Green Tara is an interactive sculpture installed in a meadow at Forest Alchemy. The immersive mandala functions as a transparent, kinetic, multifunctional space where people, art, the elementals and site all interconnect and interact. Green Tara is constructed of steel, cables, turnbuckles, chiffon, silk, oil paint, block prints and silkscreens of Standing Tara, a pencil drawing made in 1997. Tara, the “Mother of all Buddhas,” is a Bodhisattva or Buddha of compassion and action. Green Tara is associated with enlightened activity and abundance. Green Tara mantra is an ancient and powerful mantra that manifests profound benefits, not only for our own selves, but for the benefit of all sentient beings.
Green Tara offers a blessing ceremony with Tibetan High Lama, Geshe Ahbay Rinpoche. Ahbay Rinpoche was fully initiated into monkhood and the tutor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at nine years old, and at age twelve, His Holiness the Dalai Lama identified him as the reincarnation of the hermit Lama Lobsang Tenzin. Rinpoche travels the globe teaching, giving blessings and spreading love, gratitude, understanding and mindfulness. Rinpoche performs special blessings and pujas, or prayer rituals, for individuals and communities, as part of his service and commitment to cultivate compassion and happiness.
We had the good fortune of meeting Ahbay Rinpoche in Spring 2015. We had a private blessing and puja with Rinpoche that was very powerful. The next afternoon, Rinpoche visited our home and project space, Forest Alchemy, and we bonded over a love of Tara and trees. We spent the afternoon walking in the forest, hanging out in the treehouse Lady of the Sky, doing a Green Tara empowerment, singing the Tara mantra, drinking tea and eating cookies, watching women’s soccer and sharing a vegetarian dinner. It was a delightful and meaningful experience that changed our lives. This year our schedules aligned and we had the great honor to host Rinpoche in the beautiful San Geronimo Valley and welcome our community to spend time with him in an intimate setting, to experience his magical presence and to receive his direct blessing. Green Tara is a Forest Alchemy™ interactive artwork.
