War | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

I would rather have infrastructure here repaired and built than war overseas.

I would rather have human services than war.

I would much rather have an excellent school system than another war.

I would rather better health care and hospitals than a war.

I would rather we respect our indigenous natives than have another stupid war.

I would rather protect our treasured and needed wild forests than have yet another war.

I would rather rid ourselves of all nuclear power rather than have another phony “weapons of mass destruction” war.

I would rather give women total control of their own wombs, spend money on prevention-planning than another killing war.

I would rather be pro-life by stopping all killing, including execution, and killing war. These are actually the living.

I would rather see our governments stop lying to us about nuclear poisoning than distract us with another useless war.

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,^Tibthe “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.

Peace

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 13 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay