Over the centuries, humankind has developed a vast arsenal of practices and techniques to help us find the way to freedom. No single technique is best for everyone. A particular practice may be profoundly transformative for one person and completely useless for another. Tara practice can be incredibly powerful, but how do you know if it is right for you? It is a good sign if you feel an intuitive connection with her or with the people you know who do Tara practice, but ultimately, you have to try it to really know.
Most Tara practices have their origins in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition, but the boundless enlightened wisdom she embodies transcends the limits of any tradition or any religious ideology. She speaks just as loudly to anyone who listens–Hindu, Christian, Pagan, Muslim, Taoist, or skeptical materialist.
In the Tibetan tradition, the object of a visualization practice, such as Tara, is known as a “yidam.” Yidam is often translated as “deity” in English, but it is more accurate to call them “awakened beings,” because they arise out of the formlessness of our true nature as a concrete manifestation of awakened qualities, such as compassion or wisdom. In addition to Tara, there are many other yidams both female and male with different forms and symbols, but ultimately they are all manifestations of that same enlightened awareness.
When we do yidam practice, we visualize ourselves in an enlightened mandala with our yidam at the center. This “yidam mandala” is a symbolic representation of our own universe. All the phenomena of our lives are the phenomena of the mandala, and we are the yidam at its center. The yidam mandala is a pure manifestation of the divine energies of our mind in form, color, sound, and thought. In the mandala we create in our everyday life, those enlightened energies are often obscured, so they appear in a distorted way. We enter into yidam practice to loosen our identification with those old distortions and habitual patterns. While doing this kind of practice, we try to rest in the true nature of our mind—complete openness and emptiness that is at the same time clear, luminous, and aware. This practice helps us realize that state more fully by entering into and interacting with an awakened mandala that we create, and eventually by coming to see ourselves and all other beings as the yidam at its center.
When we get to the point in our practice that our body becomes the body of the yidam, we think of ourselves as a being of light, just appearing in pure emptiness—which in fact is actually our situation all the time. This practice trains us to recognize that fact and to stop identifying with this physical body and our deluded sense of self, so we can come fully into our awakened identity. This transformation of identity is a huge part of yidam practice. In fact, in some ways the transformation of our limited, obscured self-identity is the core of the whole thing.
It’s said that if we meditate in this way, all our obstacles will be removed and the siddhis, the accomplishments and the awakened activities, will naturally manifest themselves. At the same time, however, everything that isn’t awakened mind comes to the surface and stares us in the face. When we’re doing this kind of practice intensely, we may come to see the horror, the full catastrophe, of our human mind. Eventually all our neurotic habit patterns—our depression, fear, and anxiety—get flushed to the surface and released out, and as they’re flushed out, we re-experience their primal energy. Say for example, we have had some kind of very traumatic experience that we have repressed. As it comes back into consciousness and is experienced, it can be quite disturbing because it will feel like the trauma is happening all over again, but actually nothing is going on except that old energy is coming to the surface and being released. So we have to keep remembering that our neurotic habit patterns are not who we truly are, but only old energy from the past.
There are many different yidams, but as a female Buddha, Tara has a special kind of resonance for us today because the primal power of our female energy has been repressed for so long. As an archetype of the awakened feminine, Tara embodies all the qualities of enlightened mind–wisdom and fierce power, sexuality and nurturing love, bountiful generosity and wrathful anger at the injustices of the world. In our culture, there is a deep hunger for the wisdom of the divine feminine that often goes unrecognized and a need to get our masculine and feminine energies into harmony and balance. In Hinduism, the feminine is seen as shakti, the primordial cosmic energy of creation, while Vajrayana Buddhism emphasizes the vast openness of the feminine. Either way, the feminine is seen as the womb of the divine mother that holds us all. Without space, without emptiness, nothing would be able to exist. Her emptiness holds all of us in divine love, nourishes us, gives us life, and sustains us. The awakened feminine is said to be the mother of all the buddhas, because it is the non-conceptual openness of the feminine that brings us to awakening. Indeed, wisdom is itself the essence of the divine feminine.
In her aspect as divine mother, Tara nurtures all life and gives birth to the awakened ones, but she also manifests a fierce wrathful power that cuts through our problems and obscurations, and most especially through our deep-rooted ignorance. She is like our Mother Earth who supplies us with everything we need, but can also manifest fierce earthquakes, hurricanes, tidal waves, and tornados. The divine mother is a compassionate loving presence who’s always available to us, but she may display a terrifying ferocity if that is what we need to wake up.
Coming to abide in the realization of shunyata, the inherent openness and emptiness of all phenomena that is Tara’s essence, is what gives birth to awakening. But we have to be careful with the word “emptiness,” because it gives a kind of desolate feeling to a lot of people here in the West. It is important to realize that emptiness is not just blankness; it has a fertile womb-like quality that provides everything needed to allow us to grow and for all things to manifest. If we see clearly, we realize that all appearance is appearance-emptiness, that all awareness is awareness-emptiness. Suzuki Roshi, the founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, once said that resting in emptiness is like sucking at the breast of the mother. When we are actually resting in the union of emptiness and appearance that is our true nature, there is a feeling of complete and total fulfillment, and we instinctively know that there is nothing we lack.
As we engage in this practice, we come to know Tara and develop a profound appreciation for the way she works in our lives. But it’s not usually an instantaneous process. It often takes time before we feel we have a real relationship with her. Just as in our daily lives, we might meet somebody we really like, but developing a relationship with them requires love and dedication. We have to put in the energy to meet with that person, to visit with them and get to know them. Meditating on Tara works in the same way. We may have very powerful experiences in the beginning, but they may also come in the middle or the end or at any time along the way. As we get to know Tara and receive her blessings, we come to see that she is a reflection of our own true nature. She reflects all of the aspects of the awakened feminine. She is the beautiful, all-compassionate, all-loving mother. She is the wrathful goddess that destroys our selfish delusions. She is the embodiment of peace, generosity, and all the other perfections. She is the fiery passion that brings life to the world.
Tara’s special activity, especially in her green form, is to remove fears and obstacles and to help create all the supportive conditions needed for our awakening. In fact, in Tibetan one of her names means “She Who Liberates” or “She Who Ferries Beings Across The Ocean of Samsara.” She has the power to help destroy, release, and alleviate all of our difficulties both internally and externally. She is said to perform four specific kinds of “awakened activities.” The first one is pacification. This includes mediation, resolving conflicts, soothing, calming, and bringing peace. The next one is enriching. This is a kind of nourishment like giving food, water, encouragement, teachings, or knowledge, or providing whatever else is needed for people to be healthy and to grow and prosper. The third enlightened activity, magnetizing, brings together whatever is needed in a particular situation. Tara might, for example, bring various people together who could benefit from the Dharma teachings. The last of her enlightened activities, destroying, may sound harmful, but it actually has to do with setting limits, creating boundaries, and stopping things or relationships that have outlived their usefulness and need to come to an end. It is a kind of fierce, wrathful activity.
On a personal level, this practice helps us recognize that we have all Tara’s awakened qualities and the potential for all her awakened activities in ourselves. The practice is simply to allow all her qualities to flourish within ourselves, so that whatever is needed in any given situation can spontaneously manifest out of us. If a situation calls for a pacifying influence, for calming people or bringing them together, then that kind of activity will spontaneously arise. If the situation needs some enriching, perhaps some kind of Dharma teaching or other education, then that energy will come out of us. The same is true for magnetizing people together or for the more fierce energy of destruction where new boundaries have to be set or old patterns ended.
It doesn’t matter if you are a woman or a man; the more you practice Tara, the more you come to embody her enlightened qualities, and the more you become an emanation of Tara in the world. In tantric practice, we sometimes meditate ourselves as female yidams, sometimes as male yidams, and sometimes as the union of the male and female in sexual embrace. All of us have male and female aspects within ourselves. That’s why we practice to purify, transform, and liberate the masculine and feminine within us, and ultimately to bring them into complete union. In fact, emptiness and form, heaven and earth, male and female—all seeming dualities must be brought into union to fully realize our true nature. All dualities are inseparable, and in their final essence they are all wisdom and compassion united. So as we practice, it doesn’t matter whether we’re female or male in our bodies. What matters is that we do the right practice for us and for the world.
Tara takes countless different forms, some are green, white, red, yellow or blue/black, some are surpassingly beautiful and others terrifyingly ugly, some are peaceful and some are full of wrathful energy. If you decide to start a Tara practice, it is best to consult a teacher you trust to help you get going and give you guidance along the way. Some tantric practices that involve Tara or other yidams invoke powerful psychic forces that can be unsettling or even dangerous and should not be undertaken alone, but others like the Green and White Tara practices which are on this website are safe to do on your own.
Green Tara is the most common place to start, so here is a brief description of one of her practices. The practice text will provide more details, and it is often recited as you go through the various stages of the practice, so make sure you are familiar with it before you go on. You start the actual practice by taking a comfortable posture, settling your mind calmly, and if you are a Buddhist declaring your intention to take refuge in the Three Jewels—the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Then out of emptiness, you visualize Tara’s “seed syllable” Tam appearing in the sky in front of you resting on an open lotus flower. If you know what the Tibetan character for Tam looks like you can visualize that; if not imagine a ball of blue/green light. Then repeating her mantra, Om Taré Tu Taré Turé So Ha, imagine that the Tam is instantly transformed into Green Tara sitting on that same open lotus. She is radiantly beautiful and serene. Her skin is blue-green like the color of a mountain lake, and she is arrayed in silks and jewels, symbolizing both her complete integration of the six perfections and her full awakening as a completely realized buddha. She is the mother of all the buddhas, the essence of compassion in action. Her right foot is slightly extended, because she is ready to leap to the aid of beings. Her right hand is opened out and is resting on her right knee in the gesture of generosity. Her left hand holds the stem of a beautiful lotus flower that is blossoming next to her left ear. Think that the minds of all your spiritual teachers and of all those who have shown you love and compassion are united with her, and that she is now truly present in the sky in front of you. At the beginning, it may be helpful to have an image of Tara you like that you can glance at from time to time to help fix the visualization in your mind, but it is okay if your visualization isn’t very clear or strong at first; the important thing is to feel her loving presence.
The next step is to visualize that a river of nectar or “amrita”—liquid light turquoise green in color—comes from her outstretched right hand into you. The river of amrita removes all fear, gives protection, clears away obstacles and obscurations, and transmits enlightened awareness into you and all beings. Keep repeating her mantra as you feel yourself becoming more and more light and clear.
When you are ready, ask Tara to merge with you, and imagine that she dissolves into light and pours into your body. Think that your mind is now inseparable with Tara’s mind and with all enlightened minds everywhere. In the culmination of the meditation, you imagine yourself as actually being Tara, appearing as a body made of light that is inseparable from emptiness, emptiness that is inseparable from her form. Keep repeating her mantra over and over again and feeling her enlightened wisdom and power.
Continuing to see yourself as Tara and imagine there is a blue-green seed syllable Tam or a ball of light resting in your heart. From this seed syllable light radiates out to all beings in all directions, sending joy, compassion, loving-kindness, strength, equanimity, and all the other blissful qualities of the enlightened beings.
When you are done, you gradually dissolve the visualization and let it collapse in on itself until there is nothing but a drop of turquoise-green light left in the heart area. It is radiating brilliantly: the essence of your true nature. Finally, this brilliant drop dissolves into space, like a rainbow disappearing into the sky, and you rest in the true nature of your mind–pure empty awareness suffused with love. When you are done, dedicate your practice to benefit all beings and remind yourself that our practice is not just for ourselves, but to help bring all living beings everywhere to enlightenment.
In this way, Tara practice uses duality to help us realize the complete emptiness of our dualistic thinking. It uses our sense of being separate from the divine, from our own awakening, to dismantle that separation and with it our deluded perception of the world. When we first call on Tara, we envision her as an awakened being separate from ourselves, but the more we interact with her, the more we come to dismantle that very separation. We eventually come to see that we are completely inseparable from her and her enlightened mind, and with that realization a profound shift in identity occurs. The pure gold of our true nature shines forth, and we become an enlightened yidam and the world our sacred mandala.
* This article was based on Chapter 6 of The Buddha’s Dream of Liberation, which I put together from Lama Palden Drolma’s talks on Tara practice. It has, however, been heavily revised, and I take full responsibility for any errors or omissions. JWC
James William Coleman 