GREEN TARA
GREEN TARA
DIVINE MOTHER
"REMOVES FEARS, SUFFERINGS & GIVES GUIDANCE OF WISDOM”
GREEN TARA is a Bodhisattva embodying compassion in the female form of a young goddess” GREEN TARA is the gentle and heartfelt Bodhisattva Tara, born from the tears of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of compassion. She offers us a hand to lift us up to a mountain of enlightenment qualities. Tara belongs to the Karma family of unobstructed compassionate activity, symbolized by her green color and is the Wisdom Consort of the Transcendental Buddha Amogasiddhi. In a previous eon, in the presence of the Buddha Nga Dra, the beat of the Drum, she took the vow to only incarnate in a female form to ceaselessly protect beings from the fears of samsaric life and to guide them upon the path of enlightenment. She is known as the Swift One, due to her immediate response to those who request her aid. She is none other than the mothers of the Buddhas of the past, present and future; the Great Mother, the Prajnaparamita, the matrix of ultimate truth itself, Shunyata. She sits on a lotus flower with her left leg resting on her right thigh and her right leg steps down gracefully out in front of her. Her left hand is held in front of her heart with palm outward, thumb and ring finger touching so the other three fingers point upwards in the mudra of granting refuge. Her right hand rests on her right knee with the palm facing upward in the mudra of generosity.
OM TARE TUTARE TURE SVAHA Her name represent three progressive stages of salvation.
1. Om: essence of awakened body; o (naro)=essence of awakened speech; m=essence of awakened mind.
2. Tāre: salvation from mundane dangers and suffering. Tara is seem as a savioress who can give aid from material threats such as floods, crime, wild animals, and traffic accidents. Tara is therefore said to protect against ordinary worldly dangers.
3. Tuttāre: deliverance into the spiritual path conceived in terms of individual salvation. In traditional terms, this is the path of the Arhant, which leads to individual liberation from suffering. This is seen in Mahayana Buddhism as a kind of enlightenment in which compassion does not figure strongly. Tara therefore offers individual protection from the spiritual dangers of greed, hatred, and delusion: the three factors that cause us individual suffering.
4. Ture: the culmination of the spiritual path in terms of deliverance into the altruistic path of universal salvation - the Bodhisattva path. In the Bodhisattva path we aspire for personal enlightenment, but we also connect compassionately with the sufferings of others, and strive to liberate them at the same time as we seek enlightenment ourselves. Tara therefore delivers us from a narrow conception of the spiritual life. She saves us from the notion that spiritual progress is about narrowly liberating ourselves from our own suffering, and instead leads us to see that true spiritual progress involves having compassion for others. By the time we have been liberated from mundane dangers, liberated from a narrow conception of the spiritual path, and led to a realization of compassion, we have effectively become Tara. In Buddhist practice the “deities” represent our own inner potential. We are ALL potentially Tara. We can ALL become Tara.
5. Svaha: according to Monier Monier-William’s Sanskrit Dictionary, means: "Hail!", "Hail to!" or "May a blessing rest on!" We could see this final blessing as symbolizing the recognition that we are, ultimately, Tara.