Sengdeng Nagchi Drolma,
Noble Lady Tara of the Teak Forest, Protecting from All Fears.
Green Tara, who protects from all external fears, is named Tara
Sengdeng Nagchi or sometimes Sengdeng Nagchi Drolma. The Sengdeng is a very
large tree, known as teak in English. Sengdeng is considered a wrathful tree.
In Tibet damaru and chod drums are made from this strong, dense wood. In
Tibetan medicine the bark and resin are used to make a tea considered very
beneficial for the blood. As nag means “forest”, she is the Green Tara of the
sengdeng forest.
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་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་མཚོན་ཕྱག་རྒྱའི། །
chaktsal
könchok sum tsön chakgyé
Homage to
you, whose fingers adorn your heart
སོར་མོས་ཐུགས་ཀར་རྣམ་པར་བརྒྱན་མ། །
sormö tukkar
nampar gyenma
And display
the mudrā of the Three Jewels,
མ་ལུས་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བརྒྱན་པའི། །
malü chok
kyi khorlo gyenpé
You who
grace all points and bearings of the compass,
རང་གི་འོད་ཀྱི་ཚོགས་རྣམས་འཁྲུག་མ། །
rang gi ö
kyi tsok nam trukma
And
overwhelm all with your intense self-radiance.
The ninth praise is homage to Sengdeng Nagi Drolma,Tib the “Tara
of the Teak wood Forest” who protects from all kinds of fears.
Her color is dark green, with the dazzling radiance of emeralds.
Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra, and the thumb and ring finger of
her left hand holds a blue lotus engraved with a wheel. Her remaining fingers
are held gracefully upright at her heart in the mudra symbolizing the Triple
Gem.
The swirling wheel of light, (a metaphor for protection) adorns
her like the finest of garments, and it protects like a shield against all
torments. Likewise, all beings of the world in ten directions are protected
from all kinds of fears by the all-pervasive light that beams from her body,
clearing their fears in a display of extraordinary radiance.
The eight kinds of fears are:
1 The fear of elephants represents the power of ignorance. When
ignorance grows strong, one ignores the law of cause and effect, indulges in
alcohol, (here the use of alcohol is a symbolic of wrong view) and becomes
crazy.
2. The fear of iron chains symbolizes habituation to lust and
desire that bind together the senses and their objects.
3. The fear of pishaca demons signifies the doubt that steals
the life force of nirvana, as it moves in the sky of ignorance, and the doubt
that harms the understanding of ultimate meanings.
4. The fear of rivers (floods) is a symbol of desire, acting
savagely. By the possession of spirits, the current of desire carries beings
towards samsara in its tumultuous waves of birth, sick, aging and death caused
by karmic wind.
5. The fear of fire represents the power of anger that burns the
forest of virtue. Anger is the cause of anxiety, which in turn causes quarrels,
disputes, and partialities.
6. The fear of robbery corresponds to the wrong views that steal
the treasure of the supreme goal. This causes one to wander aimlessly in the
barren ground of wrong view, (and to) believe in extremes and low ascetic
practices.
7. The fear of reptiles represents jealousy, the poison of
intolerance of another person’s prosperity. Jealousy results in everything
becoming a cause for agitation.
8. The fear of lions. Signifies pride, the conceit of holding
high ones own views and conduct. Pride causes one to (metaphorically) develop
claws as sharp as a lion’s to belittle others.
These and their casual factors are the eight fears.
Another set of eight fears, which are the fruition of secondary
afflictions are:
1. The fear of punishment by kings caused by self-infatuation
and harming others.
2. The fear of foes is caused by hypocrisy, gloom, sloth and excitement.
3. The fear of evil spirits is caused by dishonesty and deceit.
4. The fear of leprosy is caused by lack of shame and dread of blame.
5. The fear of being lonely is caused by disbelief.
6. The fear of poverty is caused by stinginess.
7. The fear of thunder is caused by anger and enmity.
8. The fear of failure is caused by indolence and carelessness.
2. The fear of foes is caused by hypocrisy, gloom, sloth and excitement.
3. The fear of evil spirits is caused by dishonesty and deceit.
4. The fear of leprosy is caused by lack of shame and dread of blame.
5. The fear of being lonely is caused by disbelief.
6. The fear of poverty is caused by stinginess.
7. The fear of thunder is caused by anger and enmity.
8. The fear of failure is caused by indolence and carelessness.
Homage is paid to the lady who protects us from these two sets
of fears. The inner meaning is that her wheel of the three primordial
wisdom-minds, (the wisdom-minds of emptiness, clarity and compassion,
illustrated by the mudra symbolizing the Triple Gem) eliminates the nine bonds
and other afflictions, which is a cause for accomplishing the fearless vajra of
self-cognized luminosity.
On the throne of a lotus and moon appears Noble Lady Tara
Sengdeng Nagchi Drolma with one face and two arms. Her color is blue-green like
an emerald. She radiates turbulent light. She sits in the dismounting posture.
Her right hand is in the mudra of supreme charity. Her left hand, in the mudra
of the Three Jewels, holds the stem of an utpala flower, which blooms at her
ear. On its pistil is a universal wheel, blazing with turbulent light.
Beams of light radiating from her body and the wheel protect
from all adversity, harm and obstacles of samsara led by the twofold eight
terrors.
Meditate on this and recite the mantra.
