Arya Tara Ashta Ghora Tarani Sutra

THE SUTRA OF ARYA TARA

WHO SAVES FROM THE EIGHT FEARS

(Arya Tara Ashta Ghora Tarani Sutra)

Homage to the Three Jewels!

Homage to Venerable Tara!

Homage to the Lord Shakyamuni!

Thus have I heard at one time. The Lord was residing in the realm of the gods on Mount Meru. Among the assembly there, the Goddess Tara spoke, as follows:

1. “Having reached this gem-like paradise,

Understand actions and their results:

Keep to good and leave evil aside!

For whoever practices wrong actions

Will, in the life that is to come, fall down.

2. Beasts are dumb and stupid; one eats another;

Up weary paths, down cliffs, they climb and fall,

In panic, terror-stricken, trembling with fear,

Full of caution – one cannot conceive their sufferings.

3. Pretas hunger and thirst, and their bodies won’t do.

Should food or drink appear, another guards it,

Or if they should eat some, it turns to fire or swords.

Their suffering of hunger and thirst can’t be conceived.

4. Sentient beings who are born in hells

Are led against their will by vicious Yamas,

Burned and cooked and cut up with sharp weapons;

Their suffering, hot or cold, cannot be borne.

5. Therefore, doing wrong deeds in this life

Manifests to oneself, magnified –

For many eons, fierce sorrow torments one

With no escape, nor chance to bear it.

6. Understand karmic effect by clear recollection.

Unbearable suffering and lamentation torment one;

Foul speech, fierce body and voice also frighten;

These and other sufferings can’t be conceived.

7. Those who, knowing thoroughly the faults,

Abandon causes of the three realms of woe

And in any gross subtle sin

Never engage with body, speech or mind,

8. But though happy themselves aid all migrators,

Greed, hate, delusion gone, root of compassion

Firm, and striving with three doors pure do virtue,

Strive in this essence of the most profound.

9. The fruit of a flower that frost has carried off,

Though cultivated, will produce no sprout;

So too people who doubt and break their vows,

Though they may practice most profound mantras,

10.  Might think a blessing comes, but it cannot –

 Their pains become but meaningless fatigue,

 Their mantras like the talk of common folk,

 Their concentrations but like childish thoughts,

11.  If people practice those mantras without fault,

 Quickly they will accomplish what they wish.

       For example, the seed of the banyan tree

                  Is tiny,

       But if well moistened with water and manure,

12.  In seven years it grows a league across;

 If even external matter has such growth,

 What of practicing consciousness with

            Consciousness?

 Inner clear light’s growth is measureless.

13.  If, relying on traders who know the way,

 With a suitable boat one puts to sea,

 Then when one has found jewels as one wished,

 In due course one reaches one’s own home.

14.  With Bodhicitta, relying on Love, Compassion,

 Joy and Equanimity, practice virtue,

 And set out on the Path of true perfection:

 You will reach the stage of certain knowledge.

15.  If an arrow, shot by a man, has flown,

 Indeed it’s been shot, though one may think not.

 A person who’s realized all Reality’s meaning

 Goes beyond, although one may think not.

16.   Aspect and nature of actions and parts

Perfected,

  Without doubt he’ll gain the fruit of

            Buddhahood.

 If one understands that pure Reality,

 There is no self, nor life, nor cutting of life,

17.  No karma, and no karmic ripening.

 That person abandons extremes and is liberated.

 If to realize that benefit, you recite

 Devotedly this essence I’m explaining,

18.  Sins of three countless eons will be consumed,

 All sufferings of the three realms of woe and

            Samsàra

 Will be washed away, and obscurations cleared.

 This beneficial essence is as follows.

OM! Bodhisattva-mahasattva,

Goddess! Please will you protect me!

OM NAMA ARYA-AVALOKITESVARAYA

            BODHISATTVAYA MAHSATTVAYA MAHA –

            KARUNIKAYA! TAD-YATHA: OM TARE TUTTARE TURE

            SARVA-DUSTAN PRADUSTAN MAMA KRTE

            JAMBHAYA STAMBHAYA MOHAYA BANDHAYA HUM

            HUM HUM P’HE P’HE P’HE SVAHA!

                        NAMA ARYAVALOKABHAYA NARA BODHISATTVA

            MAHASATTVANI, ADHISTHANA ADHISTHITE,

MAMA SARVA-KARMA-AVARANA-SVABHAVA-

SUDDHE VISHUDDHE SODHAYA VISODHAYA HUM

P’HE SVAHA!” *

19. Thereupon, by the Buddha’s power,

Full praise was given to the Goddess:

20. “With very great Compassion

You work the weal of beings,

            Complete in Marks and Signs,

                        Bedecked with jewel adornments,

            Your neck most beautiful,

                        And smiling, laughing face!

21. Your eye-sense-sphere is like flax-lotuses,

Your ear-sense-sphere like open lily flowers,

Your nose-sense-sphere like fragments of lotuses,

Your mouth-sense-sphere like full-grown hollyhocks.

22. Your Body, a lovely maiden’s, has various

Forms;

            Your Speech of kalavinka proclaims the Dharma;

            Your Mind of Compassion is all beings’ loving

                        Protector.

23. Left, a lotus – unstained with samsara’s faults;

Right, giving Refuge, to benefit sentient beings;

You sit on sun and moon seats – Method and

            Wisdom.

Venerable Tara, I go to You for Refuge.

24. Protect me from samsara’s great abyss,

Never to circle in the six migrations!

Hold me with Your cord of Great Compassion,

Never to run to the three ill-destiny realms!

25. Set me on a Path where I cannot stray,

Never to be born with perverse views!

Let me meet a Guru with Bodhicitta,

Never meeting with evil companions!

26. Protector from the eight dangers –

Lions, elephants and fire,

            Serpents, robbers, water, plagues

                        And vampires – homage to You!

            In this life and in others,

                        From the eight fears please protect me!

27. Until I win the transcendent Result,

Let me keep inseparable company with

The ten Paramitas of Generosity, Discipline,

Patience, Effort, Meditation, Wisdom, Means,

Vow and Power and likewise Wisdom-knowledge!

Any son or daughter of good family should write this teaching,

read it, recite it, preserve it, practice right attention upon it, and

extensively teach it to others.”

            Thus spoke the Buddha, and the whole assembly, enraptured,

exalted His words.

*Translation of the mantra-

(OM Homage to Arya Avalokitesvara, the

Bodhisattva Mahasattva, greatly compassionate!

As follows: OM TARE TUTTARE TURE Crush, check,

Confound, restrain all the sins and wicked things

I have done HUM HUM HUM P’HE P’HE P’HE

SVAHA!

            Homage, You in whom Arya Avalokita, the

Fearless men, Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas have

Inspired magical inspiring power, purify,

Completely purify all my karmic obscurations,

Pure, completely pure by nature HUM P’HE SVAHA!