The Cult of Tara

62
MAGIC AND RITUAL. IN TIBET
Empower me to root out the clinging that casts me into the world
and to understand the pure doctrine:
the deep difficult middle way
casting aside the errors of extremes.
Empower me to practice as a Bodhisattva, turned Irom the world,
dedicating all my virtue to the teachings and to living beings,
never for an instant thinking of my own happiness:
let me wish to attain Buddhahood for the sake of others.
Empower me to become quickly a son of the Conqueror,
able to keep the subtlest of the Conqueror's ordinances,
never to say "Oh the hell with it,"
rich with the True Wealth of faith.
Let me practice the outward rules of a Disciple
and inwardly believe in the deep Diamond Vehicle:
empower me to gain enlightenment quickly
by contemplating the path of the two Processes.
0 holy Tara 1 you know
everything that I have done,
my happiness and suffering, my good and evil:
then think lovingly of me, my only mother!
0 holy Tara! I give to you
myself and all who trust in me:
you are our owner: in the highest Pure Land
let us be born, set us there quickly with no births between.
With the iron hook of your compassionate skill in means
1 pray you turn toward the Law the minds
of all beings, whoever they are: they have all been my mother,
the mother of one unable to follow the Conqueror's teachings.
I recite this lament at the three times of the,day
and think, upon the holy Tara:
may all the beings who depend on me
be born again in the Pure Land they desire.
May the three precious Jewels
and the Holy Lady whose essence is compassion
cleave to me until I gain the terrace of enlightenment:
let me quickly conquer the realm of the four Maras!
The author adds in a postscript: "If as long as you live you recite
this at the three times of the day (and not just from your mouth but
from the depth of your inmost heart and bones) and leave every-