the end of suffering of sentient beings as quickly as possible. In addition, the aim of a Mahāyāna practitioner is not only to help free all beings from suffering but to lead them to peerless everlasting happiness. Recognizing how all sentient beings are so immensely kind and yet how they are all trapped in saṃsāra helplessly and controlled by self grasping ignorance and self-cherishing. So we need to help them to become free of all these obscurations and limitations that bring so much suffering.
So to achieve enlightenment, so to benefit all sentient beings we ourselves have to achieve enlightenment and to do that there are many things we need to accomplish, many things to practice, many things to understand and to help us do all those things it’s really very important, useful, skillful to rely on Ārya Tārā, Mother Tārā, to receive the blessings of Tārā in all her aspects. So it’s for this reason that we study this practice tonight. So firstly, can Thursday night is meant to be the night for people who have a little bit more background in the Buddhadharma so we do much more traditional things, more prayers than normal, usual. So we start with on page five, the prayer to the lion faced dakini, so if you would like to join in that. All of these prayers were designed to help us prepare our mind so that when we receive the teachings they make the greatest impact on our mind, bring about the greatest benefit now and in the future.
I prostrate to the gathering of dakinis and the three places who abide in the holy yoga of using space-like awareness by your powers of clairvoyance and magical emanation. Look after practitioners like a mother her child. Akasama Rajasadhara Samara Yipe. Akasama Rajasadhara Samara Yipe. Akasama Rajasadhara Rajasadhara Samara Yipe.
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. So does everyone do you have the prayer book? Oh, good.
Okay. And do you have the copy of the praises? That’s separate. Separate one? Okay.
We go to the next page. Six. 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 touches in sixty ways with the 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 thunderous dragon 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 the Buddha who has completed the ten stages achieving the highest perfection of the bodhisattva, who has been pure from the beginning. O manjushri, O 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 text that explain them. So now we visualize Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us as our source of refuge, inspiration and guidance and also think of the Buddha as the embodiment of all our perfect teachers of the past, present and future. And at the same time we think of all sentient beings surrounding us starting with our mother of this life on our left, father on our right, rest of our family, friends and helpers behind us, harmers in front, and then as much as possible, opening our hearts and minds to being aware and concerned for all other sentient beings of the six realms of cyclic existence. So then firstly we offer a mandala as a way to request the teachings on the praises, as a way to accumulate merit and as a way to purify our mind.
That was twice wasn’t it? Yes. So we do one one time in English. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. By the merits I create through listening to the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings.
Thinking the Buddha is really pleased with us, with our motivation for being here, then we imagine that the Buddha shows his pleasure with us by now approaching us. When the Buddha is directly above our crown, we imagine the Buddha turns to face the same direction as our self, then dissolves into blissful golden light. And that blissful light pours down into us through the crown of our head, blessing our mind. So then we can reinforce that positive state of mind by briefly doing some breathing meditation such as the nine round breathing exercise just to help our mind become a little bit more calm, clear, and concentrated so that we can use that level of mind to listen to and think about the Buddha’s teachings tonight. Okay, thank you.
So just before we start, I think there may be a couple of people here not here before. There’s just a very brief outline of the praises. So do you have that? You do. You were here last week.
No, have the The week before. But you’ve got the outline. Yep. This one? No.
No. It’s an outline. You can go in. Oh, I’m sorry. And wow, this is extremely warm in here, isn’t it?
Yes. It’s boiling. No. No. Oh, it’s okay.
It’ll probably get colder as everything’s impermanent. And, also, could you hand out one of these, please? Sorry. I just keep one myself. So remember the prizes, these prizes to twenty one Tarah, the reason for giving the commentary, the reason why a commentary exists is to make sense of more sense, give more meaning to the praises and for the purpose so that what we actually practice this, we actually do this recitation as much as possible for our own benefit, for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Tārā exists, Tārā manifests from the enlightened state, from the formless dharmakaya state to help us in every possible way to benefit firstly ourselves, so that ultimately we can be of vast benefit to others. So when when we recite the the praises, the twenty one praises, we we visualize firstly the central Tārā in front of us, And then so she is seated on a incredibly beautiful multicolored lotus, and above that is a moon disc. And then Tārā is seated on that with her right leg outstretched. Sometimes she’s depicted with a smaller lotus underneath that right foot and the left foot is drawn up closely towards her body. And her right arm is outstretched in the in this Mudra which is called the Mudra of granting blessings or protection and that hand is holding the stem of a Utpala or blue lotus flower and that is blossoming at her right ear.
And no. Sorry. Sometimes she’s holding the stem of a blue lotus there. Sometimes not. There are different traditions.
Her left hand is in the mood of granting refuge where the that finger ring finger ring finger is touching the thumb at her heart. That is holding the stem of a blue Utpala flower, blue lotus flower blossoming at her left ear. Tārā has a hollow body of green light and her lower body is adorned with a silk like robe of many different colors. Her upper body is bare although she has these silk like robes over her shoulders. Her body is also adorned with these different jeweled ornaments that symbolize the six perfections which we were talking about last week.
She has all the deities, the Buddha’s appearing in that aspect as deities have these ornaments symbolic of the six perfections. There’s a five pointed crown on her head, then jeweled earrings, and three strands of necklaces. There are she has jeweled armlets and bracelets, a jeweled belt, and jeweled anklets. And also she has, Amitābha sitting on the crown of her head to indicate in one way one could look at it that Amitābha is her Guru, but also that, she is in a sense an emanation of Amitābha, the Buddha of boundless light. And so one also imagines that the emanating from from Green Tārā are the twenty one manifestations to benefit us.
And so the praises are directed to these twenty one different Taras, but it’s also really praising twenty one different aspects of Aria Tārā. And so one visualizes these twenty one Taras starting with the first one sitting directly in front of green Tārā, the central figure, and then going clockwise sorry, anti clockwise around her. So far if you look at the outline, the praise, the praise to the first Tārā, the red Tārā, this is in praise by way of her story, her history of having practiced intensively for many many eons and deciding to manifest in female form. Also another aspect of her story, a symbolic aspect is how she appears from a tear of Avalokiteśvara, which indicates that she’s a very active form of compassion. Remember Tārā is both the embodiment of wisdom and compassion, but very specifically the central figure of Tārā embodies the or symbolizes the enlightened activity of the Buddha, of the enlightened mind.
So then the next six verses are praising her by way of her peaceful enjoyment body, the Sambhogakāya. So we’ve covered a few of those. So the first Tārā is red. This is the swift lady of glory who destroys hindering demons and injuries. Then there the second Tārā, White Tārā, which is the first of of the praises relating to her peaceful enjoyment body.
This is the lady of supreme peace who defeats diseases and evil spirits. Then the next one Gold Tārā increases life and enjoyment. The fourth one is also a golden color. She is grants the highest life the lady of complete victory so I think that’s where we stopped last week didn’t we or did we do the fifth one Yes. So, yes, that’s the orange Tārā.
This is the the Tārā who proclaims the sound of who subjugates and summons with a gesture of wisdom. So now the next one is a black-red Tārā. She who is completely victorious over the three worlds. Right. Okay.
So the Tibetan says, So the translation goes, homage to you Tārā, venerated by Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayo, and Īśvara, and prized by the assembly of spirits, raised corpses, Gandharvas, and all Yakshas. To understand this praise it may be helpful to refer to that chart I gave you which shows the realms of cyclic existence. The realms of cyclic existence, so anyone who is in Samsāra such as ourselves because we have ignorance and delusion, have taken rebirth in all these different realms and we have the potential to be reborn in them again in the future. Right now we are in the desire realm, so we are in the human realm, which of all the realms is the best one to practice Dharma. Yeah.
And especially to practice tantra. And so in the desire realm, there are the lower realms of animals, hungry ghosts, the hell beings. And then there are the god realms of the desire realm. There are six kinds of god realms in the desire realm. There are the well here it says the four realms of Indra.
There’s a little bit it’s not a hundred percent clear here. I’m sorry. This is where the four guardian kings of the four directions abide in that realm. And then there’s the realm of the thirty-three which I think actually is where Indra who is referred to in that praise abides. So Indra, another name for Indra in Sanskrit is Shakra.
So he is said to be the king of the gods. Meaning the king of the the the gods of the the desire realm. So then that you have the form realm and the formless realm. So to be reborn as a god in the desire realms, the cause of that is to practice pure morality. Right?
If one practices that, one can become reborn in the God realms where one lives for a very long time and experiences lots of bliss. To be reborn in the form and formless realms, to be born as a god or godess in the form and formless realms is much much more difficult because that requires developing various degrees of single pointed concentration in this life. And if you do that with a worldly motivation then when you die, or when we die, we get reborn in the form or formless realm which corresponds to the level of concentration we developed in this life. So in this life one can develop what are called the concentration of the form realm and there are four levels of it, the four Dhyanas of the form realm. So if one develops one of those in this life, when one dies, one will be spontaneously reborn in that actual realm corresponding to the degree of concentration one has developed.
If in this life we develop what are called the formless absorptions and it’s only done with a very worldly motivation not a real dharma motivation then when one dies one is spontaneously reborn in the formless realm that corresponds to the level of absorption one achieved in this life. In the form realm you can see that’s broken up into different levels. The lowest level is the God realm called the family of Brahma. There is the God realm called the entourage of Brahma and the god realm called great Brahma. So in the realm called great Brahma is where Brahma lives.
So he’s the most important of those gods. If you’re familiar with life story of Śākyamūni Buddha, after the Buddha achieved enlightenment, had first manifested thinking that it wasn’t possible to teach what he had realized to ordinary human beings. It was far too difficult for them to understand. But then in the story of the Buddha it says that gods, the beings from the god realms came down and offered the Buddha this enormous thousand spoke golden chakra, this golden wheel and requested him to teach saying that actually some human beings are not so obscured and if the Buddha was kind enough to teach they would be able to understand it, practice and benefit. So the two main gods who offered this golden Dharma wheel to Śākyamūni Buddha were Indra, the king of the desire realm gods, and Brahma, the main god of the formless realm.
So then Agni is the god of fire. Vayu is the god of wind. He’s one of these worldly gods.
Īśvara is also one of the leading gods of the desire realm. So right. So the assembly of spirits, there are countless according to Buddhist understanding, are countless kinds of spirit beings existing. There are some that are beneficial to human beings. They exist in a different realm from us.
They’re in the desire realm but they’re not in the human realm. Some can influence human beings in the human realm in a positive way. But there are all sorts of negative spirits that exist who can be very very harmful. They vary. And from a Buddhist point of view, certainly in the Tibetan tradition, a lot of mental illness is actually due to the influence of negative spirits.
But also various kinds of sicknesses can be due to all sorts of harmful spirits. So then the Gandharvas, these are a particular kind of spirit who are called they’re also called smell eaters because they survive on smells. They spend their time playing music. They are these celestial musicians. They are very attached to playing music.
So they live on smells and spend their time playing music. And then there are the Yakshas who are well, of them are depicted as really quite nasty and some as okay. Anyway, in the commentary it says, gods Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayu, and Īśvara are some of what are called the ten directional protectors. They are protectors of the four cardinal directions and the intermediate directions and also the directions of above and below. So for example Indra is the worldly protector of the eastern direction.
Agni the fire god is the worldly protector of the southeastern direction. Brahma is the worldly protector of above and Vayu the wind god is the worldly protector of the northwestern direction. So there are other directional protectors as well. So all these worldly gods who themselves are venerated by lesser gods and other spirit beings and so on, they all pay homage and venerate Tārā. Why?
Because she is far superior to them because she is an enlightened being. So also what that means is that Tārā has control and influence over all these worldly gods and the harmful spirits that they have some control over. So by relying on Tārā, we can protect ourselves from all these different kinds of beings. In other words, if we if we respect Tārā, then those peep those gods and beings who respect her will respect us. So in the commentary it says, when we have the faith of conviction and belief in Tārā, we will not be harmed by humans and nonhumans of the different classes of spirits.
Why? Because they all venerate and take refuge in Tārā. So in the commentary, it even says that it’s the same as having a statue of Tārā at home. We will, if we have that statue, venerate it, look after it, make offerings, seeing that as embodying the qualities of Tārā or the Tārā can operate through that statue. Just like the Gurus, our Gurus act as as mediums for the enlightened influence of the Buddhas.
If we see the Guru as Buddha, then we get the blessings of the Buddha coming through the Guru. Even though the Guru may be an ordinary being, but if we see if the the Guru has the proper qualities and the proper motivation, then if we see the Guru as Buddha, then the Buddha acts through the Guru. And in the same way, if we if we have a statue of of Tārā or we have a statue of the Buddha and we think of it not as just a statue but as being the actual deity represented, then somehow that deity, that Buddha can act through that to influence us. Actually, when one takes refuge, one of the commitments of taking refuge is to always see any image of a Buddha or a bodhisattva, any holy image as being that deity. Because the more we train our mind to think that way, the more benefit.
So we should respect statues a great deal. You never sell them, use them as decorations. It has become very popular to use Buddhist statues as home decorations or in the garden, which at one level is very nice. But for a Buddhist it’s not correct to use a statue or a stupa just simply or a painting just as a decoration. This is kind of really disrespectful because these images aren’t just decorative.
They’re not art. They are there for a very specific dharma purpose, religious purpose. The more we respect these images and train our mind to see them as the actual deities, for example an image of Tārā or the Thangka of Tārā as the deity, it can act like that. That’s how things work arising dependently, depending on our refuge, our motivation, our understanding, the fact that the enlightened mind of Tārā does exist and then depending on the image itself with all these things coming together then we can get the blessings of Tārā through an image. We can get protection.
Tārā can talk to us. She talked to Lama Atisha. Tārā, many statues of Tārā, talked to great holy beings. If we’re lucky, one day, these images might talk to us, but I wouldn’t go around telling people that because you might end up locked away somewhere. But the really essential thing for all this to happen, for us not just to imagine things and be completely crazy, it all happens depending on having faith.
You know, refuge, proper faith, proper devotion. But also more than that, so it depends on having refuge, right understanding and faith, but also living an ethical life, keeping our vows. If we do all those things, then we can receive a great deal of benefit. As the commentary says, when we live an ethical life and we have faith of conviction and belief in Tārā, there is no way we can be harmed by all different kinds of harmful spirits. So the last of the Tārā’s being praised by way of her peaceful enjoyment body is she who conquers others.
Tārā is black in color and she acts to avert magic mantras of others. So the praise says in Tibetan, Remember this originally existed in Sanskrit so the Sanskrit has been translated into Tibetan and then it’s been translated into English. So the the Tibetan goes, Homage to you Tārā, whose tray and pay destroy entirely the magical wheels of others. With your right leg bent and left outstretched and pressing, you burn intensely within a whirl of fire. So with these two syllables of tre and pe, Tārā is able to overcome all different kinds of black magic.
For example, just by uttering pe from her holy mouth, she is able to liberate and destroy all magic and opposing forces. Just by uttering these two syllables, tre and pe, she is able to destroy instantly the magical wheels of others. So so this is referring to all sorts of black magic curses and evil intentions directed against oneself. So generally speaking in Australia, there’s don’t know if there’s too much of a tradition of black magic being practiced, but in various cultures it is practiced. Certainly it was practiced in Tibet and India and maybe different cultures have brought it to Australia these days.
But I suppose the aboriginal people also practiced it as well. Various kinds of magic, white and black. So some people may be very skeptical that such things really exist, but it does seem to actually exist and be really quite effective. That there are people who can really do really nasty things through various kinds of magical incantations and so on. Hard to believe, but it does really seem to exist.
So Tārā can protect this Tārā especially can protect from that. One thing I should say, I forgot to say at the beginning, I did mention that ideally to receive at the very least to receive this commentary one should have refuge and ideally one should have a Tārā initiation. Because this is a Tantric practice, this commentary comes from the Tantric tradition. If you don’t have initiation, at least hopefully one has some faith in the Tantric teachings. One respects them as being as coming from the Buddha.
So but it’s best if one actually has the initiation and so when you so there is a particular initiation where one can receive be initiated into all the twenty one Tārā’s and each Tārā has her own purpose as the the praises explain. Each Tārā has her own slightly different version of the main mantra. So the main Tārā, the mantra of Tārā is Om Tare tare tare tare Svāhā. Each of these other twenty one Tārā’s has a slightly different version of that. So by visualizing that particular Tārā reciting her mantra, then these different protections and benefits can come about.
Since you’re all here, presumably because you’re all interested in Tārā and want to do this practice, I would recommend that at some point you do, if you haven’t received at least the green Tārā initiation and if possible the the initiation into the twenty one taras. Lama Zopa Rinpoche, as you may have read in our e news, is coming to Adelaide on the twenty ninth of October and will actually come to Buddha House on the thirtieth and either give a teaching or maybe an initiation. Set that time aside to meet one of the most special holy beings on the planet right now. I received the twenty one Tārā initiation from Lama Zopa Rinpoche many years ago, actually in Bendigo, in a church in Bendigo. Not in Bendigo, at Atisha center which has an old church there.
So Rinpoche gave the twenty one Tārā initiation then, many many years ago, about nineteen eighty three I think it was. Maybe we could try. No guarantee. Magic wheels, I’m not really sure what a magic wheel is but I think it’s something to do with the fact in black magic you make all these kinds of objects and some of them are wheel shaped and they have maybe you hide them on that person or just like, you know, those voodoo dolls that you stick pins in. And it just occurs to me, I don’t know if this is true or not, this is just some thought actually when I was reading it earlier today, I thought maybe this golden because I’ve always wondered why did the gods offer the Buddha a golden chakra and a golden wheel with a thousand spokes.
What what do you do with a thousand spoke golden wheel? You put it on the mantle piece somewhere or as in the movie the castle is straight to the trophy room. I’m not quite sure what the Buddha ever did with that thousand spoke golden wheel. But maybe it is meant to symbolize in one way the very opposite to all these black magic wheels, all the harmful things that people create. They were offering this to show how this incredibly beautiful object.
Anyway, maybe that’s wrong, that thought came to my mind. I’ve never really heard an explanation of what this golden Dharma wheel I know it has come to represent the Buddha’s teachings. But what it really is all about I really don’t understand. It looks very nice, it’s a very beautiful thing. It’s become a tradition in long life pujas to offer the lama a thousand spoke golden wheel or at least one with the eight spoke wheel.
So this Tārā is sitting with her right leg bent and left outstretched. So basically like green Tārā but she has a hollow body of of black light if that’s possible. Black light. Actually black is the opposite of light. But anyway.
So these two legs symbolize method and wisdom. With her two legs she suppresses all the black magic and curses that people direct against you. Although it’s not depicted in the thangka here, one should visualize her having all these wisdom flames coming out of her body. Often when these flames are depicted in paintings, we don’t have one with any of the wrathful deities, they just show like it’s very two dimensional just like like a circle of flame around but actually what you’re supposed to visualize is that flames are coming out from the whole body. You know, the whole body is emanating flames.
Some so, you know so although her face is peaceful, because this is supposed to be the peaceful Sambhogakāya, this Tārā is a little bit wrathful because she’s got these flames coming out of her. And that burns up the black magic and curses. Lama Lhundup in his commentary, the abbot of Kopan monastery, when he gave this commentary said that when we find that our body and mind are affected by what may be supernatural forces such as black magic or our house is tainted in some ways, we may feel there is some kind of negative energy in our house. What we need to do is visualize this Tārā in this slightly wrathful aspect. This black Tārā sitting within a world of fire and pray to and request her to pacify all these harms.
Imagine that this Tārā is uttering the syllables Tre and Pe very loudly, and by uttering these syllables, she subdues all these supernatural harms. And then one imagines that the fire coming from her holy body comes into oneself and throughout the entire environment completely pacifying and destroying all these harms. Then you can visualize Tārā dissolving into you. The benefit of doing this is you pacify all these obstacles and harms and at the same time transform the minds of these harm givers with love and compassion. This is particularly important to remember because even the wrathful aspects of and some of the praises are quite, you know, they they look really, you know, sound really nasty that she, you know, rips people to shreds and everything.
But it it one has to understand that it’s symbolic because these flames and this wrath of Tārā is really just a a type of compassion. So when it says she she destroys these harmful beings, it means she’s destroying their negative minds. And that’s what when for example when we do the practice of of thinking of Tārā sending out these flames destroying all these harmful things coming towards us and subduing these harm givers, we shouldn’t think she’s actually harming them. She’s pacifying them. She’s she’s destroying their negative states of mind with compassion.
So we should think like that too. Okay, so that finishes the praises by way of her peaceful enjoyment body, the Sambhogakāya. So then the the group the next group of eight verses is praising Tārā by way of her wrathful enjoyment body. So this first one, verse eight, is praising Tārā with reference to how she purifies all the maras and the two obscurations. So just briefly, the two obscurations.
So I’ve I’ve maybe mentioned this before, but just to remind you or maybe some people aren’t familiar with this idea. We all have Buddha nature, Buddha potential, that our mind has Buddha potential, but we aren’t experiencing enlightenment or Buddhahood because our mind is obscured and it has two levels of obscuration. So the first level of obscuration, the basic level of obscuration is called the the obscurations to liberation. So this is written and the the obscurations to liberation refer to our ignorance and all the the delusions, the disturbing thoughts that emanate from ignorance such as attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, and so on. So those act to why we have ignorance and delusions, but we we we cannot experience liberation from saṃsāra.
So these are the obscurations to liberation. If we remove those, we are we become liberated from cyclic existence. But someone who has who has achieved liberation from cyclic existence still has another level. They may be able to achieve nirvana, become an arhat and achieve nirvana, but an arhat still has this other level of obscuration, this much more subtle level of obscuration, which is much more difficult to get rid of, and these are called these are called the obscurations to liberate to omniscience. And those obstructions are really the subtle imprints of the of ignorance and delusion.
The ignorance has been actually removed, but nevertheless there is some kind of subtle imprint of ignorance remaining that prevents the mind experiencing its full potential and becoming totally omniscient. So it’s only on the Mahāyāna path that these subtle obscurations to omniscience can be removed. Specifically the bodhisattvas on the eighth, ninth and tenth levels they remove these subtle obscurations to omniscience. And when that’s completed, enlightenment is achieved. So this is praising Tārā in reference to the fact that she she herself has purified these two obscurations and and she helps all beings to remove these obscurations.
So the Tibetan says, Homage to you Tārā, the great fearful one whose letter Ture destroys the mighty demons completely, who with a wrathful expression on your lotus-born face slay all enemies without exception. So here she’s slaying enemies, right, but not really killing them. She’s not killing sentient beings. So this Tārā is a red black color or dark very dark red holding a red flask that defeats Mara’s and demons and enemies. So homage to Tārā.
So we are paying homage to the Tārā who is called the great fearful one. So Ture is the expression of her holy speech, and with the roar of the sound Ture, she destroys the mighty demons completely. So this Tārā is depicted in a very wrathful aspect. Actually, in most of the paintings, the Tunkas, they are not depicted as particularly wrathful at all. In fact, quite peaceful.
This is because mostly the Tunka painters don’t know how to paint Tunkas properly. But this is how we should think of this Tārā. So with this wrathful aspect, she is able to destroy the Mara that is difficult to subdue. And which Mara is this? This is the Mara of the afflictions.
So there are said to be four main kinds of Mara’s. You know, in the depictions of the the image of the Buddha, The Buddha is holding a begging bowl in his left hand and that is said to be full of the nectar which overcomes the four Maras. Can I remember what the four Maras are? So one of the one of the Maras is the afflictions, meaning the the the delusions. Then there’s the Mara of the aggregates.
So just having a body, you know, we have these five impure aggregates, the the body and mind, which are produced and controlled by delusion. So this is this is a Mara. This is a problem. This is something that we have to overcome. So there’s the Mara of the afflictions, the Mara of the five aggregates, there is the Mara of death, and the other Mara is a strange expression which it says the Mara which is the son of a god and that refers to — fortunately you’ve got your chart — it refers to the Mara who lives in the sixth level of the God realms, of the Desire Realm.
So that Mara is an actual being, a sentient being who is quite a problematic being because again if you remember the life story of the Buddha just before he sat under the Bodhi tree just about to achieve enlightenment he was tempted by Mara. First Mara sent off his beautiful daughters to try and tempt the Buddha or the being about to become the Buddha, but the Buddha saw them as sort of transforming into these ugly old hags and so wasn’t impressed at all. And when that didn’t work, Mara sent his son, so this army of really hideous blokes armed to the teeth with all sorts of weapons. But the Buddha transformed all these weapons into a shower due to his great loving kindness, transformed those into a shower of flowers falling on him. So a lot of Westerners interpret this Mara as being something psychological that this was the last vestiges of delusion in the Buddha’s mind which one could interpret to some extent but traditionally this is understood to be this actual being who tried to stop the Buddha achieving enlightenment.
And it is said although these beings are gods in the desire realm who to achieve that state have to have practiced pure morality in previous lives, when they achieve that rebirth in that God realm, in that sixth level of the desire realm gods, they turn out to be quite nasty people. Just like according to Buddhism, to be reborn human, any kind of human being, that’s the result of good karma. But if we look at human beings, there are many good human beings, kind hearted, compassionate, generous human beings, but there are also human beings who are really, really nasty. They have Buddha nature, but their very negative side is manifesting. Even though it required them to live a virtuous life to become a human being, when they become a human being some of their negative karma and negative aspects become manifest.
Somehow it’s the same with these these gods of the of of this at this level that one of the things they do is they particularly somehow they don’t like people being virtuous and beneficial. So if anyone who’s on the verge of doing something really, really beneficial or on the verge of gaining a realization, these Mara’s try to stop it. This is why Tibetans say that if someone, you know, there is a project that is really going to be really beneficial for a lot of people and the people undertaking that project at the beginning experiences lots of problems, this is actually a good sign. That’s if they can overcome the problems, of course. If the problems stop the project, that’s not good.
But if the project experiences lots of problems at the beginning it suggests it’s going to be a really beneficial project because lots of harmful forces are trying to stop it. It wouldn’t have so many problems if it wasn’t going to be beneficial. Whereas negative projects don’t have obstacles. Harmful projects are very easy to undertake. This is why we recite the Heart Sūtra at the beginning to get rid of the obstacles because listening to the dharma itself is potentially so beneficial.
So it can attract all sorts of obstacles, umies, creepy crawlies within, you know, within the external environment, within our own mind. So one recites the Heart Sūtra because it’s the expression of the highest truth, which has great power. So that helps to get rid of things. Especially if one can recite the Heart Sūtra understanding it, then that’s really helpful. Here they are!
Yes, of the afflictions, Mara of the aggregates, Mara of death and Mara of yes, the Devaputra Mara. Yeah, I was right! If I just turned the page I would have seen it! So in a commentary it says I’ll just try and finish this. Oh no there’s a long commentary.
Okay then we’ll have a tea break. We’ll get rid of the Mara up first and then get back to it. This time we have to remind me we have to do the praises, have to chant the praises, we have to save time. Any questions, comments? Is it all okay?
Okay. Thank you very much. Tea break? Coffee break, water break. I’ll I’ll have whatever’s easiest, tea or coffee.
It doesn’t matter. Okay. I have a weak coffee. Hi. I’m I’m Faith.
I spoke to you. Oh, alright. Oh, hi. Do remember me from ninety eight? I did the my first conference call with you in ninety eight.
So that’s Right. You probably don’t remember me a long time ago. But, yeah, I just thought I’d come and say hello. Oh, hi. How are you?
How are you? I’m I’m not gonna be out of state till the end of the teaching because I’ve I’ve got a baby at home. And Right. After my nurse. So Right.
How is he? Yeah. He’s full on. He’s got cerebral palsy. Yes.
I heard. Yeah. Yeah. Very severe. But he’s he’s pretty amazing as though I wasn’t supposed to leave.
So Well, you’re pretty amazing. Taking care. That’s fantastic. You You just do what you have to do. Yeah.
Things get thrown at you. Right. Yeah. So Yeah. Right.
I’m doing some drawing today. Yeah. For the throne? Yeah. Great.
In my in my Do you reckon you’d be able to do that really shiny paint? Like it looks very enamely, doesn’t it? Well, no, but the whole thing because that one is very shiny. Well, maybe it could just be lacquered over. Yeah.
Yeah. To make it shiny. That would be nice because the statue itself is so shiny. It’s quite it’s quite Yeah. Yeah.
I I don’t know if you could tell in in that in that photo that the gold work or like the edging gold work is actually like I don’t know. It’s raised. Yeah. What what do you know how to do that or no? No.
No. No. I You’re fired. Yeah. I’m just going, oh my god.
It’s such a huge project. Yeah. No. That’s okay. No.
We don’t. No. And stuff. But, you know, it’s good to it’s good to I like to have it. I I did one painting once for for and the the sort of the requirements of doing it was you had to do it within twenty four hours and it’s the best one I’ve ever done.
It was great. So I think I’m gonna just approach it like that and just do it sort of you know, because you sort of do it quickly and fresh. You know? You don’t Yeah. Yeah.
You don’t mess around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I’m gonna just try and keep it simple and just clear.
Yeah. Yeah. It you know, I tried to make it beautiful, but it’s probably won’t be anything too crazy, elaborate, or anything. Like, I don’t know about that that that texture. No.
No. No. No. Lions? Yeah.
Yeah. We need snow lions. And I think But try and make them look like lions and not like ridiculous dogs. Yeah. Well, I I have I did You know, you have to stay within the tradition, but, you know, some some look just ridiculous.
I’m a very I’m a bit of a purist. So Oh, great. Yeah. I’ll I’ll do drawings, and I’ll show you and and Dale Right. That’s why I don’t paint.
Right. And, also, I was thinking I was looking at different images, the one whether on the side, it has more snow lions on the side or a double bushy? Can’t remember. But I think it has more or two more snow Yeah. Ideally, yeah.
There’s yeah. On each two on each corner. Yeah. Yeah. One looks up and one looks down.
Okay. Take ideally the front. I don’t know which one looks where, but you don’t bother too much. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. They’re looking both down and there. It’s been a long time since I’ve come here. Oh, it’s nice to see you here. Yeah.
Full time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, how do you manage? Oh, I’m sorry.
Okay. Just briefly with these four maras, the Mara of afflictions, the aggregates death and the Mara of Devaputra then all these four the Mara of the afflictions is the worst. This is the most difficult to get rid of and it’s because of these afflictions that of ignorance and delusions that as a result of these we take rebirth in saṃsāra having impure aggregates, the five aggregates of an impure body and mind. And so this is the second of the Mara’s, the Mara of the aggregates. So that is a result of the Mara of the afflictions and because we have a body and mind that is produced by and controlled by delusion and karma we are subject to aging and death which is the third of the Maras.
And we live in a because we’re in saṃsāra, because we have the Mara of the afflictions and we’re in saṃsāra, we share the saṃsāra with other samsaric beings controlled by delusion and karma such as these negative spirits and negative gods such as the Devaputra gods who don’t like people who practice the Dharma and cause all sorts of problems. There are many stories not just at the time of the Buddha but throughout the history of Buddhism of great practitioners who were on the verge of gaining realizations and then all these problems came or people who were not necessarily highly advanced but they were trying to practice well, doing something good, and then all these obstacles come. Sometimes the obstacles win, sometimes they don’t. So there’s some sad stories of people. So we need this Tārā to overcome those.
When we recognize those things we can rely on Tārā. I’ll just remind you as I was trying to say last week, this practice isn’t something magical because magic sort of implies that things can just happen, but everything we should understand the fundamental teaching of the Buddha is dependent or fundamental. There are four million fundamental teachings of the Buddha. From whatever perspective you can think that’s the fundamental teaching but in a sense one of the very core teachings of the Buddha is dependent arising. His Holiness many years ago sort of joked, seriously joked, that the Buddhist slogan is dependent arising.
This is what we really need to understand that everything that exists, that comes about arises dependently on many factors. So you just can’t recite a mantra and problems go away Or just think of Tārā and problems go away. One has to think about Tārā in a particular way with a mind of devotion, having some kind of concentration, faith. One has to oneself be trying to live a good life as As it said earlier in the commentary, living a life based on moral principles, the Buddha’s teachings on the law of cause and effect. So depending on those things, depending on the existence of the Buddhas, depending on these practices, depending on our faith in them, then all of those things coming together, arising, then something positive can happen.
So however much faith we have in Tārā that much it will benefit us, help us. But of course, faith itself is a dependent arising. So faith our our faith can get stronger by practicing it, by trying to rely on Tārā more and more, then our faith can increase. One of the things I’ve said this before, as I say, I only say three things and I just repeat them a million times. And then it’s time to finish or have a tea break.
So one of the things I’ve said a million times is that one of the practices we do, for example, which we did at the beginning of the teaching is to imagine the Buddha on the crown of our head and then dissolving into our mind, blessing our mind. One should try and feel that that is actually happening, But if we’re honest, in my case most of the time, I don’t feel that really happening. But if we do it over and over and with faith and some kind of concentration, at some point we will experience a sense that the Buddha is blessing our mind. But the only way for that to happen is it will arise depending on ourselves doing it again and again and again and trying to put our mind in that state again and again and again where we try and concentrate on the sense of the Buddha there and having a sense of what Buddha is, what Buddha rep you know, what that means. This perfect wisdom and compassion, etc.
And having faith, you know. Do we really believe Buddhas exist? Do we really believe the Buddhas exist? Do we really believe that they’re acting for our benefit all their time? Do we really believe the enlightened mind is present all the time?
So the more we believe those things and we utilize that belief by doing this kind of visualization practice, then arising dependently, blessings come. So the more we believe in the Buddhas, the more the Buddhas can manifest as Tārā and that the Buddhas are always acting for our benefit, then Tārā becomes more real, more present. Yeah? And if we believe that Tārā has this immense power due to her purity and compassion and wisdom, then the more we understand that and believe that, then somehow that creates some energy that can cut through our problems and difficulties even influence harmful beings around us and encourage positive beings around us. That’s something that we have to work on, you know.
And that’s why it’s good to say the praises again and again and again. Yes. Sorry. What is an initiation? What is an initiation?
What is an initiation? Well, very good question. Difficult to answer properly but at a very simple level, an external level it is a ceremony that a qualified lama conducts and for an initiation to really occur the person called a lama should be a Lama in the sense that they have some special qualities and especially particularly some real experience of the deity that they’re giving the initiation of. In other words, they’ve received the initiation from a qualified lama themselves and they’ve actually done the practice, the retreat. An initiation is basically what is it?
It’s something that arises dependently. It depends on the quality of the Lama. It depends on the quality of the student. Depending on those things coming together, the Lama is able to, in a sense, bless one’s mind to be able to do that particular practice of that deity in order to awaken the quality within oneself that that deity represents. Again for an initiation to work it arises dependently.
You have to have faith in the Lama And that arises depending on the Lama actually having qualities and being a good practitioner. So one needs to have that faith and devotion and like really try during the ceremony to really be very focused and concentrated and it depends on on having a really good motivation for doing the initiation, not some lack of motivation or a negative motivation of wanting to like, for example, wanting to take an initiation to become somebody special and better than other people, but really wanting it in order to, you know, be of benefit to sentient beings, etcetera, etcetera. So depending on all those things, some blessing occurs in the mind, something happens so that one can when one does the practice it will work. Of course it doesn’t work straight away unfortunately or it could depending on the person. Well, in a sense, all of those things are like that.
But an initiation initiation refers specifically initiation is a tantric thing. You know, refuge is not an initiation. Taking vows are not initiations like the five lay vows, the Bodhisattva vows, etc. These are not initiations but again to the extent that you receive refuge or the extent to which you receive it and you’re benefited by it, to the extent to which you receive vows and are able to keep them, of course it depends on your faith in the person you’re receiving it, your understanding of the Dharma in general, your understanding of what is going on, know, the purpose of what you’re doing and your motivation for taking refuge or the vows or whatever. Depending on all those things your mind will be affected that much.
Yes and no. Actually there are two in Tantra there are two different types of ceremonies. I don’t know the Sanskrit terms but the the Tibetan term there are two Tibetan terms to indicate these two things. One is called a Wang and one is called a Jenang. So Wang is best translated as empowerment.
So that is a complete initiation and a Jenang is like an incomplete initiation which can be called an initiation. I would translate Jenang as initiation and Wong because Wong literally means power or powerful therefore empowerment. A Wang is a ceremony that empowers your mind to be able to do a practice so that it will bring the intended result. No, a Wang is the big thing, the main thing. The Wong is an empowerment.
It is Jenang. J-e-n-a-n-g. No, it doesn’t quite work like that. Just keep it simple. The understanding is, Jenangs and Wangs are types of ceremonies or initiations that enable you to do a particular practice related to a particular deity such as Tārā or Chenrezig or Mañjuśrī or the Medicine Buddha or whatever.
So depending on one’s practice one may achieve all sorts of results from it and as a result of gaining lots of results you may end up being considered a Lama by some people. Technically speaking technically speaking correct properly the way tantra is supposed to work as it did in the good old days. You know those famous good old days? One is supposed to receive an empowerment first, the whole thing, and then you can receive Jenangs. Because Jenang literally means anyway it means something subsequent something I can’t remember.
Subsequent subsequent entry or subsequent initiation. So it’s subsequent to receiving. Subsequent means something coming after. Right? So for those who don’t speak English as a first language Now I’m lost.
So it’s referring to subsequent to having received an empowerment. But actually because empowerments are very big deals with many commitments, These days, not the old days but these days, what many Lamas do, not all, but for example Lama Yeshe did and was very much criticized because he was so compassionate. When he came to the West he gave people Jenangs because the commitments are far less. This was a way to enable people to do some tantric practice and get a taste of it. Lama, with his great compassion and wisdom, really understood that these practices would be particularly beneficial for modern Western people.
Out of great compassion he didn’t give people the wongs because there’s too many commitments and people don’t keep commitments and therefore that’s very heavy karma. He would give very simple Jenangs. And this is what a lot of Lamas do these days. Particularly of Kriyā Tantra where you receive it’s very common to receive Tārā Jenang or a Mañjuśrī Jenang or a Chenrezig Jenang which are referred to as initiations. Super super strict you’re supposed to receive a complete empowerment which takes usually over two days.
A Jainung can be given in a couple of hours but a complete empowerment if it’s done according to the traditional methods. It takes over two days to do it. Actually these days, now you’ve got me on this topic, it’s not very common to receive wangs of Kriyā tantra wangs at all. Mostly you get Jainangs in Kriyā tantra. But with highest yoga tantra you receive wangs.
You can’t receive Jainangs very much. You have to receive the full empowerment. I don’t if that made any sense. Did it lose you? For example, just as a little preadvert or something for Lama Sopa Rinpoche is his retreat in Bendigo later in the year where he’s going to give a series of initiations.
In order to receive those initiations people will have to have either already received a wong or Rinpoche will be giving one in order to receive the series of Jenangs. If I remember correctly, most or if not all of these Jenangs are actually highest yoga tantra Jenangs so they’re quite special. Because most Jenangs you receive are Kriyā tantra which is the first level. For example part of the Rinchen Terdzö series that Rinpoche will be giving, although not necessarily this time because there’s over three sixty of these initiations in series, is the twenty one Taras but the highest yoga tantra form of them where they have quite a few heads and arms and everything. This is the Kriyā tantra aspect.
So these are highest yoga tantra Jenangs of the twenty one Taras. But to receive them you have to have had a Wong beforehand. An empowerment. Just very quickly, sorry, since you asked these things, the major difference between a Wong and a Jainung is that with a Wang, I can’t go into any detail what this really means, is that in the ceremony you imagine entering inside the mandala whereas with a Jenang you don’t do that. You get to stand outside in the rain.
When you say yes, ideally yes, yes or focusing on that. A little bit like when you do the and do if you do the thirty five Buddha practice, as you say the name of the particular Buddha you prostrate to that Buddha. But you also try and visualize all of them but as you say that Buddha you prostrate to that Buddha. So with this practice, you can do it different ways depending but the idea is to try and visualize all the Taras but as you say that praise, you particularly think of that Tārā, focus on that Tārā and doing the things she does best. But that’s pretty difficult to do especially if one recites them all very quickly.
But this is apparently when one becomes, which we all will one day become really advanced practitioners, one can do all these visualizations just in a flash. Completely where you see the whole thing all in detail. You can see all the jewels on Tārā, every single hair on her head, every part of her holy body or you can see all the Tārā’s perfectly pristine, vivid, sparkling, you know, and and the and the mantra in her heart. Just going around the mantra and, you know, light coming out everywhere. Pardon?
Yes, more than real, realer than real, hyper real. I know, it doesn’t happen to me yet. I think you can experience some clarity occasionally and a little bit of clarity or some you know a lot of clarity of sometimes and then you lose it. But through practice, through familiarity one I mean especially to be able to do this would say properly to visualize any deity properly you have to have Samādhi to really do it properly in its full form. This is why to practice Tantra the basis is the Lam Rim where you develop renunciation, wisdom and bodhicitta.
What did I say that? Well, within there you have to develop it to like for example, to really develop to develop wisdom you have to develop Samādhi to and like within at the basic level of tantric practice you visualize the deity in front of you but then the more advanced practice which you can only do properly and you should even you’re not supposed to do it, even try to do it if you don’t have an initiation or empowerment. You visualize yourself as the deity. And to do that properly you would have to well, you’d have to understand emptiness to some extent, have some understanding of emptiness, but also to have Samādhi, to be able to really visualize yourself as a deity properly. Not think you are, but really do it.
But like I said before it all arises depending on training. If we start now, the sooner we start all this, the sooner we’ll be able to do it properly. In order to be able to visualize ourselves as the deity, first we have to learn how to visualize the deity outside. One way to train is reciting the praises and trying to visualize Tārā as we recite the praises. Even if we can’t do all the twenty one, at least we can try and visualize the main Tārā, green Tārā, because she is the source of all the twenty one.
So even if we can visualize her and think she embodies all those twenty one Tārā’s, that’s as Lama Yeshe would say, good enough dear, good enough. We should we should we’ve we should now do. So we’ll recite the praises one time in Tibetan because it is good to learn how to do it in Tibetan because our Lama is a Tibetan and Lama is actually a Sherpa, but he speaks Tibetan. He has forgotten how to speak Sherpa, manifested forgetting how to speak Sherpa language. Remember go to page fourteen, that’s the Chantable version.
So as we chant these praises we visualize green Tārā seated on this beautiful lotus and moon disc and then surrounding her starting in front and going anti clockwise are all the twenty one Taras. Page fourteen. Right? Oh sorry, so we’re doing the Tibetan first aren’t we? Where are we?
Yeah. Page four. Bottom of page four. So we’ll do that one time in Tibetan and two times in English. As we visualize the Taras we can visualize rays of light going out from them.
One thing one could try to do is as you say each verse which is referring to a particular Tarah you could think that Tara becomes a bit brighter. Know? The light coming from her, she lights up more as you say her praises. And you think light, you know, rays of light go out from all these Taras to oneself, to one’s parents on either side, family, friends behind, harmers in front, all sentient beings around oneself, eliminating all obstacles, bringing all good things. So one can think of particular things that one needs to be free of, things one needs developing for oneself, other particular people and trying to have the bodhicitta motivation we do the praises.
So now we’ll go to Page fourteen and do twice in English. Homogenously to summon all his guardians’ assembly, chilling rain with her home silence, having vomited every misfortune. Those cries and monolithments Go back again. On my prostrate to the noble transcendent level later. Hollister, swifter, cars are grinding instantaneous.
Spray from opening statements of the low through its tier one low letters. Afraid in all travel splendor, she dispels bad dreams and conflicts. Afraid she has to rise bright with radiance of sun and form and which has allowed to die. As she dispels severe contagion, Happened for the liberating by mother’s seven three natures, destroys houses, bears, youngsters, and restores the supreme doer. This problem is with her root mantras and prostrations.
Thus are twenty one. So now we can dedicate the merit of reciting the praises and listening to the teachings. So page eight of our little prayer book. And remember instead of saying Lama Sangye in the second line, say Pakma Dolma, Ārya Tārā. May I quickly attain a state of Ārya Tārā.
May the precious bodhi mind Not yet born arise and grow May that born have no decline, But increase forever more. The object of refuge of myself and of all transmigratory beings in all our lifetimes is the embodiment of the Three Jewels, the all encompassing three refuges in one, the guru, the wish granting jewel, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, the master 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 laypeople 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 limitless kindness, the son of Tibetan Buddhism has now risen in the West, which is a dark land. But now that I have met with the Dharma, I have received the perfect human body enabling me to lead a meaningful life.
Our refuge and savior, the supreme one, his holiness, the Dalai Lama, and the Tibetan people have been so kind to us. Remembering this, we make the following dedicating prayers. May all his holiness, the Dalai Lama’s wishes be successful immediately. May the snow land of Tibet achieve pure freedom and develop the Buddhadharma even more than before in Tibet. And may all mother transmigratory beings achieve enlightenment quickly.
You who uphold the subdue as moral way, who serve as the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving, spreading Mañjuśrī’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplished magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, Saviour of myself and others, your disciples, please please live long. Lord of Dharma, who in accordance with the various dispositions of those to be subdued, makes clear in the light of your well spoken advice, the sacred Ganden tradition, essence of Buddha’s teachings, are foremost in holy Lama to you who are supreme. Oh Lama, please please live long. Okay. Thank you very much.
So please remember to try and do the praises as much as you can for your own benefits to benefit others because one can do the praises to help others. So please keep the the text, but if you’re coming next week, remember to bring it and the outline. So we’re finished with three prostrations to the Buddha and Mother Tārā and the triple gem. And if you don’t mind, I I’m not doing them because I’ve got a bit of a crooked back at the moment, which is getting much better, but I’ll just not do it yet.