KUAN SHIH YIN
Goddess of Compassion
By Journey
She is known as:
Kuan Yin (Taoist Chinese) (Bearer of Cries)
Kwan-yin ( China )
Avalokitesvara ( India ) (The One Who Hears the Cries of the World)
Juichinen, Kannon ( Japan )
Kwan-she-yin, Kwannon, Nyo-i-rin (Male)
Po-I Ta-shi, Sung-tzu-niang-niang
Her titles are:
The All Merciful
Bodatsu
Bodhisattva (Buddhism is a human being)
Buddha
The Divine Voice of the Soul
Goddess of Fertility
Goddess of Mercy and Knowledge
Goddess of Prostitutes
Goddess of Travel
Great Bodhisattva
The Healer
The Melodious Voice
The Merciful Mother
The Mother of the Hundred Hands
The Prostitute
The Saviouress
The Triple
Wife
Daughter
(Unless other wise noted, for the purposes of this paper, I will refer to this Goddess as Kuan Yin.)
Her mantra is:
“Om Mani Padme Hum” pronounced “Oh-m mah’-nee pahd’-may hoom”. This mantra is chanted in threes or nines when you want to connect to this Goddess.
Her birthday is:
The 19th day of the second moon of the lunar calendar.
History:
Kuan Yin, falls under a form of Buddhism, called Mahayana - or the Great Vehicle tradition. Her full title is Avalokitesvarahas “The One who Hears the Cries of the World,” and she is the most important, popular and widespread of any deity of Chinese religion. She is also equally important to many Koreans and Japanese worshipers as well. She is important because she is a Bodhisattva or a person that has lived many lives of exemplary quality that she has earned enough merit to eliminate karma and be released from the Wheel of Live. Kuan Yin is special because upon hearing the cries of the suffering, she felt such great compassion that she chose to stay behind to help others to advance. She is the ultimate Goddess coming to the aid of anyone who calls her name and will take many guises to accomplish this task like the God in “Joan of Arcadia”. She is the creator, child-bearer, protector of the weak, and the traveler. She is all loving, beauty and grace.
I find Kuan Yin very interesting for three reasons.
The first reason would be the stories about her unique beginnings. One states that she began life as a male who later became a female, she is sometime shown as half male and half female and she is also shown as a female. To me this encompasses the whole spectrum of human sexuality and correlates with the idea of souls being reincarnated from one life to the next being male and female to learn different lessons and advance. Or another story that states that the worship of Kuan-Yin is older than Buddhism and that she is the original Earth Mother and the original Triple Goddess. The second reason is the correlation between this last information and the information that came up in my research on Hecate my Patroness Goddess. If Kuan Yin is not another name for the Goddess Hecate then she is her twin sister. Last but most interesting is that she encompasses such a broad range of qualities that make her the protectress of such a diverse and broad spectrum of life that I find her very passionate and approachable. She is the Goddess that you can reach out to when you need to learn how to give yourself and others unconditional love, compassion, and forgiveness and healing. If you ask for her help she will never turn you away. She can channel healing powers through every woman and give the gift of prophecy.
Her origins are mysterious as some say she was originally an Indian Bodhisattva known as Avalokitesvara. Some say she began as the Buddhist God of Mercy, Juichimen. The original statues depict her as a small and somewhat androgynous male. By the late eighth century AD she begins to be depicted as a female. Historical research indicates that the earliest pantheons of China shows men and women standing side by side as equals. However there is a reference that originates somewhere between c. 1700 – 1100 BC of the Eastern and Western Mothers. In the 11th to 10th century BC the I Ching, makes reference to a “Queen Mother” goddess. These references speak of a Heavenly figure and not an Earth Mother. Some say that she is borne out of a conflict between Buddhism and Taoism and the exposure of both to Christianity and the pictures of Mary with the Christ Child. Some say she has eleven heads and originally called Sung-Tzu-Naing-Naing.
One legend about how Kuan Yin comes into being is that she originally was Miao Shan, the third daughter of an ancient king of China . Her father wants to marry her off but she wants to be a Buddhist nun. He father lets her go but tries to make life very hard for her. She persists and he then sends an Army to burn down the nunnery. She escapes along with two small children. Legend states that later her father becomes very ill. He is told that the only medicine that can make him better one made from the arm and eye of an individual without anger. Messengers are sent to look for this person and of course find Kuan Yin. She gladly gives her arm and her eye to save her father’s life. When he travels to thank the person that has made him well he is shocked to find out that it is his daughter and is converted to Buddhism. Miao Shan ascends to heaven as Kuan Yin.
In 939 AD in a Buddhist monastery located in Hanchow on the coast of China , Tao, a monk was meditating when he saw a glowing light coming from a nearby stream. When he went to investigate he found a piece of beautiful and fragrant wood. He took the wood to a famous sculptor called Kung to be carved into a beautiful statue. When Kung split the wood open he found inside a statue of the goddess Kuan Yin. This is the first mention of a statue that depicts a female goddess – Kuan Yin. She gained power as she manifested herself in visions and dreams, averted disasters and answered dreams. She was brought offerings, praise and funding by Emperors and every year hundreds of thousands of people came to pay their respects.
From this point she began to manifest at different locations in China . On story tells that when her stature is moved from the monastery of Shang Tien Chu, which had been sacked and destroyed and where it was originally kept to a new monastery Hsi Tien a miracle took place. A piercing bright light shot up into the sky and split into three separate beams in the direction of Pu To Island, Shang Tien Chu and on the new home of the statue the monastery of His Tien showing where the three most important centers of her devotion were.
Another story of her origin states that she was once the very evil Hariti, a mother who sucked 500 demons that she was converted to Buddhism by Buddha himself.
Her different aspects are reflected in her dress. She can be shown with any where from two to a thousand arms. She is pictured with a thin mustache as a male. As a female she is usually wearing a white dress and either holding a pink lotus flower or seated on a lotus and holding a small child on her lap. When she is depicted as the Goddess of the Southern Sea in her lap she holds a vase filled with the dew of compassion and a willow branch or a Book of Prayers or crystal rosary for meditation. She also depicted riding a dragon. Any time you see a Buddha that is very feminine looking it is a good chance that you are looking at a representation of Kuan Yin.
What ever her original origins were what she became is the most important. I would like to think that she became so compassionate because she had some experience with and understood the suffering that happens in life. Kuan Yin personally has inspired a collection of 100 quatrains or poems full of wisdom and beauty that are used for the purposes of divination. Divination Sticks numbered one to one hundred are shaken and when one rises to the top it is used to determine which of the one hundred poems will answer the question or tells the future.
I keep a statue of the Goddess Kuan Yin on my altar with Hecate and find that if they are not the same, are two Goddess that command the greatest respect. I find this Goddess a role model for us all. I have written the following ritual for a special plea to Kuan Yin to help us at a time when we are in most need of her. When we are being told that we may only have 10 years to turn things around for this planet or it will be too late to do anything to save her.
Ritual – A Plea for the World
(By Journey)
The altar is set up on a silver tray and includes a statue of Kuan Yin on a black pedestal, a weeping willow branch on the left, a small pitcher of water on the right, and a gold candle and incense in front of the statue.
Light candle and incense and say:
Kuan Yin
Goddess of Mercy and Knowledge
The one who hears the cries of the world
Hear my plea.
This Earth is in great peril
And we are all in need of divine intervention.
Due to the greed and negligence of man
Our air once sweet and clean
Is becoming polluted and the ozone is thinning
Our water once crystal clear
And the home to many species of animals
Has become foul and dirty and a dead zone grows every wider.
The polar caps and glaciers are melting and the seas rise.
The huge herds of animals and flocks of birds
That once roamed free and wild are dying out.
They can no longer find food or shelter for their young.
Kuan Yin
All Merciful and loving hear the cries of our children.
Our children who are suffering from famine, war and cruelty;
Our children who have lost whole families to Aids;
Our children who are being sexually abused and mutilated;
Our children who are less important than wealth or self interest
Our children who look to us for love and support,
Our children who look for guidance in knowing right from wrong,
Our children who look to us to be good roll models
So that they can develop Good Character and Skills
And the ability to love one another,
Regardless of the color of skin, or religion, or net value;
Our children who want and need us to be their heroes.
What do we have to offer them when we have turned our back
On all of the suffering going on in the world,
When we know more about TV, Movies, and Athletes,
Than what goes on in our own government
When we are more concerned with what goes on their bodies
Than we are about the sugar, hormones, and other chemicals
That the government allows in our food.
When we do more research when it comes
To buying a house, or car, or new outfit
Than arming ourselves with the information
We need to know about protecting them,
Their future and the world that they will inherit?
Kuan Yin
Healer, please heal our hearts and souls.
Open our minds to possibilities and strategies
For coming together in love to heal this earth.
Stay with us until every child lives in love, safety and freedom.
Secure in knowing that we loved them so much
That we left them with the training and the knowledge
Of how to take care of a world where each generation
Will leave the world a better place than when they entered it.
Kuan Yin, the One Who Hears the Cries of the World.
Remain sitting in front of the candle until it has burned out in meditation and prayer.
References
1. Dictionary of Ancient Deities by Patricia Turner & Charles Russell Coulter
2. Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses by Michael Jordan
3. The Goddess is a Girl’s Best Friend by Laurie Sue Brockway
4. The Goddess Power, Sexuality, and The Feminine Divine by Shahrukh Husain
5. Grandmother Moon by Zsuzsanna E. Budapest
6. Kuan Yin, Myths and Prophecies of the Chinese Goddess of Compassion by Martin Palmer and Jay Ramsay with Man-Ho Kwok
7. The Once & Future Goddess by Elinor W. Gadon
8.
The
Witches’ Goddess by
Janet & Stewart Farrar