Tara: The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha

By Rachael Wooten

A practical guide for invoking the power and blessings of Tara, the beloved female buddha of Tibet
 
Known as "the female Buddha" in Tibet and India, Tara connects us to the archetypal Divine Feminine—an energetic force that exists within us and all around us, and has been available to all humans since our earliest origin.
 
While there are many books on Tara, this practical guide shows us how those of any tradition can directly access her, through clear instruction and authentic Tibetan Buddhist teachings.
 
Jungian analyst, scholar, and spiritual practitioner Dr. Rachael Wooten combines the ancient Tara tradition with depth psychology to help us connect with each of Tara's manifestations and access her blessings within ourselves and in the external world.
 
In her myriad forms, Tara has the power to protect us from inner and outer negativity, illuminate our self-sabotaging habits, cleanse mental and physical poisons, address emotional trauma, open us to abundance, give us strength and peace, help us fulfill our life purposes, and more.
 
Here, you will explore all 22 manifestations of Tara. Each chapter begins with an epigraph that captures the spiritual and psychological essence of the emanation, explains her purpose, and teaches you specific visualizations, praises, mantra chants, and other ways of invoking her presence in yourself and the world.
 
"If ever the voice of wisdom and compassion was needed in the form of an awakened female figure such as Tara," writes Dr. Wooten, "that time is now." This book illuminates the way to her healing, blessings, and aid.
 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sounds True
• Release date: Apr 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781683643890

Rachael Wooten

Rachael Wooten, PhD, is a Zürich-trained Jungian analyst and psychologist who has been in private practice as a therapist for more than 40 years. An enthusiastic interfaith activist, she has studied and practiced in Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and indigenous traditions throughout her adult life.   Rachael has been mentored by spiritual teachers such as her Tibetan root guru Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She has taught Tara practices under the authorization of Lodrö Rinpoche for more than 20 years. Rachael has offered Tara workshops through the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and C. G. Jung Society of the Triangle. She currently teaches a monthly Tara meditation group at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. To learn more, visit rachaelwootenauthor.com.

Book preview

In deep gratitude for the unlimited and ongoing blessings of my teachers:

Lodrö Tulku Lobsang Champa Khedup Namgyal Rinpoche Mother Meera

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. May his memory be for blessing.

With your words, actions, and pure silence, with your remarkable presence and teachings, you have shown me that help is always available from multiple realms of consciousness.

In loving memory of Tara sisters, whose lives touched us all and were far too short:

Sally Comer

Sistie Howie

Elena Matthews

Birgit Patty

Sue Versenyi

As soon as they think of my name, I protect the living beings from the Ocean of the various dangers of existence. Therefore, I am called the ‘Liberator’ by the victorious Buddhas, all over the world.

These words go directly back to Arya Tara, the female Buddha born of compassion. She shows the way, giving meaning and support to our precious human life.

Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche

Wish Fulfilling Tara Island

Switzerland

Contents

Introduction

The Origins of Tara: Always in the Body of a Woman

Calling On Green Tara

CHAPTER 1Red Swift and Courageous Tara

CHAPTER 2Great White Soothing Tara

CHAPTER 3Golden Tara

CHAPTER 4Yellow All-Victorious Tara

CHAPTER 5Red Hum-Sounding Tara

CHAPTER 6Dark Red Victorious Tara

CHAPTER 7Black Tara Who Destroys All Negativities

CHAPTER 8Dark Red Destroying Tara

CHAPTER 9White Protecting Tara with the Three Jewels Mudra

CHAPTER 10Red Influential Tara

CHAPTER 11Orange Poverty-Removing Tara

CHAPTER 12Golden Good-Luck-Bringing Tara

CHAPTER 13Red Burning Tara

CHAPTER 14Black Wrathful Tara

CHAPTER 15White Soothing Tara

CHAPTER 16Red All-Knowing Hum Tara

CHAPTER 17Saffron Tara Who Moves the Three Worlds

CHAPTER 18White Poison-Removing Tara

CHAPTER 19White Tara Who Removes All Suffering

CHAPTER 20Orange Tara Who Protects from All Illnesses

CHAPTER 21White Tara Who Fulfills All Activities

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

Practice Resources

A Green Tara Sadhana: A Step-by-Step Practice Text

A Sadhana for Tara’s Twenty-One Emanations

Quick Reference Guide for Sadhana Practice: The Praises, the Mantras, and Tara’s Appearance

Twenty-Two Short Tara Practices

Meditating with Seed Syllables

Additional Resources

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

About Sounds True

Copyright

Praise for Tara

A Note on Spelling and Pronunciation

As this book is intended for a general audience, the Tibetan and Sanskrit words herein are not transliterated, but rather spelled informally for ease of reading. The pronunciation spellings of the Sanskrit mantras reflect the journey these practices have taken from India, to Tibet, and now to the West.

Introduction

Welcome to the Mandala of Green Tara! You have entered the realm of a female buddha with the power to appear in any form she wishes in order to help you. Seated on her lotus throne, but ready to leap to your assistance, she is surrounded by her twenty-one different manifestations, each with a particular gift to offer a devotee in need.

The Sanskrit word mandala means to contain the essence. By stepping into Tara’s sacred circle through meditative practice, you connect directly with her. Tara’s name perfectly explains her essential purpose. Tara means Star in Sanskrit, referring to the North Star that humans have followed for centuries in the dark night to find true direction. Tara, or Dolma, in Tibetan, also means Savioress, She Who Liberates, the One Who Brings Us Across. She helps us navigate the stormy waters of self-doubt when we question our connection to our basic goodness, or our awakened nature within, and our sense of place in the world around us.

As my teacher, Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche, reminded me recently, In the twenty-first century, we need inner stability and peace of mind. Tara is a goddess of compassion and love. Her blessings can pacify our anxieties!

Do you sometimes suffer from anxiety or feel a lack of stability? Do you often feel you need help, but don’t deserve it? Do you suffer from shame about perceived flaws and failures? Does fear prevent you from moving forward in life or from having meaningful relationships? Do you withdraw into isolation and suffer alone, instead of meeting your distress with tenderness by reaching out to others, consciously connecting with the natural world around you, or engaging in prayer or meditation? When you are in need, do you wonder, How do I pray? Who will answer?

You are not alone. You are not meant to manage your suffering or that of the world in isolation. Your life is embedded in an intricate web of relationships with countless beings—human and otherwise—some of them known to you, the vast majority of them unknown to you. Your inner life also unfolds in the context of teachers, friends, loved ones, spiritual teachings and practices, lived experiences, and unseen forces. You are fundamentally interconnected with everyone and everything. A new and profound awareness of this is, above all else, Tara’s gift to you.

We explore the realm of Tara through sadhana, an ancient and highly ritualized form of meditative practice common to many Eastern religions, including all schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Sadhana practice is a potent tool for working with our emotional and mental states. Through directed intention, embodied visualization and chanting, we engage our whole being to invoke the energy and power of a meditational deity, the enlightened female Buddha Tara, in order to access and activate her positive qualities within us.

Prior to the Tibetan people’s exodus from their homelands following the Chinese invasion of Tibet, such practices were unknown in the West and often only available to those initiated by a qualified teacher. Tara practices are part of a larger body of tantric practices that includes several levels, some of which are still taught only to more advanced students by an experienced teacher. The practices in this book, however, come from a level of tantra freely offered to devotees of Tara, whether or not they have received initiation.

I have had the benefit of many Tara initiations by my teacher, whose full name is Lodrö Tulku Lobsang Champa Khedup Namgyal Rinpoche, and have been authorized by him to teach these practices to those with the desire and motivation to learn them. In 1997, Lodrö Rinpoche translated a particular text on the sadhanas of the twenty-one Taras by the nineteenth-century Gelug lama, Kalka Damchig Dorje.¹ At Rinpoche’s request, and with his assistance, I wrote a practice manual using his translation for our community that became the basis for this book.² He has encouraged me to complete this text so as to make the benefits of connecting with Tara more widely available to all.

But who is Tara, and why would we call upon her for help or cultivate her qualities within ourselves?

Tara is known as the beloved female buddha of Tibet, a fully enlightened being dedicated to the welfare of all. Every school of Tibetan Buddhism has its own form of Tara practice. The descriptions of Tara and practice instructions in this book are from the Gelug school, the same root lineage as the Dalai Lama’s. They were introduced to Tibetan practitioners by the Indian master Atisha, who is said to have moved to Tibet in the eleventh century at Tara’s request.

In our day, we commonly see Tara depicted as a youthful green woman seated on a lotus throne with a moon cushion in the center, holding a blue lotus in her right hand, with her right foot stretched out in front of her as though she is ready to leap up at any moment to help us. Tibetans pray to her, in fact, for swift assistance in time of need, much as a Catholic might pray to Mary for her intercession and merciful care. Monks, nuns, and lay-people alike chant the twenty-one ancient verses known as the Twenty-One Praises to Tara on a daily basis. This song cycle opens with an homage to Green Tara followed by the praises to her twenty-one emanations, or different manifestations. It is the basis of the Tara practices that have been the focus of my spiritual journey and deeply informed my psychological counseling work for more than twenty-five years.

Green Tara is famous both for her enlightened activities and for protecting her devotees from all fears. Each of her emanations represents a specific quality of awakened consciousness and offers a particular kind of assistance. For example, White Tara Who Removes All Suffering helps us penetrate the meaning of bad dreams, thus dissolving the fear accompanying them. Red Wisdom Tara helps us contain volatile emotions by understanding what lies beneath them. We gain strength, clarity, and peace in this process. While all of these qualities reside in Green Tara herself, engaging with her various manifestations offers us deep and particular insight into the ways enlightened consciousness functions.

When we perform Tara’s sadhana, we focus on whichever one of her emanations answers our most urgent need. We hold in our hearts the deep wish that all beings, not simply ourselves, will benefit from our practice. We begin with a stated intention to access wisdom that heals our old inner conflicts and our habitual patterns of thinking and reacting. This is the highest motivation for connecting with Tara: that our input into any situation—with our family, friends, or larger community—will be of benefit to everyone involved. When we study, meditate, or take an action with that intention in mind, we can trust that Tara’s guidance will take us in the right direction.

Tara also connects us to the Divine Feminine, a primordial energy that has taken on many forms from our earliest beginnings as a species, but that has been sorely lacking in modern religion. Tara practice can help us generate the courage to face the prejudice against women and other oppressed populations that continue in our times. By consciously connecting to the beneficial qualities of Green Tara and her twenty-one different emanations, we access an unshakeable, fierce compassion within that overcomes the personal lack of confidence that centuries of subjugation and injustice have embedded in our DNA. As our confidence grows, we become empowered to help others who experience oppression in all its forms. In this way, we become Tara in the world.

My Path to Tara

Twenty-five years of Tara practice has deeply influenced my work as a Jungian analyst, meditation instructor, interfaith teacher, and community activist advocating for women, for the powerless, and for the living ecosystem that is the planet Earth. My work in each of these areas continues to inform and expand my understanding of the meaning of Tara for our times. For the last twenty years, I have taught the Tara sadhanas to hundreds of women and men. My understanding of Tara has grown from its Buddhist roots to include feminist thought, wisdom from other religious traditions, modern discoveries of depth psychology, and other forms of psychotherapy and neurobiology.

My journey to Tara did not begin with Tibetan Buddhism, however, but in the late 1980s when I first encountered images of the Black Madonna. These dark red or black statues and portraits of Mary are enshrined in churches and caves all over Europe and South America. As I followed her beckoning, I met others who had made meaningful connections between the Black Madonna, Native American spirituality, and Buddhist teachings.

I met one such friend, Allie, on a ten-day wilderness retreat based on the teachings of the indigenous Lakota people. Several months after we had met, Allie called to tell me a riveting dream in which two women appeared—one black and one green. The black woman was large, strong, and fierce. She had come to protect young children from a menacing male presence. The green woman appeared in ethereal form as a compassionate presence supporting the black woman. Their combined energies were invincible; Allie realized in the dream that no harm would come to these children.

Allie then told me about China Galland’s recently published book, Longing for Darkness: Tara and the Black Madonna. I had immediately associated the black woman in the dream with the Black Madonna; Allie thought the green woman must be Tara.

At that time, I had never heard of Tara. I read Longing for Darkness and found it fascinating, but my inclination at the time was to continue my journey with the Black Madonna. Little did I suspect that this was the beginning of a life-long process of internalizing the connections between these sources of refuge, searching ever deeper for the ancient origins shared by Tara and Mary, both carriers of the Divine Feminine.

Several years later, in July 1993, I found myself settling into the comfortable home office of Andreas Schweizer, who was interviewing me as an applicant to the C. G. Jung Institute in nearby Küsnacht, Switzerland. I spoke of the Divine Feminine and my love of the Black Madonna and then mentioned my recent curiosity about Green Tara and Tibetan Buddhism. Andreas described his long-standing love affair with the Black Madonna and her Egyptian predecessor, Isis. He added, If you come here to study, I’ll introduce you to my friend, Martin Kalff, who has practiced and taught Tibetan Buddhism for decades. Martin’s mother, Dora Kalff, had worked extensively as a Red Cross volunteer to settle Tibetan refugees in Switzerland, including many high lamas and teachers.

Three months later, having been accepted, I began a trial semester at the Institute. At the end of that semester, I decided to complete the Jungian training there that I had begun in the United States.

The following April, I began the move to Switzerland for what I anticipated would be a year of studies. I was leaving my beloved home in North Carolina, along with the familiar comforts of neighborhood, friends, and family. As I was removing the last of my furniture from the living room, I experienced paralyzing fear. I sat on the sofa, my gaze fixed on a small, worn, faded blue and pale-rose oriental rug.

Suddenly lights appeared in the room, expanding and contracting. As the light expanded, it was translucent and white; as it contracted, it was green. I was frightened. What was wrong with my eyes? I began chanting the colors out loud as I watched them, Green, white, green, white, green, white. What is green and white? I asked myself repeatedly as I followed their movement.

Then the name struck like lightning. A voice inside my head began insisting, Tara. Tara. Tara. I began to weep. Finally, I stood up, freed from the paralysis and able to continue the process of moving toward Switzerland.

Shortly after my arrival in Zürich, Andreas arranged a meeting with Martin Kalff. After hearing my stories about Tara’s unexpected appearance in my life, Martin recommended that I meet the Lama, Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche. He had moved to Switzerland in 1967 at the Dalai Lama’s request to help found the first Tibetan monastery in Europe. He also taught at the Buddhist center in Zollikon that Martin’s family had established, Yiga Chözin. (Currently known as the Buddhist Center of Zollikon, Yiga Chözin is under the shared spiritual leadership of Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche, Martin Kalff, and his wife, Sabine Kalff.)

When I met with Lodrö Rinpoche and shared my experiences with him, his response was unequivocal, You must have a strong connection to Tara from a past life.

Thus began what ultimately became a three-and-a-half year residency in the Zürich area. I completed my training as an analyst at the Jung Institute and studied Tibetan Buddhism with Lodrö Rinpoche, who became the spiritual guide who opened my heart to the teachings and practices of Tara. Annual retreats in Switzerland have nurtured my connection with him and spiritual friends and fellow practitioners, as I have continued to deepen my Tara practice over the last twenty-five years.

My questions to you, dear reader, are these: Might you also have a strong connection to Tara? What drew you to this book about Green Tara and her twenty-one emanations? What path led you to this moment? What do you hope to gain from using this book? Why are you called to connect with Tara? Why now? Does your intuition suggest that she could help you establish a stronger connection to the Divine Feminine and therefore to yourself?

Tara can do that, and so much more. Along with detailed practice instructions, I will share stories from my life and the lives of friends, colleagues, clients, and Tara devotees to illustrate how meditating on Tara helps with our common struggles to attain spiritual and psychological maturity—challenges such as claiming personal authority, spiritual development, shadow work, isolation, shame, self-judgment, fear, and projection. You will learn key principles to empower your meditations: intentions to set at the beginning and end of each session, visualizations and contemplations of the meaning of each emanation of Tara, mantra chanting, the attention and acceptance of whatever arises in the meditation, the wisdom and love embedded in stories about Tara, and the value of your own experience alongside the wisdom from outer sources.

Do not hesitate to bring your past experiences with other spiritual traditions into Tara’s realm. All beings and all phenomena coexist interdependently. Tara’s origins in Hinduism and in more ancient forms of goddess worship are one example of the interdependent nature of religions, many of which have influenced each other directly and indirectly for thousands of years. A growing number of people remain connected to the religion of their childhood while becoming seriously involved with other spiritual practices.

For my part, I lead a monthly meditation group at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, known for its social justice leadership in our community. I have also given Tara teachings and offered practices in my Jewish Renewal community, which I helped found, and have served on numerous interfaith panels addressing social justice issues. The spaciousness of the Buddhist tradition allows room for all possible viewpoints. Wisdom you have gained from other traditions can illuminate these teachings. Tara practice may help resolve questions from the traditions in which you were raised or have encountered as an adult. Your curiosity and expectancy will open the doorway to unexpected and delightful discoveries.

In Tara practice, we ask that we might awaken fully in order to help others do the same. We chant her praises and mantras, while visualizing her surrounded by her twenty-one emanations. We remember our teachers and the lineages of teachers, and many other beings whom we invite to participate with us in our practice. When we meditate in this way, we fully enter Tara’s universe of wisdom and compassion with our body, mind, heart, and spirit. We become part of an ancient lineage of teachers and practitioners that has been centuries in the making. We help build the bridge over which the Tara teachings are gifted to future generations.

May this book provide encouragement and sustenance for your spiritual journey. May your growth in wisdom and compassion be a source of support and inspiration to all you meet along the way. May your study and practice of Tara be a blessing for you and all those you encounter, with no exceptions!

The Origins of Tara: Always in the Body of a Woman

Tara is ineffable, unknowable, the Deepest Mystery. Yet when you call out to her for assistance, she appears. Tara manifests as an inner state of calm and repose, of clarity and purpose, of wisdom and compassion. She manifests in outer events through every form of material existence. Tara manifests in you, around you, and through you.

Tara emerged at the end of sixth-century and early seventh-century India as part of the evolution of Hindu and Buddhist Tantra. ¹ While the term tantra has been broadly misappropriated to refer to the sexual practices of Buddhism and Hinduism, it more accurately describes any practice or teaching derived from texts known as the Tantras. The first female Buddhist images, including Tara, appear in tantric Buddhism. The emphasis shifted to include devotional practices alongside the more intellectual or analytic ones. The idea also arose in the tantric teachings that mistreating women was a major downfall for a practitioner. According to Martin Kalff, the concept of asking for help in Buddhism begins with Tara and the other tantric deities.

The Tara Tantra appears in the Tibetan Buddhist canon as part of a foundational collection of texts with their origins in India.² Some teachings in the tradition maintain that the tantras are the words of the historical Buddha, even though it is widely known that the tantras did not emerge in India until hundreds of years after his death. Establishing the precise origin and authorship of the Buddhist Tantras is not possible. However, it is clear from the teachings and practices that many Hindu and Buddhist tantras share common sources. Other influences were shamanic practices and the worship of the Mother Goddess. According to Martin Willson, Many attributes of Tara are in fact borrowed from Brahmanical forms of the Mother Goddess, especially Durga, whose cult was already well established.³

Nevertheless, the root text of all Tara practices is the Tara Tantra, and her practice is a tantric one. The Tara teachings were not firmly established in Tibet, however, until the eleventh century when the Indian tantric master, Atisha, moved there. He brought with him teachings and practices that remain in place today and are the source material for this book. Over time, Tara’s fame spread throughout the country. A wide variety of practices devoted to numerous different forms of Tara are part of all the lineages of Tibetan Buddhism. Widely loved as the Protectress from all fears, she is often called the Mother of the Buddhas. Tibetans pray to her directly for help. Innumerable stories have been recorded over the centuries, continuing to this day, about Tara’s miraculous interventions.

Alongside countless stories of Tara’s activities, there are two commonly told legends about her origins. One story centers on a remarkable woman who lived in another realm much like our current world, but in a time and place long before the Buddha of our age. The other legend recounts the mystical journey of a bodhisattva, a being on the path to buddhahood, who hoped to free beings trapped in the underworld from their intense suffering.

The most well-known account of Tara’s origin was recorded in a book written by the seventeen-century historian Taranatha.⁴ The tale of Princess Wisdom Moon bridges our mundane world with mysterious realms in which miraculous events occur. The teachings revealed in this story have offered hope and meaning to women and men through the centuries, down to our present time.

The Story of Wisdom Moon

Once upon a time, a beginningless time ago, in a world called Multicolored Light, a young princess, Yeshe Dawa, or Wisdom Moon, attracted the attention of some monks.⁵ They noticed that her devotion and boundless offerings to the Buddha of their age, Drum Sound, had opened her heart to bodhicitta, or the mind of enlightenment, the motivation to attain enlightenment for the benefit all beings.

These monks wondered among themselves, How can she progress on the path of awakening? They were surprised by her accomplishments as they thought that a woman could not reach enlightenment. They approached Wisdom Moon, confident in the good advice they planned to offer her, You should transform yourself into a man in this very moment or pray to be reborn as a man in your next lifetime. Surely, then you will instantly attain enlightenment!

Wisdom Moon, being unusually kind and wise for her age, took a deep breath and paused. Then she reminded the monks of the central tenet of Buddhism: Ultimate reality has no such distinctions as self or other, male or female.

She went on to say, Obviously, many of you are willing to work for enlightenment in a male body. It is very rare that people follow this path as a woman. With courage and clarity, she vowed, "I will achieve enlightenment only in a female form. As a woman, I will also work continuously to free sentient beings from suffering."

With her heartfelt vow and brave words, Wisdom Moon illuminated the monks’ ignorance of the Buddhist teachings. Eons passed as she continued to teach and liberate millions of beings. Not only did Tara become a buddha herself, but she became known as the Mother of all the Buddhas, from that long ago time up to our current era.⁶

In this epic narrative, an accomplished female practitioner completely upends a persistent claim from the early days of Buddhism that women cannot become enlightened. The monks’ attitude reflects a teaching congruent with cultural beliefs of ancient India and Tibet, which remains accepted doctrine in most Asian countries to this day. Here is a woman who awakens and becomes a buddha herself! The portrayal of Wisdom Moon as a princess appears to be a subtle but intentional allusion to the Buddha’s own path of transformation from a wealthy prince to a fully enlightened buddha.

I view the story of Wisdom Moon as a remarkable and necessary development that corrects a cultural misappropriation of the Buddha’s essential teachings. All of Buddhist philosophy rests on the foundation of shunyata, emptiness, the lack of solid, separately existing phenomena. None of us exists separately from all the aspects of life that support us and change us from moment to moment. Concepts are also completely dependent on other concepts, all of which are fundamentally impermanent and changing. Wisdom Moon reminded the monks that gender is one such concept. The ways in which gender is understood are changing constantly and depend on countless factors. It means one thing to one person and something completely different to another.

How could a fully awakened being such as the Buddha maintain that a person would reach the enlightened state based on the concept of gender? This interpretation of the Buddha’s teachings has circumscribed both monastics’ and laywomen’s access to spiritual education and practice for more than two millennia. Although Tara’s story became widely known and celebrated, and her practices well established in the monasteries of Tibet, those developments had little impact on cultural norms regarding the status of Tibetan women. While there have been a number of powerful female spiritual adepts in Tibet, widespread opportunities for women to practice Tara have arisen only in the last century.

The second widely known account of Tara’s origins comes from sutra texts related to Avalokiteshvara, or, in Tibetan, Chenrezig, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. The details of the story vary in writings of different authors. Yet the main point of all of these accounts is that Tara appears to Avalokiteshvara after he has been transformed by a shattering experience in the underworld or lower realms.

The Story of Avalokiteshvara’s Tears

There was a time when the great Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokiteshvara, made a vow to free all sentient beings from the lower realms of existence. In a moment of high energy and great confidence, he vowed before other buddhas and bodhisattvas that he would work endlessly until all beings had finally been liberated. He proclaimed, If I should hesitate in this task for even a moment, then let me shatter into a thousand pieces! Having set his intention, he began to work with great vigor and amazing force. He felt tremendous joy as he freed one sentient being after another. Then he turned his gaze and looked behind him. When he saw innumerable other beings falling into the lower realms where they experienced great suffering, he hesitated. For one instant he gave up.

According to his vow, he shattered into countless fragments. The buddhas and bodhisattvas who had witnessed his vow and his great effort gathered all of the tiny pieces and put them together again.⁷ After Avalokiteshvara was made whole again, he wept profusely. His tears formed a pool in which a beautiful lotus flower blossomed. Tara arose from its open center, a buddha herself, the Goddess