21 Homages to Tara

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 12 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet. Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004, Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131


Homage to you, whose diadem is a crescent moon,
All your adornments dazzle brightly.
Excellent perpetual light shines
From Amitabha at your topknot.

The twelfth homage is to Tara, Tashi Dongyed Dolma,Tib the “One Who Bestows Auspiciousness” who brings timely rain, helps with childbirth, and makes places auspicious.  This golden Tara sits on blue lotus and holds an auspicious knot.  From the rays of her crescent moon diadem, showers of nectar fall, improving crops and vegetation.  Clear and brilliant white light radiates from all of her precious jewels and silken attire.  Amitabha, the lord of her Buddha family sits on her black hair knot.  From him too, boundless unceasing compassionate rays shine for the benefit of sentient beings.  These rays bring a shower of auspicious signs and articles.  They cleanse the poisonous bad omens of animate and inanimate existence, causing all beings and their environments to enjoy perfect, glorious, auspiciousness.  The ultimate meaning of the first line is ‘direct perception,’ the second line means the ‘enhancing experience’ and the last two of the lines mean ‘the completion stage of the expansion of primordial wisdom and kayas of the fourth empowerment[i],’(Word).


[i] empowerment  ~ A ritual transfer of power, an initiation.  The authorization to hear, study and practice the teachings of the Vajrayana.  This takes place in a ceremony that may be extremely elaborate or utterly simple, conducted by a Vajra master.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 11 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you,
Who can summon hosts of the protectors of earth.
By your frowning movements and HUNG syllable,
You bring freedom from all poverties.

The eleventh homage is to Thronyer Chenma,Tib the “Frowning Lady” who bestows wealth and dispels poverty.  She summons the goddess of earth, the nagas, the god of wealth, yakshas and other lords of ten directions and their retinues to serve her activities.  She is holds a treasure vase, and is orange in color.  She is majestic, with a scowling face and a furrowed brow.  Light radiates from the HUNG syllable at her heart, drawing in the wealth and prosperity of gods, nagas and humans.  She showers the poor and needy with wealth, satisfying all their needs and freeing them from their sufferings.  The inner meaning is that by purifying the earth-like ignorance that supports the world, the primordially perfect great merit is revealed, clearing samsara and nirvana of all poverty.  This also indicates the Secret and Wisdom path.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 10 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, lady who unfurls
Garlands of joyous majestic light from your crown.
By your piercing laughter of TUTTARE,
You subjugate the world and maras.

The tenth homage is to Jigten Sumgyal,Tib “Victorious Over Three Worlds”, who subjugates worldly beings.  She is red and holds a victory banner.  Multi-colored lights radiate from her crown, giving perfect joy and fulfilling the temporal and ultimate wishes according to the desires of beings.  By saying the TUTTARE mantra melodiously with the eight attributes of laughter, (of the wrathful deity) she confuses and subjugates the demonic lords of the (sensory god realm), who are known as the “Controllers of Other’s Emanation”.  She also subjugates kings, ministers, sorcerers, and wealthy householders and leads them to the path of liberation.  In the root text, “the outer phenomena change only when self-appearances transform.”  Therefore, subjugation is possible if the intention of the spiritual mother (non-dual emptiness-compassion) is attained, and there is no alternate method.  The inner meaning is the four joys subjugate demons and afflictions.  The subjugation of the three doors by blissful primordial wisdom is subjugation of the three worlds.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 9 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who holds your fingers marvelously
In the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem at your heart.
Swirling masses of light adorn you,
Permeating every direction in beautiful circles.

The ninth praise is homage to Sengdeng Nagi Drolma,Tib the “Tara of the Rosewood Forest” who protects from all kinds of fears.  Her color is dark green, with the dazzling radiance of emeralds.  Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra, and the thumb and ring finger of her left hand holds a blue lotus engraved with a wheel.  Her remaining fingers are held gracefully upright at her heart in the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem [i].  The swirling wheel of light, (a metaphor for protection) adorns her like the finest of garments, and it protects like a shield against all torments.  Likewise, all beings of the world in ten directions are protected from all kinds of fears by the all-pervasive light that beams from her body, clearing their fears in a display of extraordinary radiance.

The eight kinds of fears are:

1. The fear of elephants represents the power of ignorance.  When ignorance grows strong, one ignores the law of cause and effect, indulges in alcohol, (here the use of alcohol is a symbolic of wrong view) and becomes crazy.

2. The fear of iron chains symbolizes habituation to lust and desire that bind together the senses and their objects.

3. The fear of pishaca demons signifies the doubt that steals the life force of nirvana, as it moves in the sky of ignorance, and the doubt that harms the understanding of ultimate meanings.

4. The fear of rivers (floods) is a symbol of desire, acting savagely.  By the possession of spirits, the current of desire carries beings towards samsara in its tumultuous waves of birth, sick, aging and death caused by karmic wind.

5.  The fear of fire represents the power of anger that burns the forest of virtue.  Anger is the cause of anxiety, which in turn causes quarrels, disputes, and partialities.

6.  The fear of robbery corresponds to the wrong views that steal the treasure of the supreme goal.  This causes one to wander aimlessly in the barren ground of wrong view, (and to) believe in extremes and low ascetic practices.

7.  The fear of reptiles represents jealousy, the poison of intolerance of another person’s prosperity.  Jealousy results in everything becoming a cause for agitation.

8.  The fear of lions.  Signifies pride, the conceit of holding high ones own views and conduct.  Pride causes one to (metaphorically) develop claws as sharp as a lion’s to belittle others.

These and their casual factors are the eight fears.

Another set of eight fears, which are the fruition of secondary afflictions are:

1. The fear of punishment by kings caused by self-infatuation and harming others.

2. The fear of foes is caused by hypocrisy, gloom, sloth and excitement.

3. The fear of evil spirits is caused by dishonesty and deceit.

4. The fear of leprosy is caused by lack of shame and dread of blame.

5. The fear of being lonely is caused by disbelief.

6. The fear of poverty is caused by stinginess.

7. The fear of thunder is caused by anger and enmity.

8. The fear of failure is caused by indolence and carelessness.

 

Homage is paid to the lady who protects us from these two sets of fears.  The inner meaning is that her wheel of the three primordial wisdom-minds, (the wisdom-minds of emptiness, clarity and compassion, illustrated by the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem) eliminates the nine bonds and other afflictions, which is a cause for accomplishing the fearless vajra of self-cognized luminosity.

 

[i] Triple Gem  ~ Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.  Buddha as the teacher of refuge, the doctrine as actual refuge, and the spiritual community as support for practice.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 8 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to TURE, the great terrifying lady,
Who defeats the champions of demons.
Your frowning lotus face
Slays all foes without exception.

The eighth homage is to the dark red frowning lady, Zhen Megyalvai Palmo,Tib the “Invincible Fearless Lady”.  We praise the lady who averts criticism and other harms, which are the source of humiliation caused by our afflictive emotion of pride.  Her hand implement is a vajra[i].  By reciting the mantra TURE, which means “Swift Lady”, another of her names declaiming her swift compassionate action, she arises in wrathful form from the tranquil dharmadhatu, and subjugates the demons difficult to tame: the afflictions, the aggregates, the lord of death, and the maras[ii].

She transforms her blossoming lotus-like peaceful face into a wrathful, scowling face, and destroys the evil mind of outer enemies.  She eliminates those who hate and abuse the dharma and its upholders, those who cause obstacles for practitioners, and those who harm sentient beings.  In reality, she executes all foes without a trace: the afflictive obscurations that are the foes of liberation, and the knowable obscurations that are the foes of omniscience.  The definitive meaning is that the base of the wrathful male and female deities, (the serving faculties) are the pure abiding nature of the four attributes of body, and the four classes of illusory conceptions.  They eliminate the foes of omniscience: the knowable obscurations, and the foes of liberation: the obscuration of afflictive emotions.


[i] vajra skt (dorje) ~ A Tantric symbol that represents the indestructible union of method and wisdom that is the goal of the Tantric practitioner.

[ii] mara skt  ~ A demon embodying terrifying or malevolent energies.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse Seven Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who destroys malefic magical wheels,
With the sounds of TRAT and PHAT
And tramples with right leg outstretched and left leg drawn in
Dazzling amidst whirling flames.

The seventh homage is to Tumo Zhenge Methubma,Tib the “Unchallenged Furious Lady”, who averts wars, lightning and hailstorms by intoning TRAT and PHAT, which in Sanskrit means to tear and cut.  These syllables thwart the magical wheels of the intentional evil deeds of the eight classes of spirits.  They avert lightning strikes and hailstorms, and destroy cannons and other weapons of war.  To depict that she has gone beyond of the extremes of samsara and nirvana by her compassion and realization of emptiness, her right leg is outstretched and her left leg is drawn in, and tramples on malignant beings.  She conquers all fears of nirvana and samsara with her  power  of  realization of emptiness and compassion.  She is black, and sits amidst flames.  Her wrathful wrinkles whirl like  ocean waves.  Homage is paid to the lady who wields a mystically blazing sword held atop a blue lotus that burns all foes to ashes.  The inner meaning of her outstretched and drawn in legs is the sensory cognitions; when the sensory cognitions perceive and harmonize the sensory objects, the samsaric wars arise.  By saying tear and cut, she severs attachment to sensory objects and purifies them.  This is the base of the male and female Bodhisattvas.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 6 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who is worshipped by Indra,
Agni, Brahma, Vayudeva, Visvakarman and Ishvara,
And praised in your presence,
By a host of spirits, zombies, gandharvas and yakshas.

The sixth homage is to Jigyed Chenmo,Tib  the dark red “Great Terrifying Lady”, who holds a phurba[i] sparkling with HUNG syllables that destroy all evils.  Indra, the king of gods; Agni, the sage; Brahma, the creator; Vayudeva, the wind god; the great Ishvara and all the great ones of the world, and the main guardians of the directions worship her.  In front of her kneel a host of evil spirits who harm beings by their misguidance.  There are spirits who cause insanity and memory loss, and spirits who turn corpses into zombies.  There are gandharvas[ii] of the bardo and the realm of Yama; yakshas like Semo, who deceive by seducing; king spirits who makes beings crazy and angry; and pishaca demons that eat flesh.  All these evildoers await her orders with humility and respect.  Homage is paid to Tara who crushes the heads of those difficult to tame, and makes them faint into the state of dharmadhatu.  The inner meaning of this is that Indra and the other gods are the personification of five elements[iii], and the spirits are the personification of the five aggregates[iv].  Their reverence symbolizes the purity of the elements and aggregates, which are the base of the male and female Buddhas[v].


[i] phurba skt (kilaya) ~ A ritual dagger, usually having three sides, used in wrathful diety practices.

[ii] gandharva skt ~ A smell eater, a category of beings who sustain themselves on smell like the odor of  the smoke of burnt eatables.

[iii] five elements ~ Earth, water, fire, air, and space.

[iv] five aggregates ~ The components of the psychophysical personality, on the basis of which beings commonly impute the false notion of self.  They five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, compositional factors and consciousness.

[v] Buddha skt ~ One who has perfected compassion and wisdom though following the bodhisattva path. Characterized by the development of omniscience, and actualization of the three bodies: complete enjoyment body, truth body and emanation bodies

 

21 Homages to Tara: Commentary on Verse 5 Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you who fills all of the realms of Desire,
Its Aspect and Space with TUTTARA and HUNG syllables,
You trample the seven worlds with your feet,
You have the power to command all forces.

The fifth is the praise to Rigyed Lhamo,Tib the “All-Knowing Lady” who has the quality of magnetizing[i].  This red Tara sits on blue lotus and holds a bow and an arrow.  She fills the desire realm, its aspect, which is the form realm, and space, which is the formless realm, with the brightly radiating TUTTARA mantra[ii], and the sound of HUNG.  (Phyogs in Tibetan is an ambiguous word.  In this instance, the author of the commentary interprets it as “the aspect” of the desire realm.)  This is because beings in both the desire realm and the form realm share the same aspect of having form.  Likewise, “space” is interpreted as the formless realm.  The radiance of the TUTTARA mantra and the sound of HUNG symbolize her realization of emptiness[iii] and compassion.  She conquers the seven worlds by just trampling them with her feet.  If she is able to summon all of these forces without exception just by the power of the mantra, there can be no doubt of her power over the lesser forces, for example: sangha, kings, ministers, and landlords.

There are a number of different identifications of the seven worlds.  Jetsun Drakpa Gyaltsen points out they are the five goers, and the two upper realms, which makes seven.  Drolgon Zhab says the seven worlds are the realms of the nagas, pretas, asuras, humans, vidyadharas[iv], kinaras and gods; the seven realms with power.  In the commentary by Gedun Gyatso, the seven realms are comprised of the six realms: (the realms of the gods, jealous gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hell-beings), and the realm of the bardo, (which is also known as the intermediate state).

Others write that the seven worlds are: the sky, the form and formless realms, and the worlds of ten directions.  Rigyed Lhamo magnetizes and leads beings to the path of the three yanas.  The ultimate meaning is that through practice, when non-conceptual neutral alaya’s clarity is cognized, the formless realms dissolve.  When the simple pure luminosity of the undiscriminating clarity of alaya-vijnana[v], or “base of consciousness” is cognized, the form realms dissolve.  When mental consciousness is free from delusion and the five sensory cognitions, the desire realm ceases.  These cessations are the abiding purity, or the fruition of purification.  At this stage of awareness, the seven worlds are the seven cognitions, where all the concepts of desire and the other three realms without exception dissolve into dharmadatu[vi].

[i] magnetizing ~ One of the four powers used by a practitioner to remove obscurations and obstacles to practice.

[ii] mantra skt ~ A ritual formula used in Tantric practice, literally means “protection of the mind”.

[iii] emptiness  ~ The absence of true existence of all phenomena.

[iv] Vidyadhara skt  ~ An “awareness holder”, one who has realized through profound skillful means awareness of the Buddha-body, speech and mind.

[v] alaya-vijnana skt  ~ The foundational consciousness, one of the eight types of consciousnesses.

[vi] dharmadatu skt ~ The sphere of reality, the ultimate truth.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 4 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you born from the Tathagata’s crown
Who enjoys boundless total victory,
Relied upon by the Sons of Conquerors
Who have achieved perfection.

The forth praise is to Namgyalma,Tib the “Victorious Lady”, the “One Who Has Accomplished Immortality.”  The “Wisdom Goddess” of wisdom mantra, who emanates from the crowns of the Tathagatas[i], enjoys total victory over the boundless disruptive forces.  Her complexion is golden, and she holds a vase of longevity.  Bodhisattvas who have achieved the ten bhumis[ii], the essence of the ten transcendent perfections, without exception, rely on her guidance as their spiritual mother.  She enriches practitioners by dissolving the fourteen subtle essences of the animate, inanimate, and other subtle essences of samsara and nirvana[iii].  In reality, she has achieved the sacred, unchanging body of eternity through the intention of Atiyoga[iv], the crown of nine yanas[v].


[i] Tathagatas skt ~“Thus Gone One”, an epithet of Buddhas.

[ii] ten bhumis skt ~ The progressive levels of realization through which practitioners pass as they journey toward complete enlightenment.

[iii] nirvana skt ~ The state of liberation from the sufferings of cyclic existence.

[iv] atiyoga skt ~ The highest of the three inner yogas, the summit of the nine vehicles (yanas), according to the classification of the Nyingmapa.

[v] nine yanas skt ~ The nine vehicles or levels of accomplishment of the Nyingmapa tradition that represent progressive stages of attainment.

21 Homages to Tara: Commentary on Verse 3 Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, the golden lady
Whose hand is adorned with a blue lotus,
You are the lord of the domain of the activities of generosity,
Diligence, austerity, tranquility, patience and meditation.

The third praise is to Sonam Thobkyedma,Tib the “Yellow Lady of Good Fortune”.  She is beautiful; her skin is the color of pure gold glittering in the early morning sun.  Her left hand is adorned with a blue lotus, upon which sits a gem that bestows all wishes.  She is the lord of the Bodhisattvas’[i]sphere of activity, which encompasses the transcendent perfections of generosity, patience, diligence, ethics, tranquility, wisdom, and meditation.  Austerity, (in this context) is ethics, and tranquility is wisdom and meditation.  We pay homage to the unchallengeable lady who has the ten powers: the power over life, the power over mind, the power over wealth, the power over action, the power over birth, the power over inclination, the power over aspiration, the power over miracles, the power over primordial wisdom, and the power over dharma.  The outer meaning is that she has attained the completion of the six perfections, in just one meditation.  The inner meaning is that her singular meditation is like a lotus, free from the flaw of adherence to subject and object, and is endowed with the completion of the six perfections.


[i] Bodhisattva skt ~ One who has generated bodhicitta and seeks enlightenment for the benefit of others.

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