Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva And Buddhism
By Tan Peng Yau
The Compassionate Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva is universally known
to all those living in Asia as a gentle and compassionate one.
There was once a survey in China that showed that even though
people did not know about Buddha Shakyamuni, they knew about Kuan
Shi Yin and Ah mi tuo (Amitabha). This shows how much people are
inclined to the Mahayana!
However despite of this, many don't know about His origin. Many
less educated Buddhists especially the elderly would cite a story
where Guan Shi Yin was once the third princess Miao Shan in ancient
China. In the story, she was a compassionate daughter who even
gorged out her eyes to cure the illness of her evil father. In
reward for her deed, Buddha gave her a thousand eyes and a thousand
arms so that she could continue to help others. Later, she was
canonized and worshiped by the common people. This story has many
versions but among the illiterate majority this was the source of
inspiration for the masses who could not read the scriptures.
However, in order for us to understand his origin and mission,
it is still the best to use the scriptures for reference as such
stories are not that reliable for a serious study of Buddhism.
Despite of my limited knowledge, I hope everyone would have a
greater understanding of Guan Yin and Buddhism.
Firstly, what is a Bodhisattva (Pu Sa). Bodhisattva is a
sanskrit word which can be split into two parts. Bodhi means wisdom
and compassion, sattva means a being. Together the term means "A
being with great compassion and wisdom". Specifically, such a being
wishes to gain enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.
In fact for many, Bodhisattvas give up their opportunities of
Buddhahood so that they can help others as a Bodhisattva where
their characteristics of compassion are more pronounced. . In
Bodhisattvahood there are ten stages and those of a high level are
known as great Bodhisattvas. However it is important to remember
that Guan Shi Yin is in fact a Buddha as he attained enlightenment
infinite kalpas ago but in order to help others He decided to
manifest as a Bodhisattva. (This issue will be elaborated
later.)
His origins
Guan Yin's original name in sanskrit is Avalokitesvara
(pronounced as Ah va loh ki teh sva ra) which roughly means "The
Observer of the sights and sounds of the world" The chinese
translations of her name are either Guan Shi Yin???(Regarder of the
worlds cries) or Guan Zhi Zai??? (Observer of the ultimate nature
of things). Of the two, Guan shi yin is more popular perhaps due to
the fact that this world is full of sufferings and people need a
great savior to behold them. In Japanese, Korean and Tibetan, his
is known as Kannon, KuanUm and Chenrenzig respectively.
Regarding the origin of Guan Shi Yin, there are many sources to
refer from. The first is the Suramgarma sutra (Shou Leng Yan
Jingº·«ÄY¸g). In it, GuanYin narrated how he learnt from his
teacher in his world-Buddha Guan Yin(the disciple takes the name of
the teacher in honour of the teacher). He was then taught how to
observe things internally and externally as a way to cultivate
towards Buddhahood.
The second is that in sutras it was recorded that Guan Yin is
actually The Tathagatha of the Brightness of True Dharma
(¥¿ªk©ú¦p¨Ó).
The third is from the records of Master Dao Xuan (¹D«Å). Master
Dao Xuan of Tang Dynasty was a monk of high attainment, as a
result, many heavenly beings came to make offerings to him. Once he
asked about the origin of Guan Yin and a deva told him that
infinite kalpas ago, there was a king named Zhuanyan (²øÄY¤ý) and
he had 3 daughters, the youngest was called Miao Shan (§®µ½) who
left home and later became Guan Yin. From this it is highly
possible that the Miao Shan story developed from this incident.
In addition, in Bei hua sutra (´dµØ) it was recorded that there
was a father -son relationship between Guan Yin and Amitabha.
Amitabha was then a King in that world system and Avalokitesvara
was one of his sons. Guan Yin vowed before the before the buddha in
his world that if any being in misery called upon his name, he
would try to relieve his suffering. The buddha praised him and said
that he would be named as Avalokitesvara. It was also stated that
Guan Yin will one day succeed Amitabha's place.
After reading this, some might think,"So whch is the correct
version?". There are many ways of looking at this problem. However,
whatever way we try, we should understand that enlightened beings
do not have a true body, in fact they exist as energy (mind). Thus
the many forms and lifetimes they manifest are just a display of
their quest to liberate sentient beings of many shapes and
inclination. In the Lotus Sutra (ªkµØ), it is listed that Guan Yin
appears in any form in accordance to the needs of the beings who
need his instruction. As such, arguments whether Guan Yin is male,
female, Chinese, Tibetan etc is as meaningless as arguing whether
water is square or round!
In addition, people who know little about Buddhism tend to
translate Guanyin Pusa as "The Goddess of Mercy", this is
inaccurate. First as said earlier, Guianyin is neither male or
female. Secondly, Buddhist do not make gods or goddesses the main
object of their devotion. Why? These so called gods/goddesses are
only beings on the heaven realm of the six states of existance of
Samsara. People are born there due to their large amount of merit
in their past life but even though they are happier than humans,
they still have to die one day and might even drop down as a animal
or hell-being. In short, they are not liberated from the cycle of
life and death unlike the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Thus praying to
them cannot deliver ourselves from samsara! This
accidental/intentional degrading of Guanshiyin might be due to the
early westerners in China who had their first contact with the
popular religion of the common people which was a mix of Taoism,
Buddhism, superstition. As these people were not knowledgeable in
orthodox Buddhism, they regarded GuanYin like any other Taoist
goddess, this probably resulted in the misnomer " Goddess of
Mercy". However, I urge everyone to refer to her as Guan Yin
Bodhisattva or Guan yin Pusa as to accord her the full title of her
attainment.
The various representations of Guan Yin
In China, Japan, Korean and Southeast Asia, Guan yin is usually
represented as a gentle lady in white robes carrying a vase with a
willow twig. This image is extremely popular since the Song
Dynasty. In India however, images were made portraying him as a
handsome prince wearing a crown bearing the image of his
teacher-Buddha Amitabha. It is also worth mentioning here that in
scriptures, Shakyamuni Buddha addresses Guan Yin as "Virtuous man
(µ½¨k¤l)" which implies that he manifested as a male during
Buddha's time. In Tibet, Guan Yin is still thought of as male and
is portrayed as a youth with 4 arms bearing a string of white
quartz prayer beads, a wish fulfilling jewel and a white lotus in
bloom. One common manifestation among all Mahayanan schools is the
thousand arms and thousand eyes Avalokitesvara. There are also
other representations showing him with 18, 42 etc hands carrying
various ritual implements. Another common convention is to show
Guan yin and bodhisattva Da Shi Zhi (¤j¶Õ¦ÜVajrapani) on the left and right of Amitabha
Buddha respectively. This triad is usually called " The 3 holy ones
of the West". In addition, there are many other icons of Guan Yin
but due to a lack of time only the common ones are described
here.
On a side note, in the chinese tradition, Guan Yin has two
attendants on her two sides. On her right is a girl carrying a
flaming pearl and on the left is a boy folding his palms together.
The boy is known as Shan Cai (µ½°]), the Celestial youth of the
Treasure of Merit ( kumara Sudhana ). This boy was extremely wise
and dedicated his life in pursuit of Buddhahood. He visited 53
saints and finally met Bodhisattva Samantabhadra (´¶½åµÐÂÄ) who
advised him to practise the tenfold path in order to be reborn in
the western world of Amitabha-Sukhavati and be enlightened there.
Many have thought that he was the son of the bull demon, so on and
so forth. This is just the imagination of the author of the novel
Journey to the West. The girl is called the Dragon girl, normally
she is thought to be the 8 year old daughter of a dragon king. This
daughter became a buddha later, much to the misbelief of Shakyamuni
buddha's disciples who previously thought that only men could be
buddhas. Anyway, these two are thought to be Guan yin's
attendants.
The symbolism behind the different icons of Guan
Yin
As mentioned before, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas do not have any
true form or shape. However as sentient beings like us live in a
material world, there is a need to create a way to remember the
qualities of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. One of this ways is
through the making of images on paper, cloth, metal, stone etc.
Contrary to popular opinion, images have existed during Shakyamuni
Buddha's time. It arose from an incident whereby the king and many
others missed the Buddha's presence and therefore made an image of
him out of sandalwood while he was in the heavens preaching to his
mother. Thus the presence of an image is for people who live later
to feel the Buddha's presence. In another way, the image is a
personification of abstract ideas (like Compassion and Wisdom). The
various hand signals (mudras) and ritual implements in iconography
have much meaning behind them and some commonly associated with
Guan Yin are listed below
full article on this website
http://www.siddham.org/yuan_english/sharing/sharing020101.html