When asked recently how we can best help the world at this time, Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche advised us to pray to Tara.

Following this advice, starting tomorrow April 8, Tara Day, and on the 8th day of each subsequent month, Kadampas around the world will join together for six sessions of prayers to Tara in 24 hours. These prayers will be streamed from Manjushri KMC, the mother center of Kadampa Buddhism.

To find out more and take part, visit: manjushri.org/livestream/tara

How prayers produce their effects
Venerable Geshe-la says:

Many religious people, whether Buddhist or non-Buddhist, understand the efficacy of prayer through their own experience. Prayer is by nature intention or aspiration, and so it is essentially a mental action. The words of a prayer help us to concentrate our mind and evoke faith, but they are not the actual prayer itself. Indeed, we can pray without reciting any words. The important thing is to concentrate without distraction on the meaning of the prayers as we recite them.

Because we are Buddhists we make prayers in front of an image of Buddha or a visualized assembly of Buddhas, regarding them as living Buddhas. Prayers made in front of such holy beings have great power to achieve their desired effect.