Small Prayer to Tara

Tara Kye Kyenno

"Tara, holy liberator, swift-acting mother, I pray and invoke your blessings. Please watch over me, protect me, and hold me in your loving embrace"

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Who is Tara?

Tara was once just an ordinary person, but after many lifetimes of practicing the Bodhisattva Path, she 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 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.

Tara's characteristics as a boddhisatva
One of the 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 has a major a major role in 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.