We begin this meditation by allowing our body,
Speech,
And mind to settle in their natural state,
Which means the state of relaxation,
Relative stillness or stability,
And the state of clarity,
Where we are clearly aware of what's happening in our body,
In our mind,
And eventually in the realm of imagination that we're going to be using for this practice.
But for the time being,
Simply observing our breath,
Allowing our breath to move naturally,
And allowing ourselves to release all forms of tension with each out-breath.
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On this basis,
In this state of relaxation,
Stability,
And clarity,
We continue releasing all physical tension with each out-breath,
And on the level of our mind,
We establish a profoundly positive motivation,
An aspiration for goodness,
For awakening,
And ideally even for full awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
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And with this motivation of enlightened attitude,
Or bodhicitta,
We then go into the imaginary or visionary realm of Tara.
Tara as a female Buddha,
Or the Female Buddha,
Who embodies the qualities of enlightened activity for the benefit of all sentient beings,
Who embodies fearlessness,
Compassion,
And wisdom united,
And expresses these very qualities that are already present in our own Buddha nature,
Our own basic goodness.
And so,
To do this practice of Tara and access these qualities of our own mind manifest in her form,
Appearing in her form,
We imagine ourselves in a beautiful,
Pure land,
Full of natural beauty,
With beautiful valleys,
Fields,
Streams of water,
Mountains in the distance,
Numerous flowers,
And open blue sky all over us,
A symbol of the profoundly pure nature of the mind,
Inherently present in all sentient beings,
But of course sometimes hidden by their obscurations,
Their afflictions,
Their negative emotions,
Which could be compared to two clouds.
And yet,
In Tara,
This nature is perfectly clear,
Perfectly pure,
Unobscured.
And so,
In the sky before us,
We imagine a beautiful lotus flower,
Fresh and fragrant,
Just floating in the sky in front of us.
On that lotus flower is a moon disk,
Lying flat like a cushion,
Very soft,
Very gentle.
And on that cushion manifests Tara herself,
But in this case she assumes one of her wrathful forms,
Called Yulei Gyalma,
Tara who is victorious over war.
And in this aspect,
She is dark red in color.
And although her body is very similar to the bodies of Green Tara and other similar forms,
Her facial expression is wrathful.
She sits on the lotus flower and the moon disk with her right leg extended,
Her left leg drawn in.
Her right hand is on her right knee,
Palm up,
And the gesture of supreme generosity.
And her left hand is next to her chest.
And between her thumb and her ring finger,
She holds the stem of a beautiful lotus flower.
And on that lotus flower stands an open-pointed Vajra,
A scepter,
A ritual scepter used in many Tibetan Buddhist practices,
Symbolizing the indestructible diamond-like nature of reality,
And also symbolizing skillful means,
Such as compassion,
Bliss,
The ability to help others,
The method aspect of the path.
And all around Tara,
The Vajra on her lotus,
Is blazing fire,
Incredibly powerful,
Vibrant energy that cuts through all the afflictions,
All the delusions,
All the mistaken views,
All the insanity of the world.
As if Tara was the greatest superhero coming to our aid,
Dispelling all the obstacles,
All the obscurations,
And especially the great tragedy of war.
And so from Tara's body,
From her Vajra scepter,
From every pore of her body,
From her wrathful face,
Comes a rain of tiny Vajras,
Comes a rain of blazing fire,
A rain of sparks,
And all of this brilliant blazing energy goes into all the directions,
And dispels and stops all wars,
All the distraction,
All the dangers that beings are facing,
Instantly dispelling not just the wars themselves,
But also the causes for these wars,
Which of course lie in our own greed,
Our aversion and hatred,
And the root of all afflictions,
Our ignorance about the nature of reality,
And also the nature of cause and effect.
So all these miracles,
All these wonders are being performed by Tara's blazing energy,
And yet we have nothing to fear in its presence,
Because it only purifies us,
It cleanses our own mind,
It removes all the afflictions,
And yet it would never harm the indestructible goodness that is at the heart of our being,
That is present in the natural goodness,
The basic goodness of all other beings as well.
And as we imagine this powerful process of removing all wars and bringing joy,
Celebration,
Happiness,
Reconciliation to all beings,
We can recite Tara's powerful 10 syllable mantra,
OM TARE TU TARE TURISOHA again and again,
Mentally or out loud,
Or enchanting.
OM TARE TU TARE TURISOHA again and again,
Mentally or out loud,
Or enchanting.
OM TARE TURISOHA again and again,
Mentally or out loud,
Or enchanting.
OM TARE TURISOHA again and again,
Mentally or out loud,
Or enchanting.
OM TARE TU TARE TURISOHA again and again,
Mentally or out loud,
Or enchanting.
OM TARE TU TARE TURISOHA For a little while we can imagine this mantra resounding throughout the universe,
As if all the beings were reciting it together with us,
Dispelling the dangers of war,
Dispelling the war in their own minds and in the natural environment,
Everywhere,
Establishing peace and joy.
And we also imagine that Tara's tiny vajras emanating from her vajra-ceptor,
The vajra-ceptor on her lotus flower.
Imagine that these tiny vajras create an indestructible vajra-tent around us and around all beings who are in mortal danger.
Imagining this shield of protection that grants us perfect safety,
Especially from afflictions,
Wrong views,
Negative and disturbing emotions of all kinds,
But also outer circumstances that could be dangerous,
And the negative influence of others.
And then having done these enlightening,
Inspiring activities,
Tara in front of us melts into light,
And this light absorbs into our heart,
Blessing us,
Blessing our body,
Speech and mind.
And it is in this very state of union,
The union between our body,
Speech and mind,
The body,
Speech and mind of our spiritual masters and Tara's body,
Speech and mind,
That we rest for a short while in perfect openness.
And then from this perfect openness,
This all-pervasive clarity,
Arise the thoughts of dedication.
We dedicate the energy of this practice to our own future awakening for the benefit of all sentient beings.
We also dedicate it to all the actual conflicts in this world being pacified right now,
For them to be pacified completely,
For all beings to be safe from outer danger and the inner danger of wrong views and disturbing emotions.
And we imagine this whole world,
This beautiful planet,
Celebrating peace now and forevermore.
And it is with this aspiration for peace,
This willingness to pray for peace and act for peace,
That we slowly conclude this meditation and invite the bell.
