Discover the Power of Wish-Fulfilling Wheel White Tara: Goddess for Health and Long Life
Chintamani Chakra, popularly known as Wish-fulfilling Wheel White Tara, is a Buddhist goddess who is also revered as “Mother of all Buddhas” and a primary source of longevity, healing, and protection. Although she is a pacifying form of Green Tara, she has a special practice of a six-coloured light prism, which is the collective wisdom and action of all families of Buddhas. These sources describe her iconography, how she has seven eyes of vigilance, and how she is sitting on a lotus, which represents her all-pervasive sympathy for suffering beings.
According to modern and historical narratives, her mantra and meditation, which comprise imagining protective rainbow balls, are necessary elements in defeating life-threatening challenges and spiritual fears. Her sadhana is practiced by all the greatest schools of Tibetan Buddhism, which is a very deep ritual of personal enlightenment and a practical way of returning life-force to other people. These texts, collectively, give us an in-depth overview of her symbolism, ritual practices, and her core position as a rapid savior in the tradition of Vajrayana.
The Symbolic Prism: The All-In-One Mother
To understand the power of Chintachakra White Tara, one must look at her as a spiritual prism. While she appears as a serene, white deity, her meditation involves visualizing a rainbow aura that represents her diverse activities. As white light is composed of all the colors of the spectrum, White Tara also sends the rays of different colored lights to help sentient beings.
In her special practice, the practitioners see a prism of six lights that emanate from her heart:
- White Light: Symbolizes pacifying actions, which cleanse disease, bad karma, and poisons of ignorance and delusion.
- Yellow Light: Refers to enriching activities, the difficulty of poverty and lack of life-force is overcome by the wisdom of equanimity and overcoming pride.
- Red Light: Practices magnetizing or enchanting actions, which aid practitioners in getting over attachment and lust through the wisdom of discernment.
- Blue Light: A fierce, wrathful light that destroys aggression and neutralizes the poisons of hate and aversion using the wisdom of reflection.
- Green Light: The synthesis of all activities, representing the swiftness of Mother Samaya Tara (Green Tara), who flies to the aid of all beings and overcomes jealousy.
- Magenta or Purple Light: This light forms an impenetrable "tent of protection" around the practitioner, stabilizing their power and protecting them from all external interferences.
By engaging with Chintachakra, a practitioner does not need to choose between different specialized deities, as her comprehensive practice integrates all forms of enlightened action into one focal point.
Iconography of Chintachakra Wish-Fulfilling White Tara
The most eye-catching thing about the appearance of White Tara is the seven eyes that she has, symbolizing her ever-present watchfulness and her compassion.
- Three eyes on the face: It symbolizes completeness of her body, speech, and mind. It is the eye on her forehead that particularly shows that she can see the absolute divine truth.
- Four eyes on palms and soles: Symbolize the "Four Immeasurables", loving-kindness, boundless compassion, sympathetic joy, and perfect equanimity. The placement of these eyes ensures that she can see the suffering of beings in all realms of existence and is always ready to respond to their prayers.
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Hand Gestures (Mudras) and the Utpala Lotus: Her Right Hand held in the Varada Mudra (Mudra of Supreme Generosity), signifying her willingness to grant practitioners the highest state of enlightenment. With her Left Hand, she holds a white utpala flower, which branches into three blossoms representing the Buddhas of the three times: the past (fruition), the present (blooming), and the future (bud).
- Posture and Seating: She sits in the vajra posture (full lotus), which symbolizes her victory over cyclic existence. She is seated upon a white moon disc placed on the golden center of an immaculate pinkish-white lotus. The lotus signifies renunciation rising above the "mud" of samsara without being stained by it, while the moon disc represents Bodhicitta, the altruistic wish to achieve enlightenment for all beings.
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Ornaments and Attire: As a Sambhogakaya goddess, White Tara is adorned with the five divine silk garments and eight jeweled ornaments. Her crown is often adorned with five jewels representing the five Dhyani Buddhas.
Chintachakra White Tara Practice: The Path to Healing
In the Tibetan tradition, there is a saying: "For protection, call on your protector if you have time, then call on Tara if you have no time". As an aspect of Arya Tara, White Tara is known for her extraordinary swiftness in responding to those in need. She is specifically called upon to prevent untimely death and to extend the lifespan of practitioners so they may have more time to practice the Dharma.
According to Buddhist teachings, all sickness and suffering arise from concepts and thoughts rooted in attachment, aversion, and ignorance. White Tara helps practitioners overcome these mental obstacles. At a relative level, she rescues beings from external diseases and physical ailments; at an ultimate level, she protects the mind from the poisons of the three kleshas.
Chintachakra White Tara protects practitioners from the eight great fears, which are internal and external metaphors for obstacles:
- Anger (symbolized by fire)
- Pride (lions)
- Ignorance (elephants)
- Envy (snakes)
- Avarice (imprisonment)
- Attachment (floods)
- Doubt (demons)
- Wrong views (robbers)
The Basic Visualization Process and Sadhana
While anyone can chant the mantra but more formal practice involves Sadhana, or structured meditation. If a practitioner has not received a formal empowerment (Wang), they should visualize Tara above the crown of their head instead of creating oneself as the deity.
Refuge and Bodhicitta: The practice begins by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and generating the altruistic intention to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings.
The Appearance of Tara: Visualize a white TAM syllable at the heart of Tara, emanating white, healing light.
Light Transmission: Imagine nectar or white light flowing from Tara’s heart (or from the crown of her head) into your own crown chakra. This light fills your body, displacing negativity, disease, and bad karma, which are visualized as black smoke or sludge leaving the body.
The Six Circles: For advanced practitioners, the meditation involves building the six protective circles of light (white, yellow, red, blue, green, and magenta) around themselves to create a permanent field of protection and blessing.
The Space-Iron Wheel: In some traditions, a protective wheel made of "space-iron" with sharp, spinning spokes is visualized outside the practitioner, cutting through all obstacles and burning disturbances like feathers in a flame.
The Mantra Wheel in the Heart: A deeply technical part of the visualization involves an eight-spoked wheel at Tara’s heart. At the center sits the TAM syllable, encircled by the long mantra. On the spokes and the rims are the vowels and consonants of the Sanskrit alphabet, all in the nature of light. As the mantra is recited, dewdrops of nectar stream from these letters, filling the practitioner’s body and restoring their life energies.
Read More About Benefits of Tara Practice and Mantra Recitation
Practical Advice for Devotion
For those wishing to bring the energy of Chintachakra White Tara into their daily lives, the sources provide specific guidance on devotion and altar setup:
Placement: An image of White Tara should be placed in a respectful, high position, such as a central shrine or a prominent place in the living room. Traditionally, it is not placed in a marital bedroom unless a person is sick.
Altars: A basic altar might include an image of Tara, water bowl offerings, incense, and perhaps her mantra written out in Sanskrit or Tibetan.
Daily Conduct: When first seeing the image in the morning, it is respectful to bow and recite her mantra or the refuge prayer. If an image is damaged, it should be treated with care and never simply discarded.
Blessed Substances: Practitioners can perform "mantra-blessed water" by reciting the mantra and blowing on a glass of water, visualizing the power of Tara's speech being absorbed into the liquid to create a healing medicine.
Conclusion: A Universal Mother
Chintachakra White Tara is an energy of compassion and wisdom that can be availed to every living person. Regardless of whether she does it with elaborate Vajrayana Sadhanas or just by reciting a mantra every day, the purpose is the same: to save beings suffering, heal them, and guide them toward the "isle of blissful liberation".
Through extending our life, merit, and wisdom, White Tara gives us the prerequisites we need to be able to practice the Dharma and ultimately help all sentient beings just as she does. As the first Dalai Lama concludes his praise:
"By the meritorious energy of this practice
May the transcended, perfect Tara
Look upon me forever with pleasure
And never leave me, even for a moment".
