http://www.livingwisdomschool.org/theater/kyvideo.shtml

 

Kuan Yin.. childrens play.. video clips... the coolest.. check it out!!!!

 

Kuan Yin is one of the most beloved deities

Throughout the Orient altars dedicated to this Mother of Mercy can be found in temples, homes and wayside grotto's and prayers to her Presence and her Flame are incessantly on the lips of devotees as they seek her guidance and succor in every area of life. On the spiritual level, she is said to bestow clarity of mind to see beyond illusory desires, and to grant the clear vision of truth.The image holds the Vessel of Amrita ( nectar )to symbolise her ability to heal all diseases and grant immortality. And on the other hand, she holds a Mirror of Truth symbolising that when we rely on her as our heart deity she will gently reveal the truth us as the mirror tells no lies. Her central hands are in the Mudra of healing the eyes. It is said, if one does her meditations well, Spiritual Healers will be able to perform their art better, for she will grant the ability to diagnose and "see" accurately the ailments that plague their patients. For seers and diviners, she helps them to "see" with pristine clarity for them to be able to assist their querents to remove their pains and suffering and to bring relief into their lives. how wonderful our Kuan Yin mother is to manifest in such skillful forms to assist all beings great and small.

Kuan Yin is the compassionate mediatrix of the East..  SHE IS the Goddess of Compassion,

Her mind is virtue, perfected. Her body is wisdom, perfected. Her face is bathed in holy light; She is compassion itself.

---ancient Chinese sutra to Kuan Yin

It is unfortunate that Buddhism's most enduring (and universal) contribution to the world has been insufficiently translated as compassion. The original Sanskrit word is 'karuna,' which holds within itself traces of the fragment 'ru,' meaning to weep. While the Oxford dictionary describes compassion as pity bordering on the merciful, karuna is actually our ability to relate to another in so intense a measure that the plight of the other affects us as much as if it had been our own.

The term karuna is central to the entire Buddhist tradition. It is frequently described as a love for all beings, equal in intensity to a mother's affection for her child. However, it is quite unlike conventional love (Sanskrit: priya, kama or trishna), which is rooted in dualistic thinking and is egoistic, possessive and exclusive, in contrast to the all-encompassing nature of compassion. The root meaning of karuna is said to be the anguished cry of deep sorrow and understanding that can only come from an unblemished sense of oneness with others.

Kuan Yin

 

 

 

 

In fact, the evolution of Buddhism in Asia and its spread throughout the world is, from a spiritual point of view, none other than the unfolding of karuna in history. Nowhere is this more explicitly exemplified than in the Chinese assimilation of Buddhism. Few would deny that the defining symbol of this integration is the goddess, who with her sweet and merciful disposition, has won the hearts of not only the Chinese, but also profoundly affected even those who, belonging to a foreign tradition, have only had a fleeting interaction with her. This divine female is none other than Kuan Yin, beloved goddess of over a billion people the world over. Her name too signifies her compassionate nature, literally meaning 'One who hears the cries of the world.'

 

from John Blofeld’s “Bodhisattva of Compassion”
Cheng Li’s Tale of Kwan Yin
adapted by Lama Jigme Gyatso: Rime Manipa Tantrika



Part I. ARROGANCE



My father and grandfather,
Confucian scholars of the old school,
looked on Buddhists with disfavor,
believing them to delude people with lurid tales of magic.

It was through my mother,
an unusually highly literate woman from a village near Ta Li,
that I came upon the profound doctrine know as
“the voidness of NON-void.”

A devoted follower of the Pure Land School,
she cared nothing for metaphysics,
but it was her custom to buy whatever Buddhist works
the peddler who supplied us happened to bring.

As a small child I learned to recite the sacred formula,
“Hail to A-mi-ta-bha Bud-dha!”
many hundreds of times a day,
though always in secret for fear of my father’s anger.

My mother believed
that one-pointed repetition of this formula
was enough in itself
to ensure liberation from the round of birth and death.



Once when my classmates in middle school
heard me softly invoking A-mi-ta-bha Bud-dha
they jeered at me so heartily
that, to win back their esteem,

I took to bringing to school Buddhist works
which they had to admit
would tax the understanding
of great scholars.

Pretending I understood these works myself,
I came to study them in all seriousness.

I believed then that the Pure Land practice
was suitable only for women, peasants
and similarly ill-educated people
and had turned instead to such works as

“The Pure Consciousness Treatise,”
the “A-va-tam-sa-ka” and “Lan-ka-va-ta-ra” Sut-ras.

They availed me nothing,
their only effect being to disturb my mind,
so I returned to invoking A-mi-ta-bha Bud-dha,
but NOT without reflecting smugly

that my understanding of this practice
was now at a “higher level” then my mother’s!

How ignorant I must have seemed to her!
“Higher” and “lower,” “deep” and “shallow,”
what have these dualisms to do
with knowledge and understanding?



Once I went to listen to a lecture on Pure Land contemplation
by a famous Tri-pi-ta-ka Master
who fired me with ambition
to visualize scenes of unimaginable vastness.

This, too, got me nowhere.
Having painfully built up a huge and glittering background
of immense, heavily bejeweled trees and lakes,
I had to set about creating images of the Three Holy Ones.

NO sooner had I started on A-mi-ta-bha Bud-dha
then the background slipped away;
starting on Kuan Yin Bo-dhi-sat-tva,
I lost A-mi-ta-bha;

starting on Ma-has-tha-ma Bo-dhi-sat-tva,
I lost Kuan Yin.

It was all beyond my power.
Only conceit hindered me
from going back to simple repetition of the sacred formula,
which my mother had never for one day abandoned.



Part II. DREAM



One night I dreamed of being shipwrecked,
of clinging to a spar in a furiously raging sea.
Mountainous waves curved about me like writhing dragons
until, at last, I was cast upon a shore of unearthly beauty.

Overlooking the rocky coast,
a hill of turquoise rose from a forest of jade
that was watered by foaming cascades
of milk-white purity.

The wings of birds and insects
had a jeweled sheen;
the spotted deer
had coats of white and crimson fur.

How could I doubt that I had come upon
the sea-side paradise of Po-ta-la?
Awed, but joyous, I climbed swiftly towards
the crest of a hill.



I had been observed,
for a young girl came running down the slope to greet me.
Her charming little feet seemed scarcely to touch the rocks
over which she sped.

When she turned and signaled me to follow her,
I had difficulty in keeping up
and was irked to notice how torn she was
between good manners and an urge to burst out laughing.

On our reaching the mouth
of a great turquoise cavern,
she ran in and soon disappeared from view,
leaving me to follow as best I could.

We had come to this place
by skirting a lake of gold-flecked blue,
an arm of which ran into the cave,
it’s blue water hidden beneath masses of pink and white lotuses.

Though NO direct sunlight
penetrated beyond the entrance,
the cave was illuminated as though by bright sunshine
and a delicate fragrance filled the air.

In the center
was a throne-shaped rock.

Though it had neither cushions NOR occupant,
I knew it as the Bo-dhi-sat-tva’s own
and, kneeling, I bowed my head
to the gleaming silver sand at it’s foot.

As I did so,
my name was spoken by a voice
as melodious as the tinkling of jade ornaments,
the syllables distinct and long drawn out.



********************************************************************

“Chen Li, when my vow was uttered many eons ago,
I made things simple.
Why do you STRIVE?
Let go!

The whole Ma-ha-ya-na Canon
contains NO greater wisdom
than the wisdom of Letting go.
This is also called Da-na, giving.”

********************************************************************



There came a sweetly joyous laugh,
then silence.
I knew I was now alone
in that shining cave.

Already the magical colors
were fading
into powder-fine colored sparks
that vanished one by one.

Darkness followed
and stretching out my hand,
I brushed it against the gauze curtains,
that hung around my bed.



Part III. TRANSFORMATION



Now I have done with Su-tras
and pious practices.
Day and night I recite the Bo-dhi-sat-tva’s sacred name,
rejoicing in the beauty of it’s sound.

NOT for me it’s recitation in multiples of One-hundred and Eight,
as though it were a duty.
Does the runner count his breaths, the poet his words,
or the stream it’s ripples?

You sentient beings who seek deliverance,
why do you NOT let go?
When sad,
Let go of the cause of sadness.

When wrathful,
Let go of the occasion of wrath.
When covetous or lustful,
Let go of the object of desire.

From moment to moment,
be free from grasping
at the illusion of a permanent
or separate “self.”

Where there is
NO separate “self” to grasp,
there can be NO permanent sorrow,
NO graspable desire;

NO causally-separate “me” to weep,
NO compositionally-separate “me” to lust,
NO circumstantially-separate “being” to die
and NO perceptually-separate “being” to be reborn.

The winds of circumstance
blow across the infinite expanse
of NON-graspable emptiness.
Whom can they harm?



Wrathful: banish the thought of “me.”
Sad: let fall the cause of woe.
Lustful: shed desire’s mental object.
Win all by simply Letting go.



Well dear friend
there you have it.
I hope you have enjoyed this adaptaion
of Cheng Li's tale of Kwan Yin.
 

 

Below is a chant/prayer meditation page . The chant is "She Who Hears the Sounds of the World" and is a dedication to Quan-yin - the sounds being tears and laughter.

Quan-yin is the embodiment of Compassion and Wisdom. In most of the Taoist temples of China there were rituals and prayers offered to Quan-yin so that all of the new-found healing energy and wisdom could be put to right use.
 

The chant is sung:

NAMU / QUAN SHIR YIN / PU / SA

Na mu / Quan / shir / yi - n / pu - u - u / . sa - a


Na mu / Quan / shir / yi - n / pu - u - u / . . sa