Author: unconditionalthoughts

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A 1987 teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche opens us to the profound meaning and benefits of practicing Tara’s powerful mantra.

Lama Zopa walks us through the mantra in a long discussion on Tara, which we have excerpted and shortened below:

In short, om tare tuttare ture soha means “I prostrate to the Liberator, Mother of all the Victorious Ones.”
The Tara mantra is om tare tuttare ture soha. To explain the meaning of tare tuttare ture: tare means liberating from samsara.
Tare shows that Mother Tara liberates living beings from samsara, true suffering, or problems. You can relate this to the suffering of human beings: birth, old age, sickness, and death; meeting undesirable objects and experiencing aversion; not finding desirable objects or finding them but gaining no satisfaction… All these are the problems of true suffering. If you rely upon Tara by taking refuge in her and doing Tara practices—such as the recitation of mantra or praises — with tare, Tara liberates you from all these true sufferings.
The second word, tuttare, liberates you from the eight fears. There are eight fears related to external dangers from fire, water, air, earth, and such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However, the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt, and wrong views. These eight disturbing thoughts in your mind are the main dangers… This second word, tuttare, liberates you from the eight fears, and frees you from the true cause of suffering: karma and all-arising disturbing thoughts.
The third word, ture, liberates you from disease. Now, of the Four Noble Truths, ture shows the cessation of suffering, which is the ultimate Dharma. In terms of liberating from disease, our actual disease is ignorance not knowing the absolute nature of the I, and all the disturbing thoughts that arise from this ignorance… By liberating us from disease, ture actually liberates us from the true cause, disturbing thoughts, and also the true sufferings.
The rough meaning of these three words, tare tuttare ture is: “To you, the embodiment of all the Holy’s actions, I always prostrate — whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances — with my body, speech, and mind.”

The final word soha means establishing the root of the path within your heart. In other words, by taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you receive the blessings of Tara in your own heart. This gives you space to establish the root of the path, signified by tare tuttare ture, in your heart. By establishing the path of the three capable beings within your heart, you purify all impurities of your body, speech, and mind and achieve Tara’s pure vajra holy body, holy speech, and holy mind signified by om. Your body, speech, and mind are transformed into Tara’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind. This is the rough meaning of om tare tuttare ture soha.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2019

Source article: Written by Yowangdu, November 11, 2017

https://www.yowangdu.com/tibetan-buddhism/green-tara-mantra.html

Just a little reflection before Christmas Eve: What is your longing?

December 23, 2018December 23, 2018 unconditionalthoughts1 Comment

December 24 2018
Mi 5:1-4a; Heb 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-45

Mary is the finest flower of such obedience.

Gospel reading invites us to recognize Mary, the maiden with child, as the fulfillment of the Emmanuel prophecy, and Jesus, her son, as the fulfillment of the promises made to David.
He is the universal king and lawgiver and those who live according to his commandments (that is, with interior “pure heart” and exterior “clean hands” righteousness) will enjoy his blessings: “Emmanuel, our King and lawgiver, come and save us, Lord our God.”
Now, this is our journey:
We have come to the fourth week of Advent. We have journeyed together for preparing ourselves to welcome his coming. The question is:

What do you long for, with all your heart, at this time of your life

—especially at this moment?

Some of us may be seeking love, companionship, understanding, or peace of mind. Some may struggle in the thought how to get better from any illness. Others may desire more specific things: a home, employment, the strength to make a hard decision. Some may be praying just to get through this holiday season in one piece. Some want to escape the harsh experiences of the past year or cling to the things and to people that they may feel are slipping away. There are still so many desires and longings… which somehow unthinkable…

Whatever the deepest desires of your heart, the message is, to lay them at the feet of the Christ child today.

These are the truths that we have known:
We are taught to venerate God more than anything else. God also wants to be with us and invites us into the divine life, at the heart of which is love. God is revealed in the commandments and in Jesus as Emmanuel: “God is with us.” We can talk with God, just as prophets, Moses, Mary did. All we need to do is speak and listen. All we need is to recognize our longings, and sincerely to trust, to hope, and to surrendering those longings. Up to the point when we can say: “Behold, I come to do your will, O God.” Amen.