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Kuan Yin: Difference between revisions
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Kuan Yin is revered as protectress of women, sailors, merchants, craftsmen, those under criminal prosecution and those desiring progeny. There is an implicit trust in Kuan Yin’s saving grace and healing powers. Many believe that even the simple recitation of her name will bring her instantly to the scene. ''[[Kuan Yin’s Crystal Rosary]]'' contains her mantras and is a powerful means of invoking her intercession. | Kuan Yin is revered as protectress of women, sailors, merchants, craftsmen, those under criminal prosecution and those desiring progeny. There is an implicit trust in Kuan Yin’s saving grace and healing powers. Many believe that even the simple recitation of her name will bring her instantly to the scene. ''[[Kuan Yin’s Crystal Rosary]]'' contains her mantras and is a powerful means of invoking her intercession. | ||
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Today Kuan Yin is worshiped by Taoists as well as Mahayana Buddhists—especially in Taiwan, Japan, Korea and once again in her homeland of China, where the practice of Buddhism had been suppressed by the Communists during the Cultural Revolution (1966–69). | |||
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During the twelfth century Buddhist monks settled on P’u-t’o Shan, and devotion to Kuan Yin spread throughout northern China. This picturesque island became the chief center of worship of the compassionate Saviouress; crowds of pilgrims would journey from the remotest places in China and even from Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet to attend stately services there. At one time there were more than a hundred temples on the island and over one thousand monks. | During the twelfth century Buddhist monks settled on P’u-t’o Shan, and devotion to Kuan Yin spread throughout northern China. This picturesque island became the chief center of worship of the compassionate Saviouress; crowds of pilgrims would journey from the remotest places in China and even from Manchuria, Mongolia and Tibet to attend stately services there. At one time there were more than a hundred temples on the island and over one thousand monks. The lore surrounding P’u-t’o island recounts numerous appearances and miracles performed by Kuan Yin, who, it is believed, reveals herself to the faithful in a certain cave on the island. | ||
== Traditions in Taiwan == <!--T:82--> | |||
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It is believed that Kuan Yin frequently appears in the sky or on the waves to save those who call upon her when in danger. Personal stories can be heard in Taiwan, for instance, from those who report that during World War II when the United States bombed the Japanese occupied Taiwan, she appeared in the sky as a young maiden, catching the bombs and covering them with her white garments so they would not explode. | |||
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Thus altars dedicated to the Goddess of Mercy are found everywhere—shops, restaurants, even taxicab dashboards. In the home she is worshiped with the traditional “pai pai,” a prayer ritual using incense, as well as the use of prayer charts—sheets of paper designed with pictures of Kuan Yin, lotus flowers, or pagodas and outlined with hundreds of little circles. With each set of prayers recited or sutras read in a novena for a relative, friend, or oneself, another circle is filled in. This chart has been described as a “Ship of Salvation” whereby departed souls are saved from the dangers of hell and the faithful safely conveyed to Amitabha’s heaven. In addition to elaborate services with litanies and prayers, devotion to Kuan Yin is expressed in the popular literature of the people in poems and hymns of praise. | |||
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Devout followers of Kuan Yin may frequent local temples and make pilgrimages to larger temples on important occasions or when they are burdened with a special problem. The three yearly festivals held in her honor are on the nineteenth day of the second month (celebrated as her birthday), of the sixth month, and of the ninth month based on the Chinese lunar calendar. | |||
== The bodhisattva ideal == <!--T:13--> | == The bodhisattva ideal == <!--T:13--> | ||
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<blockquote>Being one with all life, we are aware of all life in its manifestation from the highest to the lowest. This is part of the bodhisattva ideal, which is a part of those who are standing with humanity. And there are quite a number upon this planet, although few compared to those who go their own way of riotous living. It is a very high and holy order, and I suggest that you think long and hard about this calling before you respond and say, I will do the same!” | <blockquote> | ||
Being one with all life, we are aware of all life in its manifestation from the highest to the lowest. This is part of the bodhisattva ideal, which is a part of those who are standing with humanity. And there are quite a number upon this planet, although few compared to those who go their own way of riotous living. It is a very high and holy order, and I suggest that you think long and hard about this calling before you respond and say, I will do the same!” | |||
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For when aeons pass and men are not moved by the flame that you hold, remember that you might wish that you had chosen another easier or more gratifying way. As the centuries pass, the thousands of years and the cycles, and the same individuals whom you have nourished by the power of your heart flame are involved in the same involvements in the world, you find that you cry out to God and say, “O L<small>ORD</small>, how long, how long will this wayward generation be in coming to the knowledge of their divinity and of the love of the sacred fire that we have held for so long?”<ref>Kuan Yin, “The Quality of Mercy for the Regeneration of the Youth of the World,” ''Pearls of Wisdom'', 1982, Book II, pp. ''120–21''.</ref> | |||
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<blockquote>For many of you I have pleaded before the [[Lords of Karma]] for the opportunity to embody, to be whole, to not have dealt to you in the physical the great karma of being maimed and blinded at birth that some of you have deserved. I have interceded with the flame of mercy on your behalf so that you could pursue, in the freedom of a sound mind and body, the light of the Law. Some who have been denied that mercy by the Lords of Karma are today in the institutions for the insane; for them it was meted that they should experience the agony of the absence of the presence of the Christ mind, that they might know what it is to defile that mind, that they might return in another life and appreciate the gift of reason, the gift to pursue the Holy Word Incarnate by the power of the Logos. | <blockquote> | ||
For many of you I have pleaded before the [[Lords of Karma]] for the opportunity to embody, to be whole, to not have dealt to you in the physical the great karma of being maimed and blinded at birth that some of you have deserved. I have interceded with the flame of mercy on your behalf so that you could pursue, in the freedom of a sound mind and body, the light of the Law. Some who have been denied that mercy by the Lords of Karma are today in the institutions for the insane; for them it was meted that they should experience the agony of the absence of the presence of the Christ mind, that they might know what it is to defile that mind, that they might return in another life and appreciate the gift of reason, the gift to pursue the Holy Word Incarnate by the power of the Logos. | |||
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You do not realize how much has hung in the balance of your own life because mercy’s flame has been available to you. You have called and God has answered, and through my heart and my hands, mercy has flowed. I say this that you might also have the wisdom to understand that when mercy has been accorded for a time, you are expected to deliver the fruits of mercy, following the works of the L<small>ORD</small> and the way of wisdom.<ref>Kuan Yin, “Mercy: The Fire that Tries Every Man’s Works,” ''Pearls of Wisdom'', 1982, Book II, p. ''96''.</ref> | |||
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