September Devotional Service - Tara

The Goddess who will form the central theme for September's devotional service at The Goddess House will be the Bodhisattva Tara, and in particular the Green Tara(the Buddha of enlightened activity), as there are actually many different forms of Tara.

More information about the Green Tara can be found in a previous posting about her.

Some of the forms of Tara include:

White Tara - who is known for compassion, long life, healing and serenity; also known as The Wish-fulfilling Wheel, or Cintachakra,

Red Tara - a fierce aspect associated with magnetizing all good things,

Black Tara - associated with power,

Yellow Tara - associated with wealth and prosperity; and
Blue Tara - associated with transmutation of anger.

Tara 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. As Green Tara, she offers succor and protection from all the unfortunate circumstances one can encounter within the samsaric world. As White Tara, she expresses maternal compassion and offers healing to beings who are hurt or wounded, either physically or psychically.  As Red Tara she teaches discriminating awareness about created phenomena, and how to turn raw desire into compassion and love. As Blue Tara, she becomes a protector in the Nyingma lineage, who expresses a ferocious, wrathful, female energy whose invocation destroys all Dharmic obstacles and engenders good luck and swift spiritual awakening.

The mantra associated with the Green Tara that we will be chanting on Tuesday night will be:

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha.

The central part of Tara’s mantra is a loving play on her name. According to Sangharakshita, a traditional explanation of the mantra is that the variations of her name represent three progressive stages of salvation.

1. Tāre represents 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.

2. Tuttāre represents 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.

3. Lastly, ture represents 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.

Part of the devotional service also includes a healing circle.  To have your name added to the list for monthly healing energy, please contact Priestess in Residence.  This is a free service to the community offered by The Goddess House.

Source: Wildmind Buddhist Meditations