Red Tara

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 16 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

by

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 surrounded by joyous ones
Who completely scatter the bodies of enemies.
You liberate all with your speech, adorned with ten syllables
And HUNG: your pristine awareness.

The sixteenth homage is to Drolma Barvai Odcan,Tib the “Tara Who Averts the Enemies and Mantra’s Spell,” who is red like the fire at the end of eon, sits on blue lotus, and holds a crossed vajra.  She is surrounded by a host of vidyadharas and mendicants who have accomplished the practice of mantra and power of truthful speech and are endowed with perfect joy of samadhi.  Their radiance scatters the bodies of the foes and overcomes the power of magical spells and the power of sorcery, destroying them without a trace.  By reciting her mantra arrangement of the ten syllables, OM TARE and so on, she At the heart of the wrathful lady, awareness rests in the form of a HUNG radiating light that clears the outer, inner, and secret obscurations of the beings to be tamed.  The ultimate meaning is that by subduing the foe of the impure appearance of our body, the awareness body of the Mother of the Victorious Ones is accomplished: the unchanging great blissful body endowed with the ten powers.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 13 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

by

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 dwells amidst garlands
Blazing like the fire at the end of an eon.
With your right leg outstretched and left leg drawn in
Your joyful turning destroys enemy forces.

The thirteenth homage is to Drapung Jomma,Tib the “Tara Who Averts War”.  She averts wars and obstacles, and leads beings to victory in the war with form and formless enemies.  She is red in color and dwells amidst garlands of wisdom fire swirling like the fire at the end of an eon.  Her right leg is stretched out and left leg is drawn in.  Sparks of fire fly from the prongs of the vajra she brandishes, subduing all harmful enemies.  She comforts them by gathering them under the vajra-tent that protects them from their own evil.  With every skillful means[i], she turns the wheel of dharma, according to the disposition of the beings to be tamed.  She makes them content and joyous, and subdues the malefic forces of the two obscurations.  The inner meaning is that this indicates the realization that “exhausts all phenomena”.  Just as the fire at the end of the eon consumes the world, when the primordial wisdom swirls in dharmadhatu, the outer earth and stones, the inner animate body, and the secret conceptions are also exhausted.  So the foes of the two obscurations[ii] are subjugated, and the joy of the great tranquility of the core of inner clarity of primordial wisdom[iii]that does not dwell in the extremes of samsara and nirvana is experienced.


[i] skillful means ~ The Mahayana practice of adapting the doctrine to the capacities of one’s audience.

[ii] two obscurations  ~ There are two types of obscurations: those preventing liberation from the cycle of samsaric suffering, called afflictive obscurations, and those preventing omniscience, called the obscurations to the objects of knowledge.

[iii] primordial wisdom  ~The wisdom that has realized the primordial nature of all phenomena.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 8 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

by

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: Commentary on Verse 5 Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

by

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.

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com