01.23.2026 Your Courageous Heart   “Fear and anxiety, if you've got it, Tara's your deity for sure.” So says dharma teacher Chandra Easton, who I recently had the good fortune to work with in developing her new Lion’s Roar online course, Courageous Heart: The Healing Power of Tara Practice. It stuck with me, as someone who’s working with their share of fear and anxiety these days. The state of the world is… a lot. So I’m happy to avail myself of all the help I can get in summoning some calm, some courage, some strength and stability. If you’re aware of the Buddhist goddess Tara, then you know that those are just some of the positive qualities she represents and that her practice engenders. And if you don’t know Tara, well, now’s a perfect time to meet her. So in this Weekend Reader I’m sharing with you three articles from Lion’s Roar and Buddhadharma that help bring Tara to life. And it’s also a good time to meet Chandra Easton, your confidence-and-courage-modeling guide to beginning the practice of Tara — specifically Green Tara and White Tara. So I hope you’ll check out Courageous Heart, too. You can watch part of Chandra’s opening lesson for free, and register for the course here. As always, thanks for reading — and thanks for your practice. Rod Meade Sperry, Senior Editor, Lion’s Roar Foundation Tara the Liberator Lama Palden Drolma explains the significance of Tara,“she who ferries beings across the ocean of samsara.” Tara, the savioress, is “she who ferries beings across the ocean of samsara.” Tara is the most beloved by Tibetans of all the female awakened beings. Her praises are sung and she is supplicated in all Tibetan monasteries and by many laypeople as well. Tara is renowned for her swift and compassionate activity. Whether devotees have worldly or spiritual motivation, Tara gives benefit to all and leads people to awakening. ADVERTISEMENT Be Confident in Your Buddhanature The key to unshakable self-confidence, says Lama Döndrup Drolma, is recognizing the deepest truth of who you are. Featuring a White Tara meditation. At some point, most of us have felt the quiet ache of not being enough—not smart enough, capable enough, or worthy enough. This sense of deficiency can burden our hearts, shaping how we see ourselves and holding us back from living fully and authentically. Yet, the confidence we yearn for isn’t something to be earned or achieved; it’s already present—a profound potential waiting to be revealed. Oh Tara, Protect Us In this teaching, Thubten Chodron comments on a prayer to the buddha Tara to protect us from the eight dangers. How does Tara liberate and protect us from danger? It is not by swooping down and carrying us away to heaven or by making a problematic situation magically disappear. Enlightened beings cannot take our defilements away, like pulling a thorn from our foot. Nor can they give us their realizations, like pouring water into an empty bowl. The fundamental way Tara—or any other buddha—benefits sentient beings is by teaching us the dharma and inspiring us to investigate its meaning so we reach a correct understanding. She then guides us in meditation practice so we generate transformative realizations.