Stream audio:
Stream video:
Stream video:
Talk Notes
The tarot is comprised of cards, picture cards, and a third of them are archetypal figures. The empress, the joker, the queen, and more. For our purposes, he/she is the archetype of compassion, mercy, the one who hears the cries of the world.
I think we can all relate to that. Who in this room is not hearing the cries of the world on a daily basis?
Avalokiteśvara began male and is named in numerous chants, most notably the heart sutra which we just spent some time studying on Wednesday evenings with Tim and it begins a Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva when deeply practicing prajna paramita clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty.
Well Avalokiteśvara is our our guide in a way. Since first appearing in Buddhist literature and art at the beginning of the common era, Avalokiteśvara has appeared in different forms and different genders in different cultures. So, I like to think of of Avalokita and Guanyin as our our trans deity. And this was this was partially in response or completely in response I suppose to cultural changes but definitely first a male and this is a good example of that. What we see often is holding a lotus in one hand and I think that is a lotus in the left hand and in the right hand it's an invitation to come forward. This would be the Padmapani Lokeshvara form and later forms can show the bodhisattva seated and with multiple arms and heads as I'll talk about in a minute.
In some texts, Avalokiteśvara is considered to be the source and the divine creator of all of the Hindu deities. So, it goes back that far. And as I think many of you know, Buddhism has picked up the cultural qualities of the different countries. I mean, think about it. Buddha was born in Nepal which is really like the north edge of India. So then it's India and then it's Burma and then it's China, it's Southeast Asia, then Korea, then Japan. And every one of those cultures imbues a little bit onto both the Buddha and onto the the iconic figures. Avalokiteśvara is a really great example of that. A manifestation of the Buddha for the purpose of dharma teaching and an emanation of the embodiment of the miraculous observing wisdom. So the female form really started to take place in Southeast Asia. And let's look at another one. This one is I can't I'm sorry to say that I don't have the provenance of each one of these. So I tried did not succeed very well. But I can tell you that this that this Avalokiteśvara resides at the Asian Art Museum in Seattle. It's one of my favorites.
Oh, thank you. Thank you, Chris. Yeah. One one knee up, one leg folded. Royal ease. Thank you. I'll be looking for more.
But whatever form that this bodhisattva appears in, the most characteristic quality is infinite compassion for all beings. So much so that Avalokiteśvara postponed his own liberation in order to remain in the world until all beings have attained liberation from suffering. And that is the bodhisattva vow which is at the heart of our zen practice. No matter how developed we become in our practice, we're not trying to get perfect so we can leave. We're here. We're here to respond to the cries of the world.
There's a strong connection with Avalokiteśvara in Tibet and I think that might be coming up here. Yeah.
and this in Tibet Avalokiteśvara is the protector deity of the Tibetan people. And that's where that chant that I think we've all heard before, Om Mani Padme Hum,
the most popular mantra in Tibetan Buddhism.
So the gender
Kanon is the Japanese bodhisattva of compassion, the goddess of mercy. Hearing the cries of the world and granting salvation.
And then Avalokiteśvara went to China and I think that the next this is some of these are I'm just going to have to in do this in a non sequitur kind of way because Annie and I fooled around with the order of these slides and they kept fooling us. This is a modern form of Avalokiteśvara and I don't know if any of you know the artist Mayumi Oda she was a resident at Green Gulch and was she at Tassajara too maybe
Her thing, her work is is quite widely seen and if you ever go to Upaya Mayumi's work is everywhere. You'll see it in the different rooms and in the different buildings. I love that she that she feminized the image so much. And you'll see I think at the very end I have one too she always has a breast showing. She lives in Hawaii now and she still she still makes art and she's been a beautiful contributor to my experience of the form of Avalokiteśvara and of Buddhism. So she got the name Guan Yin in China and I think there might even be this is Kanon. This is the this is the Japanese version. Yeah, let's just go to this one. Go back one. Okay. So, some of you have seen this and um this is also in the Seattle Art Museum, the Asian Art Museum. But this depicts this morphing of of Guan Yin. And according to the legend, she tried so strenuously to alleviate the suffering of beings that her head split into 11 pieces. So in some of the of the statues, you'll see the 11 heads.
But when she heard the cries, she wanted to she wanted to feel them. She wanted to to see them. when she heard the cries and reached out to meet the needs of so many people, her arms shattered and the Buddha gave her a thousand arms so that she could use them better and have more. And if you look closely at the at the side at the edges, you'll see each arm has something different. There's the wheel of dharma. That's pretty clear. The lotus flower just above. I think there's a tonka below a Tibetan symbol. And I don't know if any of you ever seen the the pot holder that was sold somewhat widely for a while. And it is a standing of Avalokiteśvara with the arms and one's holding an iron, one's holding a toaster, one's holding a backpack, one's holding a you know you the role of women, right? And and she did a really amazing job of being there for us.
So I just want to share a couple of pieces and let's just see what the next one is. Annie, this is a I don't even I can't I can't place this, but it's just a beautiful ceramic figure. And I brought a couple from our collection. They're on the alter. And if you know, you might want to just go and take a look at see if you can pick out what is she holding. Like in this one, she's holding a globe. So Chris, can you speak to that at all? The little ball in her hand. I don't know.
Yes, the little flask. Can you do that? And it's in her hand, I think, in the right. The one on the right.
You can't have you can't really have wisdom without compassion, can you? And you can't have compassion without wisdom. Really? Really? Yeah. So, take a look at these and let's see what the next one. This is, you know, Avalokita, come to the garden. My friend has this in her garden and she sent it to us so that we could look at it today.
And is there there's one maybe it didn't make it in here. There's a beautiful one in in Balboa Park and maybe we didn't get it in there. There it is. Yeah. This was when I found this, a friend sent it to me and it's quite large. The curator at at Balboa Park said that they had mistakenly called it the Buddha until they realized given the way it's seated and some of the symbols on the body that it is Kanon from Japan.
So last summer at the Samish Sesshin, Norman Fischer gave a few talks on compassion particularly about well about taking refuge. I have unfortunately mixed up a part of this talk with my So, let me just a second. I'm going to just going to say something. Please bear with me.
So what he said is that in the Tendai school, one of the many schools of of Buddhism, Dogen received things and then made a translation of the 10 line sutra. First and this is the Enmei Jukku Kannon which we are going to chant today because it is all about compassion. I take refuge We have a causal connection, a karmic affinity every morning, every evening, arising from life, not separated from life. And when you're chanting today the Enmei Jukku Kannon Gyo, think about just just know that it's about taking refuge. It's about causes and conditions, causal connections. It's about karmic affinity. It arises from life and it's not separate from life. This is this is our interdependence, our interbeing. And this is the point of hearing the cries of the world. If you don't care, well, just let them cry. But you care because you know that we're all connected to one another.
So when we when we do this chant, we're invoking Kanzeon or Guan Yin to help us to revere Buddha, to venerate Buddha. The one causal condition is the key here. It centers around the compassion of the Buddha. Everything in the world, including suffering and tragedy, exists in order to lead us to compassion. I will just say that over the last few years, I have had a number of orthopedic issues. I've walked with a cane. I don't like canes. I've walked with crutches. I've walked with poles. I walked with a walker. And I found that when I was in public, I had this great affinity for others who were in that state. And can make eye contact and just making eye contact when you're walking with a walker or with some kind of to somebody else who is almost always gets a big smile because they get it. They know that you know what they're going through.
When we invoke Kanzeon, which we will do at length during our service, we invoke our whole earth. We can't forget that everything is a gift. Even in suffering, gratefulness needs to be the core of our being. Sometimes we have to open our arms to form an emptiness. We think they're two things, but they're actually the same. My ecstatic birthday party and my tears over the death of my favorite pet. They're all the same. In the moment of our calling out, we open the hand of thought and live this moment and find that we can be okay. because there's a spaciousness at the center of that cry. And spaciousness is what we need in order to have room to have compassion. So about a year and a half ago, I was riding my new e-bike. Didn't get very far away from my house and fell over. Now, if I'd been 40, I would have just picked up the bike and kept riding. But I wasn't 40 and I crushed my wrist and my elbow and I was in incredible pain. So my husband scooted back on his bike to the house, got the car, put me in it and transported me an hour away to the nearest ER and I had the most unbelievable pain and all I could do was grab my arm and close my eyes. I was holding traction and without a plan into my mind came
Kan Ze On
Na Mu Butsu
Yo Butsu U In
Yo Butsu U En
Bup Po So En
Jo Raku Ga Jo
Cho Nen Kan Ze On
Bo Nen Kan Ze On
Nen Nen Ju Shin Ki
Nen Nen Fu Ri Shin
and it got me there.
So I was at Samish listening to Norman. He's giving his talk causality. Yeah, it's all great. And then he told the story of two men who were in a very cold place, like a hut. They had no food, no heat and they were in dire straits. They thought maybe they would die. And one of them spontaneously started chanting the Enmei Jukko Kannon and it saved them. It got them through. And I was so amazed when he told that story because it's like it happened to me. I didn't think it up. It just came, you know. So it's powerful. I had the words of that chant placed in my mouth.
Sometimes we just can't find it within ourselves to bring up that compassion.
I know I don't have to name names just to say that it's really difficult to dredge up true compassion when the potential recipient is someone we either don't respect or have been hurt by. When we see things we love being destroyed, how do we act with compassion in our hearts for the perpetrators of the damage?
And yet it is there for us. It's our work to find the way in.
Pema Chodron says cultivating compassion is about welcoming the uncomfortable feelings.
So let's welcome them.
Thank you.
