green tara mantra

The Green Tara Sadhana

mantra: om tare tuttara ture soha
(Ohm! Tar-ay, Too-Tar-ay, Tour-ay, so-ha)

Visualization

You are in your ordinary form. At your heart appears a white AH made of light. This transforms into a white moon disc. At its center appears a green syllable TAM, the essence of Tara's blissful omniscient mind of wisdom and compassion. Standing clockwise around the edge of the moon appear the letters of the mantra

made of green light.

From the TAM, rainbow-colored light goes out in all directions and invokes Tara to appear in the space in front of you. She is seated on a lotus and moon disc. Her body is made of emerald-green light, youthful and exquisitely beautiful.

Her right hand on her right knee is in the gesture of giving; her left hand at her heart is in the gesture of refuge and holds the stem of a blue utpala flower that blooms by her ear.

Her left leg is drawn up and her right leg is slightly extended. Her face is very beautiful and she smiles with loving kindness at all sentient beings.

Surrounding her in space are twenty-one other Taras, as well as all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas. Surrounding you are all sentient beings. You lead them in reciting the prayers and requests to Tara.

The Praise

OM to the transcendent subduer, Arya Tara, I prostrate.
Homage to the glorious one who frees with TARE;
With TUTTARA you calm all fears;
You bestow all success with TURE;
To the sound SOHA I pay great homage.

Visualization and Recitation

Visualize much radiant and blissful green light from the TAM and mantra at Tara's heart streams into you and into the sentient beings surrounding you. This light purifies the imprints of all negative actions and dispels sickness and harms from spirits. In addition, it brings inspirations and blessings from Tara, thus enabling you to realize the entire gradual path to enlightenment quickly. While doing this visualization, recite as much as possible Tara's peaceful mantra.

om tare tuttare ture soha

Requesting Prayer

O compassionate and venerable subduing goddess
May the infinite beings, including myself,
Soon purify the two obscurations and complete both collections
So that we may gain full enlightenment.
For all my lives, until I reach this stage,
May I know the happiness of humans and gods.
So that I may become fully omniscient,
Please pacify quickly all obstacles, spirits,
Obstructions, epidemics, diseases and so forth,
The various causes of untimely death,
Bad dreams and omens, the eight fears and other afflictions
And make it so they no longer exist.
May the mundane and supramundane collections
Of all excellent and auspicious qualities and happiness
Increase and develop and may all wishes
Be fulfilled naturally and effortlessly, without an exception.

May I strive to realize and increase the sacred Dharma
Accomplishing your stage and beholding your sublime face.
May my understanding of emptiness and the precious dedicated heart
Increase like the moon waxing full.
May I be reborn from an extremely beautiful and holy lotus
In the joyous and noble mandala of the conqueror.
May I attain whatever prophecy I receive
In the presence of Amitabha, Buddha of infinite light.
O deity, whom I have accomplished from previous lives
The enlightening influence of the three-time Buddhas
Blue-green, one face and two arms, the swift pacifier
O mother, holding an utpala flower, may you be auspicious!
Whatever your body, O Mother of Conquerors,
Whatever your retinue, life span and pure land,
May I and all others attain only these.
By the force of these praises and requests made to you,
May all disease, poverty, fighting and quarrels be calmed,
May the precious Dharma and everything auspicious increase
Throughout the world and directions where I and all others dwell.

Dedication and Auspicious Verses

Due to this merit may I soon
Attain the state of Arya Tara
That I may be able to liberate
All sentient beings from their suffering.
By whatever virtue I have collected
From venerating these subduing blessed ones,
May all sentient beings, without exception,
Be born in Sukhavati, the Joyful Pure Land.
You, who have abandoned all bodily defects and possess the signs and marks of a Buddha,
You, who have abandoned all defects of speech and possess a beautiful, sparrow-like voice,
You, who have abandoned all defects of mind and see all the infinite objects of knowledge,
O Brilliant Mother of Auspicious Glory, please bring your auspicious presence to us!
*** End ***

Purport: Tara (whose name means "star" or "she who ferries across") is the female Bodhisattva of compassion. In particular she represents compassion in action, since she's in the process of stepping from her lotus throne in order to help sentient beings. Literally the mantra is a loving play on her name. The central syllable TAM is the seed or source of the rest of the mantra. However, some believe the mantra represents:
OM: represents Tara's sacred body, speech and mind.
TARE: means liberating from all discontent.
TUTTARE: means liberating from the eight fears, the external dangers, but mainly from the internal dangers, the delusions.
TURE: means liberating from duality; it shows the true cessation of confusion.
SOHA: Being auspicious! So be it! all hail! "May the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind."