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object:1.02 - Taras Tantra
book class:Tara - The Feminine Divine
subject class:Buddhism
author class:Bokar Rinpoche
class:chapter

2- Tara's Tantra

What we know of Tara and the practices linked to her
originally comes from the tantras. These are not texts
revealed in an ordinary way but in circumstances
where the buddha takes an aspect of the Enjoyment
Body and addresses human beings less than gods,
celestial bodhisattvas and a host of beings with whom
ordinary beings do not usually communicate. These
'texts are the foundation of Vajrayana practice,
empowerments, visualizations of deities, and recitation
of their mantras.
IS A TANTRA?
The word tantra (Tibetan, gyu) means "continuity." In
a literal sense, the term refers to the nature of mind,
the mind beyond any psychological elaboration, in all
its purity. This notion of continuity underscores that
the nature of mind is not something new to obtain,
something that could not exist now and would come
into existence at the end of practice. Continuity is
present at the base (what we are now), path, and
result. Whether it is veiled or revealed, it is always
there without discontinuity, as the union of emptiness
and clarity.
Within the framework of the sutras, the continual
presence of this emptiness-clarity at various stages is
expressed in the following way.

WHAT

- 47-

- at the level of the base: the two truths (relative and
ultimate)
- at the level of the path: the two accumulations (merit
and wisdom)
- at the level of result: the two Bodies (Absolute Body
and Formal Body)
Within the framework of the tantras, it is said,
- at the level of the base: body and mind
- at the level of the path: the creation and completion
phases
- at the level of result: the two Bodies of Awakening
(Formal Body and Absolute Body).

Gyu

Tantra: "continuity"
of the nature of mind

Base, path, and result are terms that take the
nature of mind as a reference point. When the nature
of mind is impure (that is, veiled) it is the base. The
path indicates purification and the result the purified
mind. Outside this process of purification, the essence
of the mind does not change. It is the same during the
three steps. Such is the continuity or "tantra" in its
true sense.

- 48 -

By extension, the verbal expression of this
continuity and the means to realize it are also called
"tantra." It is why the Vajrayana texts are called
tantras. Traditionally, it is said that there are two sides
to the tantras:
- "tantras of words," which expresses the unchanging
nature of the mind
- ultimate or "real tantra," which is this unchanging
nature.
Buddhas are those who have realized the real
tantra. When they utter the tantras of words in one
way or another, they show how the nature of mind is
found covered by ignorance and various conflicting
emotions (base) for the ordin~ry beings of samsara~
then they give the means to purify it (path), and they
describe the qualities of an entirely purified mind
(result).
ENCRYPTED LANGUAGE OF THE TANTRAS

Tantras, as texts, are extremely difficult to understand
because the words they use cover various levels of
meaning. A literal expression can sometimes be
revealed as completely erroneous. Tantras are said to
have a total of ten"levels of interpretation gathered in
two groups, the "six possibilities" and the "four
modes."
the six possibilities:
- pedagogical meaning
- definitive meaning
- with intention
- without intention
- in a known language
- in an unknown language

- 49 -

Let us take the example of the meaning "with
intention." If we encounter a phrase in a tantra stating,
Animals must be killed," this really means "make
conflicting emotions disappear."
the four modes:
- common meaning
- hidden meaning
- literal meaning
- definitive meaning
"Common meaning" signifies that the sense of the
word used is common to the sutras and tantras.
"Hidden meaning" is that which is applied to some
notions inherent in the subtle channels and winds, as
they are used in the practice of the six yogas of
Naropa, for example. "Definitive meaning" implies
that the word must only be understood in the context
of ultimate truth, mahamudra, or maha-ati.
Understanding tantras requires studying them
under a qualified teacher able to decipher their
meaning. Otherwise, even if we grasp the apparent
meaning of the words, our understanding will remain
far from the true meaning. Even a Tibetan scholar who
has done no special study of the tantras cannot
understand them. A khenpo or a geshe very
knowledgeable in grammar and logic who would have
studied all the mysteries in the sutras, the philosophy
of madhyamika, or the epistemology of abhidharma
would not be prepared to know the ,tantras.
For example, the.tantra considered to be the root of
all others is the Tantra of Enunciating Manjushri's
1/

Names (Manjushri Nama Samgiti Tantra) .
The clarification of this text may be done on many
various levels. There are treatises explaining it on the
levels of Kriya Tantra, others at the level of the
- 50 -

Charya Tantra, Yoga Tantra, the creation phase of
Anuttara-yoga Tantra, the completion phase of the
Anuttara-yoga Tantra, and so on. Without specific
study of these various facets, the text will remain
mysterious to us.
Furthermore, to truly understand a tantra, a mere
intellectual approach is not sufficient. A good personal
Vajrayana practice and the Lama's blessing are
necessary.
In the Tibetan tradition, studying tantras has been
and remains reserved to a small number of
individuals. In the Gelugpa order, for example, only
the best of the geshes have access to a tantric
university where they may study more particularly
Guyasamaja, Chakrasamvara, and Yamantaka Tantras.
In the Kagyupa order, only a small number of lamas
or khenpos direc~ly study the tantras, mainly the
Hevajra Tantra or the Zamo Nangdon (Profound Inner
Meaning), a tantric text written by the Third Karmapa.
ORIGIN OF THE TARA TANTRA

The origin of Tara Tantra, as with that of all tantras,
cannot be located in time. Tantras belong to the
omniscience of the buddhas who utter a tantra as it is
needed in a given epoch. Therefore, it is impossible to
give them an origin. They are eternal in reality.
Likewise the Tara Tantra, which resides in the eternal
knowledge of the buddhas, had already been revealed
during many past kalpas before being revealed in our
time.
As far as our kalpa is concerned, the Tara Tantra
was revealed many times by Avalokiteshvara in his
Pure Land, the Mount Potala, long before the arrival
of Shakyamuni Buddha.
- 51 -

Our kalpa is divid ed in four parts:
- totally endowed designates the beginning of kalpas,
when huma n beings lived an extremely long time,
completely and easily enjoyed all necessary material
goods and experienced great happi ness due, notably,
to right thinki ng and a great love for one another.
- endowed with three-quarters: life duration, material
goods, and happi ness start to decrease.
- endowed with two-quarters: decreasing is accentuated.
- endowed with conflicts: the difficult epoch in which we
are (to which belong, in fact, all our history and even
before) when the lifespan of huma n beings is limited
to one hundr ed years and there is only a quarte r of
the original happiness.
Avalokiteshvara revealed the Tara Tantra the first
time in the "totally endow ed" epoch in a form
comprising 800,000 stanzas; a second time in 600,000
stanzas in the "three -quar ter endow ed" epoch; a third
time in 12,000 stanzas durin g the two-quarter epoch;
and finally, a fourth time in 1,000 stanzas durin g the
conflict epoch when Shaky amun i Buddha had not yet
appea red in this world .
UTIER ING OF THE TANTR A BY SHAK YAMU NI BUDDHA

These Tara Tantras uttere d by Avalokiteshvara are not
those we now have. Ours are those of Shakyamuni
Buddha, who revealed them in the following
circumstances:
The night prece ding his awakening, while sitting
under the Bodhi tree, Shaky amun i was attacked by a
horde of demo ns attem pting to divert him from his
goal. At that moment, Tara appea red and with eight
great laughters made the demo ns fall to the groun d
and stopp ed them from doing harm. The Buddha then
- 52-

placed his mind in a state of perfec t medit ation and at
dawn attain ed awake ning. After that, he uttere d the
Tara Tantra. Howe ver, it was not the time when the
tantra was being comm unica ted to huma n being s.
Many more centu ries would be necessary for that to
happe n.
When the tantra s were uttere d by the Budd ha, they
were not addre ssed to huma n being s but to a host of
bodhi sattva s, gods, nagas , and other beings. Most
often, it was not in huma n places but in other
doma ins of manif estati on like Avalo kitesh vara's
Potala. Most tantra s, includ ing that of Tara, were
placed under the guard of Vajra pani (Chan a Dorje),
who for this reason is called the Guard ian of the
Secrets. Before there were huma n beings, there were
other categories of being s able to receive tantri c
teachings and spiritu ally benef it from them.
Texts for the Tara practice would appea r long after
the Buddh a's time thoug h divine revelation. Likewise,
the scholar Chan drago min receiv ed 108 texts of
practice durin g visions he had of the deity.
TANTRAS AMONG HUMA N BEINGS

The first comm unica tion of tantra s to huma n being s
was made throu gh the interm ediary of King
Indrab huti, a conte mpora ry of Shaky amun i Budd ha.
He obtain ed these tantra s in two ways. Sometimes,
they were revea led to him by Vajra pani or other
bodhisattvas, and he wrote them down as soon as he
heard them. Other times, he receiv ed them directly in
a mirac ulous way, the text havin g alread y been
written. Howe ver, Indra bhuti kept these texts secret,
locking them in trunk s and transm itting their conte nts
- 53 -

only to a few predestined disciples. Time was not ripe
for full propagation.
History tells us that the Tara Tantra especially was
communicated to human beings only three centuries
after Shakyamuni Buddha's passing away (around the
3rd century BeE).
If one makes an exception for the brief and
confidential episode of King Indrabhuti, only the
teachings of the Smaller Vehicle were made available.
Without talking about the Vajrayana, even the
teachings of the Greater Vehicle were not propagated.
It is only in this epoch that sutras of the Greater
Vehicle and all the teachings of the tantras, which had
been kept by celestial bodhisattvas, began to reach
especially pure beings. They were transmitted during
visions of Avalokiteshvara or Manjushri, or as in the
case of Indrabhuti, through miraculous gifts of a text
presented by a deity.
Revelation of all the tantras began in the same
way, thanks to visions, like that of Vajrapani.
Relatively few individuals followed the tantric path
because transmission was done from a teacher to a
disciple solely in an individual context. Practices were
kept very secret, and no one could say with certainty
that such and such a person was a tantric adept.
Tara was one of a number of deities who were
secretly practiced. Some stories are related to this time,
reporting Tara's intervention to save her followers
from danger. Let us give two examples. The first one
refers to danger caused by enemies and the second to
that of lions.
The son of a king fell asleep in a park when a
group of enemies who had sworn to assassinate the
prince surrounded him. The prince suddenly woke up
- 54 -

and saw that there was no way to defend himself but
to pray to Tara. From the bottom of his heart, he
called upon her for help. Tara then manifested herself,
emitting from the soles of her feet a mighty wind that
dispersed all the enemies.
In the other story, a man walking in a forest met
with a starving lion (it seems that there were lions in
India up to a certain time). Our man praye d to Tara.
A young woma n came by carrying a load of leaves. It
was none other than the deity's emanation and she
protected him from the lion.
HAYAPALA'S LINEAGE

The principal propa gation of the Tara Tantra was
done by a Bengali monk called Hayap ala who
belonged to the Brahmin caste. After havin g
assimilated many teachings of the Great Vehicle, he
met the Brahmin Guhyashila who had received
instructions on Tara from Vajrapani directly. From
Guhy ashila , Haya pala recei ved the Tara
empowerment, and under his direction perfo rmed the
practice of the Liberating One. This led him to his
realization.
Hayapala then went to Uddiy ana (northwest India)
where dakinis transmitted various tantras to him as
follows:
- Fundamental Tantra on Tara's Origin
- Violent and Wrathful Tantra
- Secret Tantra of the Sublime Unsurpassable Vajra
- Tantra of Producing Heruka
He then return ed to India and stayed in the city of
Tipurar where he built a temple especially to house
these tantras. He transm itted the Prajnaparamita
teachings and the sutras of the Greater Vehicle to his
- 55 -

ordinary disciples. To the gifted disciples, he
transmitted the Tara practice through which many of
them achieved realization.
Hayapala then transmitted Tara's lineage to his
disciple Hayagosha who passed it on to Nagarjuna. It
is because of the Tara practice that he attained
realization. Then, the transmission went on
uninterruptedly.
The Tara practice was later introduced to Tibet
through many channels. Taranatha, our main source
of information on the origins of the Tara Tantra,
received transmission from a disciple of the Indian
teacher Chiwa Bepa who had also come to Tibet.
Before Taranatha, Atisha, who had bonded with
the goddess, played an important role in the
propagation of the practice in Tibet.
AnsHA AND TARA
It is interesting to note that Atisha's life was marked

by a profound bond to Tara. This bond seems related
to his coming to Tibet. His relationship to the deity
will illustrate for us how Tara manifests her activity.

Miraculous Transformation
As soon as Atisha was born, the goddess clearly
4Ldicated that she would protect the child. Atisha was
born in 982 CE, the second son of a royal family from
Bengal. His parents named him Chandragarbha, Moon
Essence. While the newborn was sleeping in his cradle
on the upper floor of the palace, the king and queen
heard mysterious music coming from outside. The
queen saw a lotus fall from the sky and land in front
of the cradle. At the same time, the child's face was
transformed into Tara's face. Everyone concluded from
- 56 -

this that Tara had been his tutelary deity for many
lifetimes.

Choosing Ethics
When Atisha became a teenager, his father, the king,
organized many great parties in which many
princesses and their entourages participated. All of
them, charm ed by the beaut y and attitud e of the
prince, looke d upon him with desire. A pale blue
goddess who was none other than Tara appea red and
admonished Chand ragarb ha.
"If, like an eleph ant sinks deepl y in mud, you, a
hero, sink into the quagmire of desire, would not this
stain the robes of ethics you have worn for 552
previous lifetimes in which you were always a scholar
without defect, a perfect monk? Like the swans
looking for lakes adorn ed with lotuses, you must seek
ordination in this life!"
Having become a monk at the age of 29, Atisha
ardently devoted himself to study and practice.
In time, his fame sprea d and he was invite d several
times to Tibet where the persecutions against
buddh ism by King Langd arma had created a critical
situation. However, Atisha was reluctant to aband on
his monastic responsibilities as Vikramashila's Abbot
and to go to this repute dly difficult North ern country.
Several interventions by Tara were necessary to
convince him.
How to Make Amends for a Fault
One day, Atisha appro ved the expulsion of the monk
Maitrepa from Vikramashila University. Maitrepa's .
behavior was slightly out of the norm but his yogic
- 57 -

realization was immense. A little later, Atisha had a
dream in which Tara appea red and told him:
"The monk you have expelled is a bodhisattva. It
is not permi tted to act against a bodhisattva even
involuntarily. Anyo ne not know ing how to rectify a
mistake like this will be reborn with a body as large as
Moun t Meru t,lpon which thousands of birds and
insects will feed."
"How can I avoid that disastrous consequence?"
asked the frightened Atisha.
"You must go to the North ern country and devote
yourself to propa gating Mahayana teachings there,"
answe red Tara.

The Yogini' s Message
Tara appea red again to Atisha in a dream and
requested that he visit a certain temple where he
would meet a yogini who had something impor tant to
tell him. The next morning, he went to the temple and
met the yogini. Havin g offered her some flowers, he
told her. "I was invite d to go to Tibet. Will my
mission be successful?"
"Your journey to Tibet will be very fruitful,"
answe red the yogini. "Besides, you will meet a lay
perso n (Drom Tonpa) there who will be a tremendous
help to you."
Tara's Warning
When the Tibetan King Jangchub 0 sent emissaries to
invite him to his country, Atisha again consulted Tara
on the oppor tunity to accept. The deity told him. "If
you go to Tibet, it will be extremely useful. However,
your life will be shortened."
"How many years?"
- 58 -

"If you do not go to Tibet, you will live to be 92
years old. If you go, you will die at the age of 73."
"Twenty years of my life are not really important,"
thought Atisha. "If I sacrifice them, I can work to
benefit beings and spread the doctrine."
Thus, at the age of 59, Atisha left the warm plains
of India to reach the high plateaus of Tibet buffeted by
icy winds. He devoted the rest of his life to teaching
in Tibet and died there.
By this story we see not only how Tara was an
inspiration for Atisha but also we see her ardor in
leading her beloved child to the Land of Snow.
From the eternal omniscience of the buddhas to
their transmission in the Land of Snow, passing
through the celestial worlds and the great realized
yogis of India, such was the path followed by the
revelation of the Tara Tantra.

Question: The history of propagation of the Greater Vehicle
and tantras as presented by the Tibetans, and as we have
just seen it, often leads Western scholars to doubt the
au thenticity of these teachings. They note that the texts do
not date from the Buddha's lifetime, that when they
appeared, several hundred years had passed since the
Buddha lived. Their introduction to human beings, after
having remained in divine worlds, seems to be a
mythological artifice to disguise their time origin. For them,
Greater Vehicle and tantras are creations that came long
after Shakyamuni's original teachings upon which they
were improperly grafted. What can the Tibetan tradition
answer to these arguments?
Answer: It is difficult to give a satisfactory answer to
these Western scholars. Their method of working and
the framework in which they place their thoughts do
- 59 -

not permit the acceptance of the Tibetan vision of
things. From their strict point of view, they are not
wrong. With no belief in the deities' existence, how
could they understand that great practitioners
effectively communicate with deities, receive
instructions from them, and even obtain texts, which
miraculously fall from the sky? What proof is there to
give them? For them, proof would be only what
everyone could see or observe. However, in the
spiritual domain, very subtle experiences depend on
one's own karma and inner development. Such a
practitioner cannot prove to others that he or she
perceives the visions allowed to come because of the
purity of his or her mind.
In fact, science places laypeople in the same
situation. We cannot verify ourselves the claims of
scientists because of our lack of study or insufficient
intellectual capabilities. When they tell us about
atomic power, for example, we believe them without
being able to really see the proof for ourselves. Only
if a bomb explodes can we have this proof; if not, we
subscribe to scientific affirmation like blind people.
In the Vajrayana, it is somewhat similar. As long as
we have not 'a ttained the result, the realization by an
individual practice, we are blind. Only realization
provides us with the proof of truth of what is taught.
Another reason that makes understanding difficult
for Western scholars is the conception that they have
of the Buddha. For them, Buddha was a man, a man
like any other, even if he was endowed with great
wisdom. Therefore, his teaching is limited to the time
and space provided by an existence in a human body.
It is a narrow vision of what a buddha is. It is said
that the nature of a buddha is an "inconceivable
- 60 -

secret." At the same time, a buddh a's body, speech,
mind, qualities, and activity are covered by this
inconceivable secret. "Inconceivable" well means what
it means. The thoug ht of an ordin ary being canno t
grasp what it is. The buddh a's reality sprea ds in an
infinite way and canno t be confined to the limits of
common under stand ing. Otherwise, it would be
" conceivable."
If the being of a budd ha were limite d to huma n
life, it is true that the transmission of teachings in the
celestial world s and all these extrao rdinar y things
would lack meaning. But the being of a buddh a is far
from being locked in simple huma n appearance.
In fact, it is natur al for every one to hold to one's
own point of view. In buddh ism itself, durin g the
course of time, various philosophical schools have
been oppos ed to each other. Only a highe r point of
view allows us to see that the more narro w
conceptions are not false but partially true. Likewise,
when we study a science, the more subtle subjects
analyzed at the end of the study do not destro y the
validity of more simple things learne d in the
beginning.
We really are prisoners of our psychological
constructions, which veil reality. The function of the
Buddha's teaching is to rid ourselves of illusion
created by thoug hts and belief in the reality of
phenomena. To do so, many approaches are propo sed
such as the Smaller Vehicle, Greater Vehicle,
Vajrayana, pedagogical truth, definitive truth, and so
on. All have the uniqu e goal of eliminating menta l
constructions leadin g to the false conception of
phenomena as havin g a reality of their own. Once we
- 61 -

are totally liberated from mental elaborations, we are
a buddha.
'Outside of a spiritual way, the efforts of thinking
or the exercise of the psyche do not 'allow us to
achieve this result. They only add new constructions
to the preceding ones. It is true, however, that in the
three vehicles, we find methods which are also
founded on psyche activity, but it is a skillful use of
the psyche leading to the progressive elimination of
these elaborations.

- 62 -





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