Prayers for the Pandemic to Subside Day 4: Praises of the Twenty-One Taras with the Benefits
Tashi Delek.
Today is the forth day of our prayers for the pandemic to subside. Today we will recite the prostrations and praises of Twenty-One Taras. This practice is extremely widespread in Tibetan. For centuries, all Tibetans whether male or female, young or old, recite either in the morning or the evening. We have a strong belief that Tara will help. My mother even though she can't read, learn Tara orally and recite daily. Tara is an eminational Chenrezig, a manifestation of his compassionate activity. Chenrezig is the embodiment of love of all the Buddhas. When he appears in the form of a goddess, we feel even more strongly how his nature is like mother's love.
At this time, when the entire world is faced with suffering, thinking of others with love is even more necessary than at any other time. We need to counter Corona with the Karuna. If all our countries and people come together, and bear the responsibility together, it is certain that we will soon be freed from this ordeal.
Every day we hear in the news and social media of many situations that move us. Our heroes on the front-line, the doctors and nurses are making great sacrifice to battle the epidemic. Likewise, delivery services, police, soldiers, volunteers and many others are working hard for our safety. Because of this, I have the feeling that our problem is not that there aren't enough loving people in the world, not that we lack compassion. It's just that many people don't have enough courage and lack someone to inspire them. They need to know someone like Tara is there to support them and has got their back. Thus we all need to all need to do our bit to inspire each other and to comfort each other. This is a basis of the happiness of humanity.
Sadly, in a few places this pandemic is being used as a way to discriminate against certain groups of people. A group of people is not a single entity. It's made up of individual human beings. No one, no matter who they are, wants to be infected by the virus. No one wants this hardship. At such times, times as this, it's important to put ourselves in other people's shoes and reflect. Now we will recite the prostrations to Taras together. So that everyone can follow me. I will use the melody that I composed. Thank you so much.
Prayers for Pandemic to Subside Day 4: Praises of the Twenty-One Taras with the Benefits
At the end, H.H. recited the following merit dedication Verse:
KYI NA DEWA TSOK SU NGO
When I am happy, may my merit flow to others.
ཕན་བདེས་ནམ་མཁའ་ཁྱབ་པར་ཤོག །
PHAN DHE NAM KHAM CHAB PAR SHOK
May joy and benefit fill the sky.
སྡུག་ན་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་གིས་ཁུར། །
DHUK NA DHUK NGAL DHAG GI KHUR
When I am unhappy, may the sorrow of all beings be mine.
འཁོར་བ་སྡུག་བསྔལ་གྱི་རྒྱ་མཚོ་སྐེམས་་པར་ཤོག །
KHOR WA DHUK NGAL GYI GYA TSO TONG PAR SHOK
May the ocean of suffering run dry.