Tara Puja Blessing and Chanted Tea Offering

This colorful ceremony, the Tara Puja, Liberation from Sorrow, includes a special prayer Praises to the Twenty-one Taras composed by the Buddha.

Tara is a female Buddha, a manifestation of the ultimate wisdom of all the Buddhas. Each of the Twenty-one Taras is a manifestation of the principal Tara, Green Tara. Tara is also known as the Mother of the Conquerors. ‘Tara’ means ‘rescuer’. She is so called because she rescues us from the eight outer fears (the fears of lions, elephants, fire, snakes, thieves, water, bondage, and evil spirits), and from the eight corresponding inner fears (the fears of pride, ignorance, anger, jealousy, wrong views, attachment, miserliness, and deluded doubts).

This ceremony is regularly performed at the Monastery.

This is one of two weeks of presentations, ceremonies and other public events on Tibetan culture and Buddhism presented by the Tibetan monks of Gaden Shartse Monastery, who are in residence at the Diamond Springs Center for Healing.