"If you get up in the morning and the
room is dark because you haven't drawn the curtains, well, it's
not the fault of the sun"
-Sogyal Rinpoche
Here are a few notes about Tara, for those of
you that may not have met up with her before. However these are
not the notes or comments of a lama, but only of a foolish and
egotistical student who does not attend to what he is told.
NOTES ON THE PRACTICE OF TARA
The main practice of Tara is just to call her and feel her
presence by reciting the mantra:
OM TARE TUTARE TURE SOHA.
(Ohm Tahray ToTare Tooray Sow Ha. Note that the
first 'to' in tutare should be a short 'to' not a long 'too')
WHAT IF I AM DOING OTHER DEITIES OR
FOLLOWING OTHER TRADITIONS?
Tara is completely pure and joyful in her endless giving,
generosity, patience, and wisdom. She is not jealous of other
deities!
If the other deities or religions which you are
doing are also dedicated to Buddhahood for the sake of all
beings, there can be no conflict. But if you are following
deities or religions for small-minded, harmful or selfish goals,
this does create a conflict for you. Pray to Tara to give you
true wisdom and compassion.
If you are doing many practices, it is best not
to mix them up. It is not bad to do them both, but one should not
cut-and-paste different things together. This is just bringing
our own confusion into the practices.
I personally think that it is not good to confuse
Tara with other deities. For example, I don't think it is good to
view Tara as some kind of ethnic mother goddess figure. But this
may be just because I am small-minded.
Some people, for example from a Catholic
background, view Virgin Mary as an emanation or form of the White Tara. This seems to be a good idea.
In fact I believe that H.H. The Dalai lama has given a Virgin
Mary Purity Meditation.
When should one do the mantra? Always and as
often as possible. When should one call on Tara? Always and as
often as possible. Tara won't get sick of us: "Oh, that
person again. Why do they keep bothering me?" Her kindness
and helpfulness are infinite.
Likewise, one should not make deals with Tara. In the West we
have a tendency to pray like this: "Oh Tara. Give me a
lovely girlfriend/boyfriend. If you do I'll say 10,000 prayers to
you and give up smoking". All that one has done is created a
block for oneself. We have put conditions on her boundless
giving. Just ask.
Is it wrong to ask Tara for material
things? Is this some sort of evil?
No, it is not wrong to ask for these things. Everybody needs
money to live on, a nice girlfriend/boyfriend, nice food. There's
nothing wrong with wanting a nice car or a good house or a pretty
dress. This is not evil. And Tara wants to give us those things
just as, if we had a child, we would want that child to have
everything nice on the Earth.
A problem arises if we ask selfishly.
"Tara, let me have this...but .......let them not have
it." "Let me have it, even if the others have to miss
out. " And, worse, if we ask for harm to others: "Tara,
that person hurt me. Inflict harm and vengeance for me!".
The most we can pray here is "Tara, let that person not
continue harming beings by vicious ways". Tara can prevent
harm! She can restrain wickedness! But asking her to harm people
for us is just turning her into some kind of thug. It will not
bother Tara, but it creates a conflict for us and closes us to
her blessings.
Always and always the best prayer is :Tara, let me be like you.
A NOTE ON EFFECTS
For us poor Westerners, we don't have much religious
openness. It takes a lot of practice to bring this about. So
don't be disappointed if you recite 'Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha'
and nothing immediately happens. Actually Tara is there and is
listening, right from the start! But we poor stupid creatures, we
just have to go on and on reciting till that enables us to open
enough to receive her blessings.
Traditionally, one should recite at least 100,
000 of the Tara mantras to get blessings. Actually, blessings
come more quickly. But also, 100, 000 is not that much! Consider:
it takes about two minutes to do one round of the mala - that is,
to recite the mantra 108 times. That makes 3,000 an hour. On a
short retreat, doing eight hours of practice per day, that makes
24,000 a day or 100,000 on four days.
How many hours would we work to get a
girlfriend/boyfriend? How many hours would we work to get a car?
And yet a person who just spends these four days, if they are
sincere, is absolutely guaranteed to get a religious experience
which will be one of the great inspiring events of ones life.
To recite, it is useful to have a mala. A mala is
a string of 108 beads. One usually has a couple of little strings
hanging off the mala. They both have ten rings or beads and with
fat string, so that the beads stay where they are put. In this
way, one can keep count of one's recitations. On the one little
string, count each round of the mala, until you have ten: then
start again and count one on the other string. When you have
finished the other string you will have a Thousand recitations.
Then one puts it in a little book.
But maybe one has no little strings. When I was doing one
retreat, I used to wander around the fields. Every time I
finished a round of beads, I would transfer a match from one
pocket to the other: in this way I kept count.
How do you use your mala? One always pulls the beads towards one,
because one is pulling blessings into one. And one always uses
the left hand (if your left hand gets tired, you can do a couple
on the right hand. Not too many).
Sandalwood, crystal, bodhi-seeds and malachite
are all good for Tara malas. I think 8mm - 10mm beads are best.
I have included a very short Text of Tara. Some
say that it is good to do at least a small Tara practice when one
gets up in the morning, before one has eaten any meat.
But how can I possibly do a retreat?
Actually, you don't need special conditions. You just need to go
somewhere quiet for a few days, or even just stay in your room
for a few days. Sometimes one needs to build up one's energy a
bit. I used to find I couldn't do even two or three rounds of
beads: it was too much. So I just watched TV and did it. The
first time I tried this I was watching a horror movie. It's not
ideal but....somehow it gave me the energy and inspiration to do
many, many rounds of beads the next day. Only, while you are
reciting, try to keep your spine straight if you can and not
flop. Anyway its better than just reading books.
Some people think it is also too mechanical. I mean all this
reciting and counting. Now actually, here I can't explain. It is
really important and really worthwhile to recite lots and to keep
count. I can't tell you why. I don't know.
ON THE NEED FOR A TEACHER
Another thing in the West is that we have been somewhat
conditioned against religion. We feel it is unspiritual to be
religious.
Actually we have been 'conned' rather. In this century there have
been many important people who wanted to make religion look bad.
They have taken some of the times when religious people became
fanatical and did terrible things and used that to paint all
religion as bad.
The truth is that human beings have always lived in a world which
is full of their own cravings and brutalities. There is no point
in history when things would have been better or less cruel
without religion. Overall, religions constantly tried to restrain
violence and cruelty and encourage learning and spirituality.
Overall, they succeeded quite well.
Although some people say that nowadays people are advanced enough
to not need religion, this does not seem true to me. If one looks
at great religious figures such as His Holiness the Dalai lama,
one sees true strength, compassion and spirituality. Or a
religious political figure such as Nelson Mandela or Martin
Luther King. Even if one looks at rock stars like Bob Marley or
someone like that, one finds that a person with a true, faithful,
open heart actually feels somehow more earthy, more in touch.
Somehow they are more real. This is what religion can give us.
People in the West feel unreal. Religion can give us this.
Also, sometimes people in the West feel that it is somehow
unworthy to use religion to make us better people. But the idea
is to become better. It is not just us that is affected: because
we affect other people, the quicker we become better, the better.
If someone gave you a cake, would you not eat it?
We all have limited capacity. To increase that
capacity, to have true energy, true compassion, unending wisdom,
one needs to do practices.
To do the practice of Tara one does not have to
'take on' some religion. There is no need to eat strange food or
wear funny clothes. There is no need to hang around Dharma
centres. That is all just play. But there is a need to get some
teaching and transmission from a genuine lama. If we look at all
the great teachers of history (I am excluding the prophets who
founded religions), they all had teachers. To have a teacher is a
great, a wonderful thing.
Our teacher, or lama, does not have to be God. They don't have to
be the Buddha. We are not so great. A humble lama is fine for us
- actually, a humble lama will have time for us: great teachers
are usually very busy. But they can give us some energy which
will really help our Tara practice.
Anyway, you can see I have rambled on. I am no guru. I hope these
small comments may help you in your practice. Any good in this
comes from Tara and my teachers. Any mistakes or bad things are
from my own egotism.
Thank you for your time.
Layman Sherab
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