To begin this Tara practice,
We bring our awareness to the parts of the body that are currently in contact with the ground,
Noticing the sensations in our feet and toes,
In the backside of our legs,
In our buttocks,
Releasing muscle tension,
Noticing the sensations,
And grounding ourselves in an experience of stability,
Supported by relaxation and vigilance.
We then explore our motivation for doing this specific practice,
First revisiting our own highest spiritual or psychological aspirations.
For this meditation,
It is particularly important to awaken the motivation of bodhicitta,
The wish to become fully awakened for the benefit of all sentient beings.
So for a little while,
While focusing on this resolve,
On this aspiration to fully uncover our deepest nature,
We can be breathing life into this aspiration,
Into this wish,
Strengthening it,
And then we activate the creative or luminous aspect of our own mind by imagining ourselves in Tara's pure land,
In a pure dimension full of natural beauty,
Where we are surrounded by majestic mountains,
Beautiful forests,
Streams of water,
Flowers,
Trees,
And so forth.
And in the midst of all this natural beauty,
On a fragrant fresh lotus flower,
Appears green Tara herself,
In a shining,
Radiant form,
Made of transparent rainbow-like light,
In a youthful,
Energetic body representing the freshness of her wisdom,
Love,
And compassion.
Tara is seated upon a lotus flower and a moon disk.
Her right leg is extended to represent her willingness to help all sentient beings.
And her left leg is tucked in to represent the fact that she's never separated from the profound wisdom of meditative equipoise.
Her right hand is on her right knee,
In the gesture of supreme giving.
And in her left hand,
At her heart,
She holds the stem of a beautiful blue utpala flower that blooms at her left ear.
She's adorned with silken clothes,
Beautiful jeweled ornaments,
And those represent her perfect mastery over all the energies and all the enlightened qualities.
Her face is beautiful and compassionate,
And she is smiling at us and at all the other sentient beings that we imagine surrounding us in this practice.
In particular,
Between ourselves and Tara,
We imagine all the deceased beings that we're practicing for in this case.
And it can be one specific being,
It can be a group of beings,
Or we can imagine all the recently deceased beings,
Just sitting there practicing with us,
Focusing their aspirations,
Their faith,
Their devotion on Tara's enlightened qualities,
Seeking to awaken their own Tara nature,
Their own basic goodness,
Their own Buddha potential.
While looking at Tara's emerald-like body,
Green and radiant,
We are all awakening the attitude of appreciation and faith.
And that faith is directed towards Tara's wisdom,
Tara's compassion,
Tara's love,
Tara's generosity,
And so on.
Basically all the good qualities that we want to fully uncover in ourselves,
But that are represented by Tara's form,
Mantra,
And wisdom in the space in front of us.
While focusing on Tara as a unified embodiment of Buddha,
Dharma,
And Sangha,
The three jewels of refuge in Buddhism,
We in a profound,
Sincere way take refuge in Tara and in her qualities along with our own basic goodness.
We fully entrust ourselves and all sentient beings to Tara's guidance,
To Tara's wisdom,
To Tara's love and compassion,
Knowing that if we do genuinely take refuge in Tara's profound qualities,
They will protect us from suffering and the causes of suffering,
And they will guide us towards greater and greater and greater degrees of happiness,
Along with the causes of that happiness.
And then,
Having taken refuge in this way,
We once again re-establish the profound attitude of Bodhicitta,
The wish to become fully awakened for the benefit of all sentient beings,
Following in the footsteps of Tara,
Relying on her guidance,
Training in the aspects of wisdom and compassion,
To fully remove the obscurations that prevent us from becoming fully awakened.
And this attitude of compassionate,
Loving responsibility,
This attitude of Bodhicitta,
Fully embraces the deceased beings as well.
We want to become fully enlightened in order to guide them and all the other sentient beings.
And right now,
On their behalf,
In order to help them,
We are entrusting ourselves and everyone else to Tara's profound qualities.
And while performing this act of entrustment,
We mentally bow to Tara's profound qualities.
We mentally offer beautiful objects,
Representing the qualities of bliss.
We mentally reveal all of our mistakes and faults,
Entrusting ourselves to Tara's purifying power,
To her ability to transform and inspire our mind.
We rejoice in all the beautiful qualities and actions that we have ever performed,
In all the virtues of all the beings.
We mentally ask Tara to continuously manifest different forms in this world and to keep transmitting the holy teachings of the Dharma.
And we dedicate all the positive energy thus created to full awakening,
For ourselves,
For all beings,
And especially for those deceased beings that we're practicing for.
And then we invite Tara's inspiring influence,
Her transformational power,
Her ability to guide beings.
So visualizing Tara's radiant form in the space in front of us,
We imagine that powerful rainbow light comes out of her body,
Out of her heart,
Out of her lotus flower,
And that this rainbow-like light embraces all the deceased beings,
Envelops them.
It purifies their minds.
It purifies their negative karmic compulsions.
It removes their afflictions,
Their fears,
Their confusion,
Their dualistic grasping.
And it grants them all the beautiful qualities of Tara's body,
Speech,
And mind.
It awakens their wisdom.
It awakens their compassion.
It awakens their love.
It awakens their generosity.
And it gradually guides them towards primordial wisdom.
So we imagine this process happening for all sentient beings,
But in particular for the deceased ones.
And we imagine that these deceased beings get absorbed into Tara's radiant heart,
Where they experience great bliss,
Where they meet their own most profound nature,
And where they become perfectly protected by Tara and her qualities.
So all these deceased beings rest in Tara's radiant,
Enlightened expanse.
With this,
Performing this visualization,
We can recite or chant Tara's root mantra for a little while.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA And then we can either continue chanting or recite Tara's mantra quietly.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA We then imagine that in order to bless us and all the other sentient beings,
A replica of Tara comes to the crown of our head.
Tara melts into green light,
And this light gets absorbed into our body.
And then we release all the images,
All the thoughts,
All the aspirations,
And we simply rest in a state of union,
Where our body,
Speech,
And mind,
Tara's body,
Speech,
And mind,
And the body,
Speech,
And mind of all the lineage teachers are inseparably one,
In a radiant expanse,
Without a reference point.
We then arise out of this state of no grasping,
And dedicate the energy of this practice.
First,
Once again,
We dedicate it to the full awakening for all sentient beings.
May each and every being fully uncover its own Tara nature,
Its own basic goodness.
May all the deceased beings,
For whom we were performing this practice,
Always be protected and guided by Tara,
Progressing to greater and greater and greater levels of happiness,
All the way up to full enlightenment.
May our own mind be transformed into a union of wisdom and compassion.
May all the signs of suffering in this world be completely dispelled,
And may everything at all times be auspicious.
With that,
We come back to our body,
We ground ourselves in the tactile sensations of the body,
We introduce some movement to the body,
And we conclude this meditation.
