Kwan-Yin
Kwan-Yin (Chinese: 觀音, Guānyīn) is the female bodhisattva of compassion venerated by East Asian Buddhists. Another later name for this bodhisattva is Kwan-Shi-Yin (Guānshìyīn). It is generally accepted that Kwan-Yin is a Chinese version of the male Mahāyāna bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.
In Chinese Buddhism
In Chinese Buddhism, the female Kuan Yin (also Guanyin, Kannon, Kwannon), the pinnacle of mercy and compassion is synonymous with the male Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (almost exclusively called Kwan-Shi-Yin). The Buddhist canon states that bodhisattvas can assume whatsoever gender and form is needed to liberate beings from ignorance and dukkha. The "Goddess of Mercy and Compassion" is seen as the boundless salvific nature of the male Avalokitesvara.
In Theosophy
Stanza VI.1 defines Kwan-Yin as "The Mother of Mercy and Knowledge".[1] In her commentaries to the sloka Helena Petrovna Blavatsky relates Kwan-Yin to the Hindu Vāc.
Kwan-Yin and Kwan-Shi-Yin
Mme. Blavatsky and the Mahatmas maintained that Kwan-Yin and Kwan-Shi-Yin are two different entities, and that it is the latter who is Avalokiteśvara.[2]
Kwan-Shi-Yin and Kwan-Yin are the two aspects (male and female) of the same principle in Kosmos, Nature and Man, of divine wisdom and intelligence. They are the “Christos-Sophia” of the mystic Gnostics—the Logos and its Sakti.[3]
Notes
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 136.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 471.
- ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 473.
Further reading
- Kwan Yin at Theosopedia