Mahashanti Tara, the Great Peaceful [15/21]

༄༅། །ཞི་བ་ཆེན་མོའི་སྒྲོལ་མ་།།
ཕྱག་འཚལ་བདེ་མ་བགེ་མ་ཞི་མ།
།མྱ་ངན་འདས་ཞི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་ཉིད་མ། །
སྭཱ་ཧཱ་ཨོཾ་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་པས།
།སྡིག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་འཇོམས་པ་ཉིད་མ། །

Homage to Tara, peaceful and wholly still,
at rest in the quiet of nirvana,
in whom SOHA and OM are joined as one;
however boundless the calamities,
she delivers with skill
and brings disaster to an end.

Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Drukpa lineage

Tara “of great peace” is also called Kalyanada Tara, “she who bestows virtue”. She appears peaceful and white in colour, with one face, two eyes and six arms. She sits in the vajra posture upon a white moon disc and a white — or pink — lotus, adorned with divine silk garments and jewel ornaments.

In her first right hand she holds a rosary before her heart; her second right hand shows the gesture of granting boons (varada mudra); and her third right hand holds a vajra-topped golden club. Her first left hand rests upon her thigh, holding a blue utpala lotus in full bloom while forming the gesture of meditation (dhyana mudra). In her second left hand she holds a golden flask of consecrated water, and in her third the stem of a blue utpala lotus in full bloom, bearing a volume of scripture. Above her crown appears the red buddha Amitabha. She has the power to purify every defiling emotion that drives beings towards the lower realms, and her rite is connected with outer purification.

Curated and synthesised by
Jigme

References

1. Beer, Robert. “Twenty-One Taras (Suryagupta Tradition)”. Tibetan Buddhist and Newar Tantric Art. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tibetanart.com/Product.asp?PID=10

2. The Gyalwang Drukpa. Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Ý Nghĩa và Hướng Dẫn Thực Hành. Hà Nội: NXB Tôn Giáo, 2021.

3. Tsem Rinpoche. “Suryagupta’s 21 Taras”. Accessed September 15, 2024. https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/suryaguptas-21-taras.html