Powerful Tara

This Tara is now merged with Amma!

I went back to see Amma on the last day of her visit to London; I bumped into several friends and the day gradually turned into the evening and the plan to stay for a couple of hours was lost in the reality of being in the presence of a truly divine being. On the last day of her visit, she offers puja (worship) followed by Devi-Bhakti Darshan: this is where she dresses in a goddess costume and performs her usual hugging darshan in this dress within a golden canopy on a throne under a golden umbrella. There is a wealth and richness - an overt divinity - about this that sets it apart from the more ordinary, simple ceremony when she is dressed in white sari and sits lower down. I don't suppose there is any difference in the quality of the darshan - I truly believe she is inseparable from divinity the whole time and there can be no "less/more" comparisons within that.

By virtue of sitting outside to have a sandwich, I ended up being at the front of the queue for puja - which meant sitting right beneath Amma. Had my friend Sky from Samye Ling not appeared at the last minute, I might have bottled out of this proximity with crowds of people behind...but she gave me the courage to stay in situ. Amma first lit several lights of camphor oil, with which she purified the space around her and then, taking each vase of water before her in turn, she closed her eyes and blessed the water. I could feel a really strong buzzing in the third eye every time she did this - and don't doubt the sanctification of that water, which was then distributed to each of us.

She gave a teaching and then led us into meditation and into a traditional chanting of OM and of the 108 names of the Divine Mother. It really was, for me, the highlight of everything: this pure and powerful spiritual practice made sense of everything surrounding it.

We were at the front of the queue for darshan aswell; there was a different quality to this blessing but I can't really describe how. We were also offered the opportunity to receive a mantra directly from Amma: there is a commitment with this, and an acknowledgement of Amma as a guru and as someone you have implicit faith in. Having been assured that this would not contradict the Buddhist connection I have, but would support and complement it, I felt no hesitation in receiving a mantra. For me, Amma is the female embodiment of God's love; I have not met someone of this stature in any other tradition. Ultimately the male and female must merge and that union, that spiritual marriage within, will bring about a great shift in consciousness and realisation - that hasn't yet happened within me fully, so I feel incredibly fortunate to have met and to have a direct connection with outer embodiments of the male and female aspects of divinity. I know these gurus are all perfectly merged within and that the need to see and experience them in this way is due to my own dualism (which is the illusion to be shattered). But still I am glad and grateful. Sometimes we need the physical manifestation to awaken the inner reflection.

Amma

Tara on Tour

Amma - India's hugging saint - is something of a human miracle. For over 30 years she has travelled India and the world, offering comfort, upliftment and love to millions of people. She works tirelessly and absolutely selflessly to bring peace and hope, to help transform the suffering of beings everywhere. She is a true embodiment of Tara.

Today I was at Crystal Palace in London, where she is spending the next three days giving her unique darshan of a hug. I arrived at 10.30 am and at 2.45pm reached the end of the queue, where I was held against her shoulder in a warm hug while she whispered words in my ear. The words were Indian and I don't know their meaning, but I know their intention: as a living emanation of the Divine Mother, her sole purpose is to awaken and strengthen that same essence within ourselves.

Over the years, Amma has initiated hundreds of charities and charitable activities, from relief work to medical aid, from education centres to orphanages, from reseach institutes to temples. She has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and many other prizes in recognition of her amazing work on this earth. She makes it seem and sound so simple: all we have to do is to be willing to work selflessly for the benefit of others, and not only will this bring huge changes to the lives of others, it will also bring great happiness to us. Her example makes it look easy!

I offered Amma one of the Taras: Tara of Powerful Activity. She does not perhaps need her for herself, but she is such an outstanding example of this very Tara that my prayer is that the inseparability of Amma and Powerful Tara brings liberation to many more millions of people.

Thrangu Rinpoche

Tara on Tour

Thrangu Rinpoche is personal tutor to His Holiness the Karmapa, and is widely revered as a great master, scholar and teacher. I was in Oxford for his visit and, after reading about the life and teaching of Ramana Maharshi, I felt very fortunate to be able to go to his teachings. I didn't attend them all, but was there for the teachings on The Four Thoughts: these are the thoughts that turn the mind to the Dharma. Basically they remind us of why it is important to practice the Dharma. The Four Thoughts are a) precious human birth; b) death and impermanence; c)karma, cause and effect and d) the defects of samsara.

We are reminded of how fortunate we are to have this precious human birth. It is rare apparently - and particularly rare to be born into a body and mind which is relatively healthy and able to listen to and understand the teachings; even more fortunate is to have to the connection with the Dharma and to be able to receive these teachings directly. Once we realise how lucky we actually are to have this human life, we need to know how best to use it.

This is where the following three thoughts help us. When we meditate on death and impermance, it can be a bit depressing because we really face up the reality of what ordinary life is about. Everything changes. Everything that comes into form will eventually decay and/or die. Every type of worldly happiness is subject to change and rarely lasts very long.

When we look at all the many things that happen to us, to others, we wonder what is the cause of good or bad fortune. We wonder what makes things happen the way they do. The teaching on karma, cause and effect states quite simply that every thought, word and action has a consequence - either immediate or in the future. So if our minds are polluted with many negative thoughts and feelings, we are likely to be acting in negative ways as a result - and creating unhappiness for ourselves now or in the future. If our minds can be purified, if we can develop the positive qualities within the mind and diminish the negative ones, then we will be creating the causes for happiness.

Often, however, we attribute happiness to the wrong things. We believe that happiness is dependent on and caused by certain external things - money, physical appearance, relationships, status, fame, possessions, etc. So we spend a lot of time and effort chasing these, and then trying to hold onto them, failing to realise that not only will they not last, but they probably won't bring us that much happiness anyway. These are the defects of samsara.

Reflecting and meditating on these thoughts gives us the motivation to turn the mind towards something that will really bring us happiness - in the short term, in the long term and ultimately will bring us to a state of permanent, stable happiness unaffected by whatever is happening within or around us. That something is the Dharma. The Dharma literally means "Truth" and so it isn't exclusively Buddhist at all - but the path within Buddhism to realise the Truth is very sound and very effective, and can therefore be relied on.



These teachings were followed by what are called the "common preliminaries" but I wasn't there for these ones. I was however, quite by happy chance, back in London earlier than planned and able to attend Thrangu Rinpoche's final teaching before flying back to India at London Samye Dzong. Since I was feeling quite stressed yesterday morning, repeatedly finding myself on a really uncomfortable edge of fear as the wish to deepen this connection, training and work with the Dharma is up against the reality of money and livelihood, I couldn't believe my good fortune when a friend reminded me he was coming.

Last night's teachings were on the Five Buddha Families. Sometimes referred to as the Five Wisdoms. The Five Buddhas represent the purified qualities of the five disturbing emotions: attachment, anger, ignorance, pride and jealousy. The purification of these emotions brings about the corresponding Five Wisdoms. This is because the essence of the negative emotions is in fact wisdom. What is required is simply (!) to purify the negativity distorting the wisdom, and then the wisdom shines radiantly forth.

Taking each one in turn. Rinpoche began with ignorance, which is perhaps the absolute root of our suffering and imperfect human condition. It's because we don't understand the way things are that we create so many problems for ourselves, and experience so much suffering. Once ignorance is purified, all-pervading wisdom shines forth. This is the wisdom associated with Buddha Vairocana who is white in colour and whose symbol is the wheel. All-pervading wisdom is omniscience: the mind is clear of ignorance and can see and understand everything just as it is.

Then he spoke of anger and hatred - and the purified wisdom which is mirror-like. Mirror-like wisdom is clarity; the mind reflects clearly the way things are; there is a sharpness, vividness, brightness. Often when we experience anger or hatred, we are in touch with something quite wise, but the emotions are so disturbed and distorted that we only cause damage, pain and destruction with them. The potential to see things clearly and to cut through the bullshit without negativity is inherent within anger and hatred. It is the Buddha Akshobya who is blue in colour and whose symbol is a vajra who aids us in this transformation.

Pride - the feeling that we are better than someones else - is in essence the wisdom of equality or sameness. In gross and subtle ways, we have many prejudices towards others, believing they are less than us in some way. Once we see the truth, however, we see that we are all equal: that the differences that exist are superficial and don't pertain to the essence of who we really are. The yellow Buddha Ratnasambhava, whose symbol I can't recall, is the Buddha of the Wisdom of Equality.

Attachment and desire - which give rise to greed, grasping and the endless chasing of dreams, goals and objects. Here the Wisdom of Discrimination is the essence. We are able to discern clearly the differences between things and to know them for what they are. In that way, the striving associated with attachment and desire diminishes and is ultimately gone. We appreciate beauty, we recognise it, but there is no more grasping to possess or own it. The red Buddha Amitabha, whose symbol is the lotus, is associated with Discriminating Wisdom.

Finally, jealousy - and the Wisdom of All-Accomplishing Activity. Jealousy is a curiously crippling emotion, one that makes it very difficult to act at all - unless perhaps combined with anger when the combination can be very toxic and dangerous indeed. But generally jealousy seems to bring a kind of helplessness, lethargy and ineffectiveness to our actions. Purifying jealousy leads to great success in the accomplishment of activities. The green Buddha Amogasiddhi, whose symbol is the double vajra, is the Buddha associated with the Wisdom of All-Accomplishing Activity.

Of course the reality of purifying these emotions is pretty difficult! But it's encouraging to know that it's not only possible, but that inherent within each one is the seed of something very positive indeed. One simple method Rinpoche gave us to purify the emotions was to recite the compassion mantra: OM MANI PADME HUNG. This is good to do whenever we can, but in the arising of one of the disturbing emotions, it is particularly good to recite the mantra. This alone will help to pacify and transform the disturbance.