Tergar Monastery Shrine Hall,
Bodhgaya,
16 February 2025
When the great mahāsiddha Nāgārjuna was meditating in the acacia forest in South India, Green Tārā manifested to him and professed her intention to help him benefit beings. In that marvellous place of the acacia forest, Nāgārjuna built a temple to her. Green Tārā consecrated the temple herself with blessings so powerful that anyone who practised there would achieve ordinary siddhis very quickly. Out of compassion for people who lived far away from that sublime place, Nāgārjuna composed the sādhana of Green Tārā of the Acacia Forest (Skt: Khadiravaṇī Tārā, Tib: སེང་ལྡེང་ནགས་ཀྱི་སྒྲོལ་མ་).
Through one of his four principal disciples, Nāgabodhi, in an unbroken transmission, this tradition was passed down to the First Karmapa Düsum Khyenpa and onwards. This tantra has always held a special place in the Kamtsang Kagyu as it became one of Düsum Khyenpa’s core five-sets-of-five yidam deities:
• Five-Deity Cakrasaṃvara (Tib: Khorlo Demchog)
• Five-Deity Vajravārāhī (Tib: Dorje Phagmo)
• Five-Deity Hevajra (Tib: Kyei Dorje)
• Five-Deity Tārā (Tib: Drolma)
• Five-Deity Hayagrīva (Teib: Tamdrin)
The Five-Deity Tārā tradition became included in the Knowing One Frees All (Tib: གཅིག་ཤེས་ཀུན་གྲོལ Chig She Kün Drol) compiled by the Ninth Karmapa Wangchuk Dorje.
However, over time, the precious practice of Five-Deity Tārā has declined and there was no complete ritual. In the spirit of an auspicious revival of this practice, the Seventeenth Gyalwang Karmapa’s intention had been to compile the ritual in full. This involved not just preparing the ritual but adding aspects such as offering four mandalas, instructions on how to recite the Homage to the Twenty-One Taras, and the thousand-fold offering. It was first introduced during the Kagyu Mönlam in January of 2023 and it has been practiced in the Arya Kshema Spring Gatherings ever since. This year, His Holiness the Karmapa has finally completed his work on revising the sādhana.
In fulfilment of the revival of this core Kagyu practice, the Gyalwang Karmapa has requested Kyabgön Drung Goshir Gyaltsab Rinpoche to bestow the Five-Deity Tārā empowerment.
In the main Shrine Hall of Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya, lavishly decorated with flowers, tormas and other offerings, Rinpoche conferred the empowerment to the congregation of trulkus, khenpos, shedra teachers, monks, nuns and lay-people. Following the customary mandala offering, Gyaltsab Rinpoche wore the golden, brocade Gampopa hat, and performed the main section of the empowerment. After the mandala offering of gratitude, the empowerment blessings were shared with everyone present.
