Tara and the twenty-one verses of praise

The Watercooler
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Pardon my ignorance, but I am researching the only Buddhist Temple in Albuquerque New Mexico called The Kadampa Meditation Center. While perusing their calendar I came across a devotional offering for Tara. But when I searched for the term on this site I found ZERO results. Is anyone familiar with this concept and the reason there is no mention of it here?

Thank you, and may we all be relived of suffering…with Metta.

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This looks to be affiliated with the “New Kadampa Tradition”, who you should definitely google thoroughly before getting involved with on any level. They are a break away sect from Tibetan Buddhism and are very controversial to put it mildly. Many of their practices have no basis in greater Buddhism, even Tibetan Buddhism.

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Thanks, that is exactly what I needed to know. Sad that it is the only place within fifty miles.

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Sorry Rosie that is disappointing. I found out about a meditation group about 9 blocks away and sadly they are NKT affiliated too. I have family in ABQ and Santa Fe, and there are tons of spirituality groups out there but also many cults unfortunately. I wonder if there is just a vipassana group out there. Even a Goenka group.

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Thanks again, I did check out Santa Fe, and it is high priced Buddhism with a 3 day retreat going for 250.00. I did a poll on my county Facebook group asking if there were other Buddhists in the area. No response. My online sangha here is a wonderful resource, but some live Buddhists would be even better!

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In case you still want to know about Tara (my namesake):

Tara is mentioned only in Vajrayana Buddhism.

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Tārā is one of the various Hindu deities that “somehow” find their way into late Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna.

There is a version of Kāli named Vajrayoginī as well in Vajrayāna.

Sometimes Mahāyāna Buddhism competed with proto-Hinduisms by quite literally appropriating their gods:

Āditya and Candra came from his eyes, Maheśvara came from his forehead, Brahmā came from his shoulders, Nārāyaṇa came from his heart, Sarasvatīdevī came from his canines, Vāyu came from his mouth, Dharaṇī came from his feet, and Varuṇa came from his stomach.
(Kāraṇḍavyūhanāmamahāyānasūtra, describing emanations from the body of Avalokiteśvarabodhisattva)

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A quick search of Buddhanet got this:

http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/search.php?keyword=Albuquerque&search=Search&country_id=2

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Thich Nhat Hanh groups tend to be fairly widespread also. OK, it’s Mahayana but also not too dogmatic. Often the groups are small and relatively informal (there’s actually one not too far from where I live that just rents out a hall for an hour or two every week for some meditation practice etc. and just a modest charge is needed to help cover the cost of the hall rental). Might be worth for the chance to hang out with some relatively like minded people for some meditation (even if the emphasis might be a little different to straight Theravada and members might be more likely to have read Thich Nhat Hanh books than Theravada ones).

They have a directory too. The map for New Mexico shows up several anyway.

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Thanks Green Tara. I really appreciate the Lion’s Roar