Holy Kuan-Yin
Her very name is holy
and powerful as thunder over water.
There is nothing else so powerful.
We bow our heads to her:
may her glance be compassionate
and her blessings be infinite.
In reverence, we bow our heads.
~Chinese Lotus Sutra and Dharani of Great Compassion
In the middle of this lunar month, the Chinese traditionally celebrated the anniversary of the girl Miao Chan's transmutation into the kindly bodhisattva Kuan-Yin. Buddhism has no official deities; theologically, it expresses the belief that what lies beyond us is to impersonal to be called a god or a goddess. Yet human beings need god-like figures, and to meet that need Buddhism offered up the bodhisattvas, who are something between saints and deities. On the road to buddahood, they are almost at the end. One step more, and they will dissolve into nirvana, unifying with the cosmos.
According to her myth, Kuan-Yin reached that final step and stopped, promising to remain in this world until very living thing becomes holy. Of the great bodhissatvas, Kuan-Yin is the only woman and the most beloved. So powerful is she that merely mentioning her name gains the speaker spiritual merit. A loving presence Kuan-Yin need not be a goddess to offer sympathy to her children.
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