REFRESHING VISUALIZATION TARA AND THE MERIT FIELD

PROSTRATION

From the supreme abode of the Potala, One born from the green letter TAM,

Your crown adorned by Amitabha Buddha,

Mother of the skillful actions of all buddhas of the three times, Tara, please come with your entourage.

The gods and demigods with their crowns Bow down to your lotus feet.

Divine Mother who liberates from all struggles and dissatisfaction, To you, Mother Tara, I prostrate.

Seven-Limb Prayer

I prostrate with a pure state of mind to divine Arya Tara and all the buddhas and bodhisattvas abiding in the three times and ten directions.

I make offerings of flowers, incense, light, perfume, delicious food, music, and so on, actually performed and mentally transformed. Divine mother and your assembly, please accept these.

I confess the ten non-virtuous actions, the five immediate nega- tive actions, and all other negative actions committed from begin- ningless time until now with a mind overwhelmed by delusions.

I rejoice in the merit of all virtuous actions accumulated in the three times by shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, bodhisattvas, and or- dinary beings.

I request you to return the wheel of the great, small, and common vehicles according to the attitudes and propensities of the minds of all sentient beings.

I request you not to pass into nirvana until samsara ends, and to look with compassion upon all the beings who are immersed in the ocean of suffering.

By the merit I have gathered, having become the cause of enlight- enment, may I swiftly become the glorious liberator of all sentient beings.

Praises to the Twenty-One Tara

Praises and Requests to the Assembly of Deities of the Venerable Mother of the Twenty-One Homages

Homage to Arya Tara!

Well-born of the holy actions of all universal conquerors! Supreme refuge of all the three realms’ beings!

Venerable treasure of compassion –

I bow at your lotus feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

With divine actions quick as instant lightning,

You make the foes of the conquerors or objects of practice, And Ganesh and others, all as obedient as slaves –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Demons of sickness and plague and evil spirits, Untimely death, bad dreams, and obscurations – All such dark adversity you quell! –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

All qualities, good collections, merits, and power, Glory, excellence, and two kinds of realizations, And the aryas’ seven treasures, you fully develop –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Of beings and world you increase all the splendor and majesty, Granting the special, deathless, supreme siddhi,

And you conquer in battle the Lord of Death –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

As requisites for practitioners travelling to freedom, You quickly summon each and every pleasing

And longed-for collection and do conducive actions – Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

By the mere mental thought of you,

You make all assemblies of spirits, such as the ten directional guardians,

Gather with servile devotion –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Should evil ones, thinking and acting to injure others,

Bring down on us magic spells, curses, imprecations, and so on, You turn all their power back upon themselves –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

From noxious beings, who injure the Conqueror’s doctrine, Perversely rebelling against right Dharma conduct,

You quickly separate the life and body –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

From outer and inner adversities and harm

Through producers of suffering, physical and mental, You guard and protect us in this and all future lives –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

If one seeks refuge in you, you quell his injurious maras and perverse thought of tirthika conduct,

And then apply him to the perfect path –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

With torrents of rain of all desired precious things,

Such as food and wealth and stores of enjoyments and beasts, You eliminate every poverty, hunger, and thirst –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

You let us achieve every aim we intend, as we wish;

With mundane and supermundane auspiciousness and goodness, You fill the directions all the time –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

For hindering demons, obstructions, and evil signs, Just by one’s mentally recollecting your form,

You put him in a vajra tent, without fear –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

With frowning, very active, open eyes,

You smash as if into atoms all bearers in min of cruelty, Ganesha and his hindering demons –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

All sins and obscurations of karma and klesha,

Which throw one into the realms of woe, you cleanse And purify, Mother, just through recalling your face –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Deep wisdom that realized true nature’s meaning; Explaining, debating, and writing; the wisdoms of listening,

thinking, and meditation –

All these you increase and develop! –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

With power that shakes all the three worlds in an instant, Every enemy, robber, and thief, without exception, Victorious mother, you bind and subdue –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Harm from poison and contagion, and all poisoning By noxious nagas and earth-owning spirits,

You quickly allay till the very name does not exist –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Mutual conflict, torment by the law

Through fear of the king, and bad dreams – on all such things You perform the action of rapidly pacifying –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Most violent and unbearable sickness and plagues And every adverse and injurious group –

All these you protect from and totally pacify! –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Your universal actions, like calming spirits,

Corpse-raisers, yakshas, and fears; increasing, subduing And fierceness; and all aims, you accomplish at will –

Devout, I prostrate at your feet, Tara, mother of conquerors!

Songs of longing and making requests Alas! Lady Arya, listen a little to me!

All qualities of your body, speech, and mind Are manifested for sentient beings’ sake.

You understand well the thoughts of your disciples, And in all the universal conquerors’ holy actions,

O goddess, you directly appear!

So, as soon as this name of Her Who Quickly Liberates From the samsaric ocean falls on my ears,

Like the beloved in the heart of a lover,

Again and again, your moon-like body’s reflection Appears in the dancing lake of my mental devotion.

Since, in my previous lives without beginning,

I’ve gathered unwholesome karma through defilements, Again and again I have fallen to realms of woe,

And experienced endless, unbearable, violent suffering.

Of the bodies I’ve taken in human migrations alone,

The blood and pus would, collected, exceed a great ocean; The flesh and bones, heaped up, would be taller than Meru.

But though I have thus experienced violent suffering,

If, supreme refuge, you don’t seize me with your compassion, Still I shall have to wander much more than that.

Alas! O rescue me from the fears of samsara!

Of yore, in the perfect deity land of Tushita, The supreme holy teacher gave utterance

To the conquerors’ son Manjushri, pronouncing that those Who praised with the supreme praises that are taught

In the King of Tantras would win immeasurable virtues.

If, although with my effort I’ve praised with these praises, Recited and practiced, made offerings and requested, You see the foul conduct of beings of times of decline And, Arya Mother, act with indifference towards us,

Then what is the use of your names

Of “Specially Loving Towards Inferior Beings,” “Swift One,” and “Savior”?

However, since your loving compassion is free of near and far, It applies to everyone;

Therefore, although, with inferior fortune,

I suffer from my karmic obscurations, at present I’ve not found another refuge superior to you;

So in all future lives, superior deity,

Will you look after me without parting for even an instant, And manifest your supreme face as visual nectar!

Rescuing from the eight fears, outer and inner; Your twenty-one ways of action, and all such Universal actions – just by thinking,

Make all these quickly spontaneously arise!

All that hinder my practice of the Dharma – Assemblies of human beings, ghosts, and spirits, And all interruptions such as the eight fears – Please will you pacify without exception!

Especially, supreme refuge, from your compassion, In my mindstream let not perverse thoughts

Be born for even an instant,

wut let only Wholesome minds arise – inspire me thus!

Especially, on the sole base of all good collections’ arising, A qualified, supreme, holy Guru,

Let me rely correctly with thoughts and actions And follow him as he wishes – inspire me thus!

The base with which buddhahood can be achieved in one life, This opportune, fortunate rebirth, found but once,

Perishes fast as lightning.

Let me produce this thought, and grasp its essence – inspire me thus!

Driven by fear of woeful rebirth after death, Let me abandon nonvirtue and practice virtue,

Confess with regret all the sins I’ve created before,

And be able to stop them henceforth – inspire me thus!

Like seeing filthy sewage as amrita,

Let me not see samsara’s perfections as bliss,

But produce the mind that wants to be free of it quickly, And train in the Conqueror’s doctrine – inspire me thus!

Since they are tortured by suffering and poor in happiness, Let me produce well the thought of supreme awakening, Which sets in buddhahood sentient beings, my mothers, And train in the powerful conduct – inspire me thus!

Especially, let the path uniting calm and insight – The middle view, excellent and profound –

Be born within my mindstream well and truly,

And grasping at extremes uprooted – inspire me thus!

Then let me enter the Supreme Vehicle teaching

And ripen my mind with the rivers of pure empowerments, Protecting the vows and pledges that I’ve taken

As the apple of my eye – inspire me thus!

Let me understand right the two stages, heart of the various tantras, Then quickly, by good meditation,

Produce in my mindstream the state of union of the four kayas, A wish-fulfilling jewel – inspire me thus!

Showing before each mother sentient being Countless emanations, when I’m buddha earlier,

Let me transfer them to buddhahood, through the abandonment Of all their two obscurations – inspire me thus!

Let the realm where I accomplish a conqueror’s deeds, My entourage, the measure of my incarnation,

And so on, all far surpass even Sugata All-Seeing’s – To gain these excellent qualities, please inspire me!

From now until I reach the supreme point of enlightenment, Let me know well that the root of all good collections, Samsaric and beyond, is only the Conqueror’s doctrine,

And strive to support and enact it – inspire me thus!

Wealth, respect, fame, desires, entertainments, diversions – Let me not enter such actions blamed by the holy,

But sticking to solitude, think well on meanings I’ve learned, And do the essential practice – inspire me thus!

Let me realize easily and correctly

The subtlest intentions of the Conqueror! May all qualities, such as the aryas’ treasures,

Completely fill my mindstream – inspire me thus!

Through the infinite virtues arisen from this, May I and all other beings without exception

Be well upheld by the holy protector’s compassion, Never becoming separate from the pure path!

Mandala Offering

Request

You, the wisdom mother,

Who gives birth to those blissfully gone, all the buddhas of the three times.

Great treasure of divine compassion, O transcendental Mother Tara, I request you:

Please purify my negativities and obscurations.

This request is made with much respect and appreciation.

Purification

  The left hand [is] in the mudra of giving refuge. At my request, from [the thumb and] ring finger, much light goes out, enters my brow chakra, and hooks into my central channel [shushuma]. Pow- erful nectar flows like a stream of milk, and as my whole body is filled, all negativities, the two obscurations, and all stains are puri- fied. Then my body becomes clear like crystal glass.

Absorption of the Merit Field of the Twenty-One Taras

The twenty surrounding Taras melt into light and sink into the prin- cipal Tara. The principal Tara [melts into light] [and] sinks into me, and we become non-dual.
JAH HUM BAM HOH

Invocation

From the seed syllable at my heart, light beams are emitted and invoke [the mandala of the] lords of the five buddha families, with Amitabha as the principal deity.

(Then I make offerings.)

OM PANCHA KULA SAPARIVARA ARGHAM (PADYAM, PUSHPE, DHUPE, ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVIDYA, SHAPTA) PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

Make request for initiation.

I request you, please grant me initiation.

(Thus requested, the empowering deities lift up their vases filled with wisdom amrita.)

OM SARVA TATHAGATA ABHISHEKATA SAMAYA SHRIYE AH HUM

As the amrita is poured, the initiation is made. As my body is filled, all stains are purified. From the excess amrita forming a swirl [ap- pears] Amitabha Buddha, who adorns my crown [and is seated on a lotus and moon]. Then all the initiation deities [the five tathaga- tas] melt into light and sink into me.

Again I make offerings:

OM VAJRA AMRITA KUNDALI HANA HANA HUM PHAT

OM SVABHAVA SHUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SHUDDHO HAM

All becomes void. Out of the [non-dual] void [the letter] KAM [ap- pears], and from it, [eight] skullcups. [Inside each is the letter] HUM, from which [come] offering substances. These are void of inherent existence [void of self-nature], but have the aspect of the individ- ual offering substances. As these aspects function as the object of the six senses they give uncontaminated, inexhaustible bliss.
[I bless each offering, visualizing OM AH HUM sinking into each skullcup.]

OM ARGHAM AH HUM OM PADYAM AH HUM

OM VAJRA PUSHPE AH HUM OM VAJRA DHUPE AH HUM

OM VAJRA ALOKE AH HUM

OM VAJRA GANDHE AH HUM OM VAJRA NAIVIDYA AH HUM OM VAJRA SHAPTA AH HUM

OM ARYA TARE SAPARIVARA ARGHAM (PADYAM, PUSHPE, DHUPE, ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVIDYA, SHAPTA) PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

Inner Offering

OM ARYA TARE SAPARIVARA OM AH HUM

Visualize that Arya Tara appears from your heart and offers the skullcup with the blissful wisdom-amrita to the twenty Taras outside.

Prostration and Praise

I prostrate to the mother holding the utpalas,

Swift one, green in color, with one face and two arms, To divine wisdom action of all the three times’ buddhas, My Yidam from previous lives.

The rainbow body of the deity lacks self-nature and is of non- dual character, [a unity of non-duality and clean clear light vi- sion]. If you can, contemplate on it as much as possible, as it is essential. If you cannot do that, enter into the recitation of mantras.

Meditation on the Body Mandala

I am the deity. From the crown chakra of my clear light body, the chakra of great bliss, thirty-two branch nadis go out. In the center appears a white TAM. This transforms into a white Tara with thirty- two Taras in similar aspect around.

From the throat chakra, the enjoyment chakra, sixteen branch nadis go out. In the centre appears a red TAM. This transforms into a red Tara with sixteen Taras in similar aspect around.

From the heart chakra, the Dharma chakra, eight branch nadis go out. In the center appears a blue TAM. This transforms into a blue Tara with eight Taras in similar aspect around.

From the navel chakra, the chakra of emanation, sixty-four branch nadis go out. In the center appears a yellow TAM. This transforms into a yellow Tara with sixty-four Taras in similar aspect around.

From the lower chakra [the secret place] the chakra which holds bliss, thirty-two branch nadis go out. In the center appears a green TAM. This transforms into a green Tara with thirty-two Taras in similar aspect around.

At the heart, in the center of the Dharma chakra, at the heart of the blue Tara is a crystal clear moon mandala: on it stands [a blue HUM, in its tigle is the green seed syllable] TAM. Around the edge of the moon, standing counterclockwise, are the ten letters of the mantra.

Contemplate this visualization.

From the deities of the five chakras and the mantra garland much light is radiating, which touches all the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions. All the victorious ones and their sons are invoked. As a great rain showers down and sinks into me, it blesses [my chakras, my psychic points, and] my mindstream.

Contemplate this.

[Again] from the divine mother at the heart, countless similar aspects [Taras] are sent forth and go out through the right nostril. They purify the hatred of all angersome sentient beings, who discover the dhar- madatu wisdom and achieve the state of Akshobhya Buddha. Assum- ing the body of Blue Tara, they all recite the mantra together. When all the deities, who emanated from myself, are assembled, they sink into the deity of my own heart.

From the divine mother at my crown, countless Taras in similar aspect emanate, and they purify the closed-mindedness of all closed-minded sentient beings, who discover the mirror-like wisdom and achieve the state of Vairochana. Assuming the body of White Tara, they recite the mantra together. All the deities who emanated from me return and sink into the deity at my own crown.

From the divine mother at my navel, countless Taras in similar aspect emanate, and they purify the miserliness of all miserly sentient be- ings, who discover the wisdom of equality and achieve the state of Ratnasambhava. Assuming the body of Yellow Tara, they all recite the mantra together. All the deities who emanated from me return and sink into the deity at my own navel.

From the divine mother at my throat, countless Taras in similar aspect emanate, and they purify the craving desire of all sentient beings with craving desire; they discover [the wisdom perceiving

distinctly] the discriminating wisdom and achieve the state of Am- itabha. Assuming the body of Red Tara, they recite the mantra to- gether. All the deities who emanated from me return and sink into the deity at my own throat.

From the divine mother at my lower chakra, countless Taras in similar aspect emanate and they purify the jealousy of all jealous sentient beings, who discover the all-accomplishing wisdom and achieve the state of Amoghasiddhi. Assuming the body of Green Tara, they all recite the mantra together. All the deities who emanated from me return and sink into the deity at my own lower chakra.

All the deities [in my nervous system] are divine Mother Tara and are in essence the buddhas of the five families. They all recite the mantra together.

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA

(Recite mantra as many as possible)

Meaning of the Mantra

OM: magnificent; total purity and unity of body, speech, and mind.

TARE: liberated or liberator of lower scope beings.

TUTTARE: more greatly liberated or greatest liberator of middle scope beings.

TURE: most greatly liberated or greatest liberator of higher scope beings. In these three words, the whole Lam-rim is contained with all three scopes.SVAHA:

the foundation of all siddhis of Tara; this foundation is in your heart.

OM PADMA SATTVA SAMAYA / MANUPALAYA / PADMA SATTVA TVENOPATISHTHA / DRIDHO ME BHAVA / SUTOSHYO ME BHAVA / SUPOSHYO ME BHAVA / ANURAKTO ME

BHAVA / SARVA SIDDHIM ME PRAYACCHA / SARVA KARMA SUCHAME / CHITTAM SHRIYAM KURU HUM / HA HA HA HA HOH / BHAGAVAN / SARVA TATHAGATA / PADMA MAME MUNCHA / PADMA BHAVA / MAHA SAMAYA SATTVA AH HUM PHAT (3x)

Offerings

OM ARYA TARE SAPARIVARA ARGHAM (PADYAM, PUSHPE, DHUPE, ALOKE, GANDHE, NAIVIDYA, SHAPTA) PRATICCHA HUM SVAHA

Inner Offering

OM ARYA TARE SAPARIVARA OM AH HUM

Prostration and Praise

I prostrate to the mother holding the utpalas,

Swift one, green in color, with one face and two arms, To divine wisdom action of all the three times’ buddhas, My Yidam from previous lives.

End of the third session