The teaching was given in Vietnam and was written down by Ha Thị Tran.
Although you are already extremely fortunate to be within the treasure house, due to a slight lack of wisdom, you fail to recognise it. In that sense, it is as though you remain outside the treasure house. Therefore, the Buddha taught that wisdom is truly the key that opens the mind.
The Buddha taught that devotion and wisdom is important. Both are essential. He repeatedly emphasised the importance of these two together. However, among followers, some place emphasis only on devotion and do not reflect upon wisdom.
There are people with such deep devotion to the Buddha that they even say the Buddha appears before them. It is wonderful. There are many stories of people who possessed only devotion and nevertheless received the Buddha’s blessings. There are many such accounts.
That kind of devotion is a single-pointed devotion. Whether one is experiencing happiness — which is regarded as the Buddha’s blessing — or even going through suffering — which is also regarded as the Buddha’s blessing — such a person maintains unwavering devotion. Whatever happens, they genuinely accept it as arising through the blessings of the Buddhas. A person with that kind of powerful devotion may indeed receive blessings through devotion alone.
However, there are also those whose devotion fluctuates. When things are going well, they think, “This is the Buddha’s blessing — wonderful.” But when obstacles arise, they begin to complain or doubt: “How is this possible? I have practised generosity, I have strong devotion, and yet I still experience pain and difficulties.” If the mind becomes divided in this way, then the devotion is not truly strong. It is not single-pointed devotion. Such devotion can easily turn into confusion.
Therefore, we need the support of wisdom.
Blessings actually arise in many different ways. They do not necessarily appear only in the form of our wishes being fulfilled.
For instance, we have the great example of the yogi Milarepa, who attained enlightenment within a single lifetime. Yet the blessings he received came through immense sorrow, not through happiness.
He lost his father when he was still a young child. As he grew older, he lost all his possessions. His mother was abused by relatives and in-laws, and his family lived in terrible suffering. In order to free his mother and family from this suffering, the only path he saw was to learn black magic.
Eventually, he mastered black magic completely and committed many harmful actions through it.
Later, however, he developed profound devotion to the Buddha Dharma and to his guru. All of those previous painful experiences — those terrible and sorrowful events — were themselves blessings. Had those things not happened, he would never have become a disciple of Marpa Lotsawa.
The reason his devotion to Marpa Lotsawa and his teachings became so strong was precisely because of the blessings that came through suffering.
Once he became Marpa’s disciple, his mind became completely single-pointed. He never thought of changing his teacher, changing the teachings, or turning elsewhere. His devotion remained utterly stable.
Therefore, as practitioners, we should not expect that practising the Dharma will make everything in life pleasant and easy. If you read the biographies of the great masters, you will see that almost all of them lived through tremendous hardship.
Yet many practitioners hold very high expectations. For example, they think enlightenment can be attained simply by offering incense or flowers. I think that is rather difficult. Such things did not happen even in the lives of the great masters of the past.
Many practitioners also complain constantly. If business is not going well, or family relationships become difficult, they complain: “Why is this happening? I have devotion to the Buddha Dharma. I pray all the time, and yet I still have these problems.”
We complain endlessly.
Perhaps this is also a mistake.
What we want and what we truly need are entirely different things.
Most practitioners want things that allow them to enjoy samsara. Yet the more we indulge in samsara, the deeper we sink into it. Therefore, what we want is not necessarily what is truly beneficial.
What we actually need is freedom from samsara. We need to train the mind so that it becomes free from samsara. And that process may involve genuine sorrow and difficulty.
Nevertheless, without devotion, we cannot truly practise the Dharma.
Devotion is like the ground — like the foundation, like the key. If the ground is fertile, then seeds can grow from it: flowers, rice, barley, whatever may be planted. In the same way, devotion is the fertile ground.
In many Asian countries, people naturally possess strong devotion, and this itself is the result of very good karma.
However, in order for the fruit — the qualities of enlightenment — to truly ripen, wisdom is essential.
Wisdom means knowing clearly what should be accepted and what should be rejected.
And wisdom develops largely through study: by reading the teachings of the Buddha, Guru Padmasambhava, the Indian masters, the Tibetan masters, the Chinese masters. The more we learn and study, the more clearly we understand things.
For example, today we are practising Tara. I know that all of you have devotion to Tara. But perhaps not everyone truly knows where Tara came from, what Tara means, or what Tara actually is.
Is this statue Tara? Is that painting Tara? Where is Tara? When did Tara appear?
Perhaps many people do not know.
And yet they say, “I am devoted to Tara.”
If someone knows nothing about Tara, then that devotion is not very stable or very strong. It can become what is called “blind faith”.
If you ask yourself, “Why is Tara important?” and you have no answer within your own mind, then your devotion to Tara cannot become truly powerful.
Therefore, learning and developing wisdom means understanding Tara properly.
Likewise, if we have strong devotion to Buddha Shakyamuni, we should understand why and how.
So today, I would like to tell you a little about Tara.
Perhaps Tara has three meanings: the outer Tara, the inner Tara, and the secret Tara.
The outer Tara:
Countless kalpas ago — long before this present kalpa, which is known as the fourth kalpa, the kalpa of Buddha Shakyamuni — there was another Buddha.
One day, that Buddha and his retinue arrived in a certain town. At that time there was a princess named Jñana.
When she saw the Buddha and his retinue, she developed tremendous devotion. She slowly approached the Buddha, bowed before him, and requested to become his disciple. The Buddha accepted her at precisely the right moment.
At that very moment, before the Buddha, she generated bodhichitta — the awakened mind — and made the vow:
“From today until samsara is emptied, I shall practise bodhichitta for the benefit of all mother sentient beings in female form. I will never abandon this female form. I shall practise in female form, attain enlightenment in female form, and carry out enlightened activities in female form.”
From that moment onward, she devoted herself entirely to bodhichitta and compassion for sentient beings, and her practice became extraordinarily successful.
The meaning of Tara is “liberation”. She was able to liberate others. Within a single instant, countless sentient beings attained enlightenment through her bodhichitta practice.
Her name became Tara because she liberated innumerable sentient beings.
She also have three names: Tara, Nirma, and Pamo.
“Nirma” means swiftness or speed, because through the power of her compassion and bodhichitta she could liberate beings instantly.
“Pamo” means fearless, because she had no fear whatsoever in helping sentient beings — even if she had to enter hell realms, fire, or water.
That princess, Jñana, attained enlightenment within a single lifetime.
And from that time until today, Tara has remained present.
Even Buddha Shakyamuni, Guru Rinpoche, and Manjushri all practised Tara. Avalokiteshvara also relied upon Tara’s support.
This is the meaning of the outer Tara.
The inner Tara is the wisdom of Tara that is all the Buddhas wisdom as well.
Tara means liberation — but liberation from what?
Liberation from negative emotions, from ignorance, from hatred, from stinginess, and from dualistic mind.
All the Buddhas of the past attained enlightenment through liberation of the mind. Therefore, they relied upon Tara.
All past Buddhas attained fearlessness through Tara. All gained the swift ability to benefit sentient beings through Tara. Likewise, present Buddhas and future Buddhas all arise through this liberating quality, this fearless compassion, and this swift activity for the benefit of beings.
This is the inner Tara.
Princess Jñana herself was the outer Tara, while her wisdom and compassion are the inner Tara — changeless, present everywhere and at all times.
The secret Tara is the nature of mind itself.
Every sentient being possesses wisdom. Every sentient being possesses buddha nature. This is the secret Tara.
All of us have experienced powerful emotions — perhaps last year, perhaps even recently. Yet somehow those emotions dissolve naturally. We may not have meditated or intentionally tried to remove them, and yet they disappeared.
Our hopes, fears, and struggles that once seemed overwhelming are now gone.
Why?
Because the innermost secret Tara has always been within us.
All of us have experienced periods of intense emotional suffering that felt as though they would never end. Yet after a week, a month, or a year, they disappeared.
This is because of the secret Tara already present within us.
Therefore, when practising Tara, the outer Tara is initially very important. You may offer flowers, build stupas, commission large statues, small statues, golden statues, silver statues — all of this is wonderful, especially if you have the means.
But that alone is not enough.
Even if you possess enormous statues and magnificent offerings, without understanding the inner Tara and the secret Tara, the benefit remains limited.
Otherwise, Tara would become something available only to wealthy people — those who can afford elaborate offerings and statues.
But Tara is not like that.
External supports are important in the beginning because they strengthen devotion and confidence. Yet later, we must understand that the genuine Tara is genuine wisdom and loving-kindness, present everywhere.
Genuine wisdom goes beyond good and bad, rich and poor, hope and fear.
The more deeply you become a practitioner, the more stable and spacious you should become.
Not constantly chasing hopes and fears, running after different deities and lineages in search of blessings.
Rather, the more you practise, the more calm, cool, stable, and free you should become.
That is the result of Buddha Dharma.
When we truly understand Tara’s self-liberating nature, then even difficult experiences are understood as capable of liberating themselves. We no longer need to worry excessively or desperately seek external support.
That is the result of Tara practice.
As the mind becomes more calm, relaxed, and spacious, the secret Tara naturally appears.
And the secret Tara has always been within us. It never changes — whether one is enlightened, human, a sentient being, or even a being in the hell realms. It is always Tara.
But today our minds are filled with fear, hope, thoughts, and confusion. Sometimes practitioners become even more confused.
It is like the reflection of the moon in water. The moon is always present in the lake. But if you keep stirring and disturbing the water, you cannot see it. If you simply allow the water to settle, then naturally it becomes calm and clear, and the moon appears perfectly.
Likewise, through practising the inner Tara and allowing thoughts to become freer and less grasping, the secret Tara appears naturally within this very mind, within this present moment.
And once we directly connect with the present moment, that is called the realisation of our genuine mind — the inseparability of deity and mind.
This is the essence of Vajrayana teachings.
This is the essence of deity practice.
This is the essence of studying Buddha Dharma:
greater freedom, greater confidence in oneself, and going beyond hope and fear.
So, this is a brief teaching on Tara.
2025– edited version