The Cult of Tara

MAGIC AND RITUAL IN TIBET
Your blazing light is embraced by a hundred thousand suns
shining upon a piled heap of powdered emerald;
your smiling face is the giver of the highest gift,
bestowing encouragement and blessing upon all beings.
The length of your eyes, spread out unscattered as a rainbow,
stretches forth with love to beings;
in a matchless grove of blue lotus flowers
dance the waving vines of your eyebrows.
Black as bees are the plaits of your hair,
falling in fine and pliant strands to your waist;
red are your lips, which smile slightly,
as though content with your forty fine-textured teeth.
Your right hand with its gift-bestowing gesture
preserves all beings from the eight terrors;
the lotus clusters held by your left thumb and finger
sway above your ear, bent with the weight of their blossoms.
Some of the works seem to be more than pious exercises in poetics,
and some (which by classical Tibetan standards are rather mediocre)
seem inspired by a real religious feeling. Though less embellished
with classical flourishes, they manage to achieve a more immediate
impact of sincerity; and though they are composed by the literate
elite, they sometimes speak with the true and simple voice of a folksong.
Such a poem is the Cry of Suffering to Tara by the lama
Lozang tenpe jets'en: 94
From my heart I bow to the Holy Lady, essence of compassion,
the three unerring and precious places of refuge gathered into one:
until I gain the terrace of enlightenment
I pray you grasp me with the iron hook of your compassion.
From the depth of my inmost heart and bones I pray to you
(the Three Jewels bear witness this is not just from my mouth):
think of me a little, show me your smiling face,
loving one ! grant me the nectar of your voice.
Great lamas and little lamas fool us with their made-up teachings
or preach for money the Law that all things are impermanent,
knowing nothing that they claim to know,
haughty in their concern for the eight wordly things.
But since I do not turn my mind to things of this shabby age
you are the chief of my lamas:
empower me, essence of love !
show the strength of your compassion, and think of me.