The Cult of Tara

APPLICATION 231
THE PROTECTIVE MANTRA
The surest protection from these inevitable and physical dangers
to life—fire and water, wild beasts, and the malignancy of man—is
the love and graciousness of Tara; and her power, too, was soon
expanded to the spiritual counterparts of these terrors. We find
her guarding her followers from the eight and the sixteen great terrors,
the latter including the former and adding doubt, lust, avarice,
envy, false views, hatred, delusion, and pride. 7
The simplest cry
of her name is, as we shall see, sufficient to gain her protection, but
in Tibet the recitation of her mantra is the universal means of gaining
safety amidst the snares of life. "If one knows enough to recite
her mantra," says Gedundrub, "then, it is said, though one's head
be cut off one will live, though one's flesh be hacked to pieces one
will live: this is a profound counsel." 8
"It does not matter whether one is a householder or has left the
household life," Doje ch'opa once said in a speech to his Chinese
disciples. "Everyone should practice the recitation of Green Tara
in order to remove all inner and outer hindrances and so become as
a pure porcelain vessel. Thus the recitation has consequences that
are most great, an evocation that is most quick, and effects that are
most keen; just hearing its sound has an inconceivable effect that
saves from suffering... Whatever one wants to have, whatever unpleasant
thing one wants to be without, she responds to it like an
echo. This deity loves and protects the practitioner as if she were the
moon accompanying him, never a step away." 8
We have already seen the wide variety of Tara's mantras, depending
upon the particular appendix and its function [pp. 208-210], but
only the short mantra (OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA) is
actually in common use outside the assembly hall. The long mantra
(OM TARE TUTTARE TURE MAMA AYUH-PUNYA-JNANA-
PUSTIM-KURU SVAHA)—which adds the appendix most closely
associated with White Tara-—is not very well known among the
laity, but they often recite the short one and, indeed, sing it occasionally
to a very sweet, slow, rather mournful tune.
THE PROTECTIVE PRAISES
Even more than the mantra, many Tibetans consider the chanting
of the Tibetan translation of the Homages to the Twenty-one Taras
to be especially meritorious and effective, thus following a common