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Green Tara Practice

Kinsey Collier
World Religions

The Green Tara practice of the Vajrayana Buddhist sect is peaceful and full of nothing
but good intentions. As human beings, we tend to fall into our daily routines. We go to work,
come home, go to school, eat, drink, sleep, doing the same things over and over again. It is
not hard to grasp that we do not always look outside of our own problems and bubble. The
Green Tara practice of prayer is meant for those in need and to remind those who pray to
keep those in need at the front of your brain as they go about their day. She is also meant to
help you to connect to yourself, heart, and those around you. It a humbling practice, praying
to the Green Tara, Mother of all Buddhas, She who saves.
Getting up before six, and getting ready for the day is not my idea of a great way to
start the morning, but after sitting through the Green Tara Practice I can see why it would start
ones day off with good feelings and a sense of awareness for those in need. The whole idea
of the Green Tara Practice is to pray to the Mother of all Buddhas to help. As I pulled in the
parking lot of the Urgyen Samten Ling Gonpa Buddhist temple in downtown, the building
looked nothing like what i would have expected, in fact I have driven past it many times and
have not given it a second glance. There are only two cars in the parking lot, it is still dark
outside, and there is a homeless man staring at me from across the street, I thought google
maps had sent me to the wrong spot and I was going to have to send google a strong worded
letter about how much their service has sucked. Okay I really wouldn't have, but yay for
google maps I was in the right place, and thankfully the doors were unlocked or I would have
high tailed it out of there.
I walk in and it is silent except for feet quietly moving around. Boots off I walk up the stairs to
find two people setting up for the mornings practice, Rachel and San, the two lovely people
who were kind enough to put up with and answer all of my question. Rachel asked if I would

like to take a look around while they finished with all of the odds and ends. I have been in a
Hindu temple before but never a Buddhist temple. It was amazing, there were things every
where to see. It would have taken all day just to really see everything that was in that room.
Pictures of teachers and Gods, statues, candles, bells, flags, and so many more things I
cannot even remember.
There is a pecking order when it comes to seating. I sat behind Rachel and San with
another woman whose name I cannot recall. Those who are more experienced sit in the front
rows and those with less experience sit in descending order behind them. The teacher who
usually leads the practice every Tuesday and Thursday morning was absent that day so
Rachel led the practice. I really did expect there to be more people there, but I am grateful for
the lack of because it made it easier to feel more at ease and ask the questions I needed to.
Rachel sets a book in front of me that holds all of the prayers and mantras that will be
said during the practice. Now to someone who knows nothing about what is about to happen
it looked ominous and long, but it goes much faster than a newby would expect. Everyone sits
on their pillow sets up the things they need around them and we begin.
As we begin Rachel tells me that she will give me a brief guide through the mantras as
we go. I try to follow along as best as I can with the words in front of me, and even though I
was able to read along it was very difficult to keep up because these wonderful people
practice repeating these mantras twice a week at the temple and at home on their own, and
they speak with such a speed that is baffling to me. When talking to Rachel and San after,
they told me that there are people who can do it twice as fast as they do. They also mention
that this version of the Green Tara practice is very condensed.
At the begin of the practice the practitioners begin with a connection to the teachers by
evoking the blessing from their immediate teachers and those in the lineage. In the beginning
of the prayers they set things up to invite all good things to happen, so they pray for

auspicious outcomes.
They look to and visualize the Buddha of our time. He is the one that gave up riches
and wealth because of the experiences he had of seeing the sick, the suffering and poverty of
the people all around him. Through that and meditation, he became enlightened and
recognized the middle way, which is the on going effort to find the balance in life. He also
brought forth the teachings of prayer. That prayer that the that the Vajrayana practitioners
recite establishes devotion and connection to the Buddha. They then open up and recognize
their own wisdom and say prayers for their ancestors. As well as the one who brought
Vajrayana into being.
Vajrayana, meaning diamond, is a form of Buddhism that Rachel and San practice. It is
also known as tantric buddhism. Vajrayana is based around visualization and strength of
oneself. Knowledge is passed from teacher to student, eventually student becomes teacher
and the cycle goes on. Vajrayana is also based on the end goal of complete enlightenment
but it is believed that one does not receive complete enlightenment in one lifetime. You have
to be reincarnated a few times to get to Nirvana. This practice also means that if its outside of
us, its also within us, the connection.
After all of that they begin the practice of the Green Tara. There are 21 manifestations
of Mother Tara. The one we would see the most is the compassionate Green Tara, the mother
of all mothers, with one foot off of a full bloomed lotus pad showing her readiness to help
others. The fact that she is green symbolizes activity and accomplishment. In the picture I
saw of her, it also showed her with a third eye which symbolizes wisdom. She is the one that
the Vajrayana practitioners Im learning from, focus on. She is meant to help overcome fears,
stress, mental illness, physical illness to help build a better future, and relationships. She is
the buddha of the past, present and future, showing us compassion and teaching us to have
compassion for others.

There are also 21 prayers to the Mother of all Buddhas. She is the provider, so they
pray to keep those those who might experience floods free from floods and they pray for the
ones who would like to have a son but are having difficulties so they pray that she will give
them one, so on and so forth. The practitioners repeated these 21 prayers about three times,
but they told me that there are those who will repeat it many more than that.
Through out the prayers they repeat a mantra OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA
several times. OM means Taras speech, mind and enlightened body. TARE means the
liberation from true suffering. TUTARE is the liberation from fear and delusion. TURE is Taras
willingness to provide all that is needed to become free from suffering, and SOHA means may
the meaning and weight of the mantra take hold in the mind and actually stick. (Kargyi
Ongchhyu) San talked about how praying and saying the mantras of the Green Tara can help
you through your day, almost like drinking a cup of coffee for the soul, and that you should say
the OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA mantra throughout your day to keep you focused and
pull you back to center. You are supposed to visualize that everyone is like your mother, that
you respect and care for them no matter if it be a bug or a human. To pray for those who
suffer and that the main purpose is to lessen the suffering.
While saying the prayers and mantras, the practitioners would ring a bell or use a drum
or spin a beautiful wheel. Rachel called these things sadhana, the tools of their practice. The
bell is meant to wake them up, keep them in the here and now. They would also hold beads
which they used to help them keep count on how many times they said a prayer or mantra.
The drum is used for offerings, giving off little blessings. The prayer wheel hold prayers and
mantras in it and when you spin it, it sends those prayers outwards to the rest of the world.
You are never supposed to disrespect the tools that are used in practice, they are to never
touch the ground and always be treated with care.
There was also a hand gesture or mudra that they would do called the lotus bud. You

take both hands and put the base of the palms and the fingertips together, and take the
thumbs and slightly tuck them in. The idea is that you are holding jewels or offerings.
When I sat and talked to Rachel and San after the practice they told me about how this
practice is meant to always keep those in need at the forefront of your mind and to dedicate
all of the mantras to them throughout ones day. They told me that there is a merit for every
action and there is an outcome either positive or negative and so anything good that comes
from their practice they dedicate that. The exercise of these mantras keep things in motion.
Vajrayana takes things to where its outside of us as well as within us. They come to
enlightenment as they visualize themselves as deity. They posses the qualities of deity but
they don't know it so through these practices it helps them to see it.
In conclusion, after seeing and talking to the lovely Vajrayana buddhist practitioners
about the Green Tara practice I can definitely see why it is something that would be like a cup
of coffee to jump start your day. To acknowledge your ancestors, teachers and the Buddha, to
pray to the Mother of all Mothers to help those who need it is humbling. To visualize yourself
as a deity and that your light can help others. It was awesome to sit and listen to these people
chant prayers for the good of other people.

Bibliography

-"Benefits of Green Tara Practice." Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
http://www.samyeling.org/about/buddhism-and-meditation/teaching-archive-2/lamazangmo/benefits-of-green-tara-practice/
-Maier, Karyn, and Jay Garcia. WiseGeek. Conjecture, 30 Sept. 2014. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-vajrayana-buddhism.htm
-Ongchhyu, Kargyi. "Green Tara." Green Tara (n.d.): n. pag.
Http://www.losangsamten.com/sadhana/green_tara_2.pdf. Web.
-"Tara: Buddhist Goddess in Green and White." - ReligionFacts. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
-"Tara." Tara. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2014.
http://www.sacredwind.com/tara.php

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