백색타라만트라(White Tara mantra)

 

백색타라만트라(White Tara mantra)

 

 

타라(Tara)는 ‘강을 건너다’라는 동사에서 파생된 말로 윤회의 강을 건너게 해주는 어머니를 의미한다. 어느 날 관음보살이 중생의 삶들을 살펴보니 너무나 고통과 슬픔이 많은 것을 보고 두 눈에 눈물이 흘러 내렸는데, 땅에 떨어진 눈물에서 하얗고 파란 꽃이 피어났다. 그 꽃이 변해서 녹색과 백색의 타라보살이 태어났다고 한다. 이 보살은 모든 재난으로부터 구해주는 능력을 지니고 있다 하여 티벳의 불교도들에게 신봉되고 있다. 

타라보살은 표현형식에 따라 백색 타라보살과 녹색 타라보살로 구분된다. 백색타라는 질병과 재난을 막아주고 장수를 기원하는데 도움을 주고 녹색타라는 재물 운과 복을 불러다 주는 데 효험이 있는 것으로 알려져 있다. (대원사 티벳박물관)

 

 

 

 

백색타라만트라 Imee Ooi창송

 

Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Mama Ayuḥ Punya Jñānā Puṣtiṃ Kuru Svāhā

 

 

 

White Tara (Sitatara) is associated with long life. Her mantra is often chanted with a particular person in mind. She’s another representation of compassion, and she’s pictured as being endowed with seven eyes (look at the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and her forehead) to symbolize the watchfulness of the compassionate mind.

Unlike Green Tara, White Tara has both legs folded in meditation (Green Tara is stepping down onto a lotus).

 

 

 

White Tara

 

 

As a variant form of Green Tara, her mantra begins very similarly. But added to the play on the name of Tara are several words connected with long life and wellbeing.

 

Mama means “mine” and indicates that you’d like to possess these qualities of long life, merit, wisdom, happiness, etc. You can of course choose to wish these qualities for someone else — perhaps for a teacher or for a loved one who is ill.

 

Ayuh is long life (as in Ayurvedic medicine).

Punya means the merit that comes from living life ethically, and this merit is said to help one to live long and happily.

Jnana is wisdom.

 

Punya and Jnana are known as the Two Accumulations. In order to become enlightened we need to accumulate merit (that is, to develop positive qualities through living ethically and meditating) but we also need to develop wisdom through deep reflection. Wisdom cannot arise without a basis of merit, but merit alone is not enough for us to become enlightened, meaning that becoming a nicer person isn’t enough — we have also to look deeply into ourselves and the world around us and to see the impermanent and insubstantial nature of all things.

Pushtim means wealth, abundance, or increase.

 

Kuru is a mythical land to the north of the Himalayas, which was said to be a land of long life and happiness (it may have been the original northern home of the aryans). Perhaps the association with the mythical realm of Kuru doesn’t hurt when doing the mantra. But here the word kuru is a verb form meaning “do it!” or “make it so!” (second person singular active imperative or the root k.r if that’s of any interest to you) which is what it means here. With this “make it so!” we’re imploring White Tara for an increase in wisdom, merit, and long life so that we can gain enlightenment and help all sentient beings.

 

svaha is an exclamation meaning “hail” or “may blessings be upon” and is a common ending to Buddhist mantras. So after making the rather bold request of White Tara above, we end with an equally emphatic salutation.

 

 

http://www.wildmind.org/mantras/figures/whitetara

 

 

 

 

2016-04-21

진흙속의연꽃