Green Tara mantra : Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā
30 Sep 2023 HYN Himalayan Yoga Academy
What is (Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha) ?
In Tibet, om tare tuttare ture soha is an ancient mantra associated with Tara, “Mother of all Buddhas,” and especially her manifestation as Green Tara. In this article you will learn who Green Tara is, the meaning of her mantra, and how to pronounce it in Tibetan.
Tara, whose name means “star” or “passerby,” is a bodhisattva of compassion. In Tibetan, Tara is called “Dölma” (Sgrol-ma) or “She of Salvation”. In particular, she represents compassion in action, as she is leaving her lotus seat to help sentient beings.
Who is Green Tara?
As we see in the image above, Green Tara is usually depicted as a compassionate being ready to step down from her lotus throne to offer comfort and protection from all of the sufferings we experience in the world.
She is shown “in a posture of ease and readiness for action. While her left leg is folded in the contemplative position, her right leg is outstretched, ready to spring into action. Green Tara’s left hand is in the refuge-granting mudra (gesture); her right-hand makes the boon-granting [giving] gesture. In her hands she also holds closed blue lotuses (utpalas), which symbolize purity and power.” 2
As the first Dalai Lama wrote, We can ask it to immediately save us from eight specific dangers, each representing a corresponding human mental problem:
- lion– pride
- Wild elephants – delusion and ignorance
- Forest fire– hatred
- snake– jealousy
- thief–erroneous views, including fanatical views
- prison– greed and avarice
- flood– desire, and attachment
- devil–doubt due to illusion
Ordinary Tibetans pray to her when they are sick, when they go on a long journey, or when they hope for success or wealth. Herteachingsshow us that this is actually not the real purpose of praying or reciting the Taramantra. When we recite the Green Tara mantra, we not only ask for Tara’s blessings and help in our lives and our “real-world” problems. In fact, we also pray to be liberated from the suffering of mental illusions and negative emotions that prevent us from seeing true freedom and achieving enlightenment of body, speech, and mind like Tara represents, not only for our benefit but also for our benefit. for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Meaning of the Green Tara Mantra
- In short, om tare tuttare ture soha means “I prostrate to the Liberator, Mother of all the Victorious Ones.”
- The Tara mantra is om tare tuttare ture soha. To explain the meaning of tare tuatara ture: tare means liberating from samsara.
- Tare shows that Mother Tara liberates living beings from samsara, from true suffering, or problems. You can relate this to the particular sufferings of human beings: birth, old age, sickness, and death; meeting undesirable objects and experiencing aversion; not finding desirable objects or finding them but gaining no satisfaction… All these are the problems of true suffering. If you rely upon Tara by taking refuge in her and doing Tara practices—such as the recitation of mantra or praises — with tare, Tara liberates you from all these true sufferings.
- The second word, tuttare, liberates you from the eight fears. There are eight fears related to external dangers from fire, water, air, and earth, and also from such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However, the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt, and wrong views. These eight disturbing thoughts that you have in your mind are the main dangers… This second word, tuttare, which liberates you from the eight fears, frees you from the true cause of suffering: karma and the all-arising disturbing thoughts.
- The third word, ture, liberates you from disease. Now, of the Four Noble Truths, ture shows the cessation of suffering, which is the ultimate Dharma. In terms of liberating from disease, the actual disease we have is ignorance not knowing the absolute nature of the I, and all the disturbing thoughts that arise from this ignorance… By liberating us from disease, ture actually liberates us from the true cause, disturbing thoughts, and also the true sufferings.
- The rough meaning of these three words tare tuttare ture is: “To you, the embodiment of all the Buddhas’ actions, I prostrate always — whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances — with my body, speech, and mind.”
- The final word soha means establishing the root of the path within your heart. In other words, by taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you receive the blessings of Tara in your own heart. This gives you space to establish the root of the path, signified by tare tuttare ture, in your heart. By establishing the path of the three capable beings within your heart, you purify all impurities of your body, speech, and mind, and achieve Tara’s pure vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind, which are signified by om. Your body, speech, and mind are transformed into Tara’s holy body, holy speech, and holy mind. This is the rough meaning of om tare tuttare ture soha.