Guanyin stands for compassion universal – a figure that I can hardly imagine more comforting. As a source of unconditional love, she turns to us, tenderly, lovingly and accessible, comforts like a mother and responds to the suffering of beings with understanding and support.
In front of me is a rather large wooden figure from China around 1700. This statue depicts a young woman in a wide, flowing robe in a relaxed pose. A slight twist contributes to a soft and smooth appearance. She looks gracefully and benevolently smiling in my direction.
This figure means a Bodhisattva – and not just any Bodhisattva, but the one who is called Avalokiteshvara in India and Chen Rezi in Tibet. This is the Bodhisattva of Mercy, the embodiment of the compassion of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the earthly manifestation of Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of Boundless Light.
He guards the world in the time between the parting of the historical Buddha Gautama and the return of the future Buddha Maitreya.
Her Chinese name follows an exact translation of the Sanskrit term Avalokitasvara: The name Guānyīn (觀音) refers to someone who sees the world down there and perceives the weeping and suffering of all sentient beings who need help.
Qualities
Guānyīn is still Avalokiteshvara – in a different form. Obviously, this figure looks very different as in India and Tibet and has changed gender. This should not be surprising when I know that this entity can take on any imaginable form to help the beings in the best possible way – regardless of age, gender or social class. This different shape forms a perfect projection surface.
Guānyīn does not seem like a divine authority somewhere floating in the sky, and she has all the qualities we yearn. She stands for compassion universally. She embodies mercy, selflessness, perfect kindness, empathy, care, protection, wisdom, healing, and purity with utmost patience.
As a source of unconditional love, she turns to us, tenderly, lovingly and accessible, comforts like a mother and responds to the suffering of beings with understanding and support. She is all-seeing and all-hearing. Like Avalokiteshvara, she hears the cries and pleas of all sentient beings to release them from their sufferings. She fulfills wishes and occasionally performs miracles.
Many people have appropriated this figure – even if they are not Buddhists – for themselves and woven their stories around it. And each story adds another role and more attributes to her. She thus encompasses much more than is associated with the figure of Avalokiteshvara in India and Tibet. She became the universal human maternal advocate and mediator between the divine and human realms.
Guānyīn supports the unfortunate, the sick, the weak, the needy, the disabled and the poor, as well as all those who are in need. As the patron saint of mothers, she protects women and children and comforts in the pain of childbirth. She acts as the goddess of the sea, patron saint of sailors, protector of fishermen and generally of all people who travel on the sea. She is considered the goddess of fertility and agriculture. As a goddess of luck, she is mainly invoked by businessmen and merchants, and travelers, especially car drivers and air travelers, trust her. She acts as a powerful spiritual teacher and is invoked for a good rebirth.
By her grace, even hopeless cases can attain enlightenment. She guides those who trust in her after death to the pure land of Sukhavati, to the paradise of Amitabha. Guānyīn stands for deeply felt joy, inner peace and equanimity in a meditative state in which I remain at peace with myself and others.
In the case of this figure, the scroll that can be seen in the left sleeve, is a reference to the transformative power of the Buddha’s words and teachings and her role as a spiritual teacher.
Shapeless
Doesn’t Buddhism teach that ultimately everything is empty and thus without real substance, like a dream? And aren’t otherworldly beings, be they gods, spirits, angels or demons, shapeless anyway? No one can really imagine them. They belong to a different dimension.
This is precisely why it helps to put an abstract concept into a symbol and a form. How else can I imagine the most all-embracing and absolute compassion?
A rather rationally dominated idea has created a human-like symbol in India and Tibet, powerfully masculine, with an infinite number of hands, so that this being can help everywhere it needs help. And there are heads all around that are constantly looking to see if there is a creature somewhere that needs help right now. This is a picture that makes sense and that I can well imagine.
This Chinese figure is also only an image and an idea. Nevertheless. When I look into these glass eyes, my heart opens. This figure overflows with compassion – a figure that I can hardly imagine more comforting. I forget that in the end there is only a piece of wood in front of me. I can let myself go, my suffering fades into the background and I am quite confident that everything will be fine in the end and finally I immerse myself in a country where there is no suffering.
I can fully trust this being. Guānyīn is always just one prayer away. I can believe that she will come if I just call her name. And my complete trust and faith can make me healthy.
When I stand in front of her for the first time and she looks at me out of her glass eyes, I am touched. This piece of dead matter is really alive. I can’t describe it any other way.
