Benefits of Green Tara Practice

Lama Zangmo
Kagyu Samye Ling 2004

This morning we are going to look at the Green Tara practice. Ill be using all my
notes and whatever commentaries and teachings Ive had in Green Tara. I dont
know if I can talk for two and half hours solidly on the benefits of Green Tara, Ill
do my best. We basically cover the practice as much as we can not as
practice instructions as such, but just generally trying to talk about Tara.

The Tara practice which we do every morning in Samye Ling, comes from Tara
tantra. There are various Tara tantras and there are also many different Tara
practices. There are short and long practices. But all of these are part of the
tantras and generally they belong to kriya yoga tantra.

All tantric Buddhism is divided into four tantras: first is kriya tantra, then charya
tantra, yoga tantra and anuttarayoga tantra. I think most of the visualisation
practises and Vajrayana practices we do, they tend to come from the
anuttarayoga tantra, generally. But this one is more connected to the kriya
tantra, and it says that the kriya yoga tantra was based a lot on the daily life of
the rishis and brahmins in India. It places a lot of emphasis on purity of actions,
purity of daily life. Everything has to be very clean.

Certain practices have that strongly emphasized. For Green Tara practice that
is the reason why you are not supposed to be eating meat or drinking alcohol
before you do the practice. You are supposed to have a lot of cleanliness
around, when you are doing it, things have to be done very correctly. This is
very strongly related to this kriya yoga tantra. Because the Tibetans eat a lot of
meat, for that reason those practices were tend to be done very early in the
morning, before breakfast, before you eat anything. In case you eat meat for
breakfast, you do the Tara before, thats the reason why its mostly done in the
morning.

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Actually you can do Tara practice any time, all day long, you dont have to think
that Tara should only be done in the morning. But if you do Tara practice as a
retreat or as long term, if you do many Tara pujas during the day, then generally
you are recommended to keep these guidelines connected with the kriya yoga
tantra of no meat, no alcohol, staying very clean. Like I think brahmins take
showers every day, wash every day before you do practice, all that kind of
thing.

And its a very common practice, its done in all of the different Tibetan religious
traditions. Its not just something done only in one school or another school, it is
actually practised by all of the very accepted, very there is no monastery, no
school, no place really, where the Tara practice is not done. It is probably one of
the most common practices everywhere you go.

For Tibetans the two practices that everybody does, whether you are in the
monastery or outside the monastery, are Tara, or at least the praises to Tara,
and Chenrezig, the mani-mantra and the praises to Tara, everybody knows
them by heart. Everybody chants them; when you are riding on busses, around
dangerous corners and bends with steep ravines, then everybody is doing their
praises to Tara overcoming fear and obstacles. So it is probably one of the most
common practices that you find everywhere.

When it talks about the different stories about the origins of Tara, both Green
and White Tara, the most common story is that Chenrezig made a great
promise, at a certain time he made this great commitment to help and liberate
all beings, and that he would only become enlightened himself, when all beings
were liberated. He made this commitment to work for all beings for kalpas and
kalpas and until he had liberated limitless sentient beings, he would not reach
enlightenment.

It says in this legend, that at certain time he was saying: Well, now I have been
practising for a really long time, it must be getting close to the end now, lets
have a look to see how many people are left out there. So he had a look and
he found that it looked just like when he started. All these beings are still there,

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how come, what has happened? He started getting discouraged, he started
losing the strength of his commitment, it was fading a bit, there were few
doubts.

It is said that at that time, due to his despair, his head split into many pieces.
Buddha Amitabha appeared to him and said Try to put yourself together,
something like that, Youve been very childish, come on, you made this strong
commitment, youve got to do better than that. You have to be more
courageous, you have to be stronger in your commitment. And it is said that
Amitabha shaped all the bits and pieces of Chenrezigs broken head into a
thousand-armed Chenrezig with eleven heads.

Then, out of Chenrezigs compassion, two tears appeared and one tear became
Green Tara and the other tear became White Tara, as emanations to help
Chenrezig to accomplish his commitment very swiftly, very fast, basically. You
generally say that Taras activities are connected to Chenrezig. This is a story
about that.

There is another legend actually, that says that Tara was a princess many
millions of years ago, kalpas ago. During the time of a Buddha called
Amogasiddhi there was a princess called Yeshe Dawa. She became a
bodhisattva, because she had a very courageous nature, she was strong,
fearless and committed and she made a commitment that from now onwards to
work on becoming so powerful and highly attained, that I can help hundred
thousand beings every day. Her confidence was so strong that she felt she
could do that much. She did not want to do just a little bit, she wanted to do
really a lot, the strength of her courage was so big that she thought she can do
more than normally, more than just being a nice kind lady, she can actually
work very courageously and strongly and help that many beings every day.

Because of this strong conviction, courage and fearlessness, she became an

enlightened bodhisattva. Whatever she did, everything had a strong effect of
helping and benefiting others and she attained different bhumis. When she
became enlightened she dedicated all her positive actions saying whoever is

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connected to me in any way, may they be able to have very swift progress, may
they have swift benefit, may my swift actions affect them.

And also she made a commitment that she would only be reborn in a form of a
female, which is the unusual part of Tara. Everywhere you read about Tara it
says she made this commitment to be reborn as a woman, even though she
was encouraged to be born as a man but she said no, she wanted to have this
form as a woman, appear in a form of a female and have this activity of very
swift action to help beings.

These are the characteristics of Tara. You could say the Tara activity. Whether
we think of Tara as a female, as this princess legend, or whether we think of
Tara as an emanation of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the essence of it,
the principle of Tara is this fearlessness and courage.

So anybody who approaches their spiritual path with the Tara principle,
whoever we are, if we approach our practice with that atmosphere, with that
principle of wanting to become Tara, because we have the potential, because
we have the buddha nature, this is the way we enter the mandala of Taras
activity. If our inspiration, commitment and courage are very strong, if we are
focusing our attention wholeheartedly on this kind of action, then we become
that type of being, gradually we increase those qualities.

Normally we are used to thinking maybe in negative terms, we are used to

develop certain negative habits. So through dharma practice we are changing
through habituating ourselves in a certain way; we develop specific
characteristics. If we think negatively about ourselves every day, gradually,
gradually we become more negative, gradually, gradually those qualities
become stronger and stronger. Because we are so focused, so fixated on those
qualities.

If we say: Oh, I am a very fearful person, and we react on that all the time, we
become more and more fearful, we become more and more cautious, more and
more overwhelmed by the idea of being fearful.

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Whereas if we do the opposite: if we focus more and more on the positive
qualities and on our potential, on what we would like to develop, what we
admire, within this mandala of Tara, within this principle of Tara. If we focus
more and more on developing that, we will become that due to this potential for
change. We are not fixed. There is nothing fixed there, we have the potential to
change, so naturally through focusing on that gradually, gradually those
qualities start to arise in us.

Its like if we admired somebody very much, even on very ordinary levels we
could say, somebody admires a film star, they start to dress the way the film
star dresses, they start to have the haircut the same way, they start to walk in
that same way; we could say its a bit like that. In an artificial, partly artificial
way, we try to become like Tara. In the beginning it feels artificial, when we try
to think of ourselves as a deity. We have to start somewhere, but the idea is
that we try to identify more and more with those qualities, rather than with our
habitual negative qualities.

So when we practise Tara, its like we are joining the mandala of Tara, we are
contributing to that mandala by becoming part of it, we are making that
connection, we are becoming part of the energy of Tara. So the energy of Tara
is the idea of swift activity, fearlessness, which is really a quality of the
enlightened mind. One of the qualities of Buddhahood is said to be total
elimination of fear. Through total clarity, awareness and presence there cant be
any fear. The clarity is like the sun that dispels all the darkness or doubts of
fear.

The fear is only able to be there when there is lack of clarity. The fear is like a
little doubting voice at the back of our heads saying: Maybe this, maybe that or
maybe not. Its like conceptualizing; having worries and doubts and ideas about
what might happen. Trying to protect ourselves, trying to protect the ego.

So, when that presence and clarity is there, this is totally dispelled. We can see
ourselves, if we can have even in a simple level a good meditation one day,

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when we feel very clear, then those feelings are dispelled naturally. It is said the
Tara practice is like the sun, it simply shines naturally; the activity of an
enlightened being is there naturally, when all of the clouds are dispelled.

So it says we should try and create the right circumstances for the action to be
there. We should try to have confidence in the presence of Tara. In a way the
confidence in the presence of Tara means also confidence on buddha nature,
confidence in our own potential. There are three main causes for the presence
of Tara, the enlightened mandala or the activity, and if we feel the presence of
Tara, it is because these causes are there, the causes are accomplished.

First, there is no limitations to the nature of beings, there are no restrictions;

time or space do not give any limitations. And then it says that in a way this
talks about the activity of both the enlightened mind and us as students, so it
says for an enlightened being there is no limitation. Just like the way the sun
can appear, the sun appears whether there are clouds or not, the sun is there
shining.

And the next condition is compassion. The compassion of enlightened beings is

spontaneous and also they made the prayer of aspiration, that it is available to
anybody who has the purity, who has the right attitude, right outlook. So
aspiration of the enlightened beings is due to their compassion to help all
beings. And then the condition is also, that we have the openness of mind, that
we develop a pure outlook partly through devotion.

When these conditions come together, then everything will happen, whether we
want it or not. When right things come together, things will grow, arise out of it.
Just like when a bulb is put in the ground, the right conditions are there and
then the bulb starts to grow.

So, devotion is said to be extremely important. I mentioned it, when talking

about the ngndro, but it says that in fact we could think of Tara as a Guru
Yoga, and we could relate to it just like a Guru Yoga. Devotion is so important,
because it opens us up, it makes the person pure. It is a very strong and

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important emotion for opening us up to the receiving the blessings. Devotion is
not a feeling that has clinging or attachment, grasping to it, it doesnt have
aversion. It just opens us up as a vessel, very natural, very vivid feeling. It
opens us up without any exclusiveness. Not holding on, not closing up, its not
dull, its not clinging.

When we have the devotion, its easier to cultivate the Vajrayana tradition and
within this tradition devotion is very deliberately cultivated, very strongly,
because it is devotion that creates the right environment for the qualities to arise
in our practice. All of us have devotion or grief to something or for someone. Its
not like if devotion was totally alien to us, but when we are doing these
practices, we are directly relating them to the lineage, to the Guru, out of
appreciation, out of trust we try to focus on it, we try to address prayers, even
though in one way there is nobody out there to pray to, but still we are directly
reciting all the devotional prayers and the aspirational prayers.

Through devotion we try to relate to Tara as an enlightened being, as the

essence of all the buddhas and bodhisattvas together; the wisdom of all the
buddhas and bodhisattvas has come together in one. And we try to identify with
that in the same way as we would, if we wanted to become a doctor or a lawyer,
certain qualities and ideas that we identify with, those areas of activity. You
could say even a soldier. Its a very strong example, because soldier has a very
strong discipline, there is a very strong image. Hopefully nobody here wants to
be a soldier, but the idea of a soldier brings up a very strong image. We know
that if we are going to be a soldier we have to act in a certain way, dress and
walk in a certain way, our mental attitude has to be in a certain way, so with that
in mind, with the Tara practice, we think and we try to take on this principle of
Tara, the qualities of Tara. Understanding in a way that there is no difference
between us and Tara, but that we have to train in this becoming like that,
becoming like Tara through the practice.

This text is a terma. It was found by Chgyur Lingpa. It is said that there were
108 individuals who were said to be great tertons (terchen), and Chgyur
Lingpa was one of them and he discovered this practice. Its called a gomter,

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mind terma, it is said that it appeared when he was staying in a cave called
Pema Shelphuk, the Crystal Cave of Pema, and he had a vision of Tara, and
Tara said to him: Lekso, lekso, lekso. Three times she uttered this, which
means very good, excellent, very good. He had this vision of her saying that,
and then in his mind appeared this terma, which he passed on to Jamgon
Kongtrul, who then formed it, he wrote the actual sadhana.

There are many different types of termas. You have termas that are taken out of
rocks, out of water. There are many stories how it happened, because often
Chgyur Lingpa actually would retreat the termas in front of a big crowd, I think
to give people confidence that this was a true genuine terma. At a certain time,
when he knew that he had an urge to go in a certain place, and somehow he
must have known this was now the time to reveal a terma, he would call people
together. Lots of local people would come around and witness him pulling out
these termas directly from rocks or from caves.

Especially at that time, the 19th century Tibet, Chgyur Lingpa around the time
of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, and also Tense Rinpoche, there were many
termas discovered. This comes from the nyingma order; most of these termas
were buried by Guru Rinpoche in many different places together with Yeshe
Tsogyal and Mandarava.

And also he [Chgyur Lingpa] found at the same time, when this text, this terma
appeared to him, an image of Tara was brought out together with it. An image of
Tara, and apparently that is the Tara statue that is now in Rumtek, and its said
to have spoken at various occasions. It is said to have actually uttered sounds.

In general with all of the teachings there are two traditions. One is the terma
tradition, one is the kama tradition of the regular texts or teachings. The kama
tradition is all the traditions from the Buddhas time taught in India, taught in
Tibet, translated and now contained in the Kangyur and Tengyur. Kangyur is all
the teachings of the Buddha and Tengyur is all the commentaries.

And the terma tradition is the transmission that comes through Guru Rinpoche

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with all these treasures that have been buried. So the treasures, the terma
treasures are said to be very relevant, especially because they are meant to be
discovered by particular tertons and they are meant to be drawn out at certain
times, when these teachings are especially beneficial.

When a terma is brought out, it has stronger benefit, because it was meant for
that particular time and for those particular people. This is a very new terma, if
you think of it, the 19th century is not very long ago. So its said that the
saters saters are the treasures that are buried in the ground. People go into
particular place and dig it out or unearth it, take it out of rock. It is said that the
rock becomes soft like butter for the particular terton and he can just put his
hand in to the rock and just pull it out.

And sometimes the thing that is retreated can be a text, it can be a scroll, it can
be an object like what [Akong] Rinpoche used for the Guru Rinpoche
empowerment, the Guru Rinpoches statue that was a terma, and the phurba.
Sometimes it is just a few words in a dakini script on a yellow piece of paper,
yellow scroll, sometimes its robes: Guru Rinpoches robes, Yeshe Tsogyals or
Madaravas robes as well as relics. And then, like here sometimes, its what you
call a mind terma. It appears spontaneously to the terton.

Sometimes you have stories about the terton: he faints. It is not sure if he is
fainting or if he has a vision, but to people it appears as he fainted, and then he
comes to. Within that state he has visions, images or memories that arise from
the time all of these 108 tertons, they were the main students of Guru
Rinpoche at the time of Guru Rinpoche, so it is like a memory coming back of
those teachings that they had from Guru Rinpoche at his time. Sometimes it is
visions of dakinis appearing and giving the teachings, whether it is in a dream
state or broad daylight.

Thats about the origin of the text that we have used. When you read the text, if
you read it in Tibetan you can always tell if it is a terma, from the way its
written. After each of the slokas, instead of a stroke there is a dot and a little
stroke and a dot. This is actually a sign that it is a terma.

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The Green Tara practice, you are all familiar with it here. The way it is practised
is either a puja, the way we do it in the morning, or you can recite the Green
Tara praises just as they are. Or it is also called a dokpa, if you recite it like that.
We did that in the retreat every day; we would recite the 21 praises as part of a
whole series of dokpas. Dokpa means to turn away. It literally means turning
away, turning away obstacles and for example with long Mahakala you have
long series of dokpas that you recite.

So when you recite Tara praises alone, you relate to them as a dokpa, averting
obstacles. You can simply recite them like that, you dont have to recite the
whole puja. And praises to Tara are what they say: they are simply praises to
21 aspects to Tara.

I have to admit to you that I have not been completely sure how to go through
these praises, how to go through the benefits now this morning. How shall I
approach it? Its not so easy just to talk about benefits of Tara. We can look at
the 21 Praises, it might be useful to look just briefly, because this is actually the
main part of the practice. In most of our practices its the mantra, the mantra
recitation, but here in the Tara puja, if you have noticed, there is just a very
short time for the mantra and really you are meant to recite the praises; first two
times, then three times and then seven times. They are long, so long time is
spent on reciting the praises and with that in mind, while you recite the praises
you are meant to visualise Tara and you also visualise that you are receiving
the qualities from Tara.

As a part of it you are imagining that from Taras white toe amrita (it is sort of
similar to Dorje Sempa, but it is not a purification, its enriching) you are
imagining that from Taras toe amrita flows down, enters the crown of your head
and fills you up and enriches you with all of the qualities of Tara. While you
recite the praises you think of that.

There are three places where you recite the praises. First time you think Taras
posture is in a bestowing posture, her mudra is with the right hand up bestowing

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the qualities, and the second time in the text you think her hand is turned
around and is holding the protecting mudra, and you should imagine that just
above you and all beings there is a hand of Tara almost radiating light and
giving protection.

The third time you think that all the amrita is flowing from Taras right toe and
filling you up. It fills you up totally and enriches you completely with the qualities
of Tara. So its not like in Dorje Sempa, where you feel all the negativities are
leaving you, its more that you are just being enriched continuously with
qualities of Tara.

The 21 Praises are homage to Tara. and the very first verse is not counted as
one of the praises, so if you are doing just the praises, thats normally left out; if
you are doing it as a dokpa, you leave out the very first verse. In here it says the
whole first verse has been added by the translator. When you look at the
praises it says: Homage to Tara whose face is like one hundred full autumn
moons blazing with light like thousand stars. So its praising Tara as the
autumn moon. It says like the image of the moon is very cooling, pleasing light,
it says Taras face is even brighter than a hundred autumn moons, all blazing at
one time, luminous, radiating light, and thousands of stars glittering on their
own. So, basically praising the radiance of Taras appearance, very lustrous.

And the next verse says she is adorned by golden blue lotuses, she enacts
generosity, tranquillity, patience and meditative stability. It means we are paying
homage to all these qualities of Tara. Here we are paying homage to Tara as
the embodiment of Six Perfections. The Six Perfections are generosity, moral
discipline, patience, diligence, meditation and wisdom. We say she is
embodying all of these qualities. It also pays homage to Tara as the one who
has the Buddha Vairocana above her head. Its said that Vairocana uttered
these praises to Tara, in fact it is said that they appeared out of the crown
protuberance. The Buddha Vairocana has this extra crown chakra and it is said
that it actually was uttered by the crown chakra of Vairocana.

It pays homage to Tara who fulfils all the wishes and who trembles all the

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worlds under her foot, who summons everyone without exception. It says with
the sound of the mantra tuttare the sound fills all the worlds and as she fills all
the realms of desire, she fills all the space, the form and formless realms, all the
universal space with the sound of her mantra, fulfilling the wishes of beings. It is
said that she tramps with her foot all the obstacles within the three worlds. It
says: Homage to her to whom all the gods they present her with offerings.
Tara is referred to somebody who is paid homage to by all the gods like Indra,
Brahma, Agni, all the Hindu gods, all the rishis, Rudra, all of the bn gods.

All the different gods are mentioned, all the rulers of the universe are mentioned
as making offerings to Tara. She is praised by all the spirits, and through the
power of her mantra all actions will be accomplished, all direct actions will be
accomplished in overcoming harm, controlling obstacle makers, benefiting
beings, taming those who need to be tamed. Whether she needs to play
wrathful or peaceful form, all of them subdue the various obstacles. Pacifying
illnesses, epidemics, diseases, she scatters all the demons and bestows
blessings, protection for all beings.

So, I dont know if this is very useful for you to go through. All of the praises are
description of the different 21 Taras and referring to them in a way, like you
have the translation of the actual verse and then there is little bit of explanation.
There is really not a lot of direct explanation of how do we relate this to our
everyday life. How do we relate this to overcoming our own fears hear and now,
which is in a way, what we want to know.

But in general when you talk about the eight fears, I think in the text it is related
to different animals, but it is also related to our own emotions. In a way all the
things that we need to deal with, it is not as if they were different from Tara, it is
not as if they were from all the other practices we do. We still have to deal with
our negative emotions, such as anger, desire, jealousy, pride, ignorance. It is
not as if for Tara that had all changed. Then on top of that it talks about doubt,
but really, fear is part of ignorance. When we talk about fearlessness,
fearlessness arises out of developing this clarity and totally overcoming and
transforming ignorance into this knowing the nature of everything, knowing the

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nature of our own mind.

So, fear and fearlessness are part of these five emotions and when we talk
about Tara its the idea of taking on this activity of overcoming our negative
emotions. Fearlessly approaching our own neuroses, our own difficulties, and
dealing with them directly through various practices. So by doing the Tara
practice gradually, gradually we try to identify more and more with this
approach. We praise Tara for all the qualities that Tara possesses, having this
ability to act very swiftly and accomplish without any doubt the benefit of beings
and overcoming obstacles.

So when we do the practice, when we recite through all these praises, it is not
so much as if our attention was on the meaning of the different praises. Its
more on visualising Tara above us and then all of these qualities of Tara
entering us through the amrita that is flowing down through her right toe, or,
when we are visualising her hand upside down and we think light is radiating,
protective light, we are being protected by Tara. So its not that we need to
know all these different aspects of Tara while we are reciting it. What we need
to remember while we do the practice, is the whole aspect of what we call
kyerim (development phase) and dzogrim (completion phase).

All our Vajrayana practices have these two phases: development and
completion phase. Development phase is when we visualise ourselves as the
deity, gradually, it can be in different ways depending on which practice it is,
maybe the deity appears first as a syllable, then out of that syllable we appear
as a deity, out of voidness we appear as a deity. And then we describe all the
qualities of the deity and we try to identify with that. Thats the aspect of kyerim,
which we do in all of the Vajrayana practices, just like we do here in the Tara
practice. So its said that its very important for us to identify with the pure
aspects of our being rather than the impure, and that the development phase,
kyerim is what helps us to identify with Tara, Chenrezig, Dorje Sempa etc. by
visualising ourselves as a deity or visualising the deity above our head,
depending on the practice, it will have different instructions.

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And we think often, like here at least with Tara, we think that our body becomes
the body of the deity, our speech becomes the sound of the mantra, our mind
becomes the five wisdoms or the pure mind of the deity. When our body
becomes the body of the deity, we think it is like appearance and emptiness
inseparable. So we dont identify so much with the very solid body. We also
dont have great attachment, great aversion. So it is a way of relinquishing
attachment and aversion.

With speech, when we say the mantra, our speech becomes a sound of the
mantra. We say this is the inseparability of sound and emptiness. So that
doesnt necessarily mean we hear everything as a sound of the mantra or we
hear everything as om tare tuttare ture soha or om mani peme hung. When
somebody asks you for a cup of tea it doesnt sound like om tare tuttare ture
soha or if somebody shouts at you, or compliments you, it doesnt sound like
that. But the idea is that when we try to hear all sounds as the sound of the
mantra, we try to recognize all sounds as sound and emptiness inseparable. So
that if somebody does shout at you, then if you can hear or remember that as
sound and emptiness, maybe we dont get so upset. Maybe we dont get so
affected by it. We think: well, this is just sound, sound of the mantra, really.
Never mind what they say about us, never mind whether they shout at us, never
mind about insult. Its sound and emptiness together. Its us who give a lot of
qualities or value, judgement to it.

And when it says mind, our thoughts, we will relate to mental activity as the five
wisdoms. Whatever appears, whatever arises in our mind is intelligence and
emptiness inseparable. The activity of the five wisdoms, intelligence and
emptiness together, so that if we can remember that, maybe we dont get so
caught up in our thoughts and memories, our ideas thinking everything is so
solid. All of this has very much to do with seeing how insubstantial everything is.
Our problems usually arise because everything is so solid and so real.

When somebody says something to us, it is very solid and real, we can carry it
for years and years. We can be very up and very down depending on what we
hear, what we see. Whatever we see, we attach so much importance to it, we

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have a lot of grasping or aversion, and due to that we have a lot of suffering.
With our mind whatever our ideas are, we become very stuck as well, we
become very fixated on ideas. So instead of that we try to relate them with this
emptiness or voidness aspect of the deity.

Actually it is said, if we can maintain these three, then we are keeping our
samaya as vajrayana practitioners. To remember that ourselves and that of
others the body is the body of the deity, the speech is the mantra, the mind is
the five wisdoms. That alone covers all our commitments of samaya as
vajrayana practitioners.

When we regard everything as ordinary, it is not as if we were trying this is

actually a false perception it is not as if we were trying to create something
that is artificial. Its actually seeing things as they are, seeing things as sacred,
the way they truly are. But because we have obscured them through our impure
perception, through like all of the layers that are covering, our concepts are
covering, we dont have a clear view, so now we are trying to identify what is
truly there.

So the benefits of the kyerim and dzogrim are in this way, it covers our samaya
and also develops our shine. Shine is very much part of all of our Vajrayana
practices, shine means we develop a sharp mind, more clarity, gradually we
become able to focus our mind.

It is also said that the different stages of the development stage, the kyerim, is
related to different stages of the bardo. So that it helps to purify different phases
in the bardo and for our next rebirth. The different phases, when you are
visualising a seed syllable, and the deity appears from a seed syllable or you
yourself appear from a seed syllable, or when you visualise the lotus seat of the
deity, the moon, the palace etc, the shape of the deity. All of these aspects are
related to different phases of the bardo and are said to help to purify, when the
lights are radiating out etc.

So the kyerim purifies tendencies to see everything as ordinary. Instead we will

15
relate to others as buddhas, we relate to the voidness aspect. And also it
purifies the tendency to be reborn simply being pushed by karma. Instead we
develop this strong identity relating with the deity and its various aspects.

It helps us also at the moment of death. If we are familiar with visualising

ourselves as the deity, this will help us not to panic, not to be afraid. We can
identify with the deity at the time of death and then it helps us to develop the
qualities of the deity.

Then when you have the dzogrim aspect, its said that this is the wisdom
aspect, it is translated as the completion phase. There is only a very short part
of that in these practices, when the deity dissolves and you are meant to rest in
that state of dissolution for a short period. Its said we should rest in the state of
clarity and voidness. Really one is meant to rest in the natural state of the mind,
and because we are not able to do that really very clearly or very long, even we
are attempting to do it, its good we are trying to do it but we are not very
capable of maintaining it.

So just for few moments we try to rest in that state of no thoughts, and it says:
whenever thoughts start to manifest, we start to get busy or our mind starts to
bet busy again, thats when one continues chanting or whatever comes, after
the dissolution you have the dedication prayers. And when we are visualising it
is said, we should try to have the clarity, develop clarity, also the purity in a
sense that we are aware of the qualities of the deity and we should try to have
the pride of being the deity. Its called vajra pride.

These are the three aspects related to visualisation. The vajra pride means that
we try to really have the confidence of thinking I am Tara, I have the qualities of
Tara. These three things are always recommended, and our visualisation
should be not solid, but more like a rainbow; appearing clearly like a rainbow
but empty, not solid. Do you have any questions about this?

Question: Would you explain the visualisation of Tara during the praises?

16
Lama Zangmo: First time when you do the praises, you visualise Tara with her
hand in a mudra of bestowal. Her hand is on her right knee with her palm
upwards, bestowal of qualities.

The second time the hand is turned over, still on her knee with the palm down
and it is in the protection mudra. There you imagine that the palm is radiating
light of protection and you can think of it above yourself and all beings, she is
holding her palm in the protection mudra.

The third time it doesnt mention her mudra, it just mentions that from her right
toe wisdom amrita flows, it enters you from the crown of the head and fills you
up and you feel that it enriches you with all the qualities of Tara. You are really
meant to focus on that when you recite the praises.

So its not so much about thinking about each Tara, Im not so sure that its
really very useful for me to go through the 21 Taras. You can just read it.

Q: Where you start the praises?

L.Z.: First time: Om jet-sun-ma pa-ma drol-ma la cha-tsal-lo then you go

cha-tsal ta-re nyur-ma pa-mo. If you recite the praises just by themselves, you
recite the first line: Om jet-sun-ma pa-ma drol-ma la cha-tsal-lo and then
you skip the first verse and then you go to cha-tsal drol-ma nyur-ma pa-mo.
You actually skip the first verse; its not part of the 21 Praises. When you do the
puja, you recite the whole thing. Just when it is recited as a dokpa its left out.

Q: You said that the actual practice is more concentration on the praises rather
than the mantra recitation?

L.Z.: But the mantra is actually woven into the praises as well. I think in the next
session we look a bit more of the practice, yes, you definitely recite the mantra
as well.

Q: How long you would do the mantra?

17
L.Z.: There is no specific, whatever time you have. There is a specific number
for the praises. In the text it tells you: two times, three times and seven times,
but I think often its done one, two and three times, because it takes long time.
You can do the mantra for one mala or three malas, but it depends on time
more than anything else.

Q: Would you do puja in the morning and praises at night?

L.Z.: This is also a matter of what people can manage. It depends on how you
do it, what is beneficial and what is better. Its not that it is not good enough to
do the praises, that is also good. You could do the praises, you could do some
of the mantras, I mean that is fine, its fine to do just the praises of Tara, they
are officially done like that, on their own. So, for each one of you its more a
matter that you need to look at how much time you have at home, when you
leave from here to do practice, can you actually manage to do Tara practice
daily, its a sort of situation where you have to adjust. If you can do Tara puja,
its very good to do it, but its also a lot of recitation, if you are new to it.

Q: What are the three Thatnesses in the last verse of the praises?
L.Z.: Three aspects of the nature of things or absolute truth. They are
emptiness, absence of inherent characteristics and freedom from attachment,
this is what is referred to as the three-fold Thatness.

Q: Would we visualise what we recite while doing the praises?

L.Z.: You would visualise Tara above. I think after the break I go through a little
bit how to meditate on Tara.

Q: Was Tara not much practised before 19th century?

L.Z.: Yes, but its just this particular text that we are using [which was found
then]. No, it has been practiced all throughout, actually.

Q: Would you say more about why has Tara been becoming more important
recently? Why is it encouraged more now in all the centres?

L.Z.: As far as Im aware Tara has always been important. But I know at certain

18
times, if there are difficult times happening or obstacles, often we are asked to
do the Tara puja. I remember once Akong Rinpoche asked all the centres to do
Green Tara puja, because there were certain difficulties. I think it has always
been very important, the way you look back, when you read about the history of
Tara, it has always been practiced a lot, like it says in all the different
monasteries its one of the most common and most available practices.

I think nowadays, this terma not being very old, couple of hundred of years, it is
not seen as being very old for a terma, maybe it means that its needed at this
time, but it also gives people faith. I think part of the thing with the termas is,
when something is new and fresh there is a strong connection with it.

I think a lot of people know about this, in Nepal there is this self-arising Tara
that has been appearing, maybe last 30 40 years it has been appearing on a
rock, even less than that. I remember reading someone like Bardo Tulku, he
was visiting this place in Nepal, very near of a Guru Rinpoche cave outside
Katmandu. And in the seventies there was no Tara there. Then gradually,
gradually Tara has started emerging from the rock. Very, very gradually it has
been becoming more and more clear. And now there is just perfectly clear Tara
there. And nobody knows how this has come, its one of these miracles that do
happen: self-arisen Tara.

So the activity is there, maybe its some form of terma or form of activity of Guru
Rinpoche, from his staying in that place in his time, or the activity of Tara
showing us that it works. It actually works, helping us to have faith in Tara. All
these miracles are there, I think, to give us faith. And maybe also that certain
times there are more difficulties, but in a way, I think there has always been
difficulties, Taras activity must always have been necessary, throughout the
times. So, even if we think this is a difficult age, I think there have always been
problems in different parts of the world; there have been wars, countries
conquering other countries and they all need help. I think Tara is just
continuously appearing.

Q: [inaudible]

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L.Z.: The praises? I think the way it has been accepted to do it now is one, two
and three times, even though in the text it is said its recommended they are
done two, three and seven times. This is really only because of the language,
here and in many centres people are not used to do it very fast, so its done one
two and three times. Two, three and seven times is the way it should be done.
In general its done almost like doing a mantra, its recited very fast. You can do
one, two and three times.

If you are doing it as a session, then you can do two, three and seven times. If
you are doing it like the Tibetans are doing it; they recite it just any time, like I
was saying, if you are on the fields or in a car or in a bus, you dont have to
count then how many times you are doing it. Its just on your tongue
automatically. On the other hand, if you are in a formal session, there are
certain directions important to follow.

Q: At the beginning you were talking about creating an enlightened mandala. I

dont understand what that means.

L.Z.: Mandala means the area of activity. You could say for example the
mandala of Akong Rinpoche and Lama Yeshe together here would be all of the
Samye Ling and Samye Dzongs. You could talk about that as a mandala.

But then you talk about it also in a form of a deity, from pure point of view we
talk about everything becoming the mandala of the deity, and that has to do with
identifying with the purity aspect, rather than the impure aspect. At that point
one simply forgets about ordinary appearances and thinks everything dissolves
into voidness. From that one reappears or the deity reappears, all beings
become the deity, the place one is in, becomes the palace of the deity, all the
sound becomes the sound of the mantra. That is in a way what you call the
mandala.

Sometimes in practice you have very clear descriptions about that, what it looks
like, what the palace looks like and all of that. Sometimes you dont have very
detailed description and it is just, you could say a feeling, one can have a

20
feeling of that. But really in essence it relates to identifying with purity rather
than neurosis.

Break.

For the last part of the session we look more how to actually do the practice,
because if you are not familiar with how to do the practice, there wont be very
much benefit So we better make sure you are clear about how to do the
practice, not in great detail but in general overview. So if you are going in the
Tara puja here in the morning, you will have partly a sense of how you should
practice, without necessarily all the details.

The practice starts as always with refuge and bodhicitta. This is in all of your
Vajrayana practices. During the refuge you can imagine Tara in front of you and
you think you take refuge in Tara as a representation of Three Jewels and
Three Roots. You dont have to think of the whole refuge tree, but you just think
Tara in front.

Best is, whenever you do a practice like this, you have a picture, a small picture
in front of you, so you know what Tara looks like. Its easier for the visualisation.
So we visualise Tara in front of us in space and we take refuge and then we
develop bodhicitta, we want to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all
beings. After that there is a seven-branch prayer.

The seven-branch prayers are part of many practices. The seven branches are
always the same, but there are long and short seven-branch prayers. They are
always to gather accumulations. If you remember we talked about the five
paths, so we are at the path of accumulation. That means we want to spend as
much time and as much focus and energy as we can on gathering the
accumulations. That means we want to focus on making offerings, focus on all
the different branches of the seven-branch prayer both in our practice and in
general life, in our activities.

The seven branches are also said to reduce our negative emotions. They are a

21
practice or an exercise that helps us to reduce our negativities. First of the
branches is to pay homage and make prostrations. We are imagining we are
paying homage and making prostrations to Tara. This counteracts pride. The
second branch is: we make imaginary offerings, and this counteracts greed and
selfishness. Then we have regret. We are regretting any mistakes or negative
actions. This reduces aversion and anger. Then we are rejoicing all the good
actions we have done and all others have done, this reduces the power of
jealousy. We request the wheel of dharma to be turned, that counteracts
ignorance, and then we request Tara and her 21 aspects, all the buddhas and
bodhisattvas to always stay, be present and act for the benefit of all beings. And
this is a remedy for wrong views. Its like overcoming ignorance.

The last part is dedication, and in a way the dedication is also part of
generosity, counteracting greed and selfishness, so when we are dedicating we
are giving. So there is the seven-branch prayer there.

Throughout Tara puja you will have sections of offerings, sections of praise,
offerings and praises. There are a lot of offerings being made, again as part of
this idea of accumulating merit. There are several places where you are offering
the eight offerings, and there are several places where you are offering a
mandala offering. Here, whenever there are offerings, we basically think we are
making mental offerings to Tara and all the buddhas and bodhisattvas as a way
of overcoming our attachment.

The eight offerings are the drinking water, washing water, flowers, incense,
lights, perfume, food and music. These are the offerings that you see often on
the shrines: offering bowls with all the flowers etc. These are the symbolic
offerings that are offered and obviously it is not as if the Buddha had told us he
needs offerings but they are for us to overcome our attachment and to generate
generosity.

But it also symbolises, for example the drinking water, the fact that we are
offering drinking water is a symbol or request that all beings will quench the
thirst for the dharma, satisfy all their needs for the dharma. So in a way the

22
offerings can also be interpreted as a symbolic offering. When there is the water
for bathing, it represents the removal of impurities of the defilements. Not just
bathing the body of the buddhas, but it represents the removal the impurities of
defilements of our mind.

Offering of flowers is the beauty and richness of the dharma. The incense,
generally its said it represents the pure fragrance of right conduct, and the light
represents clearing away the darkness of ignorance. Lights clear away the
darkness of ignorance. In that way we can think however you want to, however
you feel you can relate to the offerings. You think of them in that way, but
throughout the practice there are a lot of offerings.

There is a mandala offering, where you think you offer the whole universe;
everything that the universe contains is within that offering.

In general there are four sections of offerings and four sections of praise. Before
we do the praises to Tara there are the eight offerings and the mandala
offering.

Q: What do the rest of the eight offerings represent?

L.Z.: The perfume water represents the development of our own purity,
becoming free from mistakes, the food is the food, nourishment of dharma, and
music is the sound of dharma. It all relates the dharma teachings.

Then we also think that we ourselves become Tara. This is a meditation where
you have both what is called the self visualisation and the front visualisation. It
says that instantaneously we become Tara and we dont think of a body like
flesh and blood, we think it as an appearance like a rainbow, appearing but
empty, transparent. And we think in our heart is a green letter tam. Tam is the
seed syllable of Tara. Its a Tibetan syllable; if you are not aware of it somebody
can draw it for you. We think that from this tam lights radiate out and invite
Green Tara in space in front of us.

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It means we ourselves are Tara and now we also have Tara in front, Tara
surrounded with the 21 aspects. So there is Tara and the 21 aspects and there
are also all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, the yidams, dharma protectors, all
the deities that we have in the refuge tree, they are there surrounding Tara with
the 21 aspects, who are the central figures.

We think that now we are Tara, and we have Tara in front, throughout, up until
the mantra it remains like that, you stay as Tara and Tara is in front as well.
Throughout all the offerings and the praises you have the self and front
visualisations.

You make offerings and praises. Again it says that the main point in this
practice is to recite the 21 praises, and we praise all the different aspects of
Tara. For the first praises, like I said before, the right hand of Tara is
outstretched on her right knee, this is mainly thinking of the front visualisation.
We are mainly focusing on the front visualisation. The right hand is outstretched
on the right knee in the mudra of Supreme Giving of Bestowal of
Accomplishments.

Then for the first time we recite the praises. Just being aware of Tara in front,
visualising Tara in front with that mudra, visualising all the surrounding, if we
can be aware of the presence of Tara like that. Then again, after we have
recited the praises we make the eight offerings and the mandala offering. We
feel that all of that is presented to Tara in front. All these eight offerings that
were mentioned before, we imagine they are all offered to Tara and buddhas
and bodhisattvas. The mandala offering of the whole universe is offered to
Tara.

Then again we recite the praises, and now we think that the right hand of Tara
is turned around facing downward. In a way it is placed above us, the mudra of
giving refuge or protection. While we recite the praises we really feel we are
getting this protection from fear and then we recite the praises two times.

After the praises we repeat the eight offerings, we imagine they are presented

24
to Tara, to 21 aspects, and to buddhas and bodhisattvas in front; and also the
mandala, the whole universe, is again offered. Then we do the praises for the
third time, this is where we would normally do it seven times. This is the last
time round it comes in the text. And here there is a little extra verse that we
recite.

We visualise that from Tara in front of us and we can also think if we want of
all the 21 aspects of Tara flows nectar through the crown of our heads and
fills us up completely, so we receive all the blessings of Tara. We imagine a
stream of amrita entering us through the crown of our head, fills the bodies of
oneself, and we can also think of others that need protection, we can think next
to us are the beings, we think it also enters their body, and it fills us up with a
blessing, so it fills us with joy, with wisdom, compassion, fearlessness. We feel
very warm, very pleasant feeling, blissful. We should try and imagine that, as
we are reciting the prayers. Try to have the feeling of being filled up with all
those qualities, every single aspect we can think of that we want to develop
through the Tara practice is entering us at that time.

If we would have done it complete, we would have done the praises two times,
three times and then seven times. Like that, or one, two and three times.

After that you are actually reciting a continuation of the praises, which is called
the Benefits of Tara. It comes at the end of the praises, and you recite a short
prayer here, which says: Jet-sun pa-ma drol-ma che chen-no jig-dang dug-nal
kun-le chap-tu sol. Its a supplication to Tara saying: Tara please take care of
us, think of us, take care of us, protect us from all fear and suffering. So its a
supplication.

And then reciting after that the benefits of the practice, which is saying:
whatever we wish for, may it be accomplished. May we accomplish
fearlessness, may all our negativities be pacified, overcome all difficulties very
swiftly, may we accomplish everything that we wish for, such as wealth or it
says if we want a son, then we get a son, if we want a daughter we get a
daughter, if we want students we get students, if we want wealth, we get wealth.

25
The idea is that whatever we wish for, may it be swiftly accomplished and may
all obstacles be overcome and defeated.

Then in the text after that there is a torma offering. In the daily practice you
could leave out the torma offering or if you have the torma you can offer torma,
or you can also offer something like have a plate of cakes and little sweets that
could represent the torma. Some people who do that and they are not familiar
with the torma making, they have a little plate with sweets, and if they do it
every day, daily, they add a little bit, they add something to the plate. I saw
Lama Lodro in Birmingham, he has it like that, so you dont have to spend the
time on the torma making. If people are working and you dont have a lot of
time. In the monastery you would do it with a proper torma, but it is possible to
do it without torma, then you offer something symbolic instead.

The torma represents in a way the destruction of all our negativities: belief in a
self, habitual patterns, selfishness. The fact of offering this is like overcoming
that, it is a representation of overcoming selfishness, self-cherishing
negativities, and its offered again to Tara and the whole retinue in front. Thats
followed by prayers for fulfilment of wishes. Its often like that: you make an
offering and then after that you request for the things that you would like to
happen, such as long life, good health, accomplishment, wisdom, knowledge,
all the qualities etc.

Then it is followed by praise to Tara reminding us of the qualities of Tara. There

are more offerings as well and then wishing prayers.

When we talk about these practices, if we look at our own meditation, whatever
we do, all of it has to do with accumulation of merit and purification of
negativities. All the wishing prayers, when we do recitation, are connected with
accumulation of merit and purification. So its not just like as if we were
requesting somebody something, give us something, we are trying to put
ourselves in the right frame of mind, to remember what is really beneficial, to try
and focus what is really beneficial to focus on.

26
At the end of the wishing prayers you have a short part for the mantra recitation.
What happens for the mantra recitation is that all of the front visualisation, Tara
that has up until now been in front and surrounded by the 21 aspects and with
all the buddhas and bodhisattvas, now Tara dissolves into light and merges into
yourself as Tara. You are still Tara, but now the front Tara merges into you, just
before the mantra recitation. Again with that you feel that all of the compassion
and realisation and activity of body, speech and mind of Tara and the 21
aspects, they become part of yourself as Tara. We were already Tara, but we
are becoming enriched, through this we are becoming even more Tara, even
more full of qualities, even more convinced that we are full of qualities. We are
inseparable from Tara.

Then we recite the Tara mantra: om tare tuttare ture soha. While you recite the
mantra there are a few different ways of meditating. During the mantra recitation
its recommended that you can try and visualise or be very clear about
identifying with Tara. Like an appearance of a rainbow but without substantiality,
we feel sort of made of light, we feel that we are Tara. We can try and focus on
that, focus very clearly on oneself as being Tara in this light form, is one way.

Then you can also think of the syllable tam in your heart: light radiates from this
tam, it radiates out in all directions, it radiates outwards and upwards and you
think it radiates out to all the Pure Realms and makes offerings to all the
buddhas and bodhisattvas. Its not that you have to visualise them there, you
just think all those pure realms are always there.

Limitless offerings radiate out. In fact it says: From the tips of the light rays
offerings are emanated. Whatever one can think of, offerings to all buddhas of
the three times are made. And then the light returns charged with all their
blessings. It merges into us and we receive the blessings of all the buddhas.

And we also imagine that this light from our heart radiates out to all the beings
in the six realms. In a way with the buddhas we think it radiates upwards and
now with the six realms it radiates down and out to all the six realms, to all the
beings there. We feel that it reaches them and protects them from all their fears

27
and suffering, as it gets into contact with all the beings in god realms, jealous
god realm, human realm, animal realm, hungry ghost and hell realms. It relieves
all their suffering and it establishes them on the spiritual path and makes a
connection for them, frees them from suffering and fear.

We can also simply listen to the sound of the mantra, rest our attention clearly
on the sound of the mantra, or we can think of the meaning of the mantra,
concentrate on the mantra itself. The mantra itself, if you translate it means
something like The Swift One, which is Taras name relating to Taras activity.
Tuttare means protecting from fear, a quality of Tara, and ture relates to
accomplishing our wishes in the dharma, meaning accomplishing our spiritual
practice and eliminating all the negativities and also achieving all the good
qualities to help others.

So you can choose between these different ways of focusing while you recite
the mantra. This is all the development stage, the kyerim, and at the end you
have the dzogrim, the completion phase.

After the mantra first you recite the hundred-syllable mantra three times to purify
any mistakes, and there is a short prayer to purify any mistakes in our
visualisation or meditation. And then there is a dissolution of oneself as Tara.
So you think that you yourself as Tara, you dissolve first into the tam in the
heart, and then the tam dissolves into voidness, and then you rest for few
moments in that state of clarity and no thought. Thats what we call the
dzogrim.

Then after that you have dedication prayers, so we are dedicating the merit to
all beings and there are different end prayers, long life prayers to the lineage
etc., dedication.

That was really like a very brief instruction in the Tara practice, quite few of you
were unfamiliar with the Tara practice, so if you go to the puja, you have a
sense of what you are meant to focus on. It is really a combination of offerings
and praises. You think you are Tara and Tara is in front, and you are

28
presenting all these offerings and praises to Tara. You focus during the praises
on the amrita etc.

Do you have the questions at the end? Actually somebody asked about the
eight fears. Generally they are classified as eight fears and they are
represented by eight animals, so I said that I would let you know what the
meaning is.

It says Tara protects from the fear of elephants. These are animals that would
have been in India at the time, when this was practiced in India. So it says Tara
frees beings from the danger of elephants and this actually is interpreted as it
frees us from ignorance. Elephant is representing ignorance. The elephants are
quite dangerous at certain times of the year, they rampage and attack just about
anybody who gets in their way.

The next one is the fear of lions. The lion represents here pride, overcoming
pride. The next is a poisonous snake, and that represents jealousy. Then it talks
about water, literally it says: The water of the rivers, and this is interpreted as
meaning attachment, both physical and mental aspects of attachment. So the
water of the rivers refers to attachment, grasping.

The next one is the fear of fire, and that represents the fire of anger and hatred.
Then it is mentioned the fear of ghosts. The ghosts here is interpreted as
meaning doubt. The ghost of doubts, having doubts and confusion.

There is a fear of iron chains, which represents the grasping desire. Grasping,
more intense than the attachment. And the last one is the fear of thieves.
Erroneous philosophies are the thieves. It is similar to wrong views. These are
the eight fears that are mentioned. Do you have questions?

Q: Can you explain the visualisation while you are reciting the mantra?

L.Z.: Yes, the first one was just be aware of yourself as Green Tara. Just
visualise yourself as Green Tara but in a form like light, appearance and

29
emptiness, very clearly and having all the form and clear representation, but not
solid. Identifying. You really have a sense that you are Tara.

The second one is the lights going out. This covers both the lights radiating out
to all the Buddhas with offerings, and lights radiating out to all beings, purifying
all their negativities and suffering.

Thats like one, you can do first the offerings to the buddhas and the all beings,
if you like, but this is actually very common, you come across this in many of the
visualisations, this thing of making offerings and purifying suffering.

The third one is that you are aware of the literal meaning of the mantra or else
you can focus on the sound of the mantra. If you are reciting it loudly just resting
your mind on the sound of the mantra or concentrating on what it means, as you
recite it.

Q: Does the mantra rotate?

L.Z.: No. Its not even mentioned, you dont visualise it, you visualise the tam.

Q: Is the light green?

L.Z.: Yes. Green represents swift activity and it is the idea that green is made of
many other colours, everything comes together in creating this green colour,
everything is accomplished to green. It is symbolising swift activity.

Q: In the offerings it says shapta tratitsa What is tratitsa?

L.Z.: It means please accept. Tratitsa soha, soha means so be it. Please
accept all these offerings. Benza, when there is benza, it means it becomes a
pure offering, not just an ordinary offering but a very pure indestructible sublime
offering. You say. Om aria tara saparivara Aria tara is a name of Tara, and
saparivara means: along with your entourage, so it means Tara along with all
the other aspects.

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Q: You said that the light going out is green?

L.Z.: Yes, often when it says green, it may have a tinge of the other colours, too,
but its mainly green.

Q: [inaudible]
L.Z.: The music is also just an offering, really. You can simply imagine it as an
offering of music. Each puja has a tradition how to play the music etc. In the
Tara puja everybody can play the bell. Sometimes only one person plays the
bell and damaru, sometimes you play bell alone, sometimes you play bell and
damaru, so with the Tara its just the bell and you hold the dorje. It represents
skilful means and wisdom in itself, the bell and dorje, but you are offering music.

Q: Could you tell something more about the dissolution?

L.Z.: In the dissolution you imagine that you yourself up until now during the
mantra recitation you are imagining yourself as Tara with the tam in the heart.
Now you imagine that you dissolve, and you normally imagine, when a deity is
dissolved you dissolve simultaneously from the top downwards and the bottom
upwards, into the syllable. Now you think you have the tam. Then the tam
dissolves from the bottom up. Just from the bottom up until the nada is left like a
little thread and then that dissolves. Then you rest in that state. Its like
everything becomes finer and finer, till there is just that little thread left. Then
you dissolve that and rest in the state of clarity, voidness. The idea is, we try to
rest in a state with no sense of I, but still being clear. Its not a sleepy or dull
state, but clear state being very present, not having a lot of mental activity.

In a way we are training also in that. You can see it as a training, even if we feel
that maybe we dont have that clearly there, we still try and you are
experimenting.

When you are doing the practice on your own, you can spend a bit more time
on the dissolution. Its always different to do the practice by yourself or to do it in

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a puja together with many people. In that puja normally there is not a lot of
emphasis on the dissolution, cause you cant really do that as a group together
very much. In the puja you go quite quickly over, but on your own you can
spend more time on that.

Q: [inaudible]
L.Z.: It depends when you are doing it. If you are not sitting down and
meditating, you might not be able to visualise very much, you can just have a
sense of the presence of Tara. If you are actually sitting and doing it, then you
can do the same visualisation: think you are Tara and Tara is above or in front.

Q: Is the nectar also green?

L.Z.: No, I think the nectar is clear or white. It doesnt really give a colour [in the
commentary], but you wouldnt think of it as green, maybe similar to that of
Dorje Sempa.

Q: What is the meaning of the mantra?

L.Z.: Om tare tuttare ture soha. The om itself represents the body, speech and
mind qualities of all the buddhas. Just by the sound om. And tare is translated
as the Swift One, tuttare means protecting us from all fear, and ture represents
fulfilment of our spiritual path. And that really represents the idea that we want
to purify whatever needs to be purified and we want to accumulate whatever
needs to be accumulated. Meaning we want to purify all our negativities and we
want to develop all of the positive qualities. And soha just means so be it, may it
be like that.

Q: Would you recite the mantra out loudly or softly?

L.Z.: Softly, not very loud but softly, to yourself.

We will dedicate the merit.

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