Divine Wisdom Mother Tara

What is Divine Wisdom Mother Tara? Who is she? All this wintertime we have been working to fix our Mummy Tara statue. So I think that at least you have a good visualization, a good basic understanding of what she looks like. I hope so.

The actual Divine Wisdom Mother Tara is the embodiment of all the manifested activities of all universal supreme beings. Their actions are transformed into Tara’s green radiating light body. Therefore, meditation on Tara can result in very incredible and powerful activities. Also, her meditation yields results very quickly. This is because Tara is in female aspect and we consider feminine energy to have the characteristic of being quicker, acting more quickly than masculine energy. The favorite deity of all the great Mahayana saints is Tara.

This profound yoga method of Divine Wisdom Mother Tara brings us to the everlasting peaceful realizations of enlightenment, benefiting not only ourselves but also all mother sentient beings. But many people—materialistic people and even some lamas—also do this puja all the time, not for enlightenment realizations but just to have a comfortable and successful life. For example, farmers who are growing wheat and barley may be worried that there won’t be sufficient rain for their crops so they do this puja to ensure that the rains will come in good time. This is similar to the way Nepalese people make offerings to Kali [the Hindu mother goddess] because they think that if they do not, they won’t have good crops that year—no rice, no dal and so on. It is some kind of simple mind. But even that is not right. Using such an incredibly powerful method in such a simple way is like using a cloth made of gold to clean your toilet. If I were to do that, you would say to me, “What a stupid lama you are! Why are you using this incredibly valuable golden cloth to clean your bathroom?”

The position in which Tara is sitting has great significance: her right leg is extended outward and down and her left leg is drawn in. This means that Tara has complete control. She is able to completely control all her monthly periods, all emotional up-and-down mood swings, up-and-down female energy. She has realized complete control over all these aspects. How wonderful. This is why if you understand the real essence of Tara it is very encouraging to women. Women are better able to take care of the body, to make the body beautiful; they have better understanding of these things. More importantly, women are encouraged in that by using such a yoga method they are equally able to discover enlightenment, just as men can do. In this Mahayana yoga tantra tradition there is no difference between what men can accomplish and what women can accomplish. There is nothing that says that men can discover enlightenment realizations in this life using this powerful yoga method but women cannot. That is wrong. We are all equally capable; we all have the same possibilities.

Historically, when Mother Tara first took the bodhisattva vows she vowed in front of the buddha at that time, “There are many buddhas in male aspect in the world but very few in female aspect. So I will always remain in female aspect and become enlightened in that aspect in order to help all Dharma practitioners be successful.” She promised. Therefore, any serious Dharma practitioner who engages in the deity practice of Tara will be very successful. This yoga method can also be used to bring success for Dharma purposes, to overcome problems, even to obtain material things, equipment that we need for our Dharma practice. In such cases, you can use this practice for those purposes. Clearly, it all depends on your motivation.