Green Tara mantra
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The green goddess
The other striking thing about Tara is her greenness. She is represented as a beautiful, often voluptuous, sixteen-year-old woman, clad is silks and jewels: a highly attractive figure. And yet the color of her skin is green, and this surely clashes with her otherwise attractive appearance.
Tara is associated with the color green in a number of ways. First, as we will see when we consider Tara’s origins, in one myth she is said to have been given her name by Amoghasiddhi Buddha, who is himself green. Tara is Amoghasiddhi’s spiritual consort.
Secondly, both Tara and Amoghasiddhi are connected, in the Five-Buddha Mandala, with the element Air, which is itself associated with that color.
Thirdly, Green Tara is a forest goddess, and in one story is shown as being clad in leaves. Her Pure Land, in distinction to others that are composed of precious gems, is said to be lush and verdant:
Covered with manifold trees and creepers, resounding with the sound of many birds,
And with murmur of waterfalls, thronged with wild beasts of many kinds;
Many species of flowers grow everywhere.
She is therefore a female form of the "Green Man" figure who is found carved in many European churches and cathedrals, and who is found in the Islamic traditions as the figure Al-Khidr.
Comments
Comment from Surya
Time: August 20, 2007, 3:09 am
I remember my teacher said that a Bodhisattva doesn’t have a sex. It’s not male neither female. So, regarding what you’ve said about “female Bodhisattva” here, I think it’s better to say: a Bodhisattva whose appearance is more in female form
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: August 20, 2007, 11:35 am
Yes, it’s true that these archetypal Bodhisattvas are beyond being classifies as male and female, and it is more accurate to say she’s in a female form. That’s true of the “male” Bodhisattvas as well, who are really just manifesting a male form.
Comment from Cora
Time: December 29, 2007, 1:34 pm
Thanx so much for your prompt reply.
If the the v then sounds like a w, and the a’s sound like father……..??? wouldn’t it sound like swaaaahaaaaa????
Re: Green Tara Mantra ( svaha )
Cora Namaste
Comment from Bodhipaksa
Time: December 29, 2007, 1:59 pm
Yeah!
PS. And I’ve now posted an MP3 version of the file on this page. As long as you have Flash installed in your browser you should be able to play it OK.
Comment from Bon
Time: May 11, 2008, 2:09 pm
Thank you so much for such a concise and easily understood explanation. I am giving a set of prayer flags, which carry the image of the Green Tara, to a healer who has shown me tremendous compassion. I appreciate this information as I can now include it with the gift so as to explain it’s significance and relevance.
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