Om Tare – Ashana

Om Tare Tutare Ture Soha

The meaning of Om Tare Mantra (Tara Mantra) is greater than words can express. The words can only point rather vaguely in the direction of the meaning. The word-name Tara is variously interpreted to mean Shining Star, Liberator, Rescuer, Savior, or One Who Ferries Across. A traditional explanation of the mantra is that it uses variations of the name Tara to represent three progressive stages of deliverance or salvation.

OM represents Allness, the whole universe, the past, present and future.

TARE represents deliverance from mundane suffering, liberation from the sufferings of samsara.

TUTARE represents deliverance into the spiritual path conceived in terms of individual salvation, liberation from fear, external dangers and internal delusions.

TURE represents the culmination of the spiritual path in terms of deliverance into the altruistic path of universal salvation, the Bodhisattva path, the end of suffering, liberation from ignorance.

SOHA represents affirmed closure.

TRANSLATION:

OM — The Cosmic Sound that keeps our universe together.

TARE — The Sanskrit invocation of Tara, which in Buddhism is the feminine aspect of compassion that resides within all sentient creatures in the universe.

TUT and TURE — The seed syllables that activate this center of compassion within us.

SOHA — Similar to Amen, or “let this be so,” the Tibetan form of the Sanskrit word Svaha.

ALTERNATE TRANSLATION:

OM represents Tara’s holy body, speech and mind.

TARE means liberation from true suffering, the sufferings of samsara, our aggregates being under the control of delusion and karmas.

TUTARE means liberation from the 8 fears, the external dangers, but mainly from the internal dangers, the delusions, and karmas.

TURE means liberation from the ignorance of the absolute nature of ‘I’, the One; the true cessation of suffering.

SOHA means “may the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind.”