The Buddhist Council of South Australia invites you and your community to South Australia's Annual Buddhist Picnic "The Blooming of the Lotus" The picnic will take place on: Saturday, 1 January 2011 from 10 am to 1 pm We will gather beside the Nelumbo Pond near the Main Gate of the Botanic Gardens off of North Terrace (Map.pdf 608kB) Bring a vegetarian picnic to share. - All welcome. Download the Colour flier to display on your centre's noticeboards (.pdf 452kB)

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Goddess Tara - The feminine energy of all the Buddhas

Goddess Tara is the feminine form of Avalokiteshvara, She is one of the most important figures in Tibetan Buddhism and represents the enlightened activities of the all the Buddhas. She is said to have originated from the tears of the deity, Avalokiteshvara, when he wept about the extent and intensity of the suffering experienced by all beings.

There are numerous aspects of Tara. The most well known of these are Green Tara representing compassion & skilful activity and White Tara representing healing & longevity.

Tara is mainly associated with protection. She protects interested practitioners from all kinds of fears and facilitates favourable conditions for one’s happiness and spiritual progress. Tara is also known as the swift one, with her practice being one of the most popular ceremonies conducted in the monasteries of all Tibetan traditions.

There are Twenty-one manifestations of Tara that are well documented in prayers, liturgies, sculpture and painting, each personifying a specific quality that can allay the sixteen kinds of fears. Tara is the essence of skillful activities of all enlightened beings, she is the symbol of peace, prosperity, long life, good health and good fortune.

Students who receive the empowerment and undertake the practice of Tara will increase spiritual vitality, intensify their capacity for compassion, and overcome fears, including the fear of death. All basic Buddhist meditation techniques are included in these practices, with special emphasis placed on the creative visualisation meditations of Vajrayana Buddhism.

The Practice of the Goddess Green Tara - by His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche. Tara The Liberator- by Lama Zopa Rinpoche There are Twenty-one manifestations of Tara - Jeff Watt WiKi Godess Tara Dance Tara Dhatu

Buddha Mahavairochana spontaneously composes the 21 Praises to Goddess Tara.
Princess Metok Zay, (Beautiful Flower) made vast offerings and dedications, performing generous, courageous, patient, and compassionate activities of the greatest virtue on behalf of sentient beings. Buddha Mahavairochana asked Princess Beautiful Flower what it was she wished for, what was the intent of her heart, she replied, "I shall remain in this world until every single being is fully liberated." This was a joyful surprise to the Buddha, who had never heard anyone offer such a noble, selfless, and courageous aspiration. In response to her personal sacrifices, her virtue and aspirations, and inspired by her wishes on behalf of beings, Buddha Vairochana spoke spontaneously the prayer of the twenty-one praises to Tara, a praise to twenty-one qualities of Tara.

"Virtually every Tibetan monastery performs Green Tara puja prayer rituals every morning, whether they have five monks or one thousand. The praise to the twenty-one Taras has been chanted continuously by countless beings stretching all the way back to Buddha Vairochana in an earlier age long, long before our present era. The fact that this prayer is so ancient and has been so popular and widely practiced over the ages contributes to its great power and effectiveness.
All the accumulated blessings of that have arisen due to the prayers of the faithful throughout the ages come down to us and are received by us when we pray with faith and devotion to Tara. Through regular practice of the praise to the twenty-one Taras and the mantras of Tara, these blessings are cultivated and can ripen in our mindstreams, in our experience. It is for this reason that the worship of Tara makes such an excellent daily practice. "
His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche. Read the Full Story The Practice of the Goddess Green Tara

"From the heart centers of these two Taras, brilliant light shines forth which strikes ourselves and all sentient beings. This radiating light transforms our ordinary bodies of flesh, bones, and blood, and we become an orb or ball of light, a mass of light. All ordinary phenomena dissolve into a state of emptiness. We rest our minds naturally in that state, remaining in this state which is the presence of light within emptiness, the clarity of emptiness. Within this emptiness, everything is possible......."

"The words of the Praise to the twenty-one Taras are not the intellectual composition of scholars. They are spoken directly by Buddha Mahavairochana and Buddha Shakyamuni themselves. Please recite the praise to Tara as much as you are able to in the course of your everyday life. If you are unable at any time to recite the praise, try to recite the mantra of Tara,

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA

At the minimum, at least you can recite "Tara, Tara, Tara ", or you can say "Tare, Tare, Tare", just repeating her name. When you call out someone's name, don't they give you their attention? By calling on Tara by name, she will certainly hear you and respond.
     Don't just do it because I say so, but by all means, do it!" - His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpcohe
(extracted from a teaching translated by Lama Choedak Yuthok. Compiled and edited by John Deweese). View Full Transcript Receiving the Blessing of Tara

Precious Guru, all refuge in one,
I pray to you, Great Lord of Dharma,
Look upon me kindly and bless me,
In this life, the next and in between.

In every life may I never part,
from my Guru, enjoy Dharma's wealth,
Accomplish the stages of the path
and swiftly reach Vajradhara's stage.

Through your perfect wisdom, you see things as they are,
Through your great compassion, you embrace all beings as your children,
Through your omniscient power, you uphold the precious Dharma,
Through your boundless kindness, you reveal the path to liberation

Perfect and precious root guru and heart father, Ngawang Khyenrab Lekshe Gyatso,
all the sugatas in one, I bow to your lotus feet.

His Eminence Chogye Trichen Rinpoche has entered into Parinirvana on the morning of 22 January 2007 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

When His Eminence Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche heard this news, he praised His Eminence as follows:-

“Outwardly, His Eminence is a Theravadin Arhat,
inwardly he is a great Mahayana Bodhisattva,
and secretly he is a mahasiddha/Vajradhara.
It is truly rare to have encountered such a precious master,
it is as rare as seeing a star in the day”