Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this two-hour-plus teaching, Ven Thubten Dondrub guides students through the praises to the twenty-one aspects of Tārā, a core text in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. After opening with refuge prayers and visualisation, he unpacks the first thirteen praises in detail, explaining how each praise highlights a different dimension of Tārā’s enlightened activity. He covers Tārā’s peaceful and wrathful forms, the symbolism of her implements and ornaments, her connection to the three jewels and to one’s guru, and her power to overcome obstacles and dispel specific sufferings—from fear and poverty to sickness and obstacles to dharma practice. Throughout, he emphasises the role of faith, refuge, and proper motivation, and stresses that tantric practice like Tārā work most powerfully when integrated with study and practice of the graduated path. The class concludes with a group recitation of the praises in both Tibetan and English, supported by guided visualisation. Pitched at practitioners with some familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism and deity yoga.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 01 – 21 taras 2014 05 15 15 05 2014.mp3
UUID: 85decd63-820e-4aee-8cf6-4402453fb140
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: Twenty One Taras (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2014-05-15
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 130.6 minutes
Words: ~10,731
Yes. Hello. What? Is it working? Yes.
So welcome everyone to our Thursday night class on the praises to the twenty one Taras. So we’ll do the traditional prayers starting with the the praise to the a prayer to the lion-faced dakini. So that’s page five of our prayer book. I prostrate to the gathering of dakinis and the three chakras who abide in the holy yoga of using space. By your powers of clairvoyance and magical emanation, look after practitioners like a mother, her child.
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. The Germans be in accord with the Dharma, and may there be auspiciousness and perfect happiness here right now. So then the praise to Mañjuśrī, the Buddha of wisdom. Homage 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 tones 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 a Buddha, who has completed the ten stages, achieving the highest perfection of the bodhisattva, who has been pure from the beginning. O Mañjuśrī, O loving one, with the brilliance of your wisdom, 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. Then we visualize Śākyamūni Buddha in front of us as our source of refuge, inspiration and guidance remembering it was the Śākyamūni whose holy words make up this praise to the twenty one Taras. So we imagine the Buddha as the very embodiment of the Three Jewels of refuge, seated on a lion throne, lotus, sun and moon.
And it may be helpful for this particular course that we think of at the heart, in the very heart of Śākyamūni Buddha is Tārā seated on a lotus and white moon disk. And at the same time we think of all sentient beings surrounding us. But firstly we offer a mandala of the whole universe as a way to request the teachings, to accumulate merit, and to begin to purify our mind of all obstacles. So as we think of the Buddha in front of us to remind us that we have Buddha nature and to inspire us to realize our Buddha potential, we can particularly now focus on all sentient beings surrounding us starting with our mother on our left, father on our right, family, friends and helpers behind us, all those difficult, unpleasant, or harmful people in front, and then as much as possible all other sentient beings trying to generate that strong awareness how all of these beings have been immensely kind to me. Life after life and beginningless Samsāra, they’ve all been my mother many, many times.
I’ve totally depended on them in every possible way and amazingly sentient beings have been there for me, helping me directly, indirectly. At the same time as we think of this, trying to have that awareness that all these immensely kind beings, these mother sentient beings, trapped in cyclic existence, controlled by delusion and karma, subject to experience every kind of suffering of cyclic existence sooner or later, and completely helpless in situation. So the more we think of those things, can generate the wish that no matter what, I I must use this in all future lives to achieve enlightenment, to benefit these beings, to repay their kindness. And the only significant way, meaningful way to repay their kindness is to help them all become free of all causes of suffering and to do more, and not only that, help them to achieve peerless everlasting happiness. So there’s no way by myself, especially as I am, can I accomplish this, do this?
I have to achieve enlightenment. And to achieve enlightenment and accomplish all the things that bring about enlightenment, I need to rely on the Buddhas and the Buddhas manifest especially Mother Tārā to this very active direct form of the Buddha’s kindness. So for this reason I will train my mind in developing devotion to Tārā through studying these praises to the twenty one Tārā’s or the twenty one aspects of Ārya Tārā. I go for refuge until I’m enlightened to the Buddha, Dharma and the supreme assembly by the merits I create through teaching the Dharma may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. So I think the Buddha is very pleased with our motivation to benefit all sentient beings by relying on Mother Tārā.
And the Buddha shows this by now coming towards the crown of our head. And then when directly above our crown, imagine the Buddha turns facing the same direction as our self. Then dissolves into light, this time we can imagine that that light absorbs into Ārya Tārā who is in the Buddha’s heart. So all that light absorbs into Tārā. So we now have Tārā directly above our crown, on a lotus and moon seat.
So then just for a little while, we can recite Tārā’s mantra out loud. As we do so, we can imagine this blissful green radiating light pouring out from every part of her body, going to ourselves, all sentient beings around us, purifying our mind, freeing our mind of confusion, all suffering, all disturbances, all negative imprints, and similarly for all beings. So then think that now Tārā dissolves into blissful green light that pours down through the crown of our head, blessing our mind. And then we can enhance that positive state of mind by briefly doing some breathing meditation such as the nine round breathing exercise to help establish a calmer, clearer, more concentrated mind in order to use that level of mind to listen to and think about the Buddha’s teachings tonight. K.
Thank you very much. The praises to the twenty one Taras are divided into firstly a praise to Tārā by way of her story. So this is covered by the the very first verse and then I think the next six verses are praising Tārā by a way of her the peaceful aspect of the Sambhogakāya form of Tārā. Yes, the enjoyment body or in Sanskrit Sambhogakāya. So the enlightened mind of the Buddha or all the Buddhas is called the Dharmakāya, the truth body.
So from that manifest these various emanations that radiate out to benefit sentient beings. And so So one has what is called the Sambhogakāya aspect of the enlightened mind. The Sambhogakāya or enjoyment body, as I mentioned before this can only be perceived by Ārya Bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas who have directly perceived emptiness, either first level, second, up to tenth level bodhisattvas, only they can perceive the Sambhogakāya form of the Buddha. So the Sambhogakāya form has five special features which I’m not sure if I can remember all of them.
So one of them is that it can only be perceived by Ārya Ārya Bodhisattva so arhats can’t perceive the Sambhogakāya form of the Buddha even though arhats are aryas, they’re complete aryas, they’re perfected aryas but they’re not able to perceive the Sambhogakāya form of the Buddha. So the second feature of the Sambhogakāya is that it only teaches the Mahāyāna. The Sambhogakāya aspect doesn’t teach the path to nirvana. It only teaches the path to enlightenment. And I think I’ve forgotten two of them.
I can only remember one more, which is that the Sambhogakāya aspect of the Buddha always lasts until saṃsāra ends. So that’s very nice. Because the other manifestations of the Buddha such as the Nirmāṇakāya form, they don’t last for very long. Such as Śākyamūni Buddha. His physical appearance only lasted for eighty years or not even that long because he didn’t manifest as a Buddha until he was thirty or something, thirty And then he died or manifested dying, passing into Parinirvana when he was eighty.
So for fifty years that form of the Buddha appeared. But the Sambhogakāya form is there all the time until all sentient beings have become Buddhas. So it’s teaching continuously the Mahāyāna until Samsāra ends. So three out of five. That’s not too bad.
Do you know one? Some? They’re only perceived by Ārya Bodhisattvas. Teaching the Mahāyāna last until Samsāra ends. My goodness me.
I can’t remember. I’m sure they’re very special and nothing comes at all. Nothing has comes. No, sorry. Okay.
Anyway, so here we’re praising or we’ve covered the praises to the peaceful aspect of the Sambhogakāya form of Tārā and we started the praises to which is the next eight I think one, two, three, four, five, six, seven yeah the next eight verses are praises to her by way of the wrathful enjoyment body. So we’re on verse nine, I think. But before we start that, I’d just like to go back just briefly. Not not much I can say, but I in verse six, which is the last the last of the praises. No.
It’s not. It’s the second to last of the praises relating to her peaceful Sambhogakāya aspect. It says, homage to you, Tārā, venerated by Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayu and Īśvara, and prized by the assembly of spirits, raised corpses, Gandavas, and all Yakshas. I just wanted to mention raised corpses. Forgot to comment on them.
But raised corpses, by the way, of course, are zombies, what we call zombies. So the Tibetan form for zombie is rolang. Although yes. It’s it’s there. Jungpo, rolang, jikten, namdak.
Nam Dung, yeah. It’s listing all the different kinds of spirits and things. So according to Buddhist belief zombies do exist and they’re very nasty. You’ve got to watch out for them. I don’t know if you’ve ever come across one.
I’ve never met one but some people think I’m one. Some of the Tibetan llamas tell stories of zombies in Tibet, so I don’t know. Anyway, Tārā has control over all of these things so if we have any trouble with zombies then make sure to visualize Tārā, especially that particular form. As I’ve mentioned in other classes, various Buddhas manifest in all sorts of ways to subdue different kinds of negative like human beings and negative. That’s why there are different kinds of teachers, gurus, not all the gurus who teach the Dharma even though they’re teaching the same Dharma but they do it in different ways and they themselves have different personalities and that’s to suit different kinds of human beings.
Some people need really serious teachers, some people need very jokey ones, some people need a mixture of this and that and so on. Some people need teachers who emphasize that aspect of the Dharma or present it in a particular way. Other people need it like that. So out of skillful means the Buddhas manifest in all sorts of different ways and also to subdue the non human beings they manifest in all sorts of different ways. So there are all these positive spirits and gods, beings in the god realms, but they’re also kind of various kind of harmful ones.
So the Buddhas manifest as being like they join them in a sense. They manifest as those kinds of beings in order subdue them and control them as much as possible. Anyway we’ll get on to a little bit about that a bit later on I think. Okay so we’ll continue with verse nine. Or maybe I should just mention briefly before we go on with that.
The Buddhas manifest there’s the dharmakaya which is enlightened mind and then there are the physical manifestations that that enlightened mind generates to benefit sentient beings. So Tārā is a Sambhogakāya form of the enlightened mind. So that actually we can visualize Tārā but to actually see Tārā one has to be an Ārya being but Tārā can then manifest in human form for us to relate to. So the other main kind of manifestation of the enlightened mind is called the Nirmāṇakāya. So that and there are different kinds of Nirmāṇakāya and the most elevated form of that is called a Supreme Nirmāṇakāya and that is for example Śākyamūni Buddha is a Nirmāṇakāya form.
For someone who has got not everyone could see the Buddha this way but someone who has some pure karma can see that being with all the one hundred and twelve signs of a Buddha, the thirty two major signs and the eighty minor signs of a Buddha. So that is the Supreme Nirmāṇakāya. So not many of those appear and they appear very rarely. We live in what is said to be the fortunate eon where a thousand Buddhas, Supreme Nirmāṇakāya Buddhas are going to appear and Śākyamūni Buddha is the fourth of those. So where a being appears, you know, a Buddha appears as a Buddha.
So you know, oh, that is a Buddha. Right? But then there are other forms of Nirmāṇakāya, lesser aspects. I mean there’s still enlightened beings and everything but they don’t appear as Buddhas. So for example our Gurus can be considered Nirmāṇakāya Buddhas.
In fact, the Tibetan word for Nirmāṇakāya is Tulku and that’s the term for reincarnated Lamas are Tulkus. Of course not all reincarnated lamas are in fact Tulkus, but out of politeness and respect they are considered they they are given that name. And of course, some of them are, could be Tulkus. And of course, the highest Tulku on the planet at the moment is His Holiness because He is meant to be an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha of Compassion. You know, Tibetans believe, probably very rightly, that His Holiness is a Buddha, but His Holiness is not appearing as a Buddha.
He’s not appearing as a supreme Nama Nakaya. He’s appearing as what appears to be a human being. But also the Nirmāṇakāya can appear in all sorts of forms, just as human beings but as animals or inanimate objects, anything that and such as statues or or anything, trees, anything that, you know, could benefit sentient beings, bridges. The Sydney Harbour Bridge might be a tulku. Could be.
You never know. This is the thing. You never know. Okay, Verse nine. Where are we?
Okay, Verse nine. So in my Terrible Tibetan it says like So this is praising Tārā with reference to the implements she’s holding in her hands. Hold it. Just let me get organized a bit. So this is Tārā number nine, isn’t it?
So So, this is the Tārā who protects from all fears. So, she is Oh goodness gracious me. So many things to check out. So she is white and holding a white flask. So the Tibetan says: So Chaksel remember means homage or prostration.
Kün Chok Sum that’s a good term to know. Koon Choq Sum means the Three Jewels of refuge. Kün is like a jewel. Chok means supreme. And Sum is three.
You know, one two three. The three supreme jewels. The translation says, Homage to you Tārā, whose fingers adorn your heart with the gesture of the sublime precious three, adorned with a wheel striking all directions without exception with the totality of your own rays of light. So this is prostrating respectfully with one’s body, speech, mind to Tārā whose fingers adorn her heart with the gesture of the sublime precious three. That is the sublime precious three is referring to the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
The three rare sublime ones. So the Three Jewels are the rarest. Jewels in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are like jewels which are unbelievably rare. These stones which we call jewels are labeled such because they are extremely rare and because they are rare we see them as extremely precious. And the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are like jewels, much more so because they are the rarest things of all and the most precious.
To be able to meet the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is the rarest thing of all, most difficult. So just like at an ordinary level, things which are very rare become very precious and therefore very, very, very expensive. So in the same way the Three Jewels of refuge are very rare, very, very precious and very expensive in the sense that one has to have a lot of merit to be able to come in contact with the Buddha, Dharman, Sangha. To meet the Buddha, Dharman, Sangha, have to have a huge amount of merit. Or even just to come in contact with them, but much more to be able to have faith when we contact the Buddhadharma.
Many people contact the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Still it’s very few compared to how many sentient beings are existing or even on the earth the number of human beings who come in contact with the Buddha’s teachings is very few. But of those who come in contact with it, even fewer, far far fewer develop any actual faith. Which is what is really meant by meeting the Dharma. When the Dharma touches our heart, there’s a meeting of the Dharma and our heart.
So one has to have an enormous amount of merit for that. And then to be able to practice the teachings sincerely needs even more merit. And to meet the teachings in general requires enormous amount of merit, to meet the Mahāyāna teachings requires even more merit, and then to meet the Tantric teachings and have faith in them, of course, requires even more. Remember this actually is a tantric teaching from the class of tantras called the Kriyā tantras which is the basic level of tantric teachings and practices. So Tārā is with her left hand, she has the mudrā, the gesture, of the three precious sublime ones.
So this is where the ring finger is touching the thumb and the other fingers are standing upright. So she has her hands at her heart like that and holding the stem of a blue lotus flower, is called an Utpala flower, a blue lotus. And also, although it’s rarely depicted in thangkas or drawings, Tārā’s hands it says here adorned with a wheel striking all directions so the palms and actually the soles of Tārā’s feet are adorned with this the Dharma chakra which I was mentioning last week, the golden Dharma Chakra. So this is actually on the palms and soles of Tārā’s hands and feet because this is one of the the signs of a Buddha that the Buddha all Buddhas have this sign on their palms and and on their feet. So they say that there’s a story about how the wherever the Buddha walked, his feet never actually touched the ground but wherever he went the imprint of these Dharma wheels, you know, were made in the earth.
Anyway, is what this is referring to here. So because Tārā is a Buddha, a fully enlightened being, so her body has this Sambhogakāya form of the Buddha. Tārā has these Dharma wheels. Light rays and nectar of different colors radiate out from these wheels. This Mudra of the Three Jewels reminds us, is constantly reminding us that Tārā is in the very nature of the Three Jewels.
She has all the qualities that we can totally rely on to achieve enlightenment. Tārā is the Buddha, Tārā is the Dharma, Tārā is the Sangha. So one can think that Tārā’s holy body symbolizes the Sangha jewel, the object of refuge. Her holy speech symbolizes the Dharma jewel and her holy mind symbolizes the Buddha jewel. So one thing that is really important to do when we think of Tārā in any way whether we’re reciting the praises to Tārā or doing some meditation and visualization of Tārā, some meditation reciting the mantra.
Whenever we think of Tārā, and this applies to all deities, is that we should try and think of Tārā as being inseparately oneness with our Guru, our root Guru. That’s if, of course, if we have a root Guru. But that’s something incredibly important to do. So we should think our Guru is an emanation of Tārā. So we can’t actually see Tārā because she is a Sambhogakāya aspect of the Buddha.
We can visualize her but we can’t actually directly see Tārā in that aspect. How we see Tārā is is as as the Guru. So for example, one could think that just as his holiness, the Dalai Lama, is an emanation of is traditionally said to be an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, one can also validly think that he is Tārā. He is an emanation of Tārā. Tārā appearing in a way that we can see her because we don’t have the karma right now.
We don’t have that level of purity of mind to see Tārā as Tārā, but we can see her as sorry, as His Holiness or someone like Khandro-la, who was said to be an emanation of Tārā. So there’s Tārā appearing as a female, human being that we can relate to. If we don’t have a root Guru, we can pray to Tārā that she manifests as our Guru at some point. This is the way to create the cause to meet the Guru. A very common question is how do you meet the Guru?
Usually it just happens but it depends on having the merit to do so. The main way to meet the Guru I suppose is wanting to practice Dharma, actually trying to practice the Dharma. So the more one does that, one is creating the cause to meet the qualified teacher. The more sincerely we’re trying to practice and the better our motivation is, the more likely we will connect with a really good teacher. If we have a terrible motivation, we’ll meet a terrible teacher.
So if we don’t have a Guru, we can pray to Tārā to manifest as a perfectly qualified teacher to guide us on the path. For those of you who are familiar with the Four Immeasurable Thought prayer, about may all sentient beings be free of suffering and its causes. How wonderful it would be if all sentient beings were free of suffering and its causes. May they be free of suffering and its causes. I myself will free them from suffering and its causes.
Last line is, please Guru Deity bless me to do this. Because we can’t do it by ourselves right now, especially as we are right now because we’re not enlightened beings, so we need help. So who is the guru deity? So it’s Tārā. She’s the guru deity.
So we request Tārā to help us to be able to do all these things. So we should think that the holy body of one’s own root Guru is inseparable from Tārā and is also the Sangha jewel. The holy speech of one’s own root Guru is inseparable from Tārā and is also the Dharma jewel. And the holy mind of one’s Root Guru is inseparable from Tārā and is also the Buddha jewel. Okay, So next verse, number ten, verse ten.
This is praising Tārā through her crown ornament and the sound of her laughter. So this Tārā is the one who brings Mara and the world under her power, so she is red and holding a red flask. So she tames all the maras and obstructions. So it says, Chaksal Raptugawa Jipe, Ugyen, Urkit Chengwa, Palma, So that translates as homage to you Tārā, whose radiant crown jewel, joyful and magnificent, extends a garland of light, and who by your laughter of Tutara conquers the demons conquer the demons and of all the worlds. So now we’re paying homage to Tārā, whose radiant crown ornament, joyful and magnificent, extends a garland of light.
So this aspect of Tārā is able to fulfil the wishes and generate joy in all those who possess faith in her. For those who do not possess such faith, she’s able to overwhelm them with her splendid crown ornament. So the the commentaries don’t make this completely clear what is meant by the crown ornament. I don’t think it’s referring to the actual crown, you know, the five pointed crown she’s wearing. It could be, but it could be referring to the Ushnisha which again is the one of the gold golden top knot of the Buddha, although Tārā as a Sambhogakāya form you can’t really see that.
But actually you can see fairly clearly in that painting there that apart from the hair above and then that’s got an ornament on it. She’s got a crown which there is depicted as flowers mainly and then there’s that like her hair is tied up above that and then there’s this kind of curved curly golden ornament on on that hair. So it’s possibly referring to that ornament. That this light is radiating from that subdues everyone. With her laughter that has the sound of the mantra Tutara, she’s able to subdue Shiva, the lord of the desire realm, and all all his entourage.
So the main cause of receiving all all the benefits from and the blessings of Tārā is basically developing faith in her. That when we have this faith in Tārā, faith in the enlightened mind and that enlightened mind can manifest in any way and especially in this wonderful form of Tārā who is the embodiment of wisdom and compassion and specifically embodies the enlightened activity of the Buddha, the skillful means of the Buddha to benefit us. If we have that faith, then arising depending on that faith, Tārā becomes something real for us and can therefore do things for us. Because remember, the enlightened mind is always acting for the benefit of sentient beings. It is impossible for the enlightened mind not to be benefiting all sentient beings all the time.
So we have to open ourselves to that benefit by thinking of Tārā and developing faith in her. So the more we have faith that she has all these amazing qualities and that just her laughter her laughter, her mantra can eliminate any kind of problem and difficulty. We have to have faith that that happens. However much faith we have, that much it works. As I tried to say last week, faith is something that itself arises dependently by trying these things, working at it again and again and again and not giving up.
So when we have faith in Tārā, she can fulfill all our wishes. This also pleases her holy mind. Okay. So next next one is, we are on number eleven. This is the Tārā who eradicates poverty.
So she’s a red red yellow, color like refined gold holding a yellow flask that dispels poverty. She grants magical attainments and dispels poverty. So the Tibetan says, So the English translates as homage to you Tārā who was able to invoke the entire assembly of local protectors whose wrathful expression fiercely shakes, rescuing the impoverished through the letter hum. Here it talks about the entire assembly of local protectors. According to Mahāyāna Buddhism, especially as it’s explained in the Tibetan tradition, are two kinds of protectors, Dharma protectors.
There are what are called transcendental protectors and then worldly protectors and the local protectors here are referring to worldly protectors. So the transcendental protectors means that they are actually Buddhas but they manifest as worldly deities, gods, different kinds of spirits. Like I was saying in order to subdue all sorts of human beings, Buddhas appear in the world as human beings to subdue them, guide them on the path for all these kind of negative spirits and what, you know, zombies and there’s a huge range of different kinds of spirits. There are what are called mammos, are female cannibal spirits, and there’s Nöjins and King Spirits and Düns and there’s a huge range of all sorts of really scary nasty spirits that can cause all sorts of harm. The Buddhas manifest as these kinds of beings but a really scary and even nastier version in order to subdue them.
So these are the transcendental protectors. Well, that’s one of their roles, is just to subdue these negative spirits that exist. Traditionally there are three major transcendental protectors that one should rely on which is Kālarūpa, the lord of death who is the protector for those beings trying to develop the initial level of Dharma practice of trying to generate the mind renouncing this life in order to get a good rebirth. Then the protector, the transcendental protector of the middle level of practice practitioners who are those trying to renounce cyclic existence altogether. So that protector is called Vaishravana.
Then the transcendental protector of those practitioners, the most advanced practitioners who are either trying to or actually generating bodhicitta, the protector for those beings is six-armed Mahākāla who is an emanation of Avalokiteśvara, the Buddha of Compassion. Also maybe I think we’ve discussed either in this class or some other classes, there’s also the protector of Tibet in general who is Palden Lhamo. She is also the personal protector of the Dalai Lama. So she is this extremely scary, wrathful looking lady who rides around in a pool of blood on a mule. Very scary.
And as I’ve mentioned, when I was at a teaching with his holiness many years ago, nineteen eighty five to be exact, his holiness actually said to everyone, there were thousands of people there in Dharmasala, that Palden Lhamo actually came and talked to him regularly. So No, no, it’s pity No. Like, one has to remember the Buddhas can only they’re they’re not like the the Christian idea or of of a a god who controls everything, who’s created and, you know, control things. The Buddha and the protectors haven’t created the world so they can’t control it. They can just try and, you know, do the best they can because it all depends on the karma of sentient beings.
So the fact that the Chinese took over Tibet is because there was, you know, well, I didn’t think they get they didn’t get to know it. They’re doing their best to destroy it. But yeah. Lots of bad karma on the the part of Tibet or Tibetan people, unfortunately. Some good karma, some bad karma.
But maybe Palden Lhamo did her job. The the dharma still exists. She’s protecting it. It’s just moved. So it didn’t it’s still there.
And as I’ve mentioned a few times before Oh no, this is slightly different. So there are the transcendental protectors. There’s more than that. There’s just a couple. There’s many others.
And then there are the worldly protectors. So the worldly protectors refers mostly to various kinds of negative spirits and whatever who have been subdued by great dharma practitioners and they are also called oath bound protectors because these great practitioners such as Padmasambhava sort of subdued these negative spirits and made them make a vow that they had to protect, they would stop harming Dharma and Dharma practitioners and they would actually help anyone who practiced the Dharma. So these are the worldly protectors. Some of the worldly protectors aren’t oath bound, are worldly and they are realized beings. They are not Buddhas.
But they just have a natural inclination to the Dharma. There are some negative beings who have a natural inclination against the Dharma and what is good and there are other spirits and devas who have a natural inclination and interest in the dharma and supporting it. So some become some of them become these worldly protectors who look after the dharma. In the commentary it mentions that there are the ten directional protectors which I think we mentioned last week. So these directional protectors look after these worldly protectors, control the worldly protectors.
So four of these direction protectors are depicted in this Thangka. I’m gonna have to get up. Thangka that depicts the Medicine Buddha. So at the bottom ah, oh okay, So here this is six-armed Mahākāla. So he is the transcendental protector of the of the beings of the highest level of spiritual practice. Appearing very scary as some kind of, you know, nasty spirit to subdue them.
But these four beings here here one two three and four no, four. These are the four guardian kings. So these these are the kings of the I think the Yakshas. These are the if if you in your chart, you have the the the gods of the desire realm. So there are six levels of gods in the desire realm, and the very bottom level, the very first one is the is the realm of the four guardian kings.
So these are the four guardian kings. So these are four of the ten directional protectors. So they they control all these other lesser spirits, but then here what this praise is saying is that Tārā subdues all of them. She has all of them under her control. Can I just finish this one and then we’ll take a break?
So this aspect of Tārā has a wrathful face. That’s directed to all these harmful beings. At her heart is the seed syllable hum from which countless iron hooks are emanated in the ten directions invoking and summoning all good things such as long life, wealth, possessions and so forth. By doing this she is able to eliminate the suffering of poverty of all sentient beings. So the commentary says: When we are experiencing financial difficulties or poverty, we should remember and think of Tārā, and particularly this form of Tārā.
The motivation must be to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, or at the very least to benefit others. We then visualize this aspect of Tārā and with faith and respect we make request to Tārā to eliminate the poverty we’re experiencing. So it also goes on to say that there are many different kinds of poverty and the one that people obviously think of is a lack of money. But from a dharma point of view there’s much worse forms of poverty than that. That poverty is not necessarily such a big problem.
The real poverty is a poverty of the lack of dharma. And the lack of dharma experience, the lack of dharma realizations, that’s the greatest poverty. One of the four guardian kings which is the one just here on the far left of the Thangka. That one. The gold one who’s he’s holding in his right hand what’s actually meant to be a victory banner and in his left hand, I don’t know if you can see, but he’s actually holding you probably can’t work it out from here.
He’s holding a mongoose and the mongoose is vomiting jewels continuously. So this this is Vaishravana or Kubera who’s seen as the god of wealth and so he’s very popular in various traditions especially the Chinese love. One. So there are practices you can do to get wealth. But really, Vaishraavana, one of the four guardian kings, wealth he represents is not actually the wealth we think of as money and possessions and jewels.
He is also the protector of the being of middle scope, the person who’s trying to achieve liberation from cyclic existence. So to achieve liberation from cyclic existence one has to realize emptiness in order to destroy ignorance which is what keeps us in cyclic existence. To realize emptiness, the basis of realizing emptiness apart from understanding the teachings on it is to develop Samādhi single pointed concentration. And what is the basis to develop Samādhi? Of course one has to train the mind in meditating single pointedly, but what is the basis for that to work?
No. No. The three higher trainings is morality. Pure morality. So the wealth that Vaishravana actually represents is the wealth of morality, of being able to live a pure moral life.
That’s what that wealth is really referring to. So anyway we can make requests to Tārā, especially this form of Tārā, to help eliminate every kind of poverty from our life. Some people have a poverty mentality. Yeah. Which can take many aspects.
You can have a poverty mentality in the sense of even though you’ve got a lot, you’re never satisfied. But there’s a poverty mentality where and there’s a poverty mentality of just miserliness, being completely miserly. And there’s a poverty mentality of just being scared to be generous, of having just a really thinking small, you know, tiny minded, frightened of doing, you know, oh, I could you know, is you know, can’t do this. This is too difficult. This is too expensive.
We can’t possibly I can’t possibly do this. I cannot comment on that. No. We shouldn’t say things. We should apply this to our mind, not think of it related to others.
So generosity of spirit is an incredibly important Dharma quality to develop. It’s the first of the six perfections. Right? The six perfections, the six pāramitā of basic Dharma practices but especially following the bodhisattva way of life of generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, wisdom. The first is practicing generosity and developing that generosity of spirit.
Totally summed up brilliantly by Lama Yeshe in his whole life but also in the two words which were one of his mantras which was Think big. Think big. Which is what Lama did. Think big. That’s what we need to do.
Have a big heart. Think big. Don’t have to be practical, but think big. Prior to Torah, to be able to think big, to get rid of that poverty mentality, and get rid of poverty in general. So very particular way to do this is one visualizes that the there is the at Tārā’s heart.
The main seed syllable of Tārā every deity has a seed syllable that represents the very essence of that deity’s enlightened mind. So the seed syllable of Tārā is a TAM which I have one which is this. I don’t know if you can see it. That’s the actual seed syllable of Tārā that you normally visualize at her heart on a moon disc and then around the moon disc are the letters of the mantra Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svāhā. But in this case one visualizes a hum so either you can visualise the Tibetan form of the hum if you know what that looks like or you can just visualise hum is okay in the nature of light.
Think that light rays go out from that hum in the aspect of iron hooks, or at least there are all these light rays going out from the hum and at the ends of these light rays are these iron hooks going out in the ten directions, hooking and summoning back all good things such as long life, wealth, possessions and so on. And then all these things dissolve back into the syllable hum, a Tārā’s heart, and blessings in the form of light rays and nectar enter into you. At the same time as doing this for yourself it’s also really good to visualize all sentient beings experiencing this as well. Especially those who are sort of experiencing poverty and financial difficulties and problems. So think that they are receiving these blessings from Tārā long life, you know, possessions, whatever things they need and so on.
And then a little bit at a little bit deeper level since being miserly is the cause to experience poverty, the karmic result of practicing generosity is to receive more and more in the future. By practicing generosity early in this life, it’s possible that at the latter part of this life we will start to receive more and more things. Certainly in our next life, that’s if we get reborn human. Then if we combine it with practicing morality we get reborn human, then by practicing generosity the karmic result is to have all sorts of resources. Whereas by practicing miserliness, holding on to what we got, we create the cause not to have things in the future.
I don’t know if this actually proves anything but in the early days of the FPMT and the Lama’s things were very very difficult. Like if you go to Kopan monastery now in Nepal, which is Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s monastery that he started with Lama Yeshe, it’s really quite a magnificent place. It has this huge beautiful gompa and many, many nice facilities. It’s really a beautiful, beautiful place. Highly recommend you go there.
One of the most wonderful places to go in the universe. Definitely, very blessed holy place and just from a worldly point of view it’s very beautiful. It’s on top of a little hill, has this wonderful view of the Kathmandu Valley. But it’s wonderful, wonderful. But in the very early days the facilities there were extremely basic and terrible.
And I had the good fortune to be Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s attendant for three years from nineteen eighty three to nineteen eighty six. So I travelled around the world with Rinpoche, went to various places and at that time FPMT had very little money, Rinpoche had very little and so on, but whatever money offerings Rinpoche received, he always gave it away, always practiced incredible generosity, never spent money, never used any of the money for himself ever, ever. I said only once, only once did Rinpoche ask because I kept all the money. I was I was in charge of all the money. All the money.
Only once Rinpoche asked said he asked me for to give me some give him some money so he could we were in Singapore airport and he bought some orchids and of course they were to offer to the Buddha. So that was the only time in three years Rinpoche ever asked for any of his money that would be given to him. The rest went he gave it away on various ways. But now, Kopan has many rich sponsors, donations. You go to Rinpoche’s rooms, there’s these incredible beautiful statues there.
And I think it’s because Rinpoche practiced so much generosity, it still does. It’s a karmic result even in this life of just being immensely generous, not just with what Rinpoche has, but the the generosity of mind is is is yeah. It’s incredible. The generosity of spirit that Rinpoche practices. And, of course Rinpoche is trying to build a giant statue of Maitreya Buddha that’s going to cost half a billion dollars.
Yeah. Think big. Well, it was Lama’s idea, of course. Whilst Lama’s idea was the the stupa the statue was meant to be as high as Bodh Gaya’s stupa, but Then Rinpoche made it five hundred feet. So he took Lama’s Think Big idea to a new level.
Since miserliness is the cause for us to experience poverty, so at the same time that we’re doing this visualization of hooking all these good things we should think that all obstacles in our life such as miserliness and its imprints are completely purified. One thinks that now one has become like an inexhaustible treasure for others. So when you think like this, all negative karma that causes us to be poor is purified. When these karmas are purified, all good things will come. This commentary is from Lama Lhundup who was the abbot of Kopan monastery, was a direct disciple of Lama Yeshe, was an incredible wonderful special being.
He says we can do this practice of when he passed away his holy body was cremated and he left many relics there which is a sign that he was without doubt a realized being. We can do this practice especially when we have difficulties at work, financial difficulties in business, and so on. The motivation, however, should not just be for one’s own benefit, such as may my business do well, but the motivation must be conjoined with the thought of benefiting others to achieve enlightenment, to benefit other sentient beings. In other words, if you have a business or you’re trying to start a business or anyway you’re trying to get a job, think you practice Tārā for this to happen, but why do you want this job? Why do you want this business to succeed So this can help you benefit other sentient beings.
So if that is one’s actual motivation and you rely on Tārā, something should happen. Lama Lhundup saying, the better our motivation is, then the more light and and of course, combined with our faith, then things happen, things work. Okay. Tea break, coffee break, whatever break. Oh, I’ll have a I’ll have a coffee, thanks.
What is this? Oh, no. I’ve got the twenty one Taras according to Nāgārjuna, that one. I’ve got one of those. And And the realms of The realms.
I think I’ve got the realms. Just a minute. Don’t go away. Don’t go away. Yes, here we are.
Realms of Samsāra. Could we move the throne? It’s not that heavy. It slides along quite. We could just in the middle of middle of the of of oh no, that’s easy to push back.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, we’ll move this. Yeah.
And then we could sit yeah do a half circle or just didn’t rose? That’s that’s why I thought. Yeah. How many people do you think will come? You’d have no idea.
Six or eight. Or eight. Oh, then maybe we don’t even need to move the throne. Thinking. Well Or maybe just a little bit.
Okay, we’ll continue for a little while and then we’ll do the chant the praises. Okay. So the So we’re now on number twelve, is that right? Yes, number twelve, twelfth praise. So this is Tārā who grants all that is auspicious.
Her holy body is a golden color and she’s holding the white flask of good fortune. So so this is praising Tārā with reference to her crown ornament. So the Tibetan says, So this translates as homage to you Tārā whose crown is adorned with the crescent moon wearing ornaments exceedingly bright. From your hair knot, the Buddha Amitābha radiates eternally with great beams of light. So in the Tibetan Öpagme in the third line it says Öpagme is the Tibetan for Amitābha.
Remember Amitābha is Tārā’s Guru and one way of looking at it one can say from but also at another level Amitābha the Buddha of boundless light is an emanation of Amitābha. So the line Chaksa Bawe Dumbo Uguyen. So Dumbo Uguyen describes how Tārā is adorned with a halo of light behind her head. So her crown is adorned with the crescent moon, likened to the moon on the first day of the lunar calendar. So she’s wearing ornaments exceedingly bright.
The white light rays from her ornaments eliminate all the suffering of sentient beings. Because what are those ornaments? Those ornaments are remember the or those ornaments symbolize the the six perfections of generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom. So these are what ornament the mind of an enlightened being and that mind of enlightened being is depicted in the aspect of Tārā wearing these jeweled ornaments on her body. So it’s all those enlightened qualities which eliminate the sufferings of sentient beings.
Tārā’s hair is very black or a very very deep blue and shining and is tied up in a hair knot as depicted quite clearly in the Thangka there. The Lord of the lineage, Amitābha, the head of the lotus family. Amitābha Buddha is seated on her crown. So in that Thangka, Amitābha isn’t depicted, which is very common that they don’t depict those, but should be depicted there. You imagine that a little Amitābha is sitting there on the top of her crown and one imagines that from Amitābha Buddha rays of light are going out performing actions to benefit sentient beings.
We think that Tārā and Amitābha are inseparable from our own root Guru. Because Amitābha is the very embodiment of of the compassion of the Buddha. So, like, even Avalokiteśvara is an emanation of Amitābha, That’s the ultimate source of all of that. So in the commentary it says, when we’re not feeling well, when we’re sick, unhappy, frustrated or stressed, we should visualize this aspect of Tārā and visualize light rays and nectar coming from the holy bodies of Tārā and Amitābha Buddha, both inseparable from the root Guru, and that light and nectar enters our body and mind purifying us of whatever problems, unhappiness we have. And at the same time, we feel that we receive the blessings of Tārā’s holy body, holy speech, holy mind.
As I mentioned last week, these practices work particularly if we’ve had the good fortune to have received the actual initiation, the Jenang of Tārā and especially the twenty one Tārā’s. Each Tārā, each of the twenty one Taras has a slightly different mantra so when one is visualizing those, doing these practices for specific purposes, visualizing these specific Tārā’s, of course it’s very good to say that the particular mantra of that Tārā and that that will bring the greatest benefit. But again, to recite for those mantras to have the greatest effect, one should have received the initiation from the qualified lama to recite those mantras. So next one, number thirteen, thirteenth praise. This is the praise to Tārā who blazes like fire.
Her body is a red color and blazing like fire. Actually is depicted with an aura of flames around her body. Also she holds a red flask which protects from obstacles. So the Tibetan says, So this is praising Tārā with reference to her wrathful posture. And and the the translation says, homage to you Tārā who dwells within a blazing garland that resembles the fire at the end of this world age.
Surrounded by joy, you sit with your right leg extended and left withdrawn, completely destroying all the masses of enemies. Sorry? She is red, blazing and with an aura of flames. So she has this blazing garland of flames resembling the fire at the end of this world age. So in the Abhidharma it explains in great detail with great complexity which I can’t remember all the details now about the evolution of the universe how there is this vast period of time when nothing exists and then one one countless great eon where nothing exists and then for another countless great eon the universe emerges.
It it evolves. And then for another countless great eon, it abides, you know, like it’s flourishing. And then for another countless eon, it it declines and then disappears. And that’s talking about the universe. So we’re just one little bit in the universe.
So at some point in the future, quite some time away fortunately, this world is going to come to an end. All sorts of horrible things happen. There’s a whole series of over a very long period of time, all sorts of disasters. There were floods and this and that. But eventually, if I remember correctly, according to the Abhidharma, at some point I mean this is billions of years in the future, we don’t have to worry too much right now.
I think it says that seven suns will appear in the sky. I don’t know how this happens, but seven suns so it gets really hot and so this whole planet will just be burnt to a crisp. Very hot. So this phrase is saying that that this Tārā is radiating flames as hot as that time. So it’s quite hot.
So she’s pretty wrathful one. But this of course is not just an ordinary fire that she’s emanating. This fire is really the fire of wisdom and that wisdom fire can eliminate all sorts of obstacle, any kind of obstacle. Just like with Mañjuśrī, where’s Mañjuśrī? Over there, holding the wisdom sword.
So that sword also has flames coming from it. So it burns up, you know, ignorance. So that fire is symbolic of wisdom that is able to consume all obstacles, all confusion, all ignorance. So this aspect of Tārā, the Tārā who blazes like fire, is able to destroy the whole host of outer and inner enemies by turning the wheel of dharma. The inner enemy refers to our negative emotions and the outer enemy includes and because we have these disturbing thoughts based on ignorance, then we have the outer enemies which can be human and nonhuman.
And also the problems and obstacles that arise as the result of our negative emotions. Lama Zopa Rinpoche often says, why do we have the outer enemy is because we’ve got the inner enemy of anger. Right? So the inner enemy is one of our inner obstacles. By relying on this Tārā, the Tārā who blazes like fire, blazing with a fire of wisdom, we can pacify all these enemies, inner and outer, with dharma wisdom.
Of course, you know, another element in all of this is that I’ve tried to emphasize in these talks about how all of this works not as magic but as dependent arising. It depends on our side having faith and refuge and understanding and it depends on the fact that enlightened mind exists and is always acting for the benefit of others and so on and it depends on the fact that these words of the praises come from the Buddha himself and are expressions of truth and so on. So that all of these things, so coming together, doing these things with the right motivation, something positive, beneficial can happen. Obstacles and problems can be cut through and so on. Another essential element of all this which I forgot to mention crucial, well implied, is of course all of this shouldn’t be done in isolation.
The practice of Tārā, relying on Tārā, developing faith and devotion to her, reciting her mantra, reciting her praises should be done in the context of having a general understanding of the Dharma itself. Especially in our tradition the very best way to understand the Dharma, the path to enlightenment is to study the Lamrim, the Lamrim teachings, the graduated path to enlightenment. So the more understanding we have of the Lamrim, the more we try to practice the Lamrim in our life as much as possible, then on the basis of that, when we combine that with our faith and devotion and practice of Tārā, then something really special can happen. One of my friends who unlike me is an actual meditator who can really meditate well, has some real experience of meditation, He did a long retreat for several years in Osel Ling Centre in Spain. It’s a wonderful place.
And he said one of the things that he realized from doing that retreat is because he was trying to do some tantric practice in that, is that the more you try to do tantric meditations, the more you realize the only way they work is by understanding the lam rim. And the more you study and practice the lam rim, the more you have the valid basis for practicing tantra. So these two things feed into each other. So the more if you if you combine Lamrim practice of studying, hearing the teachings, meditating on them, trying to integrate them in one’s daily life, by doing some tantric practice that helps deepen that practice, it helps get rid of the obstacles to understanding the Lamrim and so on. Then by doing Lamrim you’ve got the basis for whatever Tantric practice one tries to do for that to really start to work.
So these two things done together become really really powerful. By themselves, well especially Tantra without any understanding or practice of Lam Rim hardly goes anywhere. As I’ve said many times before here, one of the many many quotable quotes from Lamas over Rinpoche, wonderful insights, little nutshell bits of wisdom. Rinpoche said is that what makes Tantra special is the Lam Rim. The the three principles of renunciation, wisdom, bodhicitta.
So the more experience of those three we have, the more tantra works. Every everything about it really comes to life. So Tārā, practicing Tārā without much understanding of the Lam Rim doesn’t go very far. But if one really understands the Lam Rim, practices it, has faith in it, then then practicing Tārā can be really, really fantastic. But if one practicing the Dharma in a basic way and you just pray to Tārā to make all your problems go away and make life wonderful.
This is a bit of a joke. Right? His Holiness often says in teachings that you know when things go wrong people come to me and ask me oh please do pray for me. He says, Tibetan people have so much faith in me and they want me to pray for them to, you know, but he says, but if they’re not practicing, what can I do? We have to practice.
We have to, as much as possible, try to renounce this life, renounce Samsāra, generate bodhicitta as much as possible right now. The and the more we’re we’re trying to do those things, then relying on Tārā has a basis. But without them, there’s no basis. There’s not much basis. It’s it’s just kind of fantasy.
It’s like Cinderella. You know, Tārā isn’t Cinderella. Cinderella is just cute, you know, fairy floss. If you know what I mean. Yeah?
Oh. Sorry. Done it again. God, I blab. No one says anything.
They just politely sit there. Well, let’s do one praise, is that okay? Or maybe we can do two. We’ll try and do them a little bit more quickly if we can. We’ll do one time in Tibetan.
The Tibetan starts on page four, and then we’ll do one time in English. So now we do the praises in English. And as we do this, sorry, forgot to mention, we should visualize Tārā, mother Tārā in front of us seated on the Lotus and Moon disc with a hollow body of emerald green light. And then surrounding her, starting from directly in front of her and going clockwise are all the twenty one Tārā’s and we imagine that they’re each radiating, sending out rays of light and and nectar to ourselves and all sentient beings, freeing us of all suffering, confusion, obstacles, inner and outer obstacles, all negative imprints, and so on. Freeing us of all causes of sickness, and so on.
Homage to the noble transcendent liberator, homage, swift, heroic, eyes like lightning’s flash. Sprung from opening petals of the lotus. whose face combines a hundred autumn moons at fullest. blazing with the dazzling light of stars, a thousand gathered. Homage, golden blue one, lotus-born and hand adorned with it?
generosity, morality, patience, meditation and so on Homage, crown of those gone thus? actions triumph without limit. relied on by Buddha’s children having reached every perfection, homage, filling with TUTTARE heaven and earth, triumphing over the seven worlds, able to draw forth all beings, Homage, venerated by Indra, Agni, Brahma, Vayu, all battle, raised corpses, Gandharvas, Yakshas. Homage where the TRAT and PHAT sounds destroy her enemies’ magic diagrams. her feet pressing left and right, blazing in a raging fire place.
Homage to TURE, the very dreadful, destroyer of Mara’s champion. she who frowns with her visage and slays all enemies. her fingers at her heart in the Three Jewels gesture. liberating masses, all excited, all-direction wheels adorn her. Homage whose joyous radiant crown emits garlands of light, whose laughter with TUTTARA subjugates Mara and the world.
Homage who can summon all the guardians’ assembly, shaking, trembling with her HUM, saving from every misfortune. Homage crowned with crescent moon, all ornaments shining, and Amitābha in her hair knot sending out much light eternal homage she blazes like an unending fire, her garland raging round her, right leg outstretched and left bent, her joy of destroying all enemies. Homage who strikes the ground with her hand and with her foot, scouring with the letter HUM the seven underworlds to conquer. Homage, happy, virtuous and peaceful, she who has nirvana as her object. She who is endowed with SVAHA and OM, destroying all great evil.
Homage she who joys around tearing foes’ bodies asunder, freed by the knowledge mantra arranged with the ten letters. Homage to her with the syllable TURE, stamping shapes of three, with the syllables HRIH STRI and HUM, Meru Mandara and Kailash she shakes. Homage holding in her hand the hook lotus form, with HARA spoken and HUM, totally dispelling all poisons and she whom gods and their kings and Kinnaras do honor. Homage with joyful splendor, she dispels bad dreams and conflicts. Homage whose two eyes bright with radiance of sun and full moon.
with HARA twice spoken she dispels the most virulent poison homage adorned by the set of three natures. TURE with young seals, and raising cause supreme, utterly. These praises and the root mantra and prostrations thus are twenty-one. So we then think that all the twenty one Taras now happily dissolve into light. That light absorbs into the central Tārā.
She, seated on the lotus and moon disc, comes to the crown of our head, turns facing the same direction as ourself. And then mother Tārā dissolves into blissful green light, and that pours down into us, blessing our body, speech, mind. Then we dedicate the merits of tonight. So remember, so this is page eight in the prayer book. When we say instead of saying Lama Sangye we say Padma Dolma meaning Ārya Tārā.
We can particularly dedicate tonight for Kathy Davis’ mother. Kathy is the director of the center. Her mom who was eighty six died on Friday night. So we dedicate that she is able to achieve the very best rebirth possible either in a pure land or able to achieve a precious human rebirth so that she can quickly meet the Dharma and practice and achieve enlightenment. Bajo.
May the precious bodhicitta not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore. So it’s a little bit late, so maybe we’ll leave out the next prayer but just we can dedicate for the people of Tibet and may they be able to live in peace and and harmony and and security and prosperity and so that the they and the Dharma flourish as never before. We can do the long life prayers though on page ten onwards. Savior of the snow land teachings and transmigratory beings who makes extremely clear the path that is unification of emptiness and compassion to the lotus holder Tenzin Gyatso, I beseech, may all your holy wishes be spontaneously fulfilled.
You who uphold the subdue as moral way, who serves the bountiful bearer of all, sustaining, preserving, spreading Mañjuśrī’s victorious doctrine, who masterfully accomplished magnificent prayers honoring the Three Jewels, savior 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, o foremost and holy Lama, to you who are supreme. O Lama, please, please live long. Okay. Thank you very much.
So we can finish.