A Prayer to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

Please relieve the distressed and the suffering.

Please listen compassionately

To our confession and repentance:

Since I am aware of the happenings around me,

I always feel that life is not peaceful;

I often feel that circumstances are not agreeable.

I am not considerate or helpful enough

To my relatives and good friends,

I lack skillful means to care for

The people around me and the society.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

Whenever I gaze upon your compassionate image,

My mind is pure and at ease;

Whenever I chant your name,

I feel comfortable and free from worldly worries.

Facing you, who is dignified and immaculate,

I feel so ashamed!

I cannot compare to your great vow in universally benefitting all beings 

With the sweet dew of the Dharma. 

You are like an ocean, I am like well water;

You are like the sun and the moon, I am like a firefly;

You are like mountains, I am like a molehill;

You are like a great lion, I am like a small mouse.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

Though you have worked diligently throughout many kaplas,

Still you want to return to the world to liberate all sentient beings.

You have done what is difficult for people to do

And still continue to answer the world’s cries and relieve our suffering.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

I pray that you can guide me with your universal vows,

I pray that you can enlighten me with your compassionate vows.

May I have your fearless penetration

Of the nature of all things through wisdom:

If I face people of vices, may they be transformed;

If I face villains, may their anger be cooled;

If I face evil, may the evil mind be brought under control;

If I face the ignorant, may they obtain great wisdom.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

I pray to you to guide me in your compassionate embrace;

I would like to learn from your spirit of benefiting and liberating all beings:

To observe the needs of all beings through compassionate eyes;

To listen to the suffering of all beings with attentive ears;

To comfort the vexations and anxiety of all beings with wonderful words;

To soothe the wounds of all beings with both hands.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

I pray to you to illuminate us with your light of wisdom:

I will assist all beings through joyous giving;

I will guide the stubborn into the Truth with empathy,

I will provide people with convenience through altruistic actions;

I will help people to be happy through kind words.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva!

I would like to take your liberation and ease as a model.

From now on:

I will distance myself from contrary and delusive ideas

and contemplate on the ease of the individual;

I will distance myself from discrimination and personal conjecture

And contemplate on the ease of circumstances;

I will distance myself from attachment and entanglement

And  contemplate on the ease of affairs;

I will distance myself from the five desires and the trouble of the world

And contemplate on the ease of the mind.

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,

Please accept my sincerest prayer!

Oh great, compassionate Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,

Please accept my sincerest prayer!

(Excerpted from “A Prayer to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva 向觀世音菩薩祈祈願文)” from Pearls of Wisdom: Prayers for Engaged Living by Ven. Master Hsing Yun)