Red Tara Practice
© Yeshe Chodon
The being who has been Tara through many lifetimes set her aspiration to be the ultimate in compassion. Her vow is to protect all beings if they do nothing more than call her name.
This month I have the temerity to write about Red Tara practice, unhampered, as Tom and Ray Magliozzi, the Car Talk brothers, would say, by the thought process. My qualifications are minimal at best: I attended a weekend Red Tara Empowerment a few weekends ago, and I bought a few books. I have done a short version of the practice daily since the ceremony, but have not attended longer sessions, although those are available in my city.
Perhaps my protestations of humility will make up for my hutzpah.
How can I summarize this experience which has so profoundly deepened my faith and my joy in practice? The results are exactly as stated by the teachers, and they are astonishing. The four qualities: equanimity, compassion, love, and joy become more consistent within the personality. One glimpses, and for periods of time enters, "the pure state of the Noble Mother Tara, the state of perfect bliss, complete awareness, and unobstructed compassion."
Q. Why should one participate in Red Tara practice?
A. Quoting Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche:
The heaviness and solidity of phenomena, including your own corporeal form, give way to the recognition that the essential nature of all phenomena is emptiness, wisdom, and compassion. As you return to the recognition of your original pure Buddha nature, your own compassion becomes unobstructed. What is a greater miracle than this?
Q. How long does it take?
Rinpoche says it is possible to attain this awareness within our current lifetime.
The blessings of Tara practice come so quickly that you can regain recognition of your original non-dual awareness in this very lifetime, or at least at the moment of death.
Q. What obligation or commitment must I make?
A. A commitment to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. A commitment to daily practice following the empowerment. A commitment to bodichitta motivation. In their mercy, the lamas have provided short versions of the practice we can fit into our frenetic lives.
No text is meant to stand on its own. To understand Tara practice, it is essential to receive oral transmission by a qualified teacher.However, the following provide excellent introduction to the subject:
Red Tara Commentary: Red Tara: An Open Door to Bliss and Ultimate Awareness by Chagdud Khadro is a clear introduction to Tara practice. Chagdud Khadro, whose birth name is Jane Tromge, is the wife of His Eminence Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche. She is herself a lama of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. Both Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and Chagdud Kahdro travel the world giving empowerments and teachings.
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