Kuan Yin - The Great Compassion Bodhisattva

Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, known as Kuan Yin to the Japanese and Chinese, and Chenresig to the Tibetans, is the bodhisattva who most embodies compassion. The name Avalokitesvara has its root meaning as "he who observes the sounds of the world". The great vow of Avalokitesvara is to listen to the supplications, and cries for help from those in difficulty in the world and to provide them with aid. He takes many different forms....male, female, four-armed, thousand-armed, human, non-human, teacher, student...whatever expedient means are needed to help people most effectively.

Kuan Yin Bodhisattva, an emanation of Amida Buddha's compassion, is the "Regarder of the Cries of the World". Sometimes referred to in the West as the Goddess of Mercy. (Note: Avalokitesvara means "Kuan Yin" in Sanskrit, the language of early India, from an earlier time when The Cry Regarder was depicted as a male figure. "Kuan Yin" is Chinese; "Kannon" is Japanese.)

The following brief excerpt was adapted (notably changing "he" to "she") from the chapter on the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World, in the W. E. Soothill translation of The Lotus Sutra (The Lotus of the Wonderful Law, published by Curzon Press):

"Listen to the deeds of the Cry-Regarder,

Who well responds to every quarter;

Vast is her vow as deep the sea,

Age-long, and inconceivable.

Who hears her name and looks to her,

Unremittingly remembering her,

Will end the sorrows of existence.

* * *

Sorrows of birth, age, disease, death,

All will thus be ended.

True regard, serene regard,

Far-reaching, wise regard,

Regard of pity, regard compassionate,

Ever longed for, ever looked for,

In radiance ever pure and serene!

Wisdom's sun, destroying darkness,

Subduer of woes, of storm, of fire,

Illuminator of the world!

Law of pity, thunder quivering,

Compassion wondrous as a great cloud,

Pouring spiritual rain like nectar,

Quenching all the flames of distress!

* * *

Voice of the Regarder, wondrous voice,

Voice of the rolling tide, Brahma-voice,

Voice all world-surpassing,

Ever to be cherished in mind

With never a doubting thought.

World's Cry-Regarder, pure and holy,

In pain, distress, in death or woe,

Potent as a sure reliance,

Perfect in every virtuous merit,

All-beholding with eyes of pity,

Boundless ocean-store of blessings!

Prostrate, let us make obeisance."

Benefits in Reciting and Holding The Great Compassion Mantra

Excerpts from The Dharani Sutra

English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society,

Dharma Realm Buddhist University, USA

If humans and gods recite and hold the phrases of the Great Compassion Mantra, then when they approach the end of life, all the Buddhas of the ten directions will come to take them by the hand to rebirth in whatever Buddhaland they wish, according to their desire.

Should any living beings who recites and holds the spiritual mantra of Great Compassion fall into the three evil paths, I vow not to realise the right enlightenment. Should any living being who recites and holds the spiritual mantra of Great Compassion not be reborn in any Buddhaland, I vow not to realise the right enlightenment. Should any living being who recites and holds the spiritual mantra of Great Compassion not obtain unlimited samadhis and eloquence, I vow not to realise the right enlightenment. Should any living being who recites and holds the spiritual mantra of Great Compassion not obtain the fruits of whatever is sought in this very life, then he cannot have been making proper use of the Dharani of the Great Compassion Heart.