Connected through White Tara: please lend a hand

 

? White Tara. Mother of all Buddhas who ferries all beings across the ocean of samsara. Essence of compassion, wisdom, longevity, peace. May we know inseparability always! ?

 

Two weeks ago in Arcadia, I received White Tara empowerment from His Holiness Sakya Trizin, together with a couple hundred other people. It was a blessing in many ways. Along with feeling tremendous gratitude and inspiration, I was filled with a sense of interconnection. For a moment, Indra’s net of connection and interdependency was illuminated, especially as it pertains to the people and events of my own life.

Tara is the mother of all buddhas, the epitome of awakening to the interconnection of all things.

The White form of Tara specializes in clearing away the causes for untimely death, empowering us to stay around in this human form long enough to understand something about how it all works — of course, the dawning of that understanding depends on our own efforts to study, practice, inquire, and be present to this life while we’re in it.

Tara can’t do that for us no matter how long we live.

But she can help.

She’s the energy of protection, of growth, of accomplishing both spiritual and worldly objectives. As Venerable Amy Miller said in the film, Creating Buddhas, “she’s a good friend to have. I definitely recommend becoming friends with her.”

So at this White Tara empowerment with Sakya Trizin, I ran into several people from various parts of my life. Among them, Facebook friend Fawntice whom I’d never met in person and was so pleased she took the initiative to come up and introduce herself.

I also saw my dharma sister Kathleen Pratt, who I learned is friends with Fawntice too. But not only friends. They’re both involved in a project to restore a statue of White Tara in Ensenada, Mexico — the largest statue of White Tara in North America.

In fact, they were heading down to visit the statue and the renovation team later that same evening. Carrying bouquets of flowers from the throne of Sakya Trizin to Tara herself.

Well, this might just seem like a nice story about a pretty statue but it’s really a story of connection…

I met that statue in 1995 with the man who was largely responsible for introducing me to India and Tibet!

Step back to 1988 when I decided to take a trek in Kashmir and Ladakh with a small (at the time) adventure travel company called Overseas Adventure Travel. Those three weeks in the Himalayas started me on the path toward independent travel in India, volunteering for the Tibetans, entering apprenticeship, and becoming a silk thangka maker… essential causes and conditions for Threads of Awakening to be born.

The tour leader was a man named Jim Traverso, a mountain guide from Worcester, Massachusetts who had lived in Nepal for several years — a possibility I never would have imagined before meeting him. HIs friends were travelers of a sort I’d never known — thinking as I did at the time that my three-week guided journey was the peak of adventure.

Jim and I fell in love and had an on-again-off-again relationship over the next seven years, during which time I had the great fortune of trekking with him in Nepal and Pakistan and kayaking the Sea of Cortez. This is where it gets interesting!

 

 

By 1995, we had switched places. Now, I was living in Dharamsala, India, and Jim had moved back to Boston.

We had been out of touch for quite a while when he reappeared in my life, as he was apt to do.

He invited me to kayak in Baja that January and I agreed. An amazing week it was! Paddling on the water, island to island, in a Klepper folding kayak, not a soul in sight, carrying our own drinking water, camping under the stars… We fell in love again. It was a habit I broke, for better or worse, only after that trip.

 

 

Driving back up the coast to Alta California afterwards, we stopped in at a hip cafe in Ensenada. I believe it was Memo Ramirez’ Cafe Cafe. There were images of Ganesha on the walls.

Jim was proud of the fact that I lived in India and he shared his enthusiasm with the cafe owner, who was overjoyed. “You have to visit our goddess!” he exclaimed. “Yes, we have a goddess, on the hill. She comes from Nepal. You have to see her!”

He pointed us in the right direction. Probably drew a map on a napkin too. And we set off, driving to the top of the town, having no idea what or who we would meet.

At the top of a steep incline, we saw her. Next to a massive water tank. Gazing out over the city below. WHITE TARA!

She was pristine! Tranquil. Empowered and empowering.

No one was around but a young boy who seemed to be taking responsibility for the area. He didn’t speak English but handed us a notebook with some papers in plastic sheet protectors. They were letters of friendship between the Ensenadans and the Nepalis. Letters with official seals. I don’t remember the specifics (and I remember the papers raised more questions than they answered) but they explained just enough for us to understand that this statue had been granted or made by someone in Nepal with goodwill toward the people of Ensenada.

 

 

Jim and I left there with hearts full of love. Tara’s presence was palpable. Art can have that effect. Sacred art, in particular. We felt truly blessed.

That was the last time I saw Jim. He died kayaking the Sun Kosi River in Nepal four years later and I only found out three more years after that — sobbing with grief when I learned, even though I hadn’t seen him for seven years. I do imagine his joy on the river right up to the end. He wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else!

So… Tara of Ensenada… fast forward to what I learned two weeks ago from Kathleen at the empowerment.

The statue fell into disrepair. It became a haven for drug users, vandalized, scrawled with graffiti, pock-marked and littered.

I hope the young boy who showed Jim and me the letters that day did not become one of the vandals. I imagine him valiantly trying to protect her, and unable to do so… until now.

In 2010, Susy Aranda, a longtime Dharma practitioner and student of Lama Lhanang Rinpoche and Ven. Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche resolved to save Ensenada’s White Tara statue from further destruction and to do everything she could to restore the statue to its original beauty and glory, for the benefit of all beings.

Susy is a local resident who passed the statue every day while taking her young children to school. Seeing the statue of the mother of all buddhas in such a state of decay and neglect caused Susy great pain and sadness. And, initially, she felt powerless to do anything about it. But her commitment to transmit the power and beauty of the dharma to her children convinced her to take action.

 

 

She founded a grassroots community-based group called “Let’s Save Tara the Savioress” (Salvemos Tara la Salvadora), comprised of people in the Ensenada community who wished to restore, preserve and protect this precious symbol of the divine mother-essence in every being.

People from all walks of life and all faiths got involved – artists, community activists, Buddhists, Catholics, agnostics. Mothers, fathers, families and friends joined together and created “Tara’s Garden” – a sanctuary space around the White Tara statue.

On a shoestring budget and with tremendous effort, perseverance, and determination, things began to turn around.

The City placed a fence around area to protect the water tank and this provided some degree of protection to the statue as well. The City also installed a floodlight, illuminating the area and deterring gangs, vandals and drug users from gathering there.

Susy and her group began cleaning the grounds, removing the trash (including countless bags of needles and drug paraphernalia), restoring the brick patio and walkway in front of the statue (which was filled with potholes), scrubbing graffiti, painting murals on the walls adjacent to the statue, resculpting broken lotus petals, cleaning, repairing and repainting the statue, planting beautiful new flowers and greenery as offerings to Mother Tara.

 

 

You can read more about the restoration efforts (and the statue’s history) in Kathleen Pratt’s article, Saving Tara: Restoring and Protecting the largest White Tara statue in North America!

Many masters have visited Tara’s Garden during the past three years of restoration work – Sangyum Kamala Rinpoche (HH Chatral Rinpoche’s spiritual companion), Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Lhanang Rinpoche, and others.

Practitioners from around Mexico and the United States have visited Tara’s Garden, raising prayer flags dedicated to the longevity of great teachers, doing practice and making aspirations in White Tara’s presence, and offering their work and support to Susy and other local sangha and community members who have been so diligently focused on restoring this great source of blessing and practice support.

The time is now ripe for the original Nepali artist, Lama Sonam Tsering, to return to Ensenada to fix the more intricate implements and ornaments that were broken or destroyed completely – such as the Buddha crown around White Tara’s head; her left hand which holds an utpala flower; and the flower itself – and to oversee the detailed re-painting.

Lama Sonam Tsering is currently working in Oregon. To bring him to Ensenada to work for one month, the Project must raise funds to pay his airfare from Oregon and cover his wages (around $3000 for a month of work). Because “Let’s Save Tara the Savioress” is entirely volunteer-run and does not have great financial resources, they are requesting everyone’s help in order to take this crucial next step in the full restoration of this unique embodiment of the Divine Mother.

The following list of ways YOU can help is copied directly from Kathleen Pratt’s article , as are the photos below.

If you are so moved, please take action.

Among other contributions, I will be sponsoring an inscription of Jim’s name on the commemorative wall. In recognition of our great interconnectedness, I share this with you and trust the flow of Tara’s energy through us all.

How You Can Help

1) Spread the word.  Tell your friends about what is going on, so that those with heart connection to Mother Tara can make offering if they wish and are able.  No donation is too small!  Even $5 or $10 or $20 will help.  Susy keeps meticulous track of donations and expenses, and she issues regular reports detailing all monies received and exactly how they have been spent by the Project.  Money can be sent via PayPal to artesdeltibet@gmail.com.  Please include a note that your offering is for the White Tara Project.

2) Donate air miles or a plane ticket voucher.  If you or anyone you know has mileage or a plane ticket voucher that could be offered, this would be very helpful as it would eliminate the need to spend Project monies on a plane ticket to bring Lama Sonam Tsering down to Ensenada and send him back to Tashi Choling afterward.

3) Gas cards.  It may wind up being more economical to fly Lama Sonam Tsering from Sacramento to San Diego, so if that’s the case, we will need to arrange for someone to drive him from Tashi Choling in Ashland, Oregon to Sacramento, California (and back), and from San Diego to Ensenada (and back).  Gas cards would help.  Or, if you would like to volunteer to drive him on either of these parts of the journey, by all means please let us know!

4) Sponsor prayer flags to be raised at Tara’s Garden, dedicated to the longevity of your teacher, or to your own longevity. A roll of flags can be sponsored for $21, with all proceeds above the actual cost of the roll going to benefit the Project.

5) Sponsor recitation of Praises to the Twenty-One Taras, accumulation of Tara mantra, or Tara practice at the statue.  Two days every month, longtime Dharma practitioners with strong connection to Tara practice will lead these recitations/accumulations at Tara’s Garden in the presence of the statue. There is no set “cost” for sponsoring recitations, accumulations or practices – everyone is welcome to make a heart offering of whatever amount they feel appropriate and can afford.  Practices will be dedicated in accordance with the sponsors’ wishes, and names of people to be included in the dedication of merit will be read aloud before recitation of closing prayers.

6) Sponsor inscription of a loved one’s name on a commemorative wall that is being created in the Garden – “in honor of” for loved ones who are still living, “in memory of” for loved ones who have passed away.   This can be done for a suggested offering of $5 per name.

7)  Visit anytime!  All are welcome to visit the statue, to make offerings in Her presence, raise prayer flags, do practice, make aspirations. Everyone is also welcome to join in the monthly “karma yoga” work days at Tara’s Garden – to help keep the grounds clean, do gardening, paint, help with grounds repairs, or otherwise join the group efforts.  For more information either contact Susy Aranda at artesdeltibet@gmail.com or join the Project’s Facebook group, “Salvemos a Tara la Salvadora.”  (For those of you who do not speak Spanish, we will be working to increase “dual posting” so that updates about Project activities and progress are on the Facebook page in both Spanish and English.)