TARA

Tara: Tara, a female Buddha and meditational deity, is arguably the most popular goddess in the Buddhist pantheon. She is considered to be the goddess of universal compassion who represents virtuous and enlightened activity.Tara was once just an ordinary person, but after many lifetimes of practicing the Bodhisattva Path, Tara attained perfect enlightenment and vowed to stay and help all other creatures on their paths to enlightenment. The interesting thing about Tara is that she vowed not only to be a bodhisattva, but to do this in the form of a woman. Typically, in Buddhist thought, a Bodhisattva takes the male form. Tara's vow is striking because it went against traditional teaching. Her inspiring independence, along with many other qualities, has lead her to be perhaps the most popular Bodhisattva in the Buddhist tradition besides Avalokitesvara.

The view that the divine bodhisattva known by the name Tara assimilates the various characteristics and qualities of several goddesses of the Himalayan regions, from tribal snake deities to the great Shakti of Hinduism, and of other goddesses from farther afield, is not a novel one.The Sanskrit root târ-means "to traverse" or "cross over" as in using a bridge to ford a stream. In the orthodox Indian sacred tradition, Târâ refers to the second of Ten Means to Realization. And as Shri Tara Devi she is the deification of that Mahavidya, according to Hindu tantra. As a Târîni, she carries you across; she serves as a bridge for you to get to immortality. But the root tar- can mean "tree," and "particularly," and it is also related to "star" and to "pupil of the eye." In Tibetan, she is called Dolma or Do'ma, though often we see Drolma because it follows the Tibetan spelling (a little more; if we transliterate, it is actually sgrolma.)

The story of Tara's origin, according to the Tara Tantra, recounts that aeons ago she was born as a king's daughter. A spiritual and compassionate princess, she regularly gave offerings and prayers to the ordained monks and nuns. She thus developed great merit, and the monks told her that, because of her spiritual attainments, they would pray that she be reborn as a man and spread Buddhist teachings. She responded that there was no male and no female, that nothing existed in reality, and that she wished to remain in female form to serve other beings until everyone reached enlightenment, hence implying the shortfall in the monk's knowledge in presuming only male preachers for the Buddhist religion.

Another characteristic of Tara is her title "Mother of All the Buddhas". This represent her perfect wisdom, and also symbolizes the feministic quality of wisdom. (In Buddhist tradition wisdom is represented by the female while compassion by the male.) And, as we are all to be Buddhas eventually, Tara is also our Mother. Thus we should think of Tara lovingly.

The last characteristic of Tara as a Bodhisattva is her role of saviouress. She leads all beings across the river of samsara to the shore of enlightenment. She is also called "She Who Leads Across". Tara herself says, "I, O Lord, shall lead beings across the great flood of their diverse fears..." So not only does Tara help those who seek Nirvana; actually a major role she plays, and the reason for her major popularity, is the protection she offers from the eight great fears. These are the fears of lions, elephants, fire, snakes, robbers, imprisonment, drowning, and demons. Of course in modern times we rarely fear snakes and elephants, so these outer fears are only symbolic of the eight inner fears, which affect us all. The inner fears are: pride, delusion, anger, envy, wrong views, avarice, attachment, and doubt. Tara will help all those who suffer from these inner negative emotions.

In order to be a tantric deity, a being must have, at some point in time, attained perfect enlightenment and become a Buddha. But paradoxically, Tara is also a Bodhisattva. How can a person who puts off enlightenment in order to help others become enlightened be also a Buddha? Actually, the only way to become a Buddha is to become a Bodhisattva. One who strives for his or her own enlightenment without concern for other's enlightenment is still attached to a concept of a self, and therefore could never be fully enlightened. So because Tara remained in order to help others, she reached enlightenment even more quickly. Because she has already attained Nirvana, and still remains to help others, she is the most perfect of Bodhisattvas.

In Tantric practice, a person tries to identify his or herself with a deity--they actually try to become the deity through meditation. Tara's presence as a female is very important in relation to this idea, because she exemplified the fact that women too can attain enlightenment and become Bodhisattvas. Traditionally, Buddhists did not believe a female form could practice the highest stages of Tantra and become enlightened because the female form was not conducive to spiritual practice. It was taught in both the Mahayana and the Hinayana Sutras that only a male form can reach a very high spiritual level. Buddha taught, in the Pali canon, that "It is impossible, it cannot happen that a woman Arahant should be a Complete and Perfect Buddha." It was only due to Tantric thought that Tara came to be accepted as a female Buddha; because in Tantra, women are revered as the source of wisdom. Guru Padmasambhava, who introduced Tantra to Tibet, once said, "The basis for realizing enlightenment is a human body. Male or female--there is no great difference. But if she develops the mind bent on enlightenment, the woman's body is better." Therefore Tara can give women great inspiration to become a Bodhisattva and a Buddha. Perhaps she can also be considered as one of the earliest feminists.

These three characteristic of Tara; her vow to be a female Bodhisattva, her infinite wisdom, and her role as saviouress, compromise Green Tara, the Bodhisattva.The most popular of all the known forms of Tara are the widely worshipped Green Tara and White Taras. It is believed that the first artists modeled Green Tara on a young virgin, and the White Tara on a physically mature, voluptuous woman. Thus traditionally whereas the Green Tara is visualized as young girl having a mischievous and playful nature, the White Tara is represented as a mature woman, full-breasted and wise. This tradition survives to the present times.

Here we have collection of tara, green tara, white tara . BuddhaStatues.Org is selling these collectivites of tara, green tara, white tara statues with the previlege given by HimalayanMart.com and will be always thankful for help and effort to promote this site for Noble cause.