Known as Jetsün Drolma in Vajrayana (Tibetan Buddhism) and Ārya Tārā in India, Tara is the female Bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhsm. She appears as the female Buddha in Vajrayana.
She is the "mother of liberation" who represents the virtues of success in work and achievements, which is one of the eight parts of the Eightfold Noble Path, right livelihood.
In Japan she is called Tarani Bosatsu, and Tuoluo in Chinese Buddhism, where Kuan Yin is more popular.
On Tara, HH the Dalai Lama said:
• There is a true feminist movement in Buddhism that relates to the goddess Tārā. Following her cultivation of bodhicitta, the bodhisattva's motivation, she looked upon the situation of those striving towards full awakening and she felt that there were too few people who attained Buddhahood as women. So she vowed, "I have developed bodhicitta as a woman. For all my lifetimes along the path I vow to be born as a woman, and in my final lifetime when I attain Buddhahood, then, too, I will be a woman."
Within the Buddhist tradition Tara is bodhisattva, deity, and saviouress.
As deity, she personifies the perfection of wisdom (Prajnaparamita). As bodhisattva, she personifies compassion and action. As saviouress, she is the Mother of Buddhas.
References
Female Buddha Taras Mantra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ibm1QysfhgQ
Wikipedia entry for Tara: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhism)
Prajnaparamita: http://thenewheretics.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/the-perfection-of-wisdom-in-eight-thousand-lines/
Showing posts with label Tārā. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tārā. Show all posts
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