Namo To The Greatly Compassionate Boddhisattva Kuan Shih Yin

By Venerable Master Hsuan Hua

Among all the Boddhiattva, Kuan Shih Yin has the most compassionate heart and so we say "Namo to the Greatly Compassionate Boddhisattva Kuan Shih Yin".

Namo is a Sanskrit word. Translated it means "to return the life and submit respectfully". To return your life means to offer up your heart, mind, body and nature to Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva. To submit respectfully is to bow reverently to the ground to Kuan Yin. Great Compassion is the great kindness and great sympathy. It is great kindness towards those for whom you don't have an affinity, and great sympathy for those with whom you are of the same substance.

You might also say there is an affinity even with those have no affinity because there is not a single living being who does not have no affinity with Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva. Even those have no afffinity are recognized by Kuan Shih Yin as having an affinity. Most people say, "I can be compassionate towards the people I am close to." This is not the compassion of Kuan Shih Yin. The great compassion towards those of the same substance means that Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva unite with all living beings; there is no discrimination between this and that, no you and no me.

The word 'compassion" includes the two concepts "kindness" and "sympathy". What is "kindness"? Kindness bestows happiness on others. This is not to say, "you should invite me to lunch so I can get full and bliss out." That's not it at all! True kindness means that even if you have to give your own lunch away and go hungry, you do it just to make someone else happy. Great kindness differs from the limited kindness of ordinary people. Kuan Shih Yin has no limits, no boundaries.

Sympathy is having pity on all people under heaven. The Compassion Lord, Kuan Yin, pities all people and relieves their suffering. That which can get rid of all the suffering of living beings is great sympathy.

So, in general,the two words "kindness" and "sympathy" combine to make up the word "compassion".

In the name Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva, "Kuan" means "to contemplate". It refers to a kind of wisdom which enables one to contemplate. Most people can contemplate, but they don't have wisdom. Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva has contemplative Prajna wisdom.

The second word of the Boddhisattva's name, "Shih" means "world". Kuan Yin Boddhisattva contemplates all the sounds of the world. What sounds? All the sounds of joy, sounds of right, sounds of wrong, good sounds, bad sounds, happy sounds and sad sounds. Kuan Shih Yin follows the sounds, seeking out the living beings who make them, in order to rescue them from their suffering.

If you are undergoing suffering, Kuan Yin Boddhisattva will contemplate the causes and conditions and say, "Why is that person suffering . It's because in the past he did not do good deeds. The retribution he must suffer has not yet ended, so I'll have to wait a bit." Then, after a while, when the suffering is just about to come to an end, if there is not a lot left over, Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva will bring it to an end and pull that living being out of the sea of suffering. Why are beings happy?

It is because in the distant past they cultivated good roots, cultivated many blessings. So Kuan Shih Yin thinks, "I should go and cross him over and then he'll be even happier. He will bring forth the resolve for Boddhi and eventually realize proper enlightenment.

" Kuan Shih Yin is a Boddhisattva; "Boddhi" means "enlightenment", and "sattva" means a "living being". Boddhisattva is also one who enlightens living beings. If you are able to enlighten yourself then you will be able to enlighten others. Among living beings, Boddhisattvas are enlightened.

Basically, they are living beings, just like you and me, but they've chosen to cultivate the four infinite hearts: kindness, compassion, joy and giving and as a result they have become Boddhisattvas. If you and I and all living beings cultivate kindness, sympathy, joy and giving, and if we practice the six perfections and the ten thousand conducts of a Boddhisattva, we will be the same as Kuan Yin Boddhasattva.

Why haven't we become Boddhisttvas? Simply because we do not cultivate. Today we cultivate, but tomorrow we don't. The day after we want to cultivate again, but the following day, after lunch, we begin te retreat. We go forward a bit, then back a bit, forward a bit, then back a bit, back and forth, and we don't become Boddhisattva.

Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva is Amitabha Buddha's foremost disciple. If you recite Kuan Shih Yin Boddhisattva's name, the merit and virtue derived from the recitation is the same as if you had recited Amitabha Buddha's name.