Basic puja practice of Tara:
Taking refuge and generating bodhicitta.
Taking refuge and generating bodhicitta.
Meditation on the four immeasurables.
Invocation and prostration.
Practice of the seven limbs and mandala offering.
Reciting short praises to the twenty-one Tara of Atisha.
Recitation of mantras.
Dedication at the end.
Invocation
༈ པོ་ཏ་ལ་ཡི་གནས་མཆོག་ནས། །
ཏཱཾ་ཡིག་ལྗང་གུ་ལས་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང༌། །
ཏཱཾ་ཡིག་འོད་ཀྱིས་འགྲོ་བ་སྒྲོལ། །
འོད་དཔག་མེད་ཀྱིས་དབུ་ལ་རྒྱན།།
དུས་གསུམ་སངས་རྒྱས་འཕྲིན་ལས་མ།།
སྒྲོལ་མ་འཁོར་བཅས་གཤེགས་སུ་གསོ
From the excellent ground of the Potala.
Originates from the green letter TAM.
Protects beings with the ray of the green letter TAM.
On your head you have Amitabha as your crown.
The emanation of the action of all the Buddhas of the three ages.
I pray and invite you, Tara, with the whole circle.
Homage
ལྷ་དང་ལྷ་མིན་ཅོད་པན་གྱིས། །
ཞབས་ཀྱི་པདྨོ་ལ་བཏུད་དེ། །
ཕོངས་པ་ཀུན་ལས་སྒྲོལ་མཛད་པའི། །
སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
The crown of the gods and demigods,
Prostrate to the lotus of your feet.
You are the protector of all poverty.
I prostrate myself before Mother Tara.
The concise praise of the twenty-one Tārās
སྒྲོལ་མ་ཉེར་གཅིག་གི་བསྟོད་པ་བསྡུ
ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་
ཕྱག་འཚལ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ཏཱ་རེ་དཔའ་མོ། །
ཏུཏྟཱ་ར་ཡིས་འཇིགས་ཀུན་སེལ་མ། །
ཏུ་རེ་དོན་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་སྟེར་མ། །
སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཡི་གེར་བཅས་ལ་རབ་འདུད། །
OM. Homage to the Supreme Arya Tara.
Homage to Tara TA RE, the courageous one,
TUT TARA who dispels all fears.
TU RE who grants all good.
SO HA, A profound homage to all Taras.
ཅེས་བྱ་བ་འདི་ནི་མཉམ་མེད་ཇོ་བོ་
(When the incomparable master Atiśa was staying in Nyethang, he suddenly fell ill. He pleaded with Tārā and asked for her intervention. The noble goddess appeared before him and told him that in order to cure his illness he should recite the Praise to the twenty-one Forms of Tārā at least ten thousand times in a single day. Atiśa replied that it would be impossible for him to do so and asked if there was no other way. Tārā replied by granting him this extremely concise praise; coming from Tārā herself, this praise is said to be highly blessed).
Mantra of Tārā
ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་སྭཱ་
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA
ཨོཾ་ཏཱ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་ཏཱྃ་
OM TARE TUTTARE TAM SOHA
དགེ་བ་དེ་ཡིས་མྱུར་དུ་དག །
འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་སྒྲུབ་འགྱུར་ནས། །
འགྲོ་བ་གཅིག་ཀྱང་མ་ལུས་པ། །
དེ་ཡི་ས་ལ་འགོད་པར་ཤོག།
Through this merit, may I swiftly accomplish
the realization Of Arya Tara
may I bring each and every single living beings
to the Enlightened state of Arya Tara.
Meaning of the Mantra of Green Tara and Tara generalTARA literally means star. Translated into Tibetan as Drolma, it means liberator, liberating beings from samsara.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA
OM means the enlightened qualities of Tara's holy body, speech and mind. By realising the true path - the union of wisdom and method - in our mind,
our impure body, speech and mind are purified and transformed into the holy body, speech and mind of Tara.
TARE, Tara frees us from true suffering.
TUTTARE frees us from the true causes of suffering, karma and illusions.
TURE, Dharma and true cessation, Tara guides us on the true path of the three vehicles according to our aspirations and abilities and grants us every success.
Success here refers to the goals of the three vehicles - Arhats, Solitary Realizer and Fully Enlightened Buddhas.
SVAHA means "May the blessings of Tara contained in the mantra OM TARE TUTTARE take root in our hearts.
སྒྲོལ་མ་དཀར་མོའི་ཚེ་གཟུངས།
The long life and healing mantra of the White Tara
ཨོཾ་འཁོར་བ་ལས་སྒྲོལ་ཏཱ་རེ་མ། །ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཡིས་འཇིགས་བརྒྱད་སྒྲོ
སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡུམ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །OM. TARE who saves from samsara.TUTTARE who protects from the Eight fears.TARE who frees from diseases.I pay homage to Tara, the Mother.
ཨོཾ་ཏྭ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་མ་མ་
ཨོཾ་ཏྭ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་མ་མ་
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Mama Ayuh Punya Jñana Pustim Kuru Svaha
ཨོཾ་ཏྭ་རེ་ཏུཏྟཱ་རེ་ཏུ་རེ་གུ་རུ
སེམས་ཅན་ནད་པ་ཇི་སྙེད་པ། །མྱུར་
Meaning of the Mantra
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE MAMA AYUH PUNYA JNANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.
The White Tara Mantra begins in the same way as the Basic Green Tara Mantra, with OM TARE TUTTARE TURE. A short way of interpreting this mantra is "I prostrate myself to the Liberator, Mother of all Victorious Ones".
In the White Tara Mantra we add MAMA AYUR PUNE GYANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.
This is essentially a request for increased longevity, merit and wisdom, where AYUR, PUNE and GYANA refer to life, merit and wisdom. MAMA means mother. PUSTIM KURU means to increase it.
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE GURU AYUH PUNYA JNANA PUSTIM KURU SVAHA.
Here we add GURU which means Master, so we pray Tara one with Master.
Composed by Geshe Gedun Tharchin
