| Encounters With Guan Yin Bodhisattva |
| By Liu King-pong Photo by Hsiao Yiu-hwa |
The Guandu Temple is located just one mile from the Tzu Chi Humanitarian Center in Taipei. Its exquisite sculptures of Buddhist bodhisattvas and Taoist gods attract numerous visitors every day. I work in Miami now, but when I lived in Taipei, my bike route on the weekends often took me past this beautiful temple. One of the major bodhisattvas worshipped in the main sanctuary is Guan Yin Great Compassion Bodhisattva (or Avalokiteśvara, “Lord who looks down,” in the original Sanskrit). Every time I went into this temple, a great number of people would be standing or kneeling before Guan Yin’s golden statue, holding burning incense sticks in their hands, piously praying to the bodhisattva. I can still recall some of their reverent but anguished facial expressions. The hopelessness and bewilderment I read on their faces indicated that all they could do was implore Guan Yin for blessings or for some sacred advice that would help overcome their insurmountable difficulties. Seeing this just confirmed for me that life is full of suffering and that people, too weak to face the hardships and challenges in life, often feel the need to seek help from spiritual mentors such as the Buddha and Guan Yin. However, a short story I read recently provided me with an inspirational thought that altered my frame of mind toward dealing with the troubles that lie ahead of me in my own life’s journey. The story was entitled “Encounters With Guan Yin Bodhisattva.” Once upon a time, a man called Yuchi stood under the eaves of a cottage to take shelter from a torrential rain. Unexpectedly, he looked up and glimpsed someone walking past him with an umbrella in hand. The person perfectly resembled the Guan Yin Bodhisattva that was worshipped in the local temple! Yuchi was amazed at what he saw. “Are you Guan Yin Bodhisattva…?” Yuchi shouted hastily. “Could you please save me from the cold rain?” Guan Yin paused, looked at him and replied, “There is no rain under the eaves. Why do you need me to save you?” Yuchi took a few steps forward. “Now I’m in the rain. Could you please help me?” “The reason you are drenched now is because you don’t have an umbrella like mine. It is my umbrella that prevents me from getting wet. You should go find an umbrella, not me, to keep you from getting wet.” With that, the bodhisattva disappeared. Several months after Yuchi’s exceptional encounter with Guan Yin, he ran into a serious problem and had no idea how to resolve it. He decided to go to the village temple and pray to Guan Yin for help. When he entered the temple, he saw a familiar figure, the one he had met in the rainstorm. The figure was standing in front of Guan Yin’s statue and praying piously. “Excuse me… you look exactly like the bodhisattva that I bumped into several months ago. Aren’t you Guan Yin?” “Yes, I am indeed Guan Yin.” Yuchi exclaimed, “My goodness… Why would you pray before your own statue?” Yuchi’s question brought a smile to Guan Yin’s face. The bodhisattva then explained patiently, “Just like you, I occasionally encounter troubles in life, but I know that looking to others for help is not as good as looking to oneself.” After reading the story, I suddenly recalled these words of Master Cheng Yen’s: “Helping people is happy, asking for help is painful!” We common folks tend to go out of our way to seek help from others when we encounter problems, but bodhisattvas or sages turn to themselves. I wonder if this is one of the major features that distinguishes saints from common people. Sometimes asking for help doesn’t resolve our problems, because the people that we ask have their own concerns and worries. As a result, they may not be fully able to grant the requests that we make. We can also look at this issue from another perspective: Imagine what would happen if all the bodhisattvas had to listen to each of our prayers and requests and respond to them? They would surely get exhausted quickly. We’d better leave them alone so that they can spend their precious time helping those who are most in need of help! |
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