om chom.den.day.ma phag.ma drol.ma chag.tsel.lo

Om I and all prostrate to the liberator, the transcendental bhagawati

chag.tsel drol.ma ta.re pel.mo

You are the glorious mother who liberates with TARE

tut.ta.ra.yi jig.kun sel.ma

You are the mother who eliminates all fears with TUTTARE

tu.re don.nam tham.che ter.me

You are the mother who grants all success with TURE

so.ha yi.ker che.la rab.tu

To the syllables SOHA and all we offer the greatest homage.

Firstly to help you understand the meaning of the prayer, it could be summarised as follows:

OM contains three sounds: AH, O and MM, and signifies the immeasurable qualities of the enlightened beings' holy body, speech and mind. According to the tantric teachings, the paths contained in the mantra OM TARE TUTTURE TURE SOHA lead to the omniscient state of mind. Through actualizing these paths in our mind we purify our impure body, speech and mind, transforming them into Arya Tara's vajra holy body, speech and mind. In this mantra, OM stands for the goal and TARE TUTTURE TURE the path.

TARE (Tibetan: Drolma): the liberating female. Usually Tara connotes liberating or releasing us from the suffering of the three lower realms, the general sufferings of samsara and the bondage of nirvana, the blissful state of peace. If we gain freedom from samsara but simply attain arhantship and fall into the blissful state of peace for ourselves alone, it takes us an incredibly long time to escape from that and do extensive work for sentient beings. Compared with the motivation of achieving the omniscient state of mind in order to extensive work for the benefit of other sentient beings, the idea of attaining nirvana for oneself alone is extremely limited and mistaken because it represents concern for only our own peace. Thus Tara not only liberates us from the bondage of samsara, she also liberates us from the blissful state of peace, leading us to the omniscient state of mind. This is the usual meaning of the first TARA: it represents everything from which we should be liberated, the liberating path – the entire method – and the goal to which Tara leads us, the omniscient state of mind.

However, the meaning of TARE here is explained as being liberation from samsara, indicating the first of the Four Noble Truths, the Truth of Suffering.
TUTTURE: dispelling all fears. "Fears" is the translation of the Tibetan word used here – the main fear dispelled is that of the delusions;

• the suffering of attachment, which is like a great flood;
• the suffering of hatred, which is like fire;
• the suffering of ignorance, which is like an elephant;
• the suffering of jealousy, which is like a snake;
• the suffering of pride, which is like a lion;
• the suffering of miserliness, which is like a chain;
• the suffering of wrong views, which is like a thief;
• the suffering of doubt, which is like a spirit.

Thus an example is given for each delusion. If we take refuge in Tara, recite her mantra and practise her method, she will release us from not only the internal suffering of the delusions but also from external dangers such as floods, fires and thieves.

Hence TUTTURE means that Tara liberates us from the true cause of suffering – karma and the unsubdued mind from which the karma arises. By reciting this our fears are dispelled, which shows that Tara leads us to the true path of the three vehicles, according to our level of mind, and to the absolute Dharma – the real remedy for the cause of suffering.

TURE: she who grants all success. Here success refers to the goals of those of the three levels – lowest, intermediate and highest – of capability: the bodies of the happy transmigrators, arhantship or nirvana, and the great nirvana, the omniscient state of mind. Furthermore, as it is taught here, all success also refers to success in all the pursuits of this life – business, other worldly activities, finding perfect conditions for our Dharma practice and accomplishing our Dharma goals.
SOHA. Each word of the mantra – from OM to SOHA – performs the functions explained above; each brings incredible benefit. Thus to the letters SOHA and the rest we pay homage.

SOHA: "May the blessings of Tara, which are contained in the mantra OM TARE TUTTURE take root in our hearts."
If we want to harvest fruit in our garden, that is where we should plant the roots of the tree. Similarly, if we want to attain the omniscient state of mind, we should plant the root of the complete path, which is contained in the mantra OM TARE TUTTURE TURE SOHA, in our hearts. By praying to Tara and reciting her mantra we receive her blessings; as SOHA implies, through the blessings of Tara entering our heart we are able to generate the entire path to the omniscient state of mind. By generating the path – method and wisdom – in our own minds, our impure body, speech and mind are purified and transformed into Tara's vajra holy body, speech and mind.

MANTRA OF TARA - OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

Extracted from teachings on the Twenty-One Taras given by Ven Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche and translated by Glenn Mullin at ABC, 6/1/93. Edited by Ven Sarah.

Tara in general means freedom or the one who liberates - freedom from things that are terrifying or frightening, from things that intimidate, harm or bring us unpleasant experiences.

OM represents the complete transformation of the physical sound and mental power of enlightenment, thus it carries a sense of the body, speech and mind of enlightenment.

The next three syllables 'TARE TUTTARE TURE' refer to three types of faults or imperfections that we wish to be freed from, and that we gain freedom from by achieving enlightenment. In terms of Atisha's Lam Rim teachings, it refers to the three levels of spiritual practice: initial, intermediate and great.

On the initial level, TARE means freedom from lower rebirths or those qualities symbolized by lower rebirth such as agony in the hell realm, craving or destitution in the ghost realm, and the close-mindedness, habitual patterns and other various sufferings of the animal realm.
TUTTARE refers to liberation from the three higher realms of samsara. In other words, complete liberation from samsara, even from those states that we mistakenly believe to be for being blissful and pleasurable, but that in reality have the imperfection of unenlightenment in them. So this refers to the intermediate level in the Lam Rim teachings.

TURE refers to the great level, the third of the Lam Rim levels of training. Through the first two levels, we learn to overcome the three kleshas - the three types of mental emotional distortions - but that's not enough. We also want through the third level, to be free from mere freedom. In other words, the third level refers in particular tothe escapist tendency in higher meditation. Our goal is to arise in a body with the great power of a Bodhisattva, we don't want to just escape from the world, escape into a state of meditational serenity or peace. So TURE refers to this type of freedom.

The final syllable SOHA, has a sense of imperative, but in a requesting tone. It is a request to bring our body, speech and mind into synchronism with those of the enlightened beings, to have these three qualities of the Bodhisattva's path of the three levels of training - 'May that transforming power of those three qualities arise within me.'