The Divine Mother is called Tara, in Tibetan Buddhism

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Appended are 'Hymn to Tara' and 'Homage to Tara'. Hymn to Tara describes the

Divine Mother, with such details as 'the corolla of the lotus', 'Lady', 'face

like moon', 'OM, Her essence', 'protecting the world', 'eyes that flash like

lightning'. The Homage to Tara tells of the Divine Mother's compassion, thousand

hands and eyes, ability to conquer disease, Her being a foundation like the

earth, Her cooling ability, Her Wind, Her Fire, Her All-Pervadingness.

 

Enjoy!

 

violet

 

 

 

Hymn To Tara

 

Lady whose eyes flash like lightning,

heroine, TARE, TUTTARE,

born from the corolla of the lotus

of the Buddha's face: to you I bow.

Lady whose face is like the circle

of the full autumn moon,

lady who grasps a lotus flower

with the gift-bestowing gesture,

homage to you!

From the cage of this world TUTTARE!

Pacifying defilements with SVAHA!

With OM by your very essence

opening the gate of Brahma: to you I bow.

Protecting the entire world

from the eight great terrors,

Blessed Lady, mother of all,

homage to Tara, the mother!

 

(Vagisvarakirti)

 

The Divine Feminine

Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

Berkeley, CA

ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

Pgs. 145

 

 

 

Homage to Tara

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

great compassion!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

a thousand hands, a thousand eyes!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

queen of physicians!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

conquering disease like medicine!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

knowing the means of compassion!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

a foundation like the earth!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

cooling like water!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

ripening like fire!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

spreading like wind!

 

Homage to Tara our mother:

pervading like space!

 

(Ancient Buddhist Hymn)

 

The Divine Feminine

Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

Berkeley, CA

ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

Pgs. 145

 

 

 

,

" Violet " <violet.tubb wrote:

>

> Dear All,

>

> Here is a beautiful and vibrant description of the Divine Mother,

which Lex Hixon wrote in his 'Mother of the Buddhas' which is a

recreation of the Prajnaparamitra Sutra:

>

> " I sing this spontaneous hymn of light to praise Mother

> Prajnaparamita. She is worthy of infinite praise. She

> is utterly unstained, because nothing in this

> insubstantial world can possibly stain her. She is an

> ever-flowing fountain of incomparable light...She leads

> living beings into her clear light from the blindness

> and obscurity caused by moral and spiritual impurity as

> well as by partial or distorted views of reality...Mother

> Prajnaparamita is total awakeness. She never substantially

> creates any limited structure because she experiences none

> of the tendencies of living beings to grasp, project, or

> conceptualize...She is the Perfect Wisdom that never comes

> into being and therefore never goes out of being. She is

> known as the Great Mother by those spiritually mature beings

> who dedicate their mind streams to the liberation and full

> enlightenment of all that lives. "

>

> Appended, is more understanding given about the Divine Mother in

Buddhism, by Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring.

>

> regards,

>

> violet

>

>

>

> While the sex- and body-hating aspects of some of the Buddha's

teaching cannot be denied, what is also undeniable is that this

teaching has at its core a very profound understanding and advocacy

of compassion as the only possible wise response to life and living

beings. The statues that convey - or try to - something of the

Buddha's presence always have a certain radiant androgyny, and all

the accounts of his personality stress marvelous gentleness and

tenderness toward all life, including animal life. The Buddha's

poignant sense of the suffering of all sentient beings flowered into

a philosophy and practice of compassion that enfolded all living

things in an unconditional embrace and acceptance. That the nature of

this compassion was recognized and celebrated as feminine is made

clear in the early Sutta Nipata Sutra, which claims to hand on the

Buddha's own teaching on loving kindness:

>

> May creatures all abound in weal and peace

> May all be blessed with peace always.

> Let none cajole or flout

> His fellow anywhere

> Let none wish others harm

> In dudgeon or hate.

> Just as with her own life, a mother

> Shields from hurt her own, her only child,

> Let all-embracing thoughts

> For all that lives by thine -

> An all-embracing love for all the universe

> In all its heights and depths and breadth,

> Unstinted love, unmarred by hate within...

>

> This magnificent vision of compassion, of " an all-embracing love

for the universe...unmarred by hate within, " is the deathless

contribution of Buddhism to the religious imagination of the world.

In mystical elaborations of this compassion - in the Mahayana vision

of the Mother of Compassion, in the evolution of a female savior

named Tara, in the Tantric sexual and philosophical vision that

embraces sex and the holiness of women - we find developments of the

Buddha's teachings that expand the Divine Feminine truths already

inherent in them.

>

> Let us take, to begin with, the later Mahayana vision of supreme

wisdom being the " Mother " of all things, including authentic

compassion. It is one of the greatest strengths of the Buddha's

teachings that he views compassion and wisdom as essentially one at

the highest level. Compassion is not merely an emotional response to

the suffering and need of beings; it arises out of the revelation

that supreme wisdom (Prajnaparamita) alone can " mother " (give birth

to) an understanding of the " emptiness " of all phenomena. Milarepa

crystalized this teaching in his statement, " Seeing emptiness, have

compassion. " What the Buddha invites us to do is to let go of all the

structures and concepts that inhibit our awareness of our inherent

nonexistence, or, putting it differently, our " interdependence " with

every other thing that exists, so that we can be released from all

suffering that comes from a mistaken narrow belief in one identity

and also cultivate intense compassion for all others caught in its

imaginery hell. All words, structures, dogmas, formulations, and

conceptions are " empty " ; when this is realized beyond thought we are

inititated into the ground of our being, which is that shining

boundless void of wisdom and compassion that is the Mother of all

reality, and so, of all true awakening. That this experience of the

void is an experience of the Mother of all things is made clear in

hymn after hymn in the Mahayana tradition. Take Rahula Sadra's

wonderful celebration:

>

> Homage to Thee, Perfect Wisdom,

> Boundless, and transcending thought,

> All thy limbs are without blemish,

> Faultless those who thee discern.

>

> Spotless, unobstructed, silent,

> Like the vast expanse of space;

> Who in truth does really see Thee

> The Tathagata perceives.

>

> As the moonlight does not differ

> From the moon, so also Thou

> Who abounds in holy virtues

> Are the Teacher of the world...

>

> Teachers of the world, the Buddhas

> Are thine own compassionate sons;

> They are Thou, O Blessed Lady,

> Grandmoter thus of beings all.

>

> All the immaculate perfections

> At all times encircle Thee

> As the stars surround the crescent,

> O Thou blameless holy one!

>

> To realize the voidness of phenomena then is to realize the immense

" spotless, unobstructed, silent, " all-embracing nature of supreme

wisdom, the Mother of all phenomena. To awaken this sublime, all-

cradling Mother truth, is to give birth to the supreme virtues needed

for the freedom of enlightenment - fearlessness, boundless stamina,

indefatigable concern, and commitment to liberate all beings from

their prisons of false understanding. As Lex Hixon writes in Mother

of the Buddhas, his vibrant re-creation of the Prajnaparamita Sutra:

>

> I sing this spontaneous hymn of light to praise Mother

> Prajnaparamita. She is worthy of infinite praise. She

> is utterly unstained, because nothing in this

> insubstantial world can possibly stain her. She is an

> ever-flowing fountain of incomparable light...She leads

> living beings into her clear light from the blindness

> and obscurity caused by moral and spiritual impurity as

> well as by partial or distorted views of reality...Mother

> Prajnaparamita is total awakeness. She never substantially

> creates any limited structure because she experiences none

> of the tendencies of living beings to grasp, project, or

> conceptualize...She is the Perfect Wisdom that never comes

> into being and therefore never goes out of being. She is

> known as the Great Mother by those spiritually mature beings

> who dedicate their mind streams to the liberation and full

> enlightenment of all that lives.

>

> Perhaps because such a concept was too abstract for many people,

there gradually grew up within Mahayana Buddhism a need for a female

figure to crystalize such intuitions about the feminine face of

reality. This figure came to be Tara, the Savioress, whose name means

Star. Veneration of Tara seems to have begun around the seventh or

eighth century in India. It was then imported into Tibet by Atisa,

who arrived there in 1042, and it became a potent spiritual force in

Tibet by the fourteenth century and continued to grow in intensity

until the present day. The worship of the Goddess Tara is now one of

the most widespread of Tibetan cults, unaffected by sect, education,

class, or position; from the highest to the lowest, the Tibetans

realize with Tara a personal and enduring relationship, unmatched by

any other single deity, even among those of their gods most powerful

in appearance or seemingly more profound in symbolic association.

Tara, in other words, is the Divine Mother of Tibetan Buddhism, a

tender, beautiful, intimately and personally concerned deity who

protects all who turn to her from what is called in tradition, the

eight great terrors - drowning, thieves, lions, snakes, fire, spirit,

captivity, and elephants - and also from the sixteen great terrors

that include the eight already mentioned and add doubt, lust,

avarice, envy, false views, hatred, delusion, and pride. As an

ancient Tibetan prayer ends:

>

> I pay homage to Tara, the Mother

> Who saves us from all poverty and danger

> May I and all sentient beings

> Live directly in your sublime presence.

>

> In some of the many beautiful stories that have come down to us,

merely saying Tara's name, brings her instant help. In Tibet, the

power of her mantra - Om Tara Tuttare Ture Svaha - when repeated in

the heart with devotion is universally recognized. Gedundrub, a great

devotee of the Goddess, writes; " If one knows enough to recite her

mantra, then it is said though one's head be cut off, one will live,

though one's flesh be hacked to pieces, one will live; this is a

profound counsel. " Another lover of Tara, Dorje Chopa, has written,

" The recitation of her mantra has great consequences...just sharing

its sound has inconceivable effect that saves from suffering whatever

one wants to have, whatever unpleasant thing one wants to be without,

she responds to it like an echo. Tara loves and protects the

practitioner, as if she were the moon accompanying him, never a step

away. "

>

> The Divine Feminine

> Andrew Harvey & Anne Baring - Conari Press

> Berkeley, CA

> ISBN 1-57324-035-4 (hardcover)

> Pgs. 137-141

>