Kuan Yin, Hearer-of-Cries

[ikhet_sekhmet]

I am of the nature to become ill, and so am snugged up on the sofa under a blanket with my laptop and John Blofield's 1978 book Bodhisattva of Compassion: The Mystical Tradition of Kuan Yin. The book places great emphasis on the difference between Kuan Yin the folk goddess, worshipped by illiterate peasants, and Kuan Yin the celestial Bodhisattva,

Comments

[acelightning]

I have always loved the story about Kwan Yin, that she was a beautiful Chinese princess (aren't princesses in stories always beautiful?) who refused to get married because she wanted to spend her life in study, meditation, and good works. Astonishingly, her father permitted this. She was so filled with compassion toward all living things that she reached the brink of Buddha-hood - the only female ever to accomplish that. Just as she was about to step through, she heard a child crying... and turned back to comfort him. Thus she is a Bodhisattva, not a Buddha, and is called "She Who Hearkens To The Cries Of The World". Her celestial vase or vial, open and turned bottom-up, endlessly pours out the nectar of compassion over all the world.

Long before I knew I was a Pagan, Kwan Yin was one of my favorite Goddesses. I was amused to find out that in some parts of Asia, she has become conflated with the missionaries' Virgin Mary :-)

[dreamer_easy]

Just as she was about to step through, she heard a child crying... and turned back to comfort him.

:)

[acelightning]

Well, we still don't have a full Buddha who's female. Yet.