Extract from Sunday Service
October 31, 2004
By Aeptha

CEREMONIAL WORK WITH TARA

Our service today is, in truth, very ceremonial in its orientation. When I went into meditation I was told that today we are being asked to work with the five primary aspects of Tara. If you have studied Buddhism you know that color in its highest form is recognized as a vibration, a frequency, or an emanation. There are 21 emanations or aspects of Tara, but she is depicted in 5 primary colors. The Green Tara, and sometimes also the White Tara, is the primary aspect from which all her other emanations come forth. There is Black Tara, which is depicted as either black or as dark blue, and there is also the Yellow Tara and the Red Tara.

One of the stories of Tara is that she was an embodied being who reached the place where she was striving toward and about to reach Buddha-hood, enlightenment, and she was advised that she could then move forward and seek male embodiment, but she said, “I will not. I will be a Buddha, and I will obtain enlightenment in female form.” This was contrary to the understanding of the time. In addition to that she made the pledge to be a Bodhisattva, and what that means is that although she had reached enlightenment and could transcend, or move into other realms, she chose to stay close to the earth to offer her assistance and guidance to all of humanity.

Another story concerning Tara is that the Lord of all the Worlds was gazing upon the Earth and saw the immense suffering and the sorrow. He also saw those beings that were being saved, as it were, that were crossing over the ocean of existence, but more and more individuals were coming into being that were still caught on the wheel of life and death. He was in despair and did not know if He could continue. He was crying, and two of his tears fell to the Earth, one from his right eye and one from his left eye, and from them there arose the manifestation of the White Tara who was depicted as being peaceful and calm, and the Green Tara who was depicted as being fierce and active. The miracle of these manifestations of Tara gave Him the courage to continue with His task and the belief that humans and sentient life could be freed from their own creations of suffering, and be liberated into freedom.

It seems very fitting that in this time we will be calling to Tara to assist us, to aid us as individuals and to aid all life.  We do not have to look very far to see the expressions of fear and the manifestation of duality, perhaps even within ourselves. The great Tara is said to be the relinquisher of the eight fears. These fears are intrinsic to all of life, and they express as eight external fears and eight internal fears. Now understand that these come from ancient times. The external fears are depicted as lions, wild elephants, forest fire, snakes, robbers, prison, floods and demons. The eight internal fears which she is called to save us from are pride, delusions, hatred, envy, fanatical views, avarice, lust, and doubts.  We will be calling to Tara this day and we will be asking her to vanquish these eight fears within ourselves, within our nation, and within the world. 

Tara expresses herself and works with us through five primary aspects. The Black Tara, which as I said is often depicted as a deep, dark blue, is the remover of obstacles. She is the Tara of wrathfulness.  Now please try to avoid immediately going into your Western way of thinking that wrathful is bad.  Wrathful is a good thing if utilized and understood from the highest level. It is right use of will, it is divine, and it is the remover of obstacles. This energy will be called in this day so that she will remove the obstacles to freedom within us, within our country, and within our world. And what is freedom? Tara is seen as the great Liberator, the one who escorts us across the ocean of existence.  She is the liberator from sorrow, suffering and attachment. And so we will call to Tara in her aspect as the black Tara to clear the obstacles to freedom within ourselves and within all sentient life, so that we will no longer be bound by our attachments and our identifications.

We have the aspect of Tara that expresses as Green Tara. There is a lot of information I could go into concerning Tibetan art, because everything from color, to hand position, to sitting position is significant. You will often see Tara depicted with the right leg underneath her and the left leg forward. The right leg that she is sitting upon symbolizes that she has given up her worldly desires and her attachments to worldly things, and her left leg stretched forward shows that she is prepared to swiftly respond to calls to her. The Green Tara depicts the energies of vitality. She is the Great Awakener. She is the aspect of vigor and activity. Let me tell you something that happens to us: as sentient beings, as we become enmeshed in our illusions, our delusions, and our attachments, we become quagmired; we become out of sync with the life force, with vitality, with growth, and we become out of harmony with Life.  I know that there are some of you here that work very closely with Chinese medicine, and as you know there are five elements in Chinese medicine, and there is the recognition that ill health or expressions of distortions in the body, come from lack of harmony.  And so the Green Tara, the swift protectress, will come forward to bring her healing, her activity, her vigor, and her swiftness.

We will be working with the aspect of Yellow Tara. She is the bringer of abundance and generosity. What is generosity?  It is the knowledge that all is one, that you have no need to cling to objects or to grab for self, because as you give freely, you know the laws, and there is no fear of lack, for it is all part of the one. You will see in many depictions of Tara that her right hand is open, showing the generosity of her compassion and her willingness to give unceasingly.  Her left hand will often be closed and close to her heart in the form of a mudra, a hand position, which specifically depicts an understanding, a teaching, or an action. It is in truth what we would call in the Western tradition a magical pass which opens a gateway.  Her hand mudra generally has three fingers which are extended, and those are the three jewels of Buddha-hood, which are Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Buddha is the consciousness of enlightenment, Dharma concerns the Laws, and Sangha is community. She holds her fingers together, which shows that divine love and wisdom, from which all things proceed, are joined.  So in the Yellow Tara we are calling to the generosity that knows no fear, that is boundless, that is abundant, that is all-giving.

The Red Tara depicts the right use of power. It is also magnetism. And we have the White Tara, which is purity and ultimate compassion. You will see that she has seven eyes.  She is all-seeing, omnipotent, and omnipresent. And so this day we call for the remover of obstacles, we call for the freedom from our fears so that we can be all-generous and know that love is ever-present.  We call to the right use of power, and we call this in purity for the greater good.

We will be working with the chant Om Tare, Tu Tare, Ture Soha.  Many of you are familiar with this chant, and we have used it at Light Haven before.  But I think it is very important that today, because of the level of work that we will be moving into, you utilize this chant with clear intent and understanding. And so I would like to tell you what this chant means and what you are chanting for.  As you know a chant, as a mantra, carries with it the force of its intention as well as the power it brings from centuries of use.

We have spoken about the power of the word, and I know we understand words as vibration, and we recognize that in the spoken word there is the unique quality of the breath in relationship to this power. In all sentient life there are many forms of communication, many of which we are not aware of, but the capacity of humans is unique in that there are many nuances of sound that the human voice can make that, as far as we know, are not duplicated in any other life form on this planet. These nuances are recognized as vortexes. There are books that have been written, in particular in relationship to Sanskrit and Hebrew, that speak of the mystics who unlocked the keys to multiple dimensions and gateways by moving through these vortexes, these nuances of sound.  Not only did they do this in their consciousness, but as we know they also utilized sound to do things like move three-ton rocks. They used sound to change matter from one thing to another, a sort of different version of nanotechnology.  We also know that sound can be misused. It can be used to destroy without right intent; it can be used to mesmerize and to damper down. In addition to that, some words have a type of archetypal energy. For instance if you hear the word hero, you are going to respond, not only to the energy of that word, but you will also respond to its emotional archetypal energy without even knowing that you are doing this. Villain is another such word, and there are many others. 

There is a great deal of misuse on our planet around the power of the spoken word, the word of creation.  We are not into fear-mongering here; on the contrary, we are calling to Tara because we wish to relinquish our fears. But let me tell you that misuse of the spoken word will pull you into mis-creation and will mesmerize you. There is power in the word; in fact there is power in what we have created in this space. Physics is proving what many of us have known: a space holds a vibration, an intention. Those of you who have worked with us here at Light Haven know that we are diligent about keeping this space mystically cleared, which is part of why, by the way, we do not rent this space out. It is not that people coming in would be “bad”, but when you start mixing different energies, a lot of other things can happen. We all speak; it is not a matter of not speaking, but you create whether you are conscious of it or not.  We are part of the relationship with life, so what we are asking ourselves to do is to speak with right intention.

And so with this chant, Om Tare, Tu Tare, Ture Soha, we are opening up gateways as we invoke and invite the powers and potencies of Tara to come forth, to pour forth through these gateways, through our intention, through our acts as mediators, to bring clarity and purification, to dispel fear and mesmerism. And the Om is Tara’s holy body, speech, and mind. Tare means liberating from the suffering of samskaras under the control of delusion and karma.  So we call to Tara, body, speech, and mind, through the Om to dispel and liberate from suffering, from karma, from control and delusion. Tu Tare means liberating from the eight fears of pride, delusions, hatred, envy, fanatical views, avarice, lust, and doubt. Ture means liberating from the ignorance of our egos, that part of us which separates, that which says there is you and there is me, and if you do not agree with me then you are wrong.  How many times have we heard those words flooding through our ears?  How many times have those words come out of our mouths? Soha means may the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind.  Om Tare, Tu Tare, Ture Soha. 

Many years ago when I first started working with this Being that we call Tara, I was drawn to her for many reasons, but also because, in addition to her many other tasks, she has dedicated herself to the adepts, the initiates, to the seekers of truth. In the teachings around her it is said that it is the demons of doubt that will destroy an adept most quickly. There have been many times that I have called to Tara to banish doubt and uncertainty.  Do not doubt that you can effect change.  Do not doubt that you have purpose in this world, and that your voice, your heart, and your will to good make a difference.  Do not doubt, and if you find yourself, as we all do at times, uncertain or afraid, call to Tara.  She cannot and will not interfere because we have free will, so we must call to her if we seek her assistance. 

Ceremonial Work with Tara

All Chant:  Om Tare, Tu Tare, Ture Soha. (The Tibetan horn is blown during the chanting.)

Aeptha:  Keep the chant going on the inner levels for a few minutes. Know that she has come, as we ask that our bodies, our speech, and our minds might be blessed that we may become Tara’s body, speech, and mind.  And we ask that the obstacles to freedom would be vanquished by thee, Black Tara. And to thee, Yellow Tara, we ask that the illusion of lack would be dispelled and the manifestation of the ever-flowing of abundance and generosity would come forth. Hail to thee, Green Tara, come to us swiftly, dispel the delusions and move forth in this time.  We call with our hearts, we call with our voices. Hail to thee, Red Tara, let there be right use of power, right use of will.  Hail to thee, White Tara, mother of all Buddhas, let thy compassion dissolve the fears. 

Open every cell of your bodies to be the body of Tara. Open your minds to the mind of Tara, open your hearts to the heart of Tara, and we are one body, and we are one mind, and we are one heart.  All hail to thee, Tara, all hail.  Swift Protectress, the need is great. We call to thee to move upon the waters of the Earth, across the face of the land, above, below, and all around. There is such suffering, fear, and separation.  Great Mother, holy Mother, we are thy children, we, who you stand with, who you love, for it is for our sake that you turned your back on freedom, on Nirvana, to be with us, and we perpetuated suffering, and you have never left, and you are with us now.  And we call to thee for the cessation of suffering.  We ask for thy assistance.  Let the body of all sentient life know itself as one body.  Let the heart of all sentient life be the heart of compassion, the one heart, the loving heart, the divine heart, and know itself as divine. Let the mind be enlightened, the one mind, and know itself as light. 

You will be aware that there is a vortex that has been created by the will to good, by the heartfelt prayers, and by the aspiration. It is a vortex of creation and manifestation. It is purifying, liberating, unifying, sanctifying.  It is transcendent and inclusive. Hail to thee, Buddha, let the dharma fulfill itself and let us, as community, manifest and spread forth the energies of will to good.  Hail to thee, Buddha, in thy myriad expressions, manifestations and emanations, all hail, Buddha.  And we give thanks. Hail to thee, Buddha, hail to thee, Tara.  All hail. 

(To those gathered:) There are some things here that you can clear, that you can liberate yourself from, and you do so for all sentient life. I invite you to do so now.  Let there be harmonizing, right use of speech, of thoughts, of deed.  Let the truth be revealed. Let there be healing and compassion without judgment. Let abundance flow, let lack and delusion be liberated.  For we are the body of Tara, the heart of Tara, and the mind of Tara, who is the Mother of all Buddhas.  We are one with all life, and as we heal, all are healed. As we are uplifted, all are uplifted. There is no fragmentation and there is no separation. (A gong sounds five times) We are taking this through the dimensions, above and below and all around.

Continue to hold the space, for Tara’s work is great and there is great work that is being called for on this day and on many days to come. That which has been, that which is now, and that which is becoming, has been touched on this sacred day of Samhain, this day in which the veils are very thin. You are listening to a recording of an ancient chant that is often used in Buddhist monasteries. It is the chant of praise and blessings of the 21 Taras, and while you listen to this, I would invite you to be particularly aware of the crown of your head as well as your throat and your heart.  Let these chants, these 21 blessings flow through all levels of your consciousness. (The work continues for a few minutes)

Aeptha: And speak the chant with me: Om Tare, Tu Tare, Ture Soha. (All join in the chant.)  Keep chanting, and I will remind you again of the intent, for Om represents Tara’s holy body, speech, and mind. Tare means liberating from suffering. Tu Tare means liberating from the eight fears. Ture means liberating from ignorance of the ego. Soha means may the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind.

May the meaning of this mantra take root in our minds. May the meaning of this mantra take root, consciously, in all life.