Introduction to Green Tara:
Manifesting Active Compassion
by
Rob Preece
My first meeting with Tara was in my role as a thangka painter in my early years as a Tibetan Buddhist. Someone asked if I would paint a thangka for them and, because I was relatively inexperienced and had never painted Tara before, I was intrigued. My response was to spend a lot of time looking at other paintings of her to begin to get more of a sense of her form. In that process, what astonished me was the huge diversity in the styles and quality of her form even though they were supposedly based upon the same iconographical source. In particular there was a great variation in how her face was painted. Subtleties of the shape of her eyes, her mouth and the colour of her skin all made a huge difference as to whether I felt drawn to one image or another. Some felt very alive and vital, others felt rather two-dimensional and lacking in feeling. Today, online images of Green Tara are so varied that it seems as though anyone wishing to depict her form will do so in their own very personal way. The iconographical roots are in danger of being gradually lost.
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Since that early painting, I have painted Tara many times. Whenever I do, I am always touched by the feeling quality that begins to be present as I paint. In many ways I consider this felt experience to be perhaps the most important ingredient in the process of painting. As Tara’s form emerges on the canvas, this feeling becomes stronger. A feeling of devotion becomes clearer and deeper the more I am happy with the way she is manifesting. It is as though I begin to fall in love with the Tara that is forming before my eyes.
Painting thangkas of Tara has been the foremost way in which I have engaged with her practice. Early on in my Tibetan Buddhist life I received my first empowerment into what is known as Cittamani Tara, a “higher tantra” aspect, given by the venerable lama Song Rinpoche in the mid-1970s. Receiving this empowerment felt very significant in the transmission of a lineage, yet I am aware that actually my painting was my first initiation into a very deep heart connection. It also gave me a sense that, for many people, love of and devotion to Tara does not come from formal initiations but from a deep heart resonance. Tara can touch us in a mysterious way.
Within the Tibetan tradition, Tara, along with Chenrezig, is possibly the most famous and best loved deity. As Tibetan Buddhism has expanded its presence around the globe, so too the presence of Tara seems to follow. She is the deity that many Western Buddhists are particularly drawn to as an aspect of the divine feminine that makes her a powerful expression of enlightenment embodied in the female form. As a woman awakening, many centuries ago, Tara promised that she would always manifest in a female form to liberate sentient beings. Many see this decision to be of great significance in the present time as an empowerment for women to value their own potential to awaken.
The Tibetans’ reverence and love for Tara sees her very much as an aspect of the “Great Mother” who watches over their lives as a compassionate and loving presence. She is often seen as the protector who takes care of the traveller or the mother in childbirth, and she is invoked in troubled times. While she can be externalised in this way, she is also an aspect of our innate buddha-nature that can be awakened in order to manifest her qualities in the service of others. Amongst Tibetans, the Dalai Lama’s sister Ven. Jetsun Pema is often considered an embodiment of Tara and her qualities revered as the “mother of Tibet”.
While I was living in India spending time in retreat, on one occasion I was walking down from McLeod Ganj to Dharamsala with a friend. A jeep pulled up beside us and the passenger, a Tibetan woman, asked if we would like a lift. We accepted gratefully and got into the back of the car. We began to speak with the passenger, and I felt an extraordinary quality coming from this woman. I suddenly realised that we were sitting in the jeep of the Dalai Lama’s sister Jetsun Pema. As she spoke, her quality of kindness and compassion was tangible and the softness of her voice deeply affected me. It was an experience I will never forget. I feel incredibly fortunate to have met an embodiment of Tara in this way and this experience makes me very aware of the historical story of the origins of Tara: that she would always manifest in the aspect of women.
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As a deity within the tantric tradition, Tara is one of the most venerated and loved female figures. We are most familiar with her green colour and this seems quite natural and acceptable. Actually though, green is unusual and has particular significance; I will be going into this in more depth. Tara is often accompanied by twenty other Taras, making her part of what are familiarly known as the twenty-one Taras. These twenty could be seen as facets of her nature, like the facets of a jewel. Each Tara expresses a different quality, depicted with subtly different attributes and different colours. Green Tara, as the central figure of the twenty-one Taras, inspires enormous devotion and her followers often venerate her through reciting praises to the twenty-one Taras. As Tara the liberator she is said to liberate us from the eight fears or eight dangers which are the root causes of our suffering.
The qualities of Tara depicted in the familiar form, seated with one foot stepping down onto a secondary lotus and one held in closely, demonstrate how she embodies the willingness to step into the world to respond to the suffering she sees, in whatever way is most beneficial. Her spontaneous and dynamic compassion combined with her intuitive wisdom means that she will be there for us in whatever way is needed. Arya Tara –“Noble Tara”– is often seen as the loving mother who responds in a manner that many of us may have lacked in the way we have been mothered. As such she can offer some solace of healing to that wound when we know how to allow our relationship to deepen.
In this book I wish to look at Tara’s qualities in depth, especially from a psychological perspective in how they can support our own healing. These qualities are present in the symbolism of her form; I will go into detail to convey
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an understanding of how, through her practice, we can begin to embody these qualities in our life. I will look at how our relationship to Tara can contribute to the healing of our relationship to our mother, which for many of us in the West has not been straightforward. I will introduce a practice of tonglen that can greatly help in this healing. As we become more familiar with the different attributes of Tara, I will also show how these manifest in what are known as the “four vajra activities” of peace, increase, power and wrath. Tara’s example shows us an extraordinary combination of qualities that, together, can enhance the potential we each possess to manifest our natural ability to benefit others. Tara is a manifestation of a bodhisattva’s capacity to be of benefit to others, and in her female form she expresses something very special at this time. She exemplifies a way for women in particular to come fully into being in the world, bringing the qualities of wisdom and dynamic compassion into expression in whatever way is most natural.
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