The Noble Tara Tsugtor
Namgyalma (Ushnishavijaya), Victorious One of Ushnisha Who Accomplished
Immortality
“Tsugtor” means the
topknot upon the crown chakra of a Buddha; this is one of the thirty-two marks
of a fully enlightened being. “Namgyalma” means “victorious one”. Roughly
translated, her names mean “victorious one of the top knot”.
This particular
Tara is renowned as the Tara of long life, with the ability to strengthen the
life force, life energy, and vitality of all sentient beings.
She is also protecting beings
from taking rebirth in unfavorable situations or lower realms.
ཨོཾ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འཕགས་མ་སྒྲོལ་མ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ། །
om jetsünma pakma drolma
la chaktsal lo
Oṃ, Homage to the noble lady Tārā!
ཕྱག་འཚལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་གཙུག་ཏོར། །
chaktsal deshyin shekpé
tsuktor
Homage to you, whose victorious acts are
boundless,8
མཐའ་ཡས་རྣམ་པར་རྒྱལ་བ་སྤྱོད་མ། །
tayé
nampar gyalwa chöma
Jewel on the great Tathāgata’s crown.
མ་ལུས་ཕ་རོལ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཐོབ་པའི། །
malü
parol chinpa tobpé
You who are served by all bodhisattvas,
རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ཀྱིས་ཤིན་ཏུ་བསྟེན་མ། །
gyalwé
sé kyi shintu tenma
Those who’ve accomplished all perfections.
The praise to
Namgyalma, the “Victorious Lady”, the “One Who Has Accomplished Immortality.”
The “Wisdom Goddess” of wisdom mantra, who emanates from the crowns of the
Tathagatas enjoys total victory over the boundless disruptive forces.
Her complexion is
golden, and she holds a vase of longevity. Bodhisattvas who have achieved the
ten bhumis, the essence of the ten transcendent perfections, without exception,
rely on her guidance as their spiritual mother.
She enriches
practitioners by dissolving the fourteen subtle essences of the animate,
inanimate, and other subtle essences of samsara and nirvana. In reality, she
has achieved the sacred, unchanging body of eternity through the intention of
Atiyoga, the crown of nine yanas.
On a throne of a
lotus and moon appears Tsugtor Namgyalma. She is golden, with one face and two
arms. She sits in the dismounting posture.
Her right hand is
in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the Three Jewels mudra,
holds a blue utpala flower, which opens at her ear. On its pistil is a vase of
immortality, radiating light in ten directions. It collects all essences of
samsara and nirvana, which become nectar filling the vase.
Meditate that it
dissolves into you and the others, granting the siddhi of immortal life, and
recite the mantra.
