Kritik am Buch „The Shadow Of The Dalai Lama ... - Neues von Shi De

Unlike the many repellant demonic gods who attack the tormented Tibetans, Tara has become a place
of refuge. Under her, the believers can cultivate their noble sentiments. She grants devotion, love,
faith, and hope to those who call upon her. She exhibits all the characteristics of a merciful mother.
She appears to people in dreams as a guardian angel. She takes care of all private interests and needs.
She can be trusted with one’s cares. She helps against poisonings, heals illnesses and cures
obsessions. But she is also the right one to turn to for success in business and politics. Everyone prays
to her as a “redemptress”. In translation her name means “star” or “star of hope”. It can be said that
outside of the monasteries she is the most worshipped divinity of the Land of Snows. There is barely a
household in Tibet in which a small statue of Tara cannot be found.
A number of colors are assigned to her various appearances. There is a white, green, yellow, blue,
even a black Tara. She often holds a lotus with 16 petals whish is supposed to indicate that she is
sixteen years old. Her body is adorned with the most beautiful jewels. In a royal seated posture she
looks down mildly upon those who ask pity of her. Naturally, one gains the impression that she is not
suitable for tantric sexual practices. The whole positive aspect of the motherly appears to have been
concentrated within her. She is experienced by Europeans as a Madonna untouched by sexuality. This
is, however, not the case, then in contrast to her occidental sister with whom she otherwise has so
much in common, the white Tara is also a wisdom consort. [2]
Sometimes, as is also known of the European worship of Mary, her cult tips over into an undesirable
(for the clergy, that is) expansion of the goddess’s power which could pose a danger to the patriarchal
system. Tara is known, for example, as the “Mother of all Buddhas”. A legend in which she refuses to
appear as a man is also in circulation and is often cited these days: when she was asked by some
monks whether she did not prefer a male body, she is said to have answered: “Since there is no such
thing as a 'man' or a 'woman', this bondage to male and female is hollow. ... Those who wish to attain
supreme enlightenment in a man's body are many, but those who wish to serve the aims of beings in a
woman's body are few; therefore may I, until the world is emptied out, serve the aim of beings with
nothing but the body of a woman” (Beyer, 1978, p. 65). Such statements are downright revolutionary
and are in direct contradiction to the dominant doctrine that women cannot attain any enlightenment
at all, but must first be reborn in a male body.
Tantric Buddhism’s first protective measure against the potential feminine superiority of Tara is the
story of her origin. Firstly, she does not have the status of a Buddhas, but is only a female
Bodhisattva. Her head is adorned by a small statue of Amitabha, an indicator that she is subject to the
Highest Lord of the Light (who allows no women into his paradise) and is considered to be one of his
emanations.
Furthermore, Tara is nothing more or less than the personified tears of Avalokiteshvara. One day as
he looked down filled with compassion upon all suffering beings he had to weep. The tear from his
left eye became the green Tara, that which flowed from his right became her white form. Even if, as
according to some tantric schools, Chenrezi selects both Taras as wisdom consorts, they nevertheless
remain his creation. He gave birth to them as androgyne, as “father-mother”.