Tara (Buddhism)
Tara, Ārya Tārā, also known as Jetsün Dölma, is an important female Buddha in Buddhism, especially revered in Vajrayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism. She may appear as a female bodhisattva in Mahayana Buddhism. In Vajrayana Buddhism, Green Tara is a female Buddha who is a consort of Amoghasiddhi Buddha. Tārā is also known as a saviouress who hears the cries of beings in saṃsāra and saves them from worldly and spiritual danger.
In Vajrayana, she is considered to be a Buddha, and the Tārā Tantra describes her as "a mother who gives birth to the buddhas of the three times" who is also "beyond saṃsāra and nirvāṇa". She is one of the most important female deities in Vajrayana and is found in sources like the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, and the Guhyasamāja Tantra. Key Indic Vajrayana texts which focus on Tārā include the Tantra Which Is the Source for All the Functions of Tārā, Mother of All the Tathagatas and Tārā's Fundamental Ritual Text.
Both Green and White Tārā remain popular meditation deities or yidams in Tibetan Buddhism, and Tara is also revered in Newar Buddhism. Tārā is considered to have many forms or emanations, while Green Tara emanates twenty-one Tārās, each with different attributes—colors, implements, and activities such as pacifying, increasing, enthralling, and wrathful. The Green Tara remains the most important form of the deity in Tibetan Buddhism. A practice text entitled Praises to the Twenty-One Taras is a well known text on Tara in Tibetan Buddhism and in Tibet, recited by children and adults, and is the textual source for the twenty-one forms of Green Tārā.
The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike:. It is pronounced by Tibetans and Buddhists who follow the Tibetan culture as. The literal translation would be "Oṃ O Tārā, I pray O Tārā, O Swift One, So Be It!"
Etymology
Tārā is a feminine noun derived from the root √tṝ, "to cross". It is causative, and as such means "to cause to cross", i.e., "to rescue".This is why the name is sometimes translated as "savioress" or "rescuer". For example, in Tibetan, she is known as Jetsun ''Drölma, meaning "Venerable Saviour" which is derived from the Tibetan verb sgrol ba meaning "to save, rescue, liberate; to carry, transport, or cross; and to expel or drive away ".
The name Tārā may also mean "star" or "planet".
Tara is also known in East Asian Buddhism. In Chinese, her name is rendered as Duoluo Pusa, with Pusa indicating bodhisattva status. In Japanese she is 2=多羅菩薩 たらぼさつ.'' The name means "Bodhisattva who catches many" or "Bodhisattva who collects numerous ", derived from the characters: 羅, "to catch, gather, collect, sift", and 多 "many; much; a lot of; numerous".
History
Buddhist studies scholars generally agree that the worship of Tārā began growing in popularity in India during the 6th century. Evidence from Nalanda shows that her cult was established by the sixth century. In the earliest sources, Tārā is seen as the personification of Avalokiteśvara's compassion. She often appears as part of a triad, with Avalokiteśvara and Bhr̥kuṭī, as can be seen in the Kānherī cave 90. Another early identifiable image of Tārā is found at cave 6 within the rock-cut Buddhist monastic complex of the Ellora Caves in Maharashtra. Her worship was well established by the onset of the Pala Empire in Eastern India.One of the earliest textual references to the goddess is the Mañjuśrī-mūla-kalpa, which calls her the noble goddess who is the compassion of Avalokiteśvara. This text also goes on to call her "the mother of the illustrious Prince Mañjughoṣa", giving her the title of a mātā devī and associates her with Prajñāpāramitā and Prajñāpāramitā Devī.
The origin of Tārā is unclear and remains a source of inquiry among scholars. Mallar Ghosh believes her to have originated as a form of the goddess Durga. Tārā is worshiped both in Buddhism as well as in Shaktism as one of the ten Mahavidyas. According to Beyer, the enlightened feminine makes its first appearance in Mahayana Buddhism as Prajñāpāramitā Devi, the personified Perfection of Wisdom, who is also called mother of Buddhas.
Tara eventually came to be considered the "Mother of all Buddhas" by Indian tantric Buddhists, taking on this epithet from Prajñaparamita. The term mother of Buddhas usually refers to a transcendent awakened wisdom, though it also echoes the ancient Indian motif of the Mother Goddess.
With the composition of the Tārā-mūla-kalpa, the main Buddhist tantra associated with the goddess and mahāvidyā, Tārā became a very popular Vajrayana deity in north India. Tārā worship also spread to other parts of India, as well as to Nepal, Sri Lanka and Indonesia, where depictions of the deity have been discovered by archeologists. With the movement of Indian Buddhism into Tibet, the worship and practices of Tārā became incorporated into Tibetan Buddhism as well.
As the worship of Tārā developed, various prayers, chants and mantras became associated with her. These came out of a felt devotional need, and from her inspiration causing spiritual masters to compose sadhanas, stotras, or tantric meditations.
Independent of whether she is classified as a deity, a Buddha, or a bodhisattva, Tārā remains very popular in Tibet, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and is worshiped in many Buddhist communities throughout the world. In Tibet, Green Tārā was also considered to have manifested as the Nepalese Princess, and White Tārā's manifestation as the Chinese princess Kongjo.
Origin myth
Tārā has many origin stories which explain her origin as a bodhisattva. According to one story, Tārā arose from Avalokiteshvara's compassionate tears when he wept on seeing all the suffering of all the beings in samsara. His tears turned into a lotus, out of which Tārā arose.The Indian master Sūryagupta explains this myth as follows:
What was Her origin? - Arya-Lokesvara, the Lord and Refuge of the Three Realms, Desire, Form, and Formless, which depend on the five or four aggregates that perish in an instant, saw that however many migrating beings he removed from samsara, they grew no fewer, and He wept. Tara sprang from the opening filaments of his face - of an utpala that grew in the water of His tears.
Another tale begins with a young princess who lives in a different world system, millions of years in the past. Her name is Jñanachandra or Yeshe Dawa, which means "Moon of Primordial Awareness". For quite a number of aeons she makes offerings to the Buddha of that world system, whose name was Tonyo Drupa. She receives special instruction from him concerning bodhicitta—the infinitely compassionate mental state of a bodhisattva. After doing this, some monks approach her and suggest that because of her level of attainment she should next pray to be reborn as a male to progress further.
At this point she lets the monks know in no uncertain terms that it is only "weak minded worldlings" who see gender as a barrier to attaining enlightenment. She sadly notes there have been few who wish to work for the welfare of sentient beings in a female form, though. Therefore, she resolves to always be reborn as a female bodhisattva, until samsara is no more. She then stays in a palace in a state of meditation for some ten million years, and the power of this practice releases tens of millions of beings from suffering. As a result of this, Tonyo Drupa tells her she will henceforth manifest supreme bodhi as the Goddess Tārā in many world systems to come.
A similar story is told by the 14th Dalai Lama:
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.Tārā, then, embodies certain ideals which make her attractive to women practitioners, and her emergence as a Bodhisattva can be seen as a part of Mahayana Buddhism's reaching out to women, and becoming more inclusive even in 6th-century CE India.
Characteristics and symbolism
Tārā's name literally means "star" or "planet", and therefore she is associated with navigation and travel both literally and metaphorically as spiritual crossing to the "other side" of the ocean of existence. Hence she is known literally as "she who saves" in Tibetan. In the 108 Names of the Holy Tara, Tara is "Leader of the caravans..... who showeth the way to those who have lost it" and she is named as Dhruva, the Sanskrit name for the North Star. Due to her association with navigation and travel, she is thus popular as a savior and protector from danger. In modern Tibetan Buddhism, Tārā is one of the most popular deities that are appealed to by laypersons and monastics alike for aid.Tara's main form is depicted as dark green in color, which is associated with awakened activity. In Himalayan Buddhist iconography, each color is typically associated with a specific kind of activity. Because dark green is seen as a combination of all other colors, the main form of Tārā, Green Tārā, is considered to be the source of all beneficial activities.
Within Tibetan Buddhism, Tārā appears in many forms, each tied to certain colors, symbols, and beneficial activities. As Green Tārā she offers succor and protection from all the unfortunate circumstances one can encounter in the world of suffering. As White Tārā she expresses maternal compassion and offers healing to beings who are hurt or wounded, either mentally or psychically. White Tara is further associated with longevity, countering illness, and purification. Red Tārā meanwhile is associated with power, controlling and influencing others as well as with the transformation of desire into compassion. The manifestation of Blue Tārā is a ferocious female protector whose invocation destroys all obstacles.
file:Tara, view 2, Nepal, 17th or 18th century, gilt copper - Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive - DSC04133.JPG|thumb|A copper Tārā from Nepal, c. 17th or 18th century
Tārā is also a forest goddess, particularly in her form as Khadiravani, "dweller in the Khadira forest" and is generally associated with plant life, flowers, acacia trees and the wind. Because of her association with nature and plants, Tārā is also known as a healing goddess and as a goddess of nurturing quality and fertility. Her association with the wind element also means that she is swift in responding to calls for any aid.
According to Miranda Shaw, "Motherhood is central to the conception of Tara". Her titles include "loving mother", "supreme mother", "mother of the world", "universal mother" and "mother of all Buddhas". As such, Tārā embodies many of the qualities of feminine principle. She is known as the Mother of Mercy and Compassion. She is the source, the female aspect of the universe, which gives birth to warmth, compassion and relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary beings in cyclic existence. She engenders, nourishes, smiles at the vitality of creation, and has sympathy for all beings as a mother does for her children.
Tārā is most often shown with the blue lotus or night lotus, which releases its fragrance with the appearance of the moon and therefore Tārā is also associated with the moon and night.