Thirty_Years_of_Buddhist_studies,Conze

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Buddhist Saviours 35 (tdrayema) those beings who have not yet crossed! Freed we shall free those beings who are not yet free! Comforted we shall comfort those beings who are as yet without comfort! Gone to Nirvana we shall lead to Nirvana those beings who have not yet got there!" 1 More specifically the Bodhisattvas promise that, on having won full enlightenment, "we will become a shelter (trdnam) for the world, a refuge, the place of rest (layanam), the final resort (fiardyanam), islands, lights and leaders of the world! " 2 2. From the earliest times onwards the Buddhists have described salvation as a process of crossing over. 3 In later times Tdrd, the deity who ferries across (tdrayati), became the "Saviouress" par excellence. At one stage of her development she is closely connected with Avalokitesvara, 4 and conceived analogously to him, as a kind of female counterpart who in China then evolved into the female Kwan Yin. She is said to have emerged from a tear he shed when beholding the misery of the world, or from a blue ray emanating from his eyes, or, alternatively, she 'arose from the countless filaments of the lotus-face of the Saviour of the triple world', 5 i.e. of Avalokite§vara. Or, again, the Taras are 'the mothers of the world, born of the power of Amitabha's vow and understanding, endowed with great compassion, created for the world's 1 E. Conze, The Gilgit Manuscript of the Ashtddaiasdhasrikdprajndpdramitd (1962), 248. 2 Ashtasdhasrikd Prajndpdramitd, ed. R. Mitra (1888), 293. These terms are then explained in pp. 294-9. 3 For the details see I. B. Horner, The Early Buddhist Theory of Man Perfected (1936). 4 But after A.D. 750, under the influence of the theory of the Five Jinas, the green Tara was assigned to Amoghasiddhi (as in the Sddhanamold, trans. E. Conze, Buddhist Meditation (1956), 137) and the Vajratara to Vajrapani, of the Akshobhya family. At about the same time " Tara " became a general term for " saviouress ", or " helpful goddess ", or' f beneficent deity", and this resulted in great indefiniteness and gave her a truly Protean character. Long lists of Taras were elaborated, some due to separating the services which she may render, while others refer to the localities in which she had a shrine. One of these lists is The book of praises of the 21 forms of Tdrd, ed. and trans, into German by S. Hummel, Lamaistische Studien (1950), 97-109. 5 Hummel 97, of the rab-tu dpa'-ba f i sgrol-ma.
36 Thirty Years of Buddhist Studies saving/ 1 And so, intent on freeing all beings from birth-and death, the Tara can say: It is for the protection of the world that I have been produced by the Jinas. In places of terror, which bristle with swords, and where dangers abound, / When only my (108) names are recollected, I always protect all beings, I will ferry them across (tdrayishydmi) the great flood of their manifold fears. / Thefefore the great Seers sing of me in the world under the name of Tara. What is needed is to "correctly repeat her names" and Tara will" fulfil all hopes'*. 'These 108 names have been proclaimed for your welfare; / They are mysterious, wonderful, secret, hard to get even by Gods; / They bring luck and good fortune, destroy all evil, / Heal all sickness and bring ease to all beings.'* Then follows a catalogue of the benefits derived from their recital, and they include everything that worldly or unworldly men may desire, from wealth, health, cleverness and success in litigation to spiritual virtues and the promotion of enlightenment. "Whoever meditates on our Blessed Lady in a lonely mountain cave, he will behold her face to face with his own eyes. And the Blessed Lady herself bestows upon him his very respiration, and all else. Not to say any more, she puts the very Buddhahood, so hard to win, in the very palm of his hand. 2 She "alone by herself, effectively removes all evil by the fact of her name being heard or recollected (smrtyd)",* for "her mercy flows out to all creatures without distinction/' 4 3. In Buddhist mythology Avalokitesvara and Tara, two Bodhisattvas, are held to be dependent on a perfectly enlightened Buddha—the Buddha Amitdbha. The texts contain some information about Amitabha's antecedent "Vow". 5 Aeons ago, when he was the monk Darmakara he pronounced forty-eight Vows in front of the Buddha Lokesvararaja. The 1 The 108 Names of the Holy Tdvd, trans. E. Conze, ed. Buddhist Texts (1954), no. 176, p. 197. Also the following quotations are from this source. 2 Sddhanamdld in E. Conze, Buddhist Meditation (1956), 138-9. 3 Sarvajnamitra, Sragdhardstotram, ed. S. Ch. Vidyabhushana (1908), v. 8. • Ibid. v. 3. 5 See Hobogirin, ed. P. Demi6ville (1929), 26; H. de Lubac, Amida (1955), 65-7; Buddhist Texts, 206. I have glossed over the considerable divergences between the different sources, which would be of interest only in a specialized study.
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SaKTi soto AKASa
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