Healing Tara

Invited into this space now is Tara protecting from Sickness, whose function is very similar to that of the Medicine Buddha. Sickness and disease are outward signs of imbalance within the body's elements; inner disturbance is harder to see but causes just as much and sometimes even more suffering. This Tara protects us from the causes and conditions resulting in disease and sickness and from fears related to them.

She is described as being yellow-green in colour, and as holding the same emblem as the Medicine Buddha: the healing arura plant.

In our world at the moment, there is a lot of sickness and disease, both physical and mental. And increasingly environmental. Within the Buddhist view, these are brought about through imbalance in the elements. All form comes into being through the "coagulating" of the 5 main elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. All disharmony within that form is caused by disarray amongst those elements. Strengthening and restoring balance between the elements gives us the best protection against disease and sickness, on every level - and whether that means balancing and strengthening the elements within our environment, our bodies or our minds, it doesn't matter. The methods relating to each one may be different, but the basic intention is the same.

One of the hardest things about this Tara journey is that i have to relate personally and directly to each of the fears, and use my own experience as the material to bring to consciousness, trusting the transformation that occurs through working with that particular Tara. Through working with myself, I hope to understand others more deeply, to understand the human condition more fully and so to bring benefit to others, and to myself. There is no point pretending i'm above and beyond all of these fears and problems. I'm not, but I have found a way to work with them that seems to make a real difference, and my wish through this writing is to pass that on to anyone who feels a connection with this work.

So - today - I woke up feeling pretty terrible, with lots of inner disturbance! All in the form of anxiety, which dissolved as the morning wore on into real sadness and an unstoppable flow of tears. The thoughts that accompanied this experience were: "i've given up so much to do this work and sometimes i wonder if it's worth it. My money is running out; i have no home; i have no deep place of belonging; no person to belong with at the deepest level of "earth". i fell in love with and still love someone who i'm too far away from. i'm doing what i'm doing for the bigger picture of love, but if it's making me so unhappy, what am i really doing?" Right now it doesn't help to know that homes, relationships, money are all impermanent anyway. They may be, but on the earth element level of basic security and happiness, they have their place and are important. Of course they can each bring problems and are not solutions in themselves, but they are visceral and they are to be worked with - not denied and avoided.

So I guess, examining this, the element that is out of balance here is the earth element. And if I am to bring Tara protecting from sickness into play, this is the element we will have to work with. i'm not quite sure what this is going to mean, but i open myself to discovering and implementing the healing path.

Enough for now.