Skillful Grace: Tara Practice for Our Times

Tara is one of the most inspiring of Buddhist deities, embodying the most compelling and vital qualities of the feminine: beauty, grace, and the ability to nurture, care for, and protect. This complex goddess, whose practice transcends sect and class, is also a true warrior, vanquishing fear and ignorance–in a sense the earliest known incarnation of Buddhist feminism. Skillful Grace is an elegant introduction to practice and meditation techniques based on the Vajrayana path.The book is divided into three main sections. The first contains the basic text of Tara practice, The Essential Instruction on the Threefold Excellence, which connects the seeker to the profound essence of Tara as revealed by Chokgyur Lingpa. The other two sections feature enlightening commentaries on the text by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Jamgön Kongtrül, and Adeu Rinpoche.Skillful Grace includes all the preliminaries of Tara practice, as well as its main part and the subsequent yogas. Tara Bennett Goleman’s foreword, Marcia Schmidt’s introduction, and various appendixes and footnotes add useful context.

Tara is one of the most inspiring of Buddhist deities, embodying the most compelling and vital qualities of the feminine: beauty, grace, and the ability to nurture, care for, and protect. This complex goddess, whose practice transcends sect and class, is also a true warrior, vanquishing fear and ignorance–in a sense the earliest known incarnation of Buddhist feminism. Skillful Grace is an elegant introduction to practice and meditation techniques based on the Vajrayana path.

The book is divided into three main sections. The first contains the basic text of Tara practice, The Essential Instruction on the Threefold Excellence, which connects the seeker to the profound essence of Tara as revealed by Chokgyur Lingpa. The other two sections feature enlightening commentaries on the text by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Jamgön Kongtrül, and Adeu Rinpoche.

Skillful Grace includes all the preliminaries of Tara practice, as well as its main part and the subsequent yogas. Tara Bennett Goleman’s foreword, Marcia Schmidt’s introduction, and various appendixes and footnotes add useful context.

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (1921—1996) was among Tibetan Buddhism’s greatest 20th-century masters. Adeu Rinpoche lives at the Tsechu Monastery in Tibet. Erik Pema Kunsang is a highly regarded translator. He and his wife Marcia Schmidt own Rangjung Yeshe Publications and live in Mendocino, CA. Tara Bennett Goleman is the author of the bestselling Emotional Alchemy and lives in MA.