We continue our meditations on feminine divine names. And on names for the sacred masculine as well.
God as Tara.
The name “Tara” is a Tibetan name that means both “Star” and “Tear.” Mahayana Buddhism worships the Divine Mother as Tara, who is said to have been born out of one of the tears of the Buddha of compassion that fell to the earth.
She who saves and restores was born from that tear. She offers liberation and illumination in our everyday life. Enlightenment is available to all. She is addressed in a Tibetan litany as
Our mother: great compassion! Our mother: a thousand hands, a thousand eyes!; Our mother: Cooling like water!; Our mother: ripening like fire!; our mother: spreading like wind!; Our mother: pervading like space!
The Hebrew Scriptures say that “Wisdom is the mother of all good things” and this became foundational to Julian of Norwich’s many meditations on God as the goodness in things and God as intrinsic to nature which, for her, is “the first good thing.”*
God as Kuan Yin.
In China, Kuan Yin is considered the Bodhisattva of Compassion who listens and responds to the cries of all beings. Like Mary and Artemis, she is a virgin Goddess who “protects women, offers them a religious life as an alternative to marriage, and grants children to those who want them.”
She is omnipresent for “in the lands of the universe there is no place where she does not manifest herself” and her wondrous compassion everywhere “pours spiritual rain like nectar” everywhere while “quenching the flames of distress.”*
Quotes from Halle Iglehart Austen, The Heart of the Goddess: Art, Myth and Meditations of the World’s Sacred Feminine (Berkeley: Wingbow Press, 1990).
See Matthew Fox, Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God…Including the Unnameable God, pp. 88f.
And Matthew Fox, A Spirituality Named Compassion.
To read the transcript of Matthew Fox’s video teaching, click HERE.
Banner Image: “The Goddess of Compassion in Situ” Photograph Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (commonly known as Guan Shi Yin) from Phor Kark See Monastery, Singapore. Photo by Photo Dharma on Wikimedia Commons.
Queries for Contemplation
How do Tara as described above and Kuan Yin speak to you? Do you also recognize God as Compassion?
Recommended Reading
Naming the Unnameable: 89 Wonderful and Useful Names for God …Including the Unnameable God
Too often, notions of God have been used as a means to control and to promote a narrow worldview. In Naming the Unnameable, renowned theologian and author Matthew Fox ignites our imaginations by offering a colorful range of Divine Names gathered from scientists and poets and mystics past and present, inviting us to always begin where true spirituality begins: from experience.
“This book is timely, important and admirably brief; it is also open ended—there are always more names to come, and none can exhaust God’s nature.” -Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, author of Science Set Free and The Presence of the Past
A Spirituality Named Compassion: Uniting Mystical Awareness with Social Justice
In A Spirituality Named Compassion, Matthew Fox delivers a profound exploration of the meaning and practice of compassion. Establishing a spirituality for the future that promises personal, social, and global healing, Fox marries mysticism with social justice, leading the way toward a gentler and more ecological spirituality and an acceptance of our interdependence which is the substratum of all compassionate activity.
“Well worth our deepest consideration…Puts compassion into its proper focus after centuries of neglect.” –The Catholic Register
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11 thoughts on “Tara and Kuan Yin and Compassion”
I saw Quan Yin during a visit to China many years ago. She was portrayed standing upright, looking victorious, riding on the back of a fierce dragon swimming in a turbulent sea. I asked the shop keeper who the woman was. He answered “Quan Yin”. The painting reminded me of the first beast in Revelations 12 spewing venom on the woman and her child. I bought the scroll/painting and had it framed. I have often wondered what Quan Yin’s connection might be to the woman of Revelations. Today’s DM brings welcome clarity.
Wow Gwen, what an interesting comparison you have come upon. I will have to do some research myself on the connection of Quan Yin and the woman of Revelation !!!
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Great Mystery, Divine LOVE, exceeds, supersedes the religions of man—practice The Presence. }:- a.m.
Thank you so very much for todays DM. I realized much more deeply today, listening to Mathew through the video pod cast, as well as the prayer within the DM, just how much I resonate with the Archetype of Tara. Like her I have cried many tears of compassion.
I have been and continue to be one whom sees through her eyes, one whom touches through her many hands, one whom kindles the fire, the light and truth, the spirituality of compassion and the justice of love and mercy in the face of injustice. I realized I am one of the many stars of compassion, doing what I can to radiate a little spark of this universal compassion needed in this world, and that I am empowered, nurtured, comforted, consoled and wisely counseled daily, through my connection to the many expressions of our Divine Mother.
This spiritual connection and companionship is real, and the teachings that Mathew shares within these daily DMs is definitely helping me to embrace and trust, to more deeply be and live in this reality, which is a blessing offered of to all, from the Divine Mother Herself.
Jeanette, thank you as always for your heart-felt and insightful comment. The bottom line is the need for compassion, as Matthew wrote in his book, A SPIRITUALITY NAMED COMPASSION. Tara, Quan Yin, and Jesus all embodied compassion and modeled it for us…
Kwan Yin (or Guan Yin) has a relationship with the Blessed Mother. When Jesuits came to China to “convert the heathens” they found many images of a woman holding a child who had beads in her sash. They mistakenly thought these were images of Mary.
Good point and historical note. Elaine !!!
I also love Matthew’s pointing out in “Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh”, that “the Greek word splanchnizomai, meaning ‘compassion’ that is used often about Jesus, means literally, ‘his bowels turned over’ “. Injustice hits us in the gut, and compassion then flows from the womb.
Sue, well said…
Years ago, I read a book by John Blofeld. Compassion Yoga: The Mystical Cult of Kuan Yin. It spoke to me then, and does now, of the “reality” of Kuan Yin. A beautiful book.