GUAN YIN 觀音
觀音詩: 金沙池嫋玉蓮馨，殿閣階墀盡水精。雲化路歧通萬國，風飄舟楫濟群生。座妝珪璧霜猶暗，衣綴珠璣月不明。若向險途逢八難，只勞心念諷持名。
Guan Yin was introduced into China probably during the first century. The origin of Guan Yin was traced to the male Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara in India. Guan Shi Yin 觀世音 is the Chinese literary interpretation of Avalokitesvara. Her name signifies her ability to hear and perceive all the cries of sufferings in the world. Over time, her name was shortened to Guan Yin. She is one of the most revered deities in China and throughout Asia.
Guan Yin is regarded as the personification of mercy and compassion. She had achieved enlightenment worthy of nirvana (the supreme state free from suffering and individual existence). After hearing the cries from the sufferings, she chose to remain in this world to help others. 觀災觀劫觀眾生, 音苦音悽音聞親。觀瞻鷲嶺雲深鎖；音聽禪關月上敲。 She is merciful, rescuing people from dangers, alleviating sufferings, eliminating fear and hardship, protecting humans from harm, supporting the distressed and hungry, comforting the troubled and the lost, healing the sick, advocating for the unfortunate, the disabled and the poor. 觀照十方法界，以無求不應；音聽九界眾生，而有感皆通。普度眾生離苦海；導歸極樂仰慈航。 She is patron deity of sailors, fishermen, farmers and travelers. She also has the power of granting children to childless women.
Guan Yin: “If with kindly generosity one merely has the wish to soothe the aching hearts of other beings, such merit has no bounds.” 千處祈求千處應，苦海常做度人舟。救苦尋聲，無刹不現身。
“Like a speck of dust, ephemeral is the body, So is the doctrine ephemeral, like a speck of dust. Only when all sentient beings and the world attain emptiness, Will Guanyin’s all-compassionate heart rest.”
Guan Yin is generally portrayed as a graceful, celestial lady dressed in a white (the color of purity) flowing robe sitting on a lotus flower. She is holding a Japamala 佛珠, a string of prayer beads, in one hand, indicating her devotion to Buddhism. In the other hand, she is either holding a book (The Lotus Sutra) or a vase containing holy water, the divine nectar of life, which is a symbol of her pouring compassion onto the humans in the earth. Other images reveal that she is holding a willow branch.
觀音菩薩妙難酬， 清淨莊嚴累劫修。浩浩紅蓮安足下，灣灣秋月鎖眉頭。瓶中甘露常遍灑，手持楊柳度迷津。芙蓉花面春風暖；楊柳枝頭甘露香。蓮花座上慧風生，倚岩危坐手輪珠。
Every year, there are three celebrations dedicated to Guan Yin: her birthday 誕辰紀念日 (19th of the second lunar month); her enlightenment day 得道紀念日 (19th of the sixth lunar month); and her day of renunciation or reaching nirvana 出家紀念日 (19th of the ninth lunar month). For the celebration, especially for Guan Yin’s birthday, worshippers attend ceremony at the temples 觀音廟, where they make offerings to the Goddess of Mercy including donations, joss sticks, incense, flowers, fruits, rice and cake like pink peach cake 仙桃. They light the pink lotus-shaped candles signifying the light of wisdom, while praying to Guan Yin for good health, longevity, safety and free from suffering.
The main pilgrimage site for Guan Yin is the Putuo Island, in Zhejiang Province 浙江南海普陀山, where there is a tall Guanyin statue looking out East over the ocean. The Guan Yin of the South Sea of Sanya 南山海上觀音聖像 is the tallest Guan Yin statue, measuring 354 ft. located in Hainan Island. Guan Yin has been featured in a number of stories, TV series, and movies.
Guan Yin is the embodiment of compassion and kindness. 水月觀音水月明，只將慈眼視眾生, 教人爲善上慈航。
By commemorating Guan Yin, we should attempt to follow her attitude of performing compassionate acts of kindness to our fellow human beings, particularly for those who are in peril and suffering.
慈悲願力彌何遠，煩惱能除道最堅。救苦觀音名利益，經文曾與世間傳。
About the author:
Dr. Patrick Lau was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to the U.S. after high school. He retired from the VA Northern Indiana Heath Care System where he served as Chief Radiologist and moved to Florida with his wife in 2011. He was an active member & contributor of IACA and ICMA while in Indiana. Dr. Lau is also a scholar of art and literature and a prolific writer, he has been a dedicated columnist for Indy Asian American Times since 2010.