Green Tara
The Buddha of Enlightened Action.
My soul informs my every step.
I do what my heart compels me to do/
Who she is:
Tara embodies the emboldened state that overcomes fear and allows us to take action on what we know is right. Tara is a female Buddha in the Vajrayana Buddhist tradition. She is known as the “mother of liberation” because her name is derived from the root “to cross.” Tara assists all beings in crossing the ocean of suffering to liberation.
According to the Tara Tantra, Tara incarnated as a king’s daughter. She showed such spiritual excellence and such profound compassion that she impressed a group of monks. They told her that they would pray for her to be reborn as a man so she could reach enlightenment. She responded by enlightening them. She told them there is no such thing as male and female. The ideas, projections and expectations that we superimpose upon the male form and the female form are not real. They are contrived. [Form is emptiness and emptiness is form.]
Tara vowed then and there, before all the monks, that she would remain a female Buddha for all lifetimes until all beings were liberated from the illusion that a person sex determines their ability to become enlightened.
Tara has four different types of enlightened activity and divine attributes depicted symbolically through the colors, red, white, black, yellow and green. Green Tara is Tara’s embodiment of compassionate action or enlightened action. Her green color signifies vigor and vitality. Her mudra also represents vitality, and the purity of our life force, the prana mudra. She is the action we take from a deeply rooted place within our heart. She is the energy that seeks to act in the light in alignment with what will free us up as we liberate others.
When your soul select her card:
Green Tara is the nudge to get moving to do what it is that your soul compels you to do? Don’t sit with an idea or project any longer; take action on it. Don’t think about a friend who keeps coming into your heart; go bring her dark chocolate or send her a love letter. Don’t wait to express your love to someone you’ve needed to, go now -- tell the truth. Let your feet be moved by what has been caged within you. Let your wisdom shift into inspired action.
Tara is the message that the time for action is now. There’s nothing to wait for, no person you need to become before doing something that you’ve come here to do. Start small. Let the soul lead not the ego. It’s not the grandeur of the gesture or effort, it is the amount of love something is done with that ever matters.
There are so many injustices in the world, so much suffering, that it’s easy to get stuck in the molasses of helplessness. The brilliant Burmese diplomat Aung San Suu Kyi says “If you’re feeling helpless, help someone. Green Tara is about aligning what moves us to tears with compassionate action. She’s the push to do something, anything that might alleviate the suffering of others. In the process of taking action with love and from love, we also liberate ourselves.
Soul voice meditation:
What does my soul want me to take action on right now?
Intention:
My soul informs my every step.
I do what my heart compels me to do.