Obaitori

Happy Janmashtami 2010

We woke to an overcast day. It had been raining in the night. Legend has it that Sri Krishna was born on a dark, stormy and windy night to end the rule and atrocities of his maternal uncle, Kansa.Today is Janmashtami - Krishna's birthday - we commemorate the earthly appearance of Krishna. One of the biggest religious festivals in the world, it is celebrated by nine hundred and thirty million people around the world. For some, Krishna is a word meaning God.  Krishna is known as being a particularly personable fun-loving, vivacious, naughty, passionate God. Here is one interpretation of His astrology.

Krishna responds equally to the way He is worshipped. Whatever you put out there, He will return. So today we will offer ourselves with enthusiasm, Love, happiness & this is the energy we will receive back.

To celebrate these qualities of Krishna we will chant the Maha Mantra; Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare, cook plenty of yummy sattvic food & try my hand at burfi for the first time, watch a little live web cam from temples in India & all over the world, & dance & sing to Govinda Hare. Govinda means cow herder & Krishna was a cow herder. It is sung here by the sublime Krishna Das.

I do all these things to add Love into our lives, to celebrate life. To combine festivity with the true meaning of life creates joy, happiness & purpose. Today we are reminded of Krishna's all encompassing Love, His devotion, honesty, purity, cheekiness, acceptance, divinity & joy.

Hare Krishna!

Be Fearless - Choose Love

August 17, 2010 - today is Tara Day & Medicine Buddha Day. Buddhists around the world recite mantras today according to these specific deities. Often they focus on their qualitites & try to imbibe them or become them.

Tonight I will make an offering of our family dinner to the beautiful energy of these deities & ask for blessings of health, longevity, peace, happiness & enlightenment. I have also printed out some White Tara images for the children to colour-in & place on the family altar.

Tara is actually the generic name for a set of Buddhas or bodhisattvas of similar aspect. These may more properly be understood as different aspects of the same quality, as bodhisattvas are often considered metaphoric for Buddhist virtues.

The most widely known forms of Tārā are:

• Green Tārā known as the Buddha of enlightened activity, helpful if you are trying to conceive.
• White Tārā is the goddess of compassion. Her love heals at the source of dis-ease, bringing health, strength, longevity and beauty.
• Red Tārā, of fierce aspect associated with magnetizing all good things.
• Black Tārā, associated with power.
• Yellow Tārā, associated with wealth and prosperity.

The main Tārā mantra is the same for Buddhists and Hindus alike: om tara tuttare tura soha. 

You can find the mantra here.

If you are a Tibetan Buddhist or if you are just interested you will find some lovely guided meditations on Tara & the Medicine Buddha here.

A little bit about malas for today. For Tara, many people fancy turquoise, malachite or even jade. For White Tara, you can choose pearls. For the Medicine Buddha, there is lapis-lazuli, but there is also aquamarine (blue beryl), and blue quartz (dumortierite quartz). If you don't have any of these - like me - I will just use a tulsi mala. If you don't have any mala simply hold the feeling you want to imbibe in your heart.

Love to you all on this beautifully auspicious day.

Nagarjuna & Bodhi

Today there are two special events we are celebrating in our home. The first - beginning with the oldest -  is the anniversary of Nagarjuna; an Indian adept, scholar & physician who established the Buddhist philosophical school known as the middle way.

Four hundred years after the Buddha past away; he appeared, a great adept whose heroic spiritual activity firmly established the path to transcendent wisdom, thus liberating countless disciples & promulgating the Mahayana, or Great Way. He came to be known as Nagarjuna. His appearance was predicted by the Buddha.

And thank goodness for that middle path approach. It is a golden rule that works - & it means , amongst many, many other things, that I can drink wine with no guilt attached, as long as I balance somewhere within that happy medium state.

Also making an appearance on this day two years ago, our own sweet Bodhi Kailash Tiga. Happy Birth-day beautiful boy...

Shiva Shakti Art

 

Green Tara ~ The Mother of all Buddhas ~ Mantra

 

                                                                                        Green Tara 

The Green Tara mantra often plays continuously in our home during the day. It calms me significantly & you know the effect that has on children. To explain the vibration of the mantra makes me go a bit dreamy, so here goes ... actually I won't, I'll leave that to Kandro. As part of a huge series on Tibetan Buddhism, Wikipedia also has some incredible research about this divine powerful, female bodhisattva.

 

Please, go here to listen to this tranquil & powerful Green Tara Mantra...

 

 

Om Tara Tutara Tura Swayha

 

*2020 Coronavirus Note: During these uncertain, times, His Holiness the Dalai Lama — when asked for spiritual advice on the pandemic — suggested that chanting the Green Tara mantra could be helpful. Here to listen to H.H chant the mantra, he begins around the 40 second mark.

 

For initiation into Green or White Tara, contact your local Tibetan Buddhist centre.

Image: source