Paripurana Tara, the Perfecter [21/21]

༄༅། །སྒྲོལ་མ་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་བྱེད་མ་།།།
ཕྱག་འཚལ་དེ་ཉིད་གསུམ་རྣམས་བཀོད་པས།
།ཞི་བའི་མཐུ་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་མ། །
གདོན་དང་རོ་ལངས་གནོད་སྦྱིན་ཚོགས་རྣམས།
།འཇོམས་པ་ཏུ་རེ་རབ་མཆོག་ཉིད་མ། །
རྩ་བའི་སྔགས་ཀྱི་བསྟོད་པ་འདི་དང༌།
།ཕྱག་འཚལ་བ་ནི་ཉི་ཤུ་རྩ་གཅིག །

Homage to Tara who bears the mark of the Three Jewels,
whose virtue and power are poured out in peace,
who scatters peril, malice and calamity;
the yakshas and the demons that rise up
she subdues, every one,
and spares not a single of them.
The syllable TURE, truly this,
is the supreme and holy spell that ends all harm.
This is the root mantra of the deity,
and of the twenty-one emanations of Tara;
recited with a sincere heart in offering,
the words of praise are now complete.

Nghi quỹ tu trì Lục Độ Phật Mẫu, Drukpa lineage

Tara “supreme and wholly perfect” is beautiful of aspect, half-wrathful and white in colour. She has one face, two arms, and three wide eyes signifying the “three doors of liberation”. She sits in the sattva-paryanka posture upon a white moon disc and a red lotus, enthroned upon a “miraculous” bull.

In her right hand she raises a trident, its three points piercing the “three poisons” — ignorance, hatred and desire — within the round of samsara. In her left hand she holds a pearl rosary before her breast, signifying her measureless compassion. She is adorned with golden ornaments, wears a tiger-skin loincloth, and an upper garment of human skin. Above her crown appears the buddha Ratnasambhava. She has the power to overcome the fears caused by demonic possession and by yaksha spirits. Her practice helps the practitioner enter the pure land of Akanistha in this very life.

She is elsewhere described in the ardha-paryanka posture, with either the left or the right foot hanging down. She may wear an upper garment of silk rather than of human skin, and a diadem of five skulls rather than a jewelled crown, holding the trident and the pearl rosary in her left and right hands.

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