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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 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 one of our meetings we practice the full White Tara sadhana together too.
Occasionally we invite other teachers and experienced practitioners to come and give a short teaching, holding that within our usual format, giving time for meditation before and after the teaching and discussing together over questions that arise out of the teaching.
White Tara 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 usually meet. Since then, the group has also learned and practised the formal Sadhana of White Tara as well. We hold separate meetings specifically dedicated to studying and practising this together once a month.
Currently, two types of White Tara gatherings are held online through Bodhicharya UK. It is possible to join either or both groups, please contact Mary if you're interested. See dates below:
White Tara Dharma Study Group
Sunday AFTERNOON 4pm - 6.30pm
Every 3 months in Jericho, Oxford IN PERSON
Format:
Check-in
Shamatha sitting
sharing a teaching
Discussion
Short White Tara visualisation practice
next date TBC
White Tara Sadhana Practice Group
Sunday MORNINGS 11am - 1.15pm ONLINE
Format:
Check-in
Shamatha sitting
White Tara teaching and questions
White Tara Sadhana practice
21 December
- special solstice midwinter prayers for healing and peace
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
White Tara Sadhana Practice Group, details
In White Tara Sadhana Practice group we use the short and excellent practice text written by Tenga Rinpoche. This can be downloaded below, at the bottom of this page, including a new translation we will be using (please note this translation is a work in progress and supplied for personal use only). It is ideal if participants have received the White Tara empowerment but it's okay if you haven't, other people in the group have received it, and you could hold an aspiration to receive it when circumstances allow.
We have gone through Ringu Tulku's teaching on the White Tara sadhana, which he originally gave over zoom in June 2020, so that we can work with his instructions as we go, discuss them, and gradually deepen our appreciation and understanding of the practice. See Ringu Tulku's Archive - the page for his 'White Tara Sadhana' teaching - to listen to the full teaching.
Ringu Tulku giving the White Tara empowerment at the barn, Wolvercote, 8th July 2015
Ringu Tulku's public teaching at Friends Meeting House - 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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