Speaker: Ven. Miao Guang
Personal Interpreter to Ven. Master Hsing Yun
Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic Buddhism
I. Introduction
Auspicious greetings! May the new spring bring warmth and hope to the world.
Today, in order to celebrate the upcoming Guanyin’s Birthday on the coming Monday, we are going to continue the “Women in Buddhism” series with a mystic yet extremely well-known and friendly mother figure in Buddhism, Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, also known as Guanyin in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism.
II. Who is Guanyin?
As the saying goes, “There is an Amitabha Buddha in every home, a Guanyin Bodhisattva in every family,” the Amitabha faith as well as Guanyin faith are perhaps the most popular Buddhist beliefs among Eastern Buddhists. Guanyin, in particular, is being revered in cities and villages, on fisherman’s boats, by travelers, and can be found pretty much wherever human beings reside. This shows the close relationship between Guanyin and everyday life.
Who is Guanyin? Guanyin, in Chinese, is Guan-shi-yin 觀世音—Observer of the Sounds of the World. One who hears the cries of the world and reaches out to relieve those who are suffering. In Chinese, Guanyin is also known as Guan-zizai, which means “Lord who has attained self-mastery” Guan-zizai 觀自在 is one who is able to remain with perfect ease whilst gaining complete insight into the reality of the world. Thus, the Master who looks from up high and guards all living beings with skillful means is a very clear image of Avalokitesvara. Other than these two well-known names, Avalokitesvara is also known as the Bestower of Fearlessness, the Great Compassion Bodhisattva, the Great Being with Interpenetrative Faculties, Guanyin of the South Sea, and so on.
Why is Guanyin the most common friend among Buddhists? According to The Great Compassion Dharani Sutra, Guanyin Bodhisattva has already attained buddhahood countless eons ago, and was named “Righteous Dharma Illuminated Tathagata 正法明如來.” Nevertheless, out of great compassion, this Tathagata chose to reverse the path of buddhahood and returned to the Saha World to deliver sentient beings with the right conditions for liberation. Stories of how she helped sentient beings be rid of suffering are recorded in detail in the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva Universal Gate Chapter of the Lotus Sutra and several other texts.
Guanyin’s great compassion, great vow for universal deliverance, omnipresence, and expedient means in guiding every kind of sentient being to liberation are mostly manifested in the form of a mother figure and the following types of powers:
III. Guanyin’s Powers
- A Wish Granter
In the Universal Gate Chapter, Guanyin uses her interpenetrative hearing faculty to hear the cries for help and reaches out and offer deliverance according to the need of that being.
How does Guanyin confirm that this being is in need of help? A condition was given by the Buddha when asked why Guanyin is called as such,
Good men, if there be countless hundreds of millions of billions of living beings experiencing all manner of suffering, who hear of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and call his name with single-minded effort, then Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva will instantly observe the sound of their cries, and they will all be liberated.
Universal Gate Chapter
What does a living being have to do to get Guanyin’s help?
The answer is, “to call Guanyin’s name with single-minded effort.”
This symbolizes your unwavering faith in the bodhisattva as well as her supernatural power to sense your cry and respond to you accordingly. Thus it is always a two street. When the Bodhisattva is ready to go all out to grant you your wish, you must also do your best and dedicate your body, mind, and speech to finding liberation with her help.
Once this two-way spiritual communication is established, you are set to express what category of wish you would like Guanyin to grant you.
IV. Wish Granting (1): Liberation from the Seven Calamities
After Buddha’s one-line answer to why Guanyin is thus named Guanyin, he goes on to explain:
If anyone who upholds the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva were to fall into a great fire, the fire would be unable to burn that person due to the bodhisattva’s awe-inspiring spiritual powers. If anyone, carried away by a flood, were to call his name, that person would immediately reach a shallow place.
Universal Gate Chapter
Hatred causes us to burn in the fire of negative impulses that lead to aggressive responses to things or conditions that go against our wishes. Anger burns our sense and proper judgment, it burns the bridges of personal relationships, and it burns our opportunities and futures. Anger pretty much burns all our roots of virtue and good causes and conditions. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort helps us find the power of loving-kindness and compassion which can extinguish the fire of anger and help us regain a calm and collected mind.
Greed causes us to pursue an endless array of material, physical, and mental desires like trying to fill up a dark abyss. Like a poisoned root that hinders the growth of a tree or an unhealing wound on the leg that stops you from progressing further on the path of buddhahood, we continue to drown in the dissatisfaction of unfulfilled desires. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort helps us find the power to resurface and come onshore to the ground of generosity.
If there are living beings in the hundreds of millions of billions who go out to sea in search of such treasures as gold, silver, lapis lazuli, mother of pearl, carnelian, coral, amber, and pearls, and if a fierce storm were to blow their ship off course to make landfall in the territory of raksas, and further if among them there is even one person who calls the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, then all of those people will be liberated from the torment of the raksas. This is why the bodhisattva is named “Observing the Sounds of the World.
Universal Gate Chapter
The storm of ignorance will blow us off track, causing us to lose our directions and blinding us from the truth. The raksas refer to the delusions of lust, fame, money, and other worldly temptations. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort helps us awaken the power of faith, discipline, shame, repentance, receptiveness to the Dharma, equanimity, and meditative wisdom which will calm the storm of obscured spiritual intelligence.
Or if someone facing imminent attack calls the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, the knives and clubs held by the attackers will then break into pieces, and that person will attain liberation.
Universal Gate Chapter
Knives and clubs are usually operated under immense hatred and animosity, so people wave them and strike others with them with the intention of causing harm or destroying what is in their way. In the same way, when we are jealous of other people’s success and wish to sabotage them, destroy them, so they are never better than us, we are also waving the harmful weapons of knives and clubs to defend our pride and ego. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort will arouse our empathy and compassion so we become more kind and accepting of all the good things in this world that do not belong to us. As the saying goes, learning to appreciate rather than possess will give us a bigger world.
If a great three thousand-fold world system was full of yaksas and raksas seeking to torment people, and the heard someone call the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, these evil demons would not even be able to see that person with their evil eyes, much less do any harm.
Universal Gate Chapter
The yaksas and raksas here refer to the delusions of fame and gain which can cause us to become blind to right thought and right view. As a result, resorts to all kinds of unwholesome deeds which will eventually lead to nothing but harm. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort will help us give rise to right mindfulness and drive away all the delusive temptations of life.
Or if someone, whether guilty or not guilty, who is bound and fettered with manacles, shackles, and cangue calls the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, then all the bonds will be broken, and that person will instantly attain liberation.
Universal Gate Chapter
No one wants to be in shackles or bonds that will take away their ability to move around freely, this is the tangible shackles or bonds. How about the intangible shackles or bonds? These are our attachment to anything related to the self and stubbornness to open up to any views or knowledge that appears strange to what we take to be the self. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort will help us shatter those shackles and bonds of self-view, self-attachment, self-desire, and self-pride.
If a great three thousand-fold world system were full of malevolent brigands, and a merchant chief were leading many merchants carrying valuable treasures along a perilous road, and among them one man were to speak up and said, “Good men, do not be afraid. You should call the name of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva with single-minded effort, for this bodhisattva can bestow fearlessness upon living beings. If you call his name, then you will surely be liberated from these malevolent brigands!” and upon hearing this, if all of the merchants were to call out: “I take refuge in Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva,” then by calling his name, they would instantly attain liberation.
Universal Gate Chapter
While we can buy the most expensive security system to block out thieves and bandits who prey on our wealth, no such physical system can drive out the inner thieves that steal our awareness, virtue, and conscience. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort will help maintain a clear and pure mind that stays connected to wisdom and reality so that we can safeguard the greatest treasure of life—the mind.
To sum up the above, our wishes to be freed from the seven external calamities of burning fire, flooding water, knives and clubs, fierce storm, evil spirits, or the shackles and prison which cause extreme fear and suffering can all be dispelled by the awe-inspiring spiritual powers of the great Guanyin Bodhisattva.
V. Wish Granting (2): Elimination From the Three Poisons
While Guanyin is able to grant our wishes to eliminate the seven external delusions—ones caused by the outside world, we also wish to be freed from the internal delusions caused by the mind. Every day we have all kinds of dramas going on inside the mind that influence our physical behaviors tremendously.
Known as the three major factors that bond us to suffering, greed, anger, and ignorance continue to harm the mind and suppress our innate ability to become awakened and find peace.
In this case, greed refers to the attachment to sensual desires. It causes us to pursue an endless array of physical pleasures like trying to fill up a dark abyss. Like a poisoned root that hinders the growth of a tree or an unhealing wound on the leg that stops you from progressing further on the path of buddhahood, we continue to drown in the dissatisfaction of unfulfilled desires. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort helps us find the power to cease the flood and discover other ways to find joy and fulfillment.
Hatred, once aroused, opens up the door to endless hindrances to peace and enlightenment. Aggression never solves problems, it only creates more unresolvable issues. Calling out to Guanyin with single-minded effort helps us find the power to extinguish the fire and refocus the mind on kindness and compassion.
To be liberated from the poison of ignorance, we call out to Guanyin with single-minded effort so that Guanyin will guide us out of the maze of clouded judgment and entangled vision. To see clearly where we are headed will helps sever the root of birth and death.
VI. Wish Granting (3): Fulfillment of the Two Implorations
The third type of wish Guanyin grants are parents who pray for a son or daughter,
If any woman wishes for a male child by worshiping and making offerings to Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, she will then give birth to a son blessed with merit and wisdom. If she wishes for a female child, she will then give birth to a daughter blessed with well-formed and attractive features, one who has planted the roots of virtue over lifetimes and is cherished and respected by all.
Universal Gate Chapter
What appears to be a simple wish can totally change the fate of a family. Children are the future of life. At the same time, to give birth to a son or daughter who can bring hope and goodness to our future will mean a whole world of difference. Guanyin hears the despairs of baren parents and compassionately offers them a new ray of hope in life by blessing both the mother and the children with tremendous merits, wisdom, and compassion.
The power to grant sentient beings their wishes to be free from life’s troubles and fears, that is why Guanyin Bodhisattva receives such high praise from the Buddha,
Aksayamati, lofty indeed are the awe-inspiring spiritual powers of the great Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
Universal Gate Chapter
VII. Conclusion
We are going to pause here with the first type of Guanyin Power for the week. Please tune in next week for the other 4 types of Guanyin Power that can help us find liberation from the Saha World.
On March 21th this year, which is Lunar February 19th, it will be Guanyin Bodhisattva’s Birthday. To celebrate this day, we can chant the Universal Gate Sutra, read Venerable Master Hsing Yun’s Prayer to Guanyin Bodhisattva, or single-minded chant Guanyin Bodhisattva’s name to wish for world peace and liberation from suffering for all living beings.
Thank you for listening. See you next week.