Tara from Dusk to Dawn

In November 2020, HHZR announced he would be holding an all night Green Tara Puja with unlimited recitations of the ‘Praises to the Twenty One Taras ’ to clear the way for a successful Grand Mahakala Puja in December 2020. Rinpoche aptly named it the ‘Tara Train ’. We were invited to catch the express train to citadale with him. On November 21st the first Tara Train took place – what a wonderful experience!

Rinpoche and 6 passengers/ participants arrived and settled in for a long night with Tara with Rinpoche at the engine. Rinpoche gave us instructions on the rules and protocols prior to starting. Once sundown arrived at 7pm from then on there would be:

SILENCE: absolutely no speaking except for chanting until sunrise. The only communication allowed was by hand gestures or a written note.

FASTING: no food or milk to be consumed only water, black tea and coffee.

PROSTRATIONS: we were to prostate to the Buddha 3 times every time we rose from our seat and prior to sitting down again. We could do repeated prostrations of any number to help regain alertness if we were becoming sleepy.

RECITATIONS WERE TO BE CONTINUOUS: if anyone left the room to go to the bathroom or make a tea or coffee the others would keep going so there were no breaks in the praises for the entire period.

Incense and candles were to be maintained throughout and it was everyone’s responsibility to be aware of this. We commenced at 7pm as the sun was setting. Rinpoche led Michelle, Palmo, Sangye, Jinpa, David and Prue on a wonderful journey through the night to finish at sunrise the next morning.

There were many challenges along the way, remembering NOT to speak, cramps and aches and pains in legs and backs, staying on track which got harder as we chanted through the early hours of the morning. Some battled tiredness and hunger. 

With great perseverance we successfully completed 370 recitations by sunrise. Our fast was broken with a sumptuous breakfast for which we had a new appreciation. Tired but joyful we went home to sleep. Rinpoche was so pleased with the success of the first ‘Tara Train’ that he announced a second one. This was held on Saturday 19th December 2020. With Rinpoche at the engine again he led 5 passengers for the second journey: Michelle, Palmo, Sangye, Jinpa, Paris and an unborn Leon. Once again, we persevered through the same challenges to achieve 421 recitations of ‘Praises to the Twenty One Taras’ by sunrise the next morning and once again enjoyed another sumptuous breakfast.

We all look forward to participating in this wonderful experience with Rinpoche again at Serkhang Nalandra.

Jinpa Barnes