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White Tara Meditation Group originally started in Wolvercote, Oxford, evolving out of Ringu Tulku’s yearly visits, to provide a continuity in which to meet and practice together. We are part of the Bodhicharya & Bodhicharya UK umbrella and now meet online once or twice a month on Sundays. The format of our gatherings includes: silent sitting practice, listening to a recorded teaching by Ringu Tulku, discussing what we hear in the teaching, relating it to our own lives and experience, and seeing where that takes us each time. And we practice the full White Tara sadhana together each meeting, exploring different aspects of it.
White Tara herself is a female embodiment of enlightened qualities, and a Bodhisattva. The image of her here was painted by Ringu Tulku's brother, Salga, a well-known thangka-painter. She symbolises limitless wisdom and compassion, particularly directed towards health, long life and the wisdom of seeing all things, clearly. Her meditation can help us connect to an innate and completely pure awareness which is also ultimately a ‘deathlessness’ (a quality her practice is traditionally said to bestow). In this capacity, she supports all spiritual enquiry and practice, which is why we chose her as our 'banner,' or inspiration, to oversee our gatherings.
In 2015, after we had been meeting for several years, Ringu Tulku came and gave the empowerment of White Tara at the barn in Wolvercote where we originally used to meet. Since then, the group has learned and practised the formal Sadhana of White Tara. In 2022 Ringu Tulku's teachings on White Tara were published by Bodhicharya in book form, see below.
Please contact Mary for any further information or to join these White Tara gatherings held online through Bodhicharya UK. All welcome: See dates below. We also meet now and then in person in Jericho in Oxford on a Sunday afternoon.
White Tara Sadhana Practice Group
Sunday MORNINGS 11am - 1.15pm U.K. time ONLINE
Format:
Check-in
Shamatha sitting
Teaching and questions
White Tara Sadhana practice
4 January 2026
- including contemplating and sharing what we'd like to let go of and what we'd like to cultivate going forward, for the New Year
18 January
- we will look particularly at the Six Protection Lights part of the sadhana and spend some time on that practice
Sun 1 Feb
Sun 1 March
Sun 12 April
White Tara Sadhana
For the White Tara Sadhana practice, we use the short and excellent practice text written by Tenga Rinpoche. This can be downloaded as a free PDF, including a new English translation based on Ringu Tulku's commentary. It is included in Ringu Tulku's book White Tara: Healing Light of Wisdom, put together from his teachings and available to buy from Bodhicharya. Both the book and PDF and an audio recording of the practice can be found here. It is ideal if participants have received the White Tara empowerment but it is okay if you haven't, other people in the group have received it, and it is fine to practise together on this basis; you could hold an aspiration to receive it when circumstances allow.
For Ringu Tulku's teachings on White Tara, which the book above is based on, see also the Ringu Tulku Archive
White Tara in person gatherings
Sunday AFTERNOON 4pm - 6.30pm
Every 3 months in Jericho, Oxford IN PERSON
next date TBC
Ringu Tulku giving the empowerment of White Tara at the Barn, Wolvercote, Oxford, 8th July 2015
Ringu Tulku's public teaching at Friends Meeting House on Bodhicitta - 8th July 2015
Sunday 2nd October 2016: 5th Birthday of group - Visit of Lama Wangmo & talk on the practice of Tonglen
Ringu Tulku burying a Peace Vase in the centre of Oxford, 30th April 2010 .
This was one of 108 such vases created by HH Dilgo Khyentse to be buried in specially selected places all over the world. The vase is buried in the grounds of the Oxford Union, the debating society of the University of Oxford. And was buried jointly by Ringu Tulku, Reverend Bob Wilkes of St. Michael's Church, Oxford (pictured), and the then-President of the Oxford Union.
Snow Lotus Tibetan Medical Foundation
In 2015, Dr Mingji Cuomo came to White Tara group to talk about the newly set up "Snow Lotus Tibetan Medical Foundation": The aim of this charity will be to provide basic health care in rural areas of the Himalayan countries where Tibetan culture is practised. Health care provision in some areas is so minimal as to be effectively none. The project aims to address this, using Mingji's network of contacts in Tibet, both in Lhasa and rural areas, and contacts in Oxford University to guide research into what is appropriate. Crucially the medical model used will be taken from Traditional Tibetan Medicine, thus preserving this fount of wisdom and cultural knowing. The aim is to incorporate basic international public health approaches to an essentially-Tibetan model. Transcript available to download below.
Quote from His Holiness 17th Karmapa:
“I want to share with you a feeling I have. I feel that my love does not have to remain within the limitations of my own life or body. I imagine that if I am no longer in the world, my love could still be present.
I want to place my love on the moon and let the moon hold my love. Let the moon be the keeper of my love, offering it to everyone just as the moon sends its light to embrace the whole earth.”
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