In honor of Mother’s Day, I thought it would be nice to meditate on Tārā, the Mother of All Buddhas. And guess what– This image is of Chintamani-Chakra Tārā, one of the many manifestations of Tārā.
My parents didn’t know Chintamani was the name of a manifestation of Tara when they named me. Chintamani is a spiritual jewel. My parents said the Chintamani Jewel is a metaphor for the indestructible, pure spirit inside of all of us that is connected to the divine. Most references I find describe Chintamani as a spiritual jewel that helps grant the supreme wish for enlightenment.
Chintamani-Chakra Tara has a rainbow aura. Looking at the image above, we see the colors:
First is white, purifying light and intention.
Then yellow enriching light and intention.
Third, red magnetizing light and intention.
Fourth is bright sky blue fierce and wrathful light and intention.
Fifth is pervasive green light, the light of Mother Samaya Tara, which is the synthesis of infinite activities.
Last, a startling magenta purple light (some translations call it brown), surrounds us in an impenetrable field of protection.
This is the stunning Wheel of Wish-Granting Tara, the shining light of unlimited powerful activities.
Her divine form is adorned with seven bow-shaped eyes, with the three eyes of her face representing the perfection of her body, speech and mind, and the four eyes in her palms and soles representing the 'four immeasurables' of her boundless Compassion, Loving Kindness, Sympathetic Joy, and perfect Equanimity.
More about Tārā, in general:
As a young bodhisattva, Tara was told by her male teachers that she should pray to be born a man in her next life to help her on her way to enlightenment. She responded by reaching enlightenment in that lifetime, and vowed to be reborn over and over again as a female bodhisattva and goddess for the benefit of all beings –and especially to protect from the eight fears.
Tara is also known as Jetsün Dölma (Tibetan: rje btsun sgrol ma, meaning: "venerable mother of liberation"). In some forms of Buddhism, she is a fully-enlightened Buddha manifested in a female form. In other forms of Buddhism, she is a Bodhisattva–someone not quite enlightened yet but well on the way.
Tara is also known as a saviouress who hears the cries of beings in saṃsāra (the endless cycle of birth and death) and saves them from worldly and spiritual danger. (In this way she is similar to Kuan Yin.)
Her titles include "loving mother", "supreme mother", "mother of the world", "universal mother" and "mother of all Buddhas". As such, Tara embodies many of the qualities of feminine principle. She is known as the Mother of Mercy and Compassion. She is the source, the female aspect of the universe, which gives birth to warmth, compassion and relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary beings in cyclic existence. She engenders, nourishes, smiles at the vitality of creation, and has sympathy for all beings as a mother does for her children.
I believe that of the 21 Taras, Chintamani-Chakra Tara is Tara #9, Wish-Granting Tara
Happy Mother's Day!
Here are some Sources I used for this post:
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