Re: Deities
Posted: Thu Oct 18, 2012 9:08 pm
catmoon wrote:One might just as well ask, if you think Tara is anything other than a creation of your mind what are YOU doing in a Vajrayana forum?
Fact is, this forum is not closed to people of either view.
Tara is most certainly not merely a creation of my own mind.
If Tara were merely that, I would doubt the efficacy of practicing Tara. Agreed?
I take your meaning, Catmoon--regarding the primacy of "mind," a loaded word in itself--but, from our conventional, dualistic, POV, Tara certainly appears, initially at least, as "other," and, in particular, there is skillful means in relating to a deity as "other" than oneself, just as there is skillful means in relating to a deity as "the same as oneself." And, in fact, there is skillful means in relating to a deity that appears externally, but is in fact "internal," and skillful means in relating to a deity which is not the same as, or other than, the nature of my own mind....
And, by the way, none of these are really Tara.