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| Kwan Yin by Caroline Young from http://www.carolineyoung.com/kwan_yin.htm |
One of the most beloved Goddesses in Buddhism and in East Asian folk traditions is Kwan Yin. Kuan Yin is loved rather than feared like other Buddhist deities. She is Goddess of fertility and mercy. For centuries, Kwan Yin has embodied the ideal of Mahayana Buddhism in her role as bodhisattva,"a being of enlightenment", who through great love and sacrifice during life, had earned the right to enter Nirvana after death, but Who chose to remain on Earth to give humanity Her love and show them the way to Nirvana. The name Kwan Shih Yin, which is Her full name, means literally "She who hears the cries of the world". According to tradition, Kwan Yin was about to enter Nirvana but stopped on the threshold as the cries of the world reached Her ears. She turned back to Earth and renounced Her place in Nirvana and found immortality in the hearts of those who suffer. She is called upon by many names, some of them are as follows:
Great mercy, Great pity
salvation from misery, Salvation from woe
Sung-Tzu-Niang-Niang, Lady who brings children
Kuan-shih-tzu-tsai, Regarder of the World's Freedom
Quan'Am is Her name in Vietnam
Kannon is Her name in Japan
Kanin is Her name in Bali
Kwan Yin is loved by all but Her worship is one that is dear to the hearts of womyn in Asia. Like Artemis of the Greeks, She is a Goddess who protects womyn, offers a spiritual life to those womyn who don't want marriage, and grants children to those who wish for them. She comforts those who are sick, lost, troubled, or otherwise in need of Her mercy and compassion. She is also regarded as the protectress of seafarers, farmers and travelers. She cares for the souls of the dead, and is invoked during post-burial rituals to free the soul of the deceased from torment. She is frequently depicted carrying the pearls of illumination. Kwan Yin is also shown pouring the Water of Life from a small vase. With this water, Kwan Yin blesses all living beings with physical and spiritual peace. She carries a sheaf of ripe rice or a bowl of rice seed as a symbol of fertility and sustenance. The dragon, an ancient symbol in Asia for spirituality, wisdom, strength, and transformation, is commonly found in combination with the Goddess of Mercy. She is also seen as the Chinese ideal of beauty, and to say that a womon or a girl is a Kwan Yin is the highest compliment that can be paid to her grace and loveliness. Worship of the Goddess of Mercy involves little dogma or ritual. Her simple standard is to ask Her devotees to become more compassionate and loving themselves. A deep sense of service to all fellow beings is a natural part of being devoted to this Goddess.
Kwan Yin can be shown in many forms, but whatever the variation, they usually show Her as a barefoot woman dressed in beautiful, flowing white robes, with a white hood draped over the top of Her head and carrying Her vase, Her gentle expression conveying the compassion that has made Her a favorite among the deities. She may be seated on an elephant, standing on a fish, nursing a baby, or holding a basket. She is often shown riding a mythological animal known as the Hou, which somewhat resembles a lion, and symbolises Her control over the forces of nature. On public altars, Kwan Yin frequently has two companions, which are placed on either side of Her. On Her right is a barefoot, shirtless youth with his hands clasped in prayer known as Shan-ts'ai or Golden Youth, and on Her left is a maiden demurely holding her hands together inside her sleeves known as Lung-nü or Jade Maiden.At times Kwan Yin is represented in a many armed form, with each hand either containing a different symbol of Her divinity or expressing a specific mudra or ritual position. Shown this way, the Goddess is venerated as the source and sustenance of all things. Her cupped hands frequently form the Yoni Mudra, symbolizing the womb as the door for entry to this world through the universal female principle.
There are temples all over Asia dedicated Kwan Yin. Her principal temple is on the island of Putuoshan, in the Chusan Archipelago off the Zhejiang coast near Ningbo. This temple is a major pilgrimage site, because the Goddess is said to have resided there for nine years, where She reigned as Queen of the Southern Seas. The full name of the island is P'u t'o lo ka, from Mount Pataloka, where the Goddess is said to gaze upon mankind. Miao Feng Shan (Mount of the Wondrous Peak) attracts large numbers of pilgrims, who use rattles and fireworks in their prayers to attract Her attention. The first temple of Kwan Yin was built on this island in 847 C. E. As of 1702, Putuoshan had an estimated four hundred temples and three thousand monks, and was the destination of untold scores of pilgrims. In modern times, however, Putuoshan is home to 140 monasteries and temples.
There is an absolute trust in Kwan Yin's saving grace and healing powers. People that even the simple recitation of Her name will bring Her instantly to the scene. One of the most famous texts associated with Her is the ancient Lotus Sutra whose twenty-fifth chapter, is known as the "Kwan Yin sutra". This sutra describes thirteen cases of impending disaster from which the devotee will be rescued if his thoughts dwell on the power of Kwan Yin. The text is recited many times daily by those who wish to receive the benefits it promises.
Kwan Yin's principal feast is celebrated on the nineteenth day of the second lunar month of the Chinese calendar. She also has festivals on the nineteenth day of the sixth and ninth months of the Chinese lunar calendar. Devotees of Kwan Yin may also go to local temples and make pilgrimages to larger temples on important personal occasions or when they are burdened with a problem. Altars to Kwan Yin can be found everywhere, however, from shops to restaurants to taxis. Most homes in China have an altar to Her. At home She is worshipped with the traditional "pai pai", a prayer ritual using incense, as well as the use of prayer charts, which are sheets of paper designed with pictures of Kwan Yin, lotus flowers, or pagodas and outlined with hundreds of little circles. Each time Her followers recite a prayer or sutra in a novena for a relative, friend, or themselves, another circle is filled in on the chart.
The legends of Kwan Yin and Her mercy and compassion are numerous. She is unique among the divinities of Buddhism in that She is so utterly free from pride or vengefulness that She is reluctant to punish even those to whom a severe lesson might be appropriate. Individuals who could be given dreadful punishments can receive Her mercy by simply calling upon Her with utter and absolute sincerity. There are stories of criminals kneeling beneath the executioner's sword already raised to strike, giving a single heartfelt cry to Bodhisattva Kwan Yin, upon which the blade fell to the ground, utterly shattered.
There is a legend from the 12th century C.E. of the Buddhist saint Miao Shan, a Chinese princess who lived in about 700 B.C.E. and who is widely believed to have been an avatar of Kwan Yin. She chose to follow a path of service and virtue, and became a devoted follower of Buddha. In order to convert her blind father, she visited him disguised as a stranger, and informed him that were he to swallow an eyeball of one of his children, his sight would be restored. None of his other children would give of themselves in this fashion, whereupon the future goddess created an eye which her father swallowed and he regained his sight. She then persuaded her father to join the Buddhist priesthood by pointing out the foolishness and vanity of a world in which children would not even sacrifice an eye for the sake of a parent. Following this episode, She spent nine years living on the island of Putuoshan, healing, meditating and saving sailors from shipwreck.
In yet another legend Kwan Yin was said to be the daughter of an Emperor of the Chou dynasty, who strenously opposed her wish to be a Buddhist nun, and was so angered by her refusal to marry that he ordered the nuns to give her the most humiliating tasks they had. This attempt at getting her to leave failed. Furious, her father ordered her to be executed for disobedience to his wishes. However the executioner, a man of compassion and wisdom, caused the sword which was to descend upon her to break into a thousand pieces. Her father then ordered her to be suffocated. Acoording to the legend, upon her arrival in the Buddhist Purgatory, the flames were quenched and flowers burst into bloom. Yama, Lord of Justice and supervisor of the purification of souls through suffering, seeing this miracle pronounced her a pure soul and returned her to the land of the living. Carried in the fragrant heart of a lotus flower she went to the island of Putuoshan, near Ningbo. One day she received word that her father was ill. No physician could find a cure for him. Then a monk appeared saying that the illness could be cured by making a medicine out of the arm and eye of one without anger. Without hesitation, she cut the flesh from her arm and sacrificed an eye that it might be made into medicine. Her father was cured by this, and in gratitude he ordered a statue of her to be made "with completely-formed arms and eyes". Because of a misunderstanding of the orders, the sculptor carved the statue with many heads and many arms, and so it remains to this day.
There are many stories of Kwan Yin appearing in the sky or on the waves to save those who call upon her when in danger. These stories are not all ancient, in fact, many are modern in origin. As an example, in Taiwan there are people who recount that during World War II when the United States bombed the Japanese-occupied Taiwan, KWan Yin appeared in the sky as a young maiden who caught the bombs as they fell and wrapped them in Her garments so that they could not explode.
A mantra is a short chant used as a form of meditative prayer. It can also be used in times of pain or duress to call upon
a deity as a spontaneous cry for help. The mantra of Kwan Yin goes as follows:
She is a boat she is a light
High on a hill in dark of night
She is a wave she is the deep
She is the dark where angels sleep
When all is still and peace abides
She carries me to the other side
(Chorus)
She carries me, she carries me
She carries me to the other side
And though I walk through valleys deep
And shadows chase me in my sleep
On rocky cliffs I stand alone
I have no name, I have no home
With broken wings I reach to fly
She carries me to the other side
(Chorus)
A thousand arms, a thousand eyes
A thousand ears to hear my cries
She is the gate, she is the door
Ahe leads me through and back once more
When day has dawned and death is night
She'll carry me to the other side
(Chorus)
She is the first, she is the last
She is the future and the past
Mother of all, of earth and sky
She carries me to the other side
(Chorus)
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