The Green Tara Project

‘Tara’ is a female buddha figure who appears in a variety of buddhist branches of teaching.  She is known as the ‘mother of liberation,’ and represents the virtues of success in work and achievements.  Green Tara, in particular, represents the virtues of enlightened activity, which is fitting since my methods for empowerment involve karate, a very active activity.

Tārā also 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 Tārā she offers succor and protection from all the unfortunate circumstances one can encounter within the samsaric world.

The story of Tara goes something like this:

There was a young princess who receives special instruction concerning bodhicitta — the heart-mind of a bodhisattva. After doing this, some monks approach her and suggest that because of her level of attainment, she should next pray to be reborn as a male to progress further. At this point she lets the monks know that from the point of view of Enlightment it is only “weak minded worldlings” who see gender as a barrier to attaining enlightenment. She sadly notes there have been few who wish to work for the welfare of beings in a female form, though. Therefore she resolves to always be reborn as a female bodhisattva, until samsara (suffering) is no more.