Khenpo Tenzin Norgey

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 14 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who strikes the earth with your palms,
And stamps upon it with your feet.
With wrathful grimaces and HUNG syllable,
You scatter the seven underworlds.

The fourteenth homage is to Thronyer Chenzed,Tib the “Wrathful Wrinkled (Frowning) Tara” who subdues the eight classes of harmful spirits and nine malignant spirit brothers.  She is black like a dark night, and holds a wooden pestle upon a blue lotus.  She makes the world tremble and quake by striking the mountains and islands with the palms of her hands and stamping upon them with her feet.  By the power of her regal frowning, the resounding vibration of HUNG, and the glare from her radiant vajra light, which is like a fire-shower, she shatters the hearts and heads of all malignant spirits:  samaya[i] breakers, demons and others from the seven underworlds and above, and makes them faint into the state of dharmata[ii].  The seven underworlds, which are like layers of seven roofs, are: the abodes of demons, the general base, the higher base, the baseless, the specific base, the base of essence, the perfect base, and the pure base.  In reality, the two soles striking symbolize striking the crucial point of the path of the non-duality of pristine wisdom and the basic sphere, which uproots the seven latencies or seven cognitions with their objects.


[i] samaya skt  ~ A vow or word of honor, a promise, commitment,  usually in the context of a Tantric vow or empowerment.

[ii] dharmata  skt  ~ The void nature the emptiness aspect of Buddhahood.  It can be translated as the true nature of reality.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 13 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

 Homage to you, who dwells amidst garlands
Blazing like the fire at the end of an eon.
With your right leg outstretched and left leg drawn in
Your joyful turning destroys enemy forces.

The thirteenth homage is to Drapung Jomma,Tib the “Tara Who Averts War”.  She averts wars and obstacles, and leads beings to victory in the war with form and formless enemies.  She is red in color and dwells amidst garlands of wisdom fire swirling like the fire at the end of an eon.  Her right leg is stretched out and left leg is drawn in.  Sparks of fire fly from the prongs of the vajra she brandishes, subduing all harmful enemies.  She comforts them by gathering them under the vajra-tent that protects them from their own evil.  With every skillful means[i], she turns the wheel of dharma, according to the disposition of the beings to be tamed.  She makes them content and joyous, and subdues the malefic forces of the two obscurations.  The inner meaning is that this indicates the realization that “exhausts all phenomena”.  Just as the fire at the end of the eon consumes the world, when the primordial wisdom swirls in dharmadhatu, the outer earth and stones, the inner animate body, and the secret conceptions are also exhausted.  So the foes of the two obscurations[ii] are subjugated, and the joy of the great tranquility of the core of inner clarity of primordial wisdom[iii]that does not dwell in the extremes of samsara and nirvana is experienced.


[i] skillful means ~ The Mahayana practice of adapting the doctrine to the capacities of one’s audience.

[ii] two obscurations  ~ There are two types of obscurations: those preventing liberation from the cycle of samsaric suffering, called afflictive obscurations, and those preventing omniscience, called the obscurations to the objects of knowledge.

[iii] primordial wisdom  ~The wisdom that has realized the primordial nature of all phenomena.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 12 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet. Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004, Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131


Homage to you, whose diadem is a crescent moon,
All your adornments dazzle brightly.
Excellent perpetual light shines
From Amitabha at your topknot.

The twelfth homage is to Tara, Tashi Dongyed Dolma,Tib the “One Who Bestows Auspiciousness” who brings timely rain, helps with childbirth, and makes places auspicious.  This golden Tara sits on blue lotus and holds an auspicious knot.  From the rays of her crescent moon diadem, showers of nectar fall, improving crops and vegetation.  Clear and brilliant white light radiates from all of her precious jewels and silken attire.  Amitabha, the lord of her Buddha family sits on her black hair knot.  From him too, boundless unceasing compassionate rays shine for the benefit of sentient beings.  These rays bring a shower of auspicious signs and articles.  They cleanse the poisonous bad omens of animate and inanimate existence, causing all beings and their environments to enjoy perfect, glorious, auspiciousness.  The ultimate meaning of the first line is ‘direct perception,’ the second line means the ‘enhancing experience’ and the last two of the lines mean ‘the completion stage of the expansion of primordial wisdom and kayas of the fourth empowerment[i],’(Word).


[i] empowerment  ~ A ritual transfer of power, an initiation.  The authorization to hear, study and practice the teachings of the Vajrayana.  This takes place in a ceremony that may be extremely elaborate or utterly simple, conducted by a Vajra master.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 11 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary. His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you,
Who can summon hosts of the protectors of earth.
By your frowning movements and HUNG syllable,
You bring freedom from all poverties.

The eleventh homage is to Thronyer Chenma,Tib the “Frowning Lady” who bestows wealth and dispels poverty.  She summons the goddess of earth, the nagas, the god of wealth, yakshas and other lords of ten directions and their retinues to serve her activities.  She is holds a treasure vase, and is orange in color.  She is majestic, with a scowling face and a furrowed brow.  Light radiates from the HUNG syllable at her heart, drawing in the wealth and prosperity of gods, nagas and humans.  She showers the poor and needy with wealth, satisfying all their needs and freeing them from their sufferings.  The inner meaning is that by purifying the earth-like ignorance that supports the world, the primordially perfect great merit is revealed, clearing samsara and nirvana of all poverty.  This also indicates the Secret and Wisdom path.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 10 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, lady who unfurls
Garlands of joyous majestic light from your crown.
By your piercing laughter of TUTTARE,
You subjugate the world and maras.

The tenth homage is to Jigten Sumgyal,Tib “Victorious Over Three Worlds”, who subjugates worldly beings.  She is red and holds a victory banner.  Multi-colored lights radiate from her crown, giving perfect joy and fulfilling the temporal and ultimate wishes according to the desires of beings.  By saying the TUTTARE mantra melodiously with the eight attributes of laughter, (of the wrathful deity) she confuses and subjugates the demonic lords of the (sensory god realm), who are known as the “Controllers of Other’s Emanation”.  She also subjugates kings, ministers, sorcerers, and wealthy householders and leads them to the path of liberation.  In the root text, “the outer phenomena change only when self-appearances transform.”  Therefore, subjugation is possible if the intention of the spiritual mother (non-dual emptiness-compassion) is attained, and there is no alternate method.  The inner meaning is the four joys subjugate demons and afflictions.  The subjugation of the three doors by blissful primordial wisdom is subjugation of the three worlds.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 9 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who holds your fingers marvelously
In the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem at your heart.
Swirling masses of light adorn you,
Permeating every direction in beautiful circles.

The ninth praise is homage to Sengdeng Nagi Drolma,Tib the “Tara of the Rosewood Forest” who protects from all kinds of fears.  Her color is dark green, with the dazzling radiance of emeralds.  Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra, and the thumb and ring finger of her left hand holds a blue lotus engraved with a wheel.  Her remaining fingers are held gracefully upright at her heart in the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem [i].  The swirling wheel of light, (a metaphor for protection) adorns her like the finest of garments, and it protects like a shield against all torments.  Likewise, all beings of the world in ten directions are protected from all kinds of fears by the all-pervasive light that beams from her body, clearing their fears in a display of extraordinary radiance.

The eight kinds of fears are:

1. The fear of elephants represents the power of ignorance.  When ignorance grows strong, one ignores the law of cause and effect, indulges in alcohol, (here the use of alcohol is a symbolic of wrong view) and becomes crazy.

2. The fear of iron chains symbolizes habituation to lust and desire that bind together the senses and their objects.

3. The fear of pishaca demons signifies the doubt that steals the life force of nirvana, as it moves in the sky of ignorance, and the doubt that harms the understanding of ultimate meanings.

4. The fear of rivers (floods) is a symbol of desire, acting savagely.  By the possession of spirits, the current of desire carries beings towards samsara in its tumultuous waves of birth, sick, aging and death caused by karmic wind.

5.  The fear of fire represents the power of anger that burns the forest of virtue.  Anger is the cause of anxiety, which in turn causes quarrels, disputes, and partialities.

6.  The fear of robbery corresponds to the wrong views that steal the treasure of the supreme goal.  This causes one to wander aimlessly in the barren ground of wrong view, (and to) believe in extremes and low ascetic practices.

7.  The fear of reptiles represents jealousy, the poison of intolerance of another person’s prosperity.  Jealousy results in everything becoming a cause for agitation.

8.  The fear of lions.  Signifies pride, the conceit of holding high ones own views and conduct.  Pride causes one to (metaphorically) develop claws as sharp as a lion’s to belittle others.

These and their casual factors are the eight fears.

Another set of eight fears, which are the fruition of secondary afflictions are:

1. The fear of punishment by kings caused by self-infatuation and harming others.

2. The fear of foes is caused by hypocrisy, gloom, sloth and excitement.

3. The fear of evil spirits is caused by dishonesty and deceit.

4. The fear of leprosy is caused by lack of shame and dread of blame.

5. The fear of being lonely is caused by disbelief.

6. The fear of poverty is caused by stinginess.

7. The fear of thunder is caused by anger and enmity.

8. The fear of failure is caused by indolence and carelessness.

 

Homage is paid to the lady who protects us from these two sets of fears.  The inner meaning is that her wheel of the three primordial wisdom-minds, (the wisdom-minds of emptiness, clarity and compassion, illustrated by the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem) eliminates the nine bonds and other afflictions, which is a cause for accomplishing the fearless vajra of self-cognized luminosity.

 

[i] Triple Gem  ~ Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.  Buddha as the teacher of refuge, the doctrine as actual refuge, and the spiritual community as support for practice.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 8 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to TURE, the great terrifying lady,
Who defeats the champions of demons.
Your frowning lotus face
Slays all foes without exception.

The eighth homage is to the dark red frowning lady, Zhen Megyalvai Palmo,Tib the “Invincible Fearless Lady”.  We praise the lady who averts criticism and other harms, which are the source of humiliation caused by our afflictive emotion of pride.  Her hand implement is a vajra[i].  By reciting the mantra TURE, which means “Swift Lady”, another of her names declaiming her swift compassionate action, she arises in wrathful form from the tranquil dharmadhatu, and subjugates the demons difficult to tame: the afflictions, the aggregates, the lord of death, and the maras[ii].

She transforms her blossoming lotus-like peaceful face into a wrathful, scowling face, and destroys the evil mind of outer enemies.  She eliminates those who hate and abuse the dharma and its upholders, those who cause obstacles for practitioners, and those who harm sentient beings.  In reality, she executes all foes without a trace: the afflictive obscurations that are the foes of liberation, and the knowable obscurations that are the foes of omniscience.  The definitive meaning is that the base of the wrathful male and female deities, (the serving faculties) are the pure abiding nature of the four attributes of body, and the four classes of illusory conceptions.  They eliminate the foes of omniscience: the knowable obscurations, and the foes of liberation: the obscuration of afflictive emotions.


[i] vajra skt (dorje) ~ A Tantric symbol that represents the indestructible union of method and wisdom that is the goal of the Tantric practitioner.

[ii] mara skt  ~ A demon embodying terrifying or malevolent energies.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse Seven Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who destroys malefic magical wheels,
With the sounds of TRAT and PHAT
And tramples with right leg outstretched and left leg drawn in
Dazzling amidst whirling flames.

The seventh homage is to Tumo Zhenge Methubma,Tib the “Unchallenged Furious Lady”, who averts wars, lightning and hailstorms by intoning TRAT and PHAT, which in Sanskrit means to tear and cut.  These syllables thwart the magical wheels of the intentional evil deeds of the eight classes of spirits.  They avert lightning strikes and hailstorms, and destroy cannons and other weapons of war.  To depict that she has gone beyond of the extremes of samsara and nirvana by her compassion and realization of emptiness, her right leg is outstretched and her left leg is drawn in, and tramples on malignant beings.  She conquers all fears of nirvana and samsara with her  power  of  realization of emptiness and compassion.  She is black, and sits amidst flames.  Her wrathful wrinkles whirl like  ocean waves.  Homage is paid to the lady who wields a mystically blazing sword held atop a blue lotus that burns all foes to ashes.  The inner meaning of her outstretched and drawn in legs is the sensory cognitions; when the sensory cognitions perceive and harmonize the sensory objects, the samsaric wars arise.  By saying tear and cut, she severs attachment to sensory objects and purifies them.  This is the base of the male and female Bodhisattvas.

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 6 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, who is worshipped by Indra,
Agni, Brahma, Vayudeva, Visvakarman and Ishvara,
And praised in your presence,
By a host of spirits, zombies, gandharvas and yakshas.

The sixth homage is to Jigyed Chenmo,Tib  the dark red “Great Terrifying Lady”, who holds a phurba[i] sparkling with HUNG syllables that destroy all evils.  Indra, the king of gods; Agni, the sage; Brahma, the creator; Vayudeva, the wind god; the great Ishvara and all the great ones of the world, and the main guardians of the directions worship her.  In front of her kneel a host of evil spirits who harm beings by their misguidance.  There are spirits who cause insanity and memory loss, and spirits who turn corpses into zombies.  There are gandharvas[ii] of the bardo and the realm of Yama; yakshas like Semo, who deceive by seducing; king spirits who makes beings crazy and angry; and pishaca demons that eat flesh.  All these evildoers await her orders with humility and respect.  Homage is paid to Tara who crushes the heads of those difficult to tame, and makes them faint into the state of dharmadhatu.  The inner meaning of this is that Indra and the other gods are the personification of five elements[iii], and the spirits are the personification of the five aggregates[iv].  Their reverence symbolizes the purity of the elements and aggregates, which are the base of the male and female Buddhas[v].


[i] phurba skt (kilaya) ~ A ritual dagger, usually having three sides, used in wrathful diety practices.

[ii] gandharva skt ~ A smell eater, a category of beings who sustain themselves on smell like the odor of  the smoke of burnt eatables.

[iii] five elements ~ Earth, water, fire, air, and space.

[iv] five aggregates ~ The components of the psychophysical personality, on the basis of which beings commonly impute the false notion of self.  They five aggregates are form, feeling, perception, compositional factors and consciousness.

[v] Buddha skt ~ One who has perfected compassion and wisdom though following the bodhisattva path. Characterized by the development of omniscience, and actualization of the three bodies: complete enjoyment body, truth body and emanation bodies

 

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