Rinpoche on Paying Homage to Prajnaparamita and Arya Tara
A brief teaching at the conclusion of the Charya performance at Deer Park Institute
From late May to early June, Khyentse Foundation India supported a week-long workshop on Charya dance (a traditional dance form of Nepal) at Deer Park Institute in Bir, northern India. At the conclusion of the program, the workshop participants, together with young monks from the Kanishka School of Dzongsar Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö Institute (DKCLI) and senior Charya students, jointly presented a Charya dance offering in front of the Buddha Hall. The young monks had enjoyed their first Charya lessons by special arrangement with the workshop teacher. In attendance were Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, Avikrita Vajra Rinpoche, and Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo, as well as around 200 guests.
A highlight of the performance was the 21 Tara Charya dance. After the presentation, Rinpoche skillfully connected Arya Tara with the mother of all the Buddhas, Prajnaparamita, and gave a brief teaching on a famous verse from the Abhisamayalankara (The Ornament of Clear Realization), a treatise said to have been directly revealed by the future Buddha Maitreya.
The verses in Sanskrit, Tibetan and English:
या सर्वज्ञतया नयत्युपशमं शान्तैषिणः श्रावकान्
या मार्गज्ञतया जगद्धितकृतां लोकार्थसम्पादिका |
सर्वाकारमिदं वदन्ति मुनयो विश्वं यया संगताः
तस्यै श्रावकबोधिसत्त्वगणिनो बुद्धस्य मात्रे नमः ||
ཉན་ཐོས་ཞི་བ་འཚོལ་རྣམས་ཀུན་ཤེས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་ཉེར་ཞིར་ཁྲིད་མཛད་གང་ཡིན་དང་། །
འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱེད་རྣམས་ལམ་ཤེས་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཇིག་རྟེན་དོན་སྒྲུབ་མཛད་པ་གང་། །
གང་དང་ཡང་དག་ལྡན་པས་ཐུབ་རྣམས་རྣམ་པ་ཀུན་ལྡན་སྣ་ཚོགས་འདི་གསུངས་པ། །
ཉན་ཐོས་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་ཚོགས་བཅས་སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ནི་ཡུམ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ། །
She is the one who, through the all-knowledge, guides the śrāvakas who search for peace to utter peace.
She is the one who, through the knowledge of the path, makes those who promote the benefit of beings accomplish the welfare of the world.
Being united with her, the sages proclaim this variety endowed with all aspects.
I pay homage to this mother of the Buddha with his assemblies of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas.
The Prajñāpāramitā Sūtras, The Ornament of Clear Realization, and Its Commentaries in the Tibetan Kagyü Tradition, translated by Karl Brunnhölzl, 2011