Here are some quotes about Tara from great women practitioners and the 15th Karmapa from books like “The Book of Tibetan Elders” by Sandy Johnson and “Skilful Grace” by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche & Trulshik Adeu Rinpoche.
HER EMINENCE JETSUN KUSHO CHIMEY LUDING :
“Tara, the mother of all Buddhas, provides a very powerful practice — her activities are very beneficial in this generation. Female energy is getting stronger now. Also, the female represents the wisdom aspect, and male the method. Now that things are going faster and faster, this female wisdom is very important.”
JAMYANG DAGMO-LA SAKYA :
“Tara is very important in Buddhism. She is a deity aspect of a woman who made a promise that she would always appear in female form to help all sentient beings. In Tibet, all lineages worship Tara and pray to her, lamas and monks as well as all the people. Tara is very easy to practice. She is very swift. Whenever you ask her, she is right there to help.
” To me, Tara is not only a Buddhist goddess, but a goddess of all religions, like Mother Mary in Christianity. She is embodied in all women who helps beings, like women doctors. Every Tibetan prays to her. I was five years old when I received a teaching of Tara.
” There are lots of deities in Tibetan Buddhism, but Tara is the one that is the easiest becausee her picture is like any one of us. Some of the Tibetan deities have six arms and four heads, sometimes eight arms, and you have to visualize them when you do practice. But with Tara you can visualize your own mother or your closest woman friend.
“Tara is a very necessary deity in these degenerating times. She helps you to calm down, subdue your mind, to make harmony. There are stories of her – even translated into English — how she saved people from tragedies, from fire, earthquake.
” Tara helps whenever you pray. She comes disguised as your friend or your mother, or someone you are close to.”
15TH GYALWANG KARMAPA :
“The venerable Arya Tara is the wisdom form of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions. In the ultimate sense, primordially, she attained the state of original wakefulness that is the very essence of the female Buddha Prajnaparamita.
“Particularly in this world, during the Golden Age, the compassionate Avalokiteshvara taught one hundred million Vajrayana tantras of Tara on Mount Potala in India, and has continued up through this Age of Strife to teach medium and concise versions of the tantras that accord with people’s capacity. These practices pacify the eight and sixteen types of fear, and cause the wish-fulfilling attainment of all needs and aims. Ultimately, through these practices one can realise the wisdom body of Mahamudra. There are innumerable wonderful stories of past practitioners to support this.
“Since Arya Tara is the activity of all Buddhas embodied in a single form, her blessings are swifter than those of any other deity. Most of the learned and accomplished masters of India and Tibet kept her as their main practice and attained siddhi. That is why we today have such a boundless supply of practices and instructions of Arya Tara.”
Amitabha Path 