The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p277Kwan-yin is not only a symbol of compassion, she is compassion, so that wherever compassion can be seen, Kwan-yin can be seen. Kwan-yin is not some god looking down at the world from a distance but the Buddha’s compassion embodied in the actual world of quite ordinary men and women.
Tradition also says that we should understand that we ourselves should embody Kwan-yin, that if, for example, we concentrate on Kwan-yin or recite the Kwan-yin chapter, we can open ourselves to compassion, not to some abstract compassion from a distance, but to actually embodying compassion by being compassionate in our own lives and behavior.
Category Archives: d29b
The More You Give, The More You Receive
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p243-244Giving (dana) is an essential bodhisattva practice. In Chapter Twenty on Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva, the Universal Gate, we learned about the four skillful means of a bodhisattva. The first of these is the practice of making offerings. There are three kinds of offering. The first is giving material goods. The second is giving the gift of the Dharma, the practice that liberates us from suffering. The third and ultimate offering of the bodhisattva is the gift of non-fear. We have to understand giving in this light. Dana paramita, the perfection of giving, has nothing to do with material wealth. It has to do with generosity and openness, our capacity to embrace others with our compassion and love. With that spirit, we quite naturally want to give everything we can to help them. So we can see right away that dana paramita intersects with the practice of kṣānti, inclusiveness, and it also has the element of prajn͂ā, wisdom, because it is through our understanding of interbeing that generosity and compassion arise. When we truly see ourselves as others and others as ourselves, we naturally want to do everything we can to secure their happiness and well-being, because we know that it is also our own well-being and happiness.
There’s a kind of vegetable in Vietnam called he (prounounced “hey”). It belongs to the onion family and looks like a scallion, and it is very good in soup. The more you cut the plants at the base the more they grow. If you don’t cut them, they won’t grow very much, but if you cut them often, right at the base of the stalk, they grow bigger and bigger. This is also true of the practice of dana. If you give and continue to give, you become richer and richer all the time, richer in terms of happiness and well-being. This may seem strange, but it is always true. The more you give away the things that you value – not just material things but also gifts of time and energy – the greater your store of riches. How is this possible? When you try to hoard things you may end up losing them, but everything you give to help others always remains with you as the foundation of your well-being.
‘Lowland Buddhism’
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p281-282Another Chinese development in which Kwan-yin plays a unifying role is the common portrayal of her as being accompanied by, or served by, Sudhana and the dragon princess, a boy and a girl – one from the Avatamsaka Sutra, the other from the Lotus Sutra, two sutras which are closely associated with two different and rival schools of Buddhism.
All human beings, I believe, have both male and female qualities, but strict adherence to the ideas that all buddhas are male, and that nuns should always be subservient to monks, restricts access in both women and men to their female selves. By being a buddha who is both male and female, Kwan-yin provides a kind of balance to the overwhelmingly male-oriented weight of Buddhist tradition, enabling women to appreciate their value and men to appreciate the woman often hidden in themselves.
Kwan-yin, I have said on many occasions, represents a kind of “lowland Buddhism.” By this I mean that in contrast to those who would see religions as a matter of climbing to a mountaintop to enjoy some kind of “peak experience,” the Dharma Flower Sutra, especially as it is embodied in Kwan-yin, is a way that emphasizes the importance of being earthly, of being this-worldly, of being involved in relieving suffering. …
I believe that we should also be lowland Buddhists like Kwan-yin, seeking the low places, the valleys, even the earthy and dirty places, where people are suffering and in need. That is how we will meet the bodhisattva Kwan-shih-yin, at least if we are lucky or perceptive. That is where we will find those who hear and respond with compassion to the cries and sorrows of this world. They too are bodhisattvas of compassion, Kwan-shih-yin embodied.
A Vast, Incalculable Ocean of Happiness
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p199-200Fully endowed with all the merits,
His benevolent eye beholding the beings,
He is happiness accumulated, a sea incalculable.
For this reason one must bow one’s head to him.This is the concluding verse of [Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva]. The bodhisattva of compassion is equipped with all kinds of merits (sattva punya), acquired during countless lifetimes of manifesting understanding and compassion. He is able to regard all beings with love and compassion. I think this is the most beautiful sentence in the entire sutra: “The bodhisattva regards all beings with the eyes of love.” You too have the eyes of compassion and love. The Buddha eye has been transmitted to you. The question is whether you will choose to make use of those eyes to look deeply.
Looking deeply, listening carefully, you understand the suffering of the other person, you accept him or her, and naturally your love and compassion flow freely. This is the most beautiful practice, the most powerful method of bringing about transformation and healing. Happiness is not described here in terms of weights or measures, but as a vast, incalculable ocean.
Compassion
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p200Happiness is made of one substance – compassion. If you don’t have compassion in your heart you cannot be happy. Cultivating compassion for others, you create happiness for yourself and for the world. And because Avalokiteśvara is the embodiment of this practice, the Sutra says that we pay respect to him by bowing and touching our foreheads to the ground. This is an ancient Indian practice, a gesture of deep respect to one’s teacher.
With Avalokiteśvara as Our Refuge and Protection
From moment to moment conceive no doubts,
For the pure saint Who Observes the Sounds of the World
In the discomforts of pain, agony, and death
Can be a point of reliance.
Dwell in mindfulness every moment, without any doubt about the power of compassion and understanding. With great confidence and faith in Avalokiteśvara, every moment is a moment of mindfulness with compassion and understanding as its object. The symbol of compassion becomes the object of your mindfulness, the object of your recollection. And even in a situation of danger, “of pain, agony, and death,” you maintain this awareness and recollection.
Avalokiteśvara is a holy person, but holiness is not something we find only in certain persons. Everywhere that there is mindfulness, concentration, and insight, there is the element of holiness. So when we take the qualities of Avalokiteśvara as the object of our mindfulness, then the element of holiness arises in us too. With Avalokiteśvara as our refuge and protection, we reach the shore of non-fear, no longer afraid of danger or suffering, no longer in fear of death.
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p199
The Five Gazes of Avalokiteśvara
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p196-197O you of the true gaze, of the pure gaze,
Of the gaze of broad and great wisdom,
Of the compassionate gaze and the gaze of goodwill!This verse describes the five kinds of gazes of Avalokiteśvara. First is the contemplation of the true nature of things, satya. When you are calm, when you are lucid, you have the capacity to recognize the ultimate dimension. It’s followed by the contemplation on purification, visuddhi vimala. We need the practice of self-purification, just as the cloud in the sky has to become pure rain for the sake of the world. Third is the contemplation on great wisdom, mahaprajn͂ā. This is not mere knowledge but the realization of true wisdom, mahaprajn͂āpāramitā – the great wisdom that has the power to bring you to the other shore, the shore of safety, the shore of non-fear, the shore of liberation. Fourth is the contemplation on compassion, karuna. Fifth is the contemplation on loving kindness, maitri. Like Avalokiteśvara, we should practice mindfulness of and reverence for these five qualities.
Bringing About Transformation and Healing
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p195-196The verses in Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra describe how Avalokiteśvara’s understanding and compassion bring about transformation and healing:
The beings suffer embarrassment and discomfort;
Incalculable woes press in upon them.
The Sound-Observer, by virtue of his unblemished knowledge,
Can rescue the world from its woes.There is so much suffering in the world. Through the understanding and knowledge gained by closely observing the sounds of the world, Avalokiteśvara helps not just in one way but many ways to alleviate suffering and bring living beings to the shore of liberation.
He is fully endowed with the power of supernatural Penetration
And broadly cultivates wisdom and expedient devices.
In the lands of all ten quarters
There is no ksetra where he does not display his body.Avalokiteśvara’s wisdom and his capacity to use skillful means are immense. Through his great wisdom, he invents various skillful means in order to help in as many ways and as many forms as needed. He manifests himself in innumerable emanation bodies in many places, many lands, everywhere. We too can also be present in many places at one time, through our transformation bodies. You can be practicing in a Sangha and at the same time be somewhere else, performing some action, in the form of a friend or a student, or in something you have written, created, or offered. Your hands can reach very far.
Transforming a Pit of Fire into a Cool Lotus Pond
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p194-195I know a nun and a monk in Vietnam, former students of mine, who were arrested because of their work on behalf of human rights. … The nun … spent a long time in prison, and she continued her practice of walking and sitting meditation in her small cell. Thanks to the practice she remained relaxed, calm, and cheerful. Anger and despair were not able to take root in her, and she was able to help the other prisoners, many of whom were very hostile toward the prison guards. The guards treated her kindly—not because she is a nun but because she embodies mindfulness of compassion. She did not let herself become a victim of anger and craving, and so she was able to make very good use of her time in prison. It became a kind of retreat – she didn’t have to do anything, just enjoy the practice. Instead of experiencing prison as a pit of fire, she transformed it into a cool lotus pond through the practice of mindfulness, compassion, and understanding.
If we find ourselves in a situation like this, and if we know how to practice the universal gate, mindfulness of compassion, we won’t suffer and we can even help others who are in the same situation – not just fellow prisoners but those on the “other side,” the prison administrators, the guards, and so on.
The Four Skillful Means of a Bodhisattva
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p178-179Buddhism speaks of the four skillful means of a bodhisattva. The first skillful means is making the three kinds of offerings: material gifts, the gift of the Dharma, and the gift of non-fear. When you offer good things to people, they have sympathy with you, they regard you favorably, and their hearts are open. Giving someone a book on the Dharma, or a CD of some beautiful music that can help them relax – this is the practice of giving, dana. But the offerings of a bodhisattva should not be only material things or Dharma teachings. The best, most precious gift we can give someone is the gift of non-fear, abhaya.
People live in fear of death; they are afraid of losing their selfhood, their identity, of disappearing and becoming nonexistent. So when you offer the kind of teaching, practice, and insight that helps someone touch their ultimate dimension and get free of the fear of being and nonbeing, that is the greatest gift you can offer them.
The second skillful means of the bodhisattva is to practice loving speech. You can be very firm and uncompromising, but you can still use loving speech. You don’t have to shout or become hostile to get your idea across. Loving speech can convey your feeling and idea to the other person in a way they are able to hear it and take it in more fully. The third skillful means is to always act to benefit others. You do whatever you can to help the other person in any situation. That is the action of the bodhisattva. The fourth skillful means is the practice of “doing the same thing.” This has to do with the bodhisattva’s ability to take on the appropriate form in order to be able to approach others and help them. You look like them, dress like them, do exactly what they do, you become one of them so that they will trust and accept you and have the opportunity to learn the path of understanding and love. These are the four skillful means by which the bodhisattva embraces and serves living beings.