Glossary · Buddhist philosophy & practice
Tara (Noble Tara)
Tara (Sanskrit: तारा, Tārā; Tibetan: སྒྲོལ་མ, Drolma, “She Who Liberates”) is one of the most revered figures in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the Tibetan tradition she represents swift, fearless compassion in action.
Read as a method, Tara is the instruction to act in the presence of fear rather than wait for it to pass. In the iconography, she alone is shown with a foot already stepping out of the meditation posture: stillness that moves.
Sources
The term is rooted in the canonical sutras and traditional commentaries of Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism, where it is treated as a contemplative method for training the mind rather than an object of belief.
