TARA FREIMUND
This is always a difficult section for me to write. I can throw out a lot of words: mother, activist, community organizer, BRCA1 carrier, millenial, midwesterner, all of which are true.
Each of us, has our own categories, and we are all of those things. But we are more. It's the more that is difficult to describe, especially due to the fact that we continue to learn, grow and transform as we age. Our brains are designed to do so all the way through to the end. So how do we describe that which IS in an ever-present state of change? Well, with a lot of humility, I hope. Every campaign I've worked has given me new insights about myself and the world around me, every friend, ally, the experience of motherhood, especially with kids who have life long medical challenges, not to mention my own medical challenges.
I can say this with confidence: meeting each one of you, connecting, listening, learning and empathizing will affect us both. My intention is that you feel stronger, more confident and safer in the everyday decisions you make, the way you live, care for yourself, your family, and community.
It's cliche to say now that no one is coming to save us, that we are the one's we've been waiting for, but this is a reality that I continue to run into again and again, so lets link arms and and turn the next corner together. I am truly excited to meet you.
What is Ārya Tārā?
Tara is a female deity in both Hinduism and Buddhism who personifies compassion and offers salvation from the suffering of rebirth and death. She is thought to have been born of empathy for the suffering world and is regularly invoked for protection, guidance, and deliverance from difficult situations. Her name means "savioress" in Sanskrit but has also been translated as "star" and she is invoked for guidance in life generally and, specifically, by those who feel lost and are having difficulty finding their way. (1)
According to the story, there is a young woman named Yeshe Dawa ("Wisdom Moon" or "Moon of Primordial Awareness"), daughter of a king, who lives in the realm of Multicolored Light and makes sacrifices for centuries in her pursuit of wisdom until she is taken on as a student by The Drum-Sound Buddha, the Buddha of that world, who instructs her in the path of enlightenment. Having attained a high degree of spiritual insight, she takes the vow of the bodhisattva and is blessed by the Buddha. The monks rejoice at her accomplishment and tell her she should now pray to be reborn as a male so she can advance further, due to their belief that only men can be Enlightened. Wisdom Moon rebukes the monks, noting:
"Here, no man, no woman,
No I, no individual, no categories.
"Man" or "Woman" are only limiting catagories
Created by confusions of egoic minds in this world."
Basically she scolds them for their belief that only as a man could she carry the wisdom at the heart of Life (call it God, or whatever suits you). She then vows to always be incarnated as female for as long as she continues in the realm of samsara because there were many men who served as role models of the enlightened path but, owing to human ignorance and male arrogance, few women.
The original feminist..
What she represents for me..
One of the things that has always inspired me about Tārā is how multifaceted she is. She is a teacher, protector, healer and, connector. She represents abundance, peace, compassion and ferocity. She is an endless well of love, but can be fierce, intellectual and challenging. I've looked to her as a metaphor for growth, transformation, empowerment and self acceptance. She is potent, powerful and compassionate. In our world today, I can think of few figures who me inspire more than she does. You've heard the saying that a rising tide lifts all boats, Tārā is the tide.