09/07/2026
A Necklace of Youthful Utpala: A Praise of White Tara
རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མ་དཀར་མོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་ཨུཏྤལ་གཞོན་ནུའི་མགུལ་རྒྱན།
Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
These verses in praise of White Tara distill the essence of the Karma Kamtsang tradition of White Tara practice into seventeen inspiring stanzas. For this reason, the Gyalwang Karmapa has said that reading and reciting them will benefit anyone who has faith in or practices White Tara. Translated by Khenpo David Karma Choephel at the request of the Gyalwang Karmapa 🙏🏻✨❤️
𝐀 𝐍𝐞𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐔𝐭𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚: 𝐀 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐚
རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མ་དཀར་མོ་ལ་བསྟོད་པ་ཨུཏྤལ་གཞོན་ནུའི་མགུལ་རྒྱན།
Seventeenth Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
These verses in praise of White Tara distill the essence of the Karma Kamtsang tradition of White Tara practice into seventeen inspiring stanzas. For this reason, the Gyalwang Karmapa has said that reading and reciting them will benefit anyone who has faith in or practices White Tara. Translated by Khenpo David Karma Choephel at the request of the Gyalwang Karmapa.
❖ ❖ ❖
ᴀ ɴᴇᴄᴋʟᴀᴄᴇ ᴏꜰ ʏᴏᴜᴛʜꜰᴜʟ ᴜᴛᴘᴀʟᴀ
𝔸 ℙ𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕎𝕙𝕚𝕥𝕖 𝕋𝕒𝕣𝕒
Like a crystal colored many hues
By all the deeds of the infinite victors,
You appear distinctly as anything,
A magical illusion manifest
As the goddess of activity—I bow to you.
Born from a stream of tears shed from compassion
By the glorious lord of the three worlds,
You love all beings as your child, sole mother.
O beauty of the Potala—I bow to you.
By making the unprecedented oath,
“Until samsara is emptied, I shall only
Benefit beings in a female form,”
You give all women relief and inspiration—I bow to you.
Not even Great Brahma, with his brush, could capture on the face
Of a wall made of a hundred thousand molten moons
Your glory, O paragon of the beauty of existence and peace.
Purest white goddess of life, I bow to you.
You look with unobscured, compassionate eyes
Repeatedly in the six times to see
Who languishes or thrives, among all beings.
But never satisfied, you emanate
The seven wisdom eyes—I bow to you.
Laden with gems of the two accumulations,
Your mudra of giving all various things desired
Grants, without bias, all beings a wondrous stream
Of the nectar of deathlessness—I bow to you.
You hold at your heart, so charmingly, the stem
Of a blooming utpala, its scent compassion,
And welcome all beings threatened by the sixteen dangers
With a loving smile—I bow to you.
Your beautiful body is as glorious as an autumn full moon.
Your voice, like Brahma’s, pleases the ears of those who have good fortune.
Bottomless is the ocean of your vast and profound mind.
Wish-Fulfilling Wheel, I bow to your body, speech, and mind.
On the clean face of the mirror of pure mind, let the pure appearance
Of the coarse and subtle bodies of the deity, the Lady,
In the full youth of sixteen years, reach their culmination,
And make appearance and existence arise as her mandala.
Make it so that they, who, with their three gates inseparable
From your body, speech, and mind, devote themselves to reciting,
Riverlike, your divine essence mantra with ten syllables
Spontaneously accomplish thus the four activities.
Make it so that the tāṃ and mantra garland
In the middle of the wheel that grants all wishes
Shine out and reabsorb a net of lights
To gather all the life essence of samsara and nirvana
Into a bindu of life that cannot be destroyed.
Even the blowing winds and gales of an age of destruction
Cannot pe*****te the stainless crystalline sphere
Filled with lights of many colors and fresh utpala flowers.
Hide me inside your orb of vajra protection.
In the expanse of the avadhuti, sealed by red and white bindus,
A tāṃ, the nature of prana and mind, shines light.
Bring in the karmic prana with all its elements
So that I accomplish unchanging vajra youth.
Bless me that all dualistic, confused appearances
Gather in the ineffable expanse of the nada,
So that I see directly, unobscured,
The Noble Lady’s luminous, coemergent face.
Bless me to become inseparable from
The ultimate self-aware wisdom, Chenrezik,
And the natural radiance that appears,
Like the play of the moon on a lake’s waters,
As the devī, the Venerable Lady.
With your hand of compassion, never let go
Of the jasmine garland of my lives
Strung on the thread of actions purely good.
May its scent of benefit and happiness waft everywhere.
Until the mandala of space has been exhausted,
May I, for each and every being’s sake,
Remain for innumerable aeons, steadfast—
Accomplishing deeds and aspirations just like yours.
This praise is a result of multiple requests made by Karma Samten, who has the jewel of faith, as well as of a bit of study on the profound teachings of the Venerable Lady that I have engaged in over the last few years. In particular, when writing a new White Tara long-life offering, I saw that there would be great advantages if I began by writing a praise of her. Thus, recalling the greatness and benefits of this special deity’s body, speech, and mind, I, an ordinary person called Ogyen Trinley Dorje who has been given the title of the Karmapa, completed this praise on the ninth day of the second Tibetan month of Fire Horse year (March 27, 2026), a date with an auspicious conjunction of
earth and water.
By the merit of writing this, may all sentient beings with whom I have a good or bad connection always be accepted by the Venerable Lady and easily achieve the exalted ultimate state of eternal deathlessness. Sarva maṇgalaṃ!
❖ ❖ ❖
Read and download the full text 'A Necklace of Youthful Utpala: A Praise of White Tara' here at དམ་ཆོས་འཕྲུལ་དེབ། • Dharma Ebooks • 正法電子書:
https://dharmaebooks.org/a-necklace-of-youthful-utpala-a-praise-of-white-tara/
Painting: White Tara by Simon Zhu
