Tara in Buddhism

She was adopted from Hinduism in the 6th Century which explains many similarities she has between the two religions. Tara is a set of aspects of the same quality within Buddhism and is commonly found in Tibet and Japan but less so in China. She is still very popular in Tibet and Mongolia. There are stories of her assisting escaping Tibetans.

One story of Tara tells how she reached a high level of spiritual attainment and was advised that she should ask to come back as a man on the next turn of the wheel so she might progress further. She was incensed and declared she would only incarnate as a woman and when she does transcend she will be a woman. She was also saddened by the lack of those working for the enlightenment of women.

Even the Dalai Lama has spoken of a true feminist movement within Tibet, led by the followers of Tara.

She is the Mother of Liberation. She is compassion and action. She is a saviour who hears the cries of those in misery. She is playful and manifests in the lives of those who are too serious or those who denigrate the feminine.

She has a number of aspects which are more common but there are sects which recognise 21 Taras but there is another Tara known as the 22nd Tara. These aspects are approached in practices by yogis so that they can gain those aspects within themselves.

Green Tara
The buddha of enlightened activity she protects us from fear and anxiety. She can grant wishes and brings happiness. She can save us from eight specific disasters: lions and pride; wild elephants and delusions; forest fires and hatred; snakes and envy; robbers and fanatical views; prisons and avarice; floods and lust and demons and doubt.

White Tara
Known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity, she counteracts ill health. She is the embodiment of the emotion behind compassion and shines as bright as the moon.

Red Tara
More fierce but associated with magnetizing all good things. She is discriminating awareness and shows us how to turn raw desire into love and compassion.

Black Tara
Associated with power

Yellow Tara
Associated with wealth and prosperity

Blue Tara
Associated with the transmutation of anger, her ferocious, wrathful female energy she destroys obstacles and brings good luck and swift spiritual progress.

Cittamani Tara
A green Tara found in the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism

Kadiravani Tara
Tara of the Teak forest.

To be honest, the information I was able to find on the web made finding out much factual information quite difficult. It wasn't easy to separate things out in a way that made sense to me. These Eastern religions use words and concepts that are not familiar to me. I think I would need to do a fair bit of reading about the religions themselves as well as about Tara herself (herselves?) to be able to piece together it all. And it would need to be from books rather than the web. On this subject the web skims and gets lost inbetween the Taras a little. I hope the things I have written are correct!

Tara the Devi

I want to investigate Tara, the Goddess. She is found in Hinduism, Buddhism and is a Celtic Goddess of Ireland too. I have also found some references to her as being found in Chinese culture but also in Native American culture as the Star Woman. Depictions of Tara have been found in caves and there is a believe from these that her worship could go back as far as 30,000 years. this goes some way towards explaining how she appears in so many cultures. In Latin she is Terra, in Scandinavia she is Tar, to a South American tribe she is Tarahumara.

I am going to start with Tara the Devi of Hinduism...

A Devi is a Goddess, an aspect of the divine feminine known as Shakti.

She is the second of the ten Goddesses of great wisdom which are aspects of the feminine ranging across the spectrum. She is guide, protector and saviour. She offers knowledge as salvation. She is the star that self combusts. She is the unquenchable desire that propels all life. She is the words and the mantra and the music. She can englamour you. She is the supreme creator and mother of all buddhas and bodhivistas. She is the mother of liberation. she is the virtue of success from work and achievements. She embodies womans ability to survive terrifying times. She can be fierce and wild. she helps us centre and be at one. She helps us journey through the depths of our minds.

She governs the underworld, the earth and the heavens. She has power over birth, death, love, war, regeneration, the seasons, the lunar cycle, all that lives and grows

Kali is the foremost of the wisdom Goddesses but there are many similarities between the depiction of the two Goddesses. Lord Shiva actually forbade seeing any difference between them, that they were aspects of each other. In the hymns which list there names they both have each others names listed. Tara is more maternal and approachable than Kali

Tara is blue with a tiger skin shirt and a necklace of severed human heads. Her tongue lolls and blood oozes from her mouth. She has four arms and carries a sword, scissors, a lotus and a severed head or skull cap.

The Hindu Gods and Demons were churning the oceans which created a poision which the Lord Shiva drank. He saved the world but turned his throat blue. In his unconscious state Tara came an laid him in her lap and allowed him to suckle. Her milk saves him.

She has a liking for blood and practices involve depictions of her having sex with Mahakala which were engraved in copper and then smeared with menstrual blood.

An old lady made a statue of Tara but then realised she had made it facing the wrong way so that is faced away from Mahabodhi (I think this is a temple?). She felt awful but the statue spoke to her and turned the other way out of compassion to the old lady.

She is a Goddess to help us find our lost feminine.

Tara

Last night the restless sleep continued, as did the bizarre dreams.

I was at a market and there was one sall not getting much attention. It was full of beautiful, healthy looking organic veg but nobody was much interested because it had come all the way from India. A white family had emigrated and spent half the year growing and would then come back and sell their bounty.

After talking to them a while they said they had other things under their main stall including a tray of jewellery. The tray was intricate and sparkly jewellery, mostly made of metal. I could see a tiny bit of unshiny metal and I grabbed that one knowing it was the one I wanted. It turned out to be part of an old shield that they had based all the other jewellery on. It turned out to be far bigger piece than I had first thought and was intricate and beautiful with aged metal. It was part of a T and apparently the shield had belonged to some lady called Tara.

So I look her up this morning and she turns out to be pretty big in that part of the world and she comes in several different colours. I don't have much time before work to research her but there is something interesting here. Any ideas which Tara would have a shield?