Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Pictures of revered teachers, places, rupas, temples, bhikkhus, shrine rooms etc. that bring inspiration to our members. Pilgrimage advice, devotion etc.
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yawares
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by yawares »

Dear Pegembara,

Thank you very much for the lovely photo...In Thailand too, temples near many beaches have Guan-Yin statue face to the sea. People around the world love Goddess Guan-Yin.

Southern Sea Guanyin 南海观音China
Image

Sanya South China Sea
Image

Guanyin of the south china sea mount xiqiao is a statue of guanyin ...
Image

yawares :heart: Guan-Yin
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GraemeR
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Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by GraemeR »

yawares wrote:Dear Pegembara,

Thank you very much for the lovely photo...In Thailand too, temples near many beaches have Guan-Yin statue face to the sea. People around the world love Goddess Guan-Yin.

yawares :heart: Guan-Yin
Hi Yawares

How are you today, not seen you write much recently. :thinking:

I think Guan Ying is popular with Thai Chinese as many were nautical traders who relied on the sea. Hence we see her and the Chinese community around the Thai coast. :sage:

I think the biggest one was being constructed in Surat when I lived there.

With metta

Graham
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yawares
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by yawares »

GraemeR wrote: Hi Yawares

How are you today, not seen you write much recently. :thinking:

I think Guan Ying is popular with Thai Chinese as many were nautical traders who relied on the sea. Hence we see her and the Chinese community around the Thai coast. :sage:

I think the biggest one was being constructed in Surat when I lived there.

With metta

Graham
---------
Dear Graham,
I post at SD/JTN/Buddhavihara/Facebook/DSG...and still post pictures adding to my temple stories right here @DW...and I have a picture for U too...

Big Standing Guan Yin and two dragon in Surat Thani,Thailand
Image

yawares :anjali:
alan
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by alan »

Rituals and reverence for this type of thing are not really Theravada.
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Ben
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by Ben »

Hi Alan,
alan wrote:Rituals and reverence for this type of thing are not really Theravada.
My observation has been that Theravada is more eclectic and atomistic than how many of us perceive it in the west.
The veneration of Guan Yin in Thailand and elsewhere doesn't really surprise me. I've seen first hand, the veneration of nats in Myanmar.
For some, the veneration of Guan Yin or someone else is just giving physical form to desirable qualities. And in venerating that 'person', they venerate those qualities and perhaps may even go on to develop those qualities.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

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alan
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by alan »

Venration of nats? What is that?
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tiltbillings
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by tiltbillings »

alan wrote:Venration of nats? What is that?
One must venerate the omniscient (or nearly so0 god Google:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nat_(spirit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
alan
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by alan »

Beliefs in spirits and rituals strikes me as a waste of time. The Suttas have a few words about that subject.
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GraemeR
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Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by GraemeR »

alan wrote:Rituals and reverence for this type of thing are not really Theravada.
Lots of things in Thailand are not really Buddhist, it's all mixed up with Taoism, Hinduism and more ......

Graham
beeblebrox
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by beeblebrox »

I think this is nice:

Image

:anjali:
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GraemeR
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by GraemeR »

Hi Yawares,

I just found a couple of my old photos of the place.

Graham
yawares wrote:Dear Members,

When I was very young , my family went to Bang-Saen Beach, Cholburi. Our first stop was Guan-Yin Temple on the hill that look over the sea where we often saw a few big whales jumping above the sea-waves.
My mom so loved beautiful Guan-Yin "Metta Goddess" that stood right by the hill surrounded with cute monkeys.
A monkey snatched my silky red baby-blanket and ran away up on the hill. My mom gave a big bunch of bananas to those monkeys by put them under a big tree.[/color]

That day was an important day of Guan-Yin Temple, people came to pray and eat vegetarian, as the temple cooks vegetarian to share with the prayer. So they invited us to have brunch with them..oh so yummy. I was the youngest kid in there..a Chinese nun liked me enough to sit me on her lap and kissed me, gave me a small jade bracelet, I loved it alot..it made me forget the silk blanket that the monkey snatched away.

************
:heart: Love Goddess Guan-Yin,
yawares
:heart:
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GraemeR
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Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by GraemeR »

yawares wrote:
Dear Graham,
What is Feng Shui mirrors??....Oh I've been to 3 Guan-Yin temples BUT never witness anything that you described :thinking:
When I was young, I went to Chinese temple with my Chinese friend( his parents rented a place that belonged to my family as his dry-cleaning shop), he wanted Green Cadillac :heart: , so he bought a Cadillac car toy and put it in front of Guan-Yin and made his wish.

NO...Yee (my childhood friend) 's wish never came true :tongue:
yawares :shrug:
In Douism bad influences from 'arrows' like electricity poles can be reflected by a mirror. The lion is also a guardian. :guns:

You must have seen Chinese homes in Thailand with these over the front door :) :sage:

I suppose our home is 1/4 Chinese. My mother in law had the pig from 'The way West' and other characters from Chinese legend.

Graham
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yawares
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by yawares »

Dear Graham,
Thank you so very much for the pictures...I've never seen them before...I only saw Chinese lion statues/Dragon statues/Chinese gods statues at Chinese temples/Chinese restaurants:

Chinese gods:
Image

PS: The monkey in the picture might be great great great grandson of the monkey that snatched my silky blanket. :tongue:

Love all the pictures :heart:
yawares :anjali:
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yawares
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Re: Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by yawares »

Dear Members,
I found a new nice story of Guan-Yin:

Story of Guan-yin The Goddess Of Mercy-佛門網 :開啟佛教大門 ...
[www.absolutechinatours.com/...of-Guanyin-in-China.html - Cached]

One famous story about the show-up of Guanyin(观音现身)dates back to Tang
Dynasty during the reign of Emperor Wenzong(唐文宗, 827~840A.D.). It is
known that the capital of Tang Dynasty is Chang’an(Xi’an nowadays), a
great city in the west of China, a city that turns its face to the
empires of Inner Asia. Emperor Wenzong has a special hobby of eating
clams, ordered clams for three of his five meals, each and every day.
However, based on the geographic position of Xian, it was a great
barrier to bring clams from the sea to the imperial palace. Such a
delicacy the emperor ate was through the bitter labors of thousands.
To ensure the freshness of the clams, every day in the dim light
before dawn, clams would be gathered by the ocean fishermen of
Zhejiang and then packed by porters in cold seaweed, wet sand and ice,
then rapidly loaded on relay mounts that sped the Imperial highway.
Obviously, it is a great sacrifice of the labors only to please the
emperor’s eating preference.

Day after day, the laborers suffered a lot from the process of hard
work; many of them are living in misery, until one incident shocked
the entire palace. One day, the Royal chef discovered an unusual clam
in grand size. The clam was enormous-twenty times the usual shell,-
surely an imperial clam meant for the Imperial Palate. As the Clam
Shell Opener stepped up to pry the shell apart, however, he found the
shell sealed like iron; the clam was as tight as a rock crevice on the
slope of Mount Tai.

Emperor Wenzong heard about this and commanded the opener to let him
take a closer look. All of a sudden, as if by signal, the clam began
to open automatically. The emperor gasped at what he saw. There,
standing inside, was a finely detailed, miniature, astonishingly sweet
statue of the Goddess of Mercy, the Bodhisattva Guanyin, exquisitely
carved. What surprised him most is what Guanyin said by her lovely
expression, “The laborers have to make great efforts for your own
pleasure; both harass the people and waste money”. Then the Emperor
realized that Guanyin –the Buddhist Goddess-who hears even the
smallest call for mercy from even the tiniest voice in the empire-had
taken pity on the boat men, the fisher folk, the portage men and relay
riders, even the royal cooks-all who served his royal taste and royal
whim. He realized that the purpose that Guanyin show up in the grand
clam is to warn him; she would watch over mankind in times of fear and
danger. (Partly Refer to "In the Realm of the Gods: Lands, Myths, and
Legends of China").

************
yawares :anjali:
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GraemeR
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Guan-Yin, THE GODDESS OF METTA

Post by GraemeR »

yawares wrote:Dear Graham,
Thank you so very much for the pictures...I've never seen them before...I only saw Chinese lion statues/Dragon statues/Chinese gods statues at Chinese temples/Chinese restaurants:

Chinese gods:
Image

PS: The monkey in the picture might be great great great grandson of the monkey that snatched my silky blanket. :tongue:

Love all the pictures :heart:
yawares :anjali:
These three are called Hop, Lop and Siew.

Haven't you seen 'The Way West', with the Pig, Monkey and Monk going to India to get Buddhist scriptures. :buddha2:

The Nine Immortals are on TV in Thailand too.

Graham
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