Fishies :-)

Claudia hooked me up with three lovely guppies (I think that's what they are called) and a slew of snails. I'm very excited! I've been trying to think of what to name the fish (The Three Musketeers seemed to glorify violence too much for my taste). Although I don't believe in the traditional, literal implications of Buddhist mythology, I'm completely intrigued by mythology in general. When it comes to Buddhist mythology, it is very easy for me to transfer their words of a literal spiritual presence into a metaphor for what the particular bodhisattva represents. I also believe in the power of our choices, and what sort of energy we choose to put out into the world.

With this in mind, when I found the name Tara I was pretty excited.

Tara is a generic name for a set of Buddhas or bodhisttavas of similar aspect, or different aspects of the same quality. Tara is known as the Mother of Liberation and the Mother of Mercy and Compassion. There are 21 different colors associated with Tara that change what she represents. The source of her qualities are Enlightenment, Enlightened Compassion, and Enlightened Mind.

"She is the source, the female aspect of the universe, which gives birth to warmth, compassion and relief from bad karma as experienced by ordinary beings in cyclic existence. She engenders, nourishes, smiles at the vitality of creation, and has sympathy for all beings as a mother does for her children."

"She often manifests in the lives of dharma practitioners when they take themselves, or spiritual path too seriously... There are Tibetan tales in which she laughs at self-righteousness, or plays pranks on those who lack reverence for the feminine."

She also represent feminism. "Some monks approach her and suggest that because of her level of attainment she should next pray to be reborn as a male to progress further. At this point she lets the monks know in no uncertain terms that from the point of view of Enlightenment it is only "weak minded worldlings" who see gender as a barrier to attaining enlightenment. She sadly notes there have been few who wish to work for the welfare of beings in a female form, though. Therefore she resolves to always be reborn as a female bodhisattva, until samsara is no more."

I decided to name my fish the Taras so that I will always remember to nurture liberty, mercy and compassion. I don't know if I will pick three colors that coordinate and get specific. I may just leave them at the Taras. And the snails will remind me of being stuck in samsara. Not a literal reincarnation cycle the way traditional Buddhism depicts it, but a reminder that most of us are born, live, and die without waking up. Without thinking. Understanding reality or the world we live in.