Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Who hears the cries of the world?

Wordnik.com; 123Chic; Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly
Kwan Yin is Avalokiteshvara (123Chic)
“...Tara was not originally the same as Kuan-yin, though the fact that she accompanies Avalokita and shares his attributes may have made it easier to think of him in female form.
  
“The circumstances in which Avalokita became a goddess are obscure. The Indian images of him are not feminine, although his sex is hardly noticed before the Tantric period.”

“Of most teachers we are told that they saw some deity, such as Avalokita or Tara.” - Sir Charles Eliot, Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2
  
“The helpers and saviors of humankind such as Avalokita and Tara are often depicted in the shape of raging fiends, as hideous and revolting as a fanciful brush and distorted brain can paint them.” - Ibid., Vol. 3
  
“The great bodhisattvas, such as Avalokita and Mañjuśrî, are splendid angels of mercy and knowledge who are theoretically distinguished from buddhas because they have indefinitely postponed their entry into nirvana in order to alleviate the sufferings of the world.” - Ibid., Vol. 1
  
“Mr. Wells knows that he is indebted to oriental thought and thinks that European religion in the future may be so too, but I do not know if he realizes how nearly his God coincides with the Mahayanist conception of a Bodhisattva such as Avalokita or Mañjuśri.” - Ibid., Vol. 1

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