Connecting To Tara Through Seven Branches

This visualization practice of Green Tara—the female Buddha of Enlightened Activity—uses the "seven branches" originally described in the Flower Ornament Sutra. These are the seven mental actions that allow us to purify and strengthen our mind, cultivate virtuous qualities and dedicate our positive potential to full awakening while also building a bridge to our own buddha nature. By strengthening our connection to Tara, we will see her qualities becoming more easily available in our thinking and actions.

Transcript

To begin this practice of green Tara,

We find a comfortable stationary position and allow our body to relax,

Bringing our awareness into the space of the body,

Noticing the tactile sensations,

Especially sensations associated with the earth element,

The surface underneath us,

And letting go with a slowly chow breath,

Relaxing the body deeply,

Allowing it to rest in stillness,

Being still.

On the basis of this physical stillness,

We also establish the silence of our speech.

Allowing our breath to move naturally,

And leaving all stories,

Outer and inner,

Verbal and mental,

Behind.

And on the basis of this silence,

Also accessing the spaciousness of our mind.

Simply resting in the clarity and cognizance of our awareness,

Without identifying ourselves with any of the mental appearances that arise.

Breathing naturally,

And letting go of all the mental appearances with a chow breath.

In this way,

We settle our body,

Speech and mind in their natural state,

The state of stillness,

Silence and spaciousness.

And within this natural state,

We also arouse a positive motivation for this practice.

We think about our highest aspirations for this meditation,

And for our practice of meditation in general.

What do I want to attain?

What do I want to become?

What do I want to bring to others?

With this motivation as the foundation for our practice,

We begin the actual practice of green Tara.

Using our imagination to see ourselves in a beautiful open field,

Surrounded by beautiful flowers,

Beautiful plants,

Seeing trees and mountains in the distance,

Beautiful lakes,

Rivers,

Streams of water,

Shining rainbows,

Singing birds.

Everything that makes us feel at home and comfortable,

While also reminding us of the qualities of freshness,

Beauty,

Naturalness.

Using our imagination to not just see these images,

But to feel profoundly at peace.

Feel at home in this space of beauty,

Freshness and vibrant energy.

Seeing the open blue sky above us,

And in this open spaciousness,

Mentally generating Tara's seat,

A beautiful lotus flower,

Right up there in the sky in front of us.

Fresh,

Fragrant,

Made of beautiful rainbow light.

Open,

Reminding us of our own potential.

Above this flower we see a moon cushion.

We see a flat moon disc that serves as the cushion for Tara,

Who also appears right there on that lotus flower and that moon cushion.

Taking a moment to just rest with Tara's presence in front of us.

We see Tara seated upon the lotus flower and the moon disc.

We see her energetic,

Youthful body made of green light.

We see that she's adorned with beautiful jeweled ornaments.

She's wearing a silk shawl,

A silk skirt.

Her black hair is partly tied in a top knot,

With the rest of it freely flowing along her back.

She has a beautiful,

Loving and compassionate face,

And she is gazing at us and all the other sentient beings.

And as we see her gaze,

We know that she knows our heart.

She knows our mind.

She knows our potential and she equally knows our mental limitations,

Our afflictions,

Our limited views,

Our doubts,

Our shame,

Our joys,

Our good habits.

One of the common prayers to Tara just says,

Tara,

You know.

You know me and everything that I'm made up of.

And so,

While resting in Tara's presence,

We go through the so-called seven branches of practice,

Seven mental actions that allow us to purify our mind and accumulate positive potential,

The positive potential that makes it easier to transform our mental habits and uncover our Buddha nature.

For the first branch,

The branch of paying homage,

We imagine ourselves paying homage to Tara's qualities of awakening,

Her compassion,

Her love,

Her wisdom,

Her power,

And many other beautiful qualities that are embodied in Tara.

So,

We can imagine ourselves emanating billions of forms that together bow to Tara and to her qualities.

These forms also sing praises to these qualities,

While our mind rests in the sense of appreciation,

Appreciating the value of compassion and love,

Of wisdom,

Of power.

Praise be to these qualities wherever they are manifest.

For the second branch of practice,

We imagine ourselves making offerings to these qualities,

Practicing generosity.

And not just any trivial offerings,

We imagine ourselves manifesting many beautiful objects,

Beautiful drinks,

Different types of food,

Clothing,

Jeweled ornaments,

Incense,

Lights,

And so forth,

But also anything that we see ourselves as being especially attached to,

Manifesting the objects of our attachment in a purified,

Dignified form,

And offering them to Tara,

And seeing these rainbow clouds of offerings dissolving in Tara's heart as she accepts these acts of generosity.

Imagining that Tara experiences great joy and great bliss not because she needs any of these objects,

But because she's so deeply happy about our practice of generosity and surrendering,

About our ability to let go.

For the third branch,

We imagine openly admitting all of our negative actions,

Openly telling Tara that sometimes our actions were not that good,

They were not wholesome enough,

Not constructive enough,

They were done under the influence of negative mental states.

And so,

Openly disclosing all of this in front of Tara to purify.

And as we open up in this way,

We see Tara releasing streams of purifying nectar,

Purifying light,

And we see ourselves as being purified,

Becoming completely pure,

Completely clean,

Completely clear and transparent,

No longer having to carry those burdens around.

Once again remembering that Tara,

As the manifestation of our own Buddha nature and the ultimate reality itself,

Already knows everything about our negativities.

So we no longer need to keep any secrets from ourselves and from the enlightened beings.

The flip side of that is the fourth aspect of practice,

Rejoicing.

We bring to mind all of the positive actions that we ourselves have done,

Including this very practice,

Including all acts of generosity,

Self-restraint,

Patience,

Joyful effort,

All of our concentration,

All of our wisdom,

Our love and compassion,

Rejoicing in that by thinking how wonderful,

How amazing.

And then extending all of this to others,

Rejoicing in the goodness of all beings.

Any positive act,

Any truly compassionate and wise act that has ever been done,

We rejoice in together with Tara.

For the fifth branch of practice,

We supplicate Tara and all the other awakened beings,

Including our teachers with a capital T,

Truly realize teachers present in this world,

Acting for the benefit of all beings in this world.

We ask them to stay with us,

To continue manifesting these visible forms for the benefit of all beings,

To be a presence in our life and to be present in our mind to guide us.

So we can even imagine offering beautiful symbolic seats to Tara and to all awakened beings.

And as these mental offerings dissolve into Tara's lotus flower,

Tara accepts our request and says that she will be present in our life,

In all of our lives.

But since we also want to receive the liberating instructions from Tara and other awakened beings,

We use the next branch of practice.

We mentally and verbally asked Tara and all beings to continue transmitting the teachings.

We ask them to grant us all the instructions we might need for practice to transform our mind and our life.

And as a sign of our willingness to master those instructions,

We can imagine ourselves offering a beautiful golden will,

The thousand spokes,

A symbol of the Dharma.

As this will dissolves into Tara's heart,

She together with all the awakened beings pledges to continue teaching us,

Guiding us,

Inspiring us with her presence.

And we ourselves from our side feel and think,

I will master those instructions,

I will practice them and liberate my mind.

And then for the last branch we think about all the positive potential that we have just created in our mind by using these skillful mental deeds.

And in front of Tara we mentally dedicate all of this positive potential to full awakening,

Full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.

We see that Tara is full of bliss and joy because of the practice that we have just done,

The seven branches,

The seven limbs.

And in order to merge with her beautiful qualities and see them in ourselves,

We invite Tara to come to the crown of our head.

She comes down to our crown facing the same direction as we do.

Then she melts and becomes a cloud of green light.

And this green light absorbs into us through our crown.

So we become completely one with Tara.

Our body speech and mind,

Tara's body speech and mind and the body speech and mind of our gurus,

Our true spiritual mentors,

Are completely one.

We will rest in this experience of oneness for a short while.

And out of this oneness comes the thought of Tara's presence in our daily life.

Comes the understanding that in whatever we do,

Tara is always with us.

And so at any point we can recall her qualities,

Imagine her presence or simply say her name,

Tara or Tare,

Us calling out to her and reminding ourselves that we too have the potential of wisdom,

Compassion and power.

With this thought we take a moment to dedicate our mental effort,

All the energy of this practice,

To our own highest aspirations.

And then to conclude the meditation,

We bring our awareness back to the space around us and relax.

Reviews

Excellent thank you! ❤️🙏

Thiis meditation energised my connection with Tara and privided a reassuring alignment of the path I am trying to walk. Thank you.

By far, the most clarity I have ever felt with Tara is with this beautifully created meditation. Body speech and mind are balanced here- a wonderful exemplary transmission. 💕 Thank you 🙏🏼 🌈

Thank you for this great practice for me it's a good way to connect with Tara but also to cleanse myself

Wow very powerful.Thank you

Thank you. I am Christian by birth and education, but no Christian description of God has ever made sense to my spirit. Green Tara did. I'm in awe.

I don’t have words to thank you for this magnificent practice. May all beings benefit. May we all experience this ease and bliss. May we take it out into the world. Deepest thanks 🙏 🤗✨💫💕

Full of greatfullness of Tara's love!

Absolutely beautiful and beautiful practice 💚

Thanks for sharing your guidance into Green Tara. 🙏