The Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Virgin MaryAuthor(s): Maria Reis-HabitoSource: Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 13 (1993), pp. 61-69Published by: University of Hawai'i PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1389874Accessed: 26/07/2010 10:51

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CHINESE BUDDHISM AND CHRISTIANITY

The Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Virgin Mary

Maria Reis-Habito Southern Methodist University, Dallas

One of my early childhood memories is the late afternoon sunlight filtering through the blue and red colored windows of a small church in Normandy, bathing the statue of a black madonna and the child in a mystical light. Elderly French women kneel in the church benches reciting the rosary: ". .. Holy Mary, pray for us poor sinners, now and at the hour of our death. ..." Candles light a wall adorned with clutches, photographs, and countless tablets reading, "Mary has helped," "Thank you Mary," "My child is healed," and so on. I kneel on a bench beside my father, who likes to join the afternoon rosary almost every day during our summer vacation in this small Norman town.

For my first Holy Communion, I was given a reprint of the painting by the Italian master Filippo Lippi Our Lady Adoring the Child. It was hung over my bed, and I would go to sleep and wake up again feeling protected by Mary's presence. In my Catholic primary school, I was taught that the month of May is dedicated to Mary, and I would happily collect the first spring flowers and bring them to the Mary in my room.

My first encounter with Guanyin was very different from my intimate child- hood experiences with Mary. At that time, I had just graduated from high school and was in Taiwan, studying the Chinese language. One day a friend took me to a small Ch'an hermitage in the mountains and introduced me to the master there. I was taken to a small room with an altar on which was seated a female figure, clad in a white garment. When the master and my friend burned incense, bowed in front of the figure, and asked me to do the same, I remarked intelligently, "But in my book on Ch'an I learned that you do not set up images or worship idols." The master replied, smiling, "This is not an idol; this is you." This answer confused and scared me since at that time I had no idea what the master was talking about.

This paper attempts a comparison between the Bodhisattva Guanyin and the Virgin Mary, two figures that are of the utmost importance for popular piety in the Buddhist and the Christian traditions, respectively. The fact that scholars of Chinese religion have called Guanyin "the Buddhist Madonna" and the dis- covery of the Maria-Kannon icons, secret objects of worship used by Japanese

Buddhist-Christian Studies 13. ? 1993 by University of Hawaii Press. All rights reserved.

MARIA REIS-HABITO

Christians during the persecution of Christianity in the Edo period, point to a very close relationship between these two figures. The comparison will be developed from three main points of departure: the scriptural basis for, the popular cults of, and the spiritual significance of both figures.

SCRIPTURAL BASIS

Judging from canonical scriptures alone, there is such a great difference between Guanyin and Mary that any comparison seems to be doomed from the beginning. The name Guanyin is a short form of Guan-shi-yin, which can be translated as "the one who listens to the cries of the world." Guan-shi-yin is the Chinese translation of the Sanskrit Avalokitesvara and is used for the first time in Sangharvarman's translation of the Pure Land Sutra (252 C.E.).1 In this early text, Guanyin does not yet have an independent status but is described as the assistant and future heir of the Buddha Amitabha. Guanyin's main task in this sutra is to bring people from their deathbed to Buddha Amitabha's Pure Land.

Kumarajiva's translation of the Lotus Sutra (406 C.E.), which devotes one whole chapter to Guanyin, helped give rise to the cult of Guanyin in China.2 This chapter extolls Guanyin's expedient and skillful means of protecting and saving sentient beings not only from all kinds of dangers and diseases but also from passions and ignorance. Apart from the fact that a bodhisattva does not have innate sexual characteristics, in this text, as in all other canonical scrip- tures, Guanyin is always addressed as "good young man," never as "good young woman." But the text enumerates thirty-three different forms in which the bodhisattva can appear in order to teach and rescue living beings. Among these forms are female manifestations: to those who need to be saved in the body of a wife or a nun, the bodhisattva appears as a nun or a laywoman; to those who need to be saved in the body of a wife of an elder, a citizen, or a min- ister, the bodhisattva appears as a woman; to those who need to be saved in the body of a maiden, the bodhisattva appears as a maiden.

In Hsiian-tsang's translation of the Heart Sutra (646 C.E.), Avalokitesvara is rendered into Chinese as Guan-zi-zai, meaning "the one whose gaze is unim- peded."3 In this text, one that is widely read and revered by all schools of Bud- dhism, the bodhisattva teaches the truth of the absolute emptiness of reality, summarized in the famous lines, "Form is not different from emptiness, and emptiness is not different from form. Emptiness is form, and form is empti- ness."

The Tantric tradition, which was introduced to China during the T'ang dynasty, brought a number of texts in which Guanyin figures as the main pro- tagonist and teacher of an assembly of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and celestial and human beings. Among these texts, the Sutra of the Thousand-Handed and Thousand-Eyed Guanyin, which was translated by Bhagavaddharma (around 650), is the most important and popular.4 In this text, Guanyin teaches the Mantra of Great Compassion, which is recited by Buddhists in China, Korea,

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BODHISATTVA GUANYIN AND VIRGIN MARY

Guanyin Bodhisattva, gold-gilt i..W ' s ' ^

wooden statue located in Kuan Yin ^ ^. Temple, 170 N. Vineyard Avenue, Honolulu. Photo by Susan Wilcox.

andJapan. This mantra is believed to possess the power to ward off all dangers, to cut through all delusions, and to guarantee rebirth in the Pure Land and attainment of Buddhahood.

It is not until the Sung dynasty (tenth to twelfth centuries) that Guanyin is associated with an actual time and place. The legend of Miao-shan tells of Guanyin's birth as princess Miao-shan, who resists her father's wishes to get married and decides to enter a nunnery instead. When her furious father burns down the nunnery, she is sent on a journey to hell in order to become better acquainted with the suffering of sentient beings there. She comes back to earth, leads her life as a hermit, saves her fatally ill father through the voluntary donation of her arms and eyes, and appears to him in the form of the thousand- handed and thousand-eyed Guanyin.5 This legend's impact has been so pro- found that Guanyin's birthday, entry into the monastery, and final enlighten- ment are still widely celebrated in China and other Mahayana Buddhist countries.6

Compared to this abundance of material on Guanyin, the sources about the historical woman Mary of Nazareth are scant. According to the Gospel of Luke, Mary was a maiden engaged to a man named Joseph when she was visited by the angel Gabriel, who announced to her that she had been chosen by God to

MARIA REIS-HABITO

Botticelli's The Madonna of the Magnificat (detail) (1483-1485). Florence, Uffizi Gallery. Re- printed from The Lif ofthe Madonna in Art (Boston: Daughters of St. Paul, 1985) with permis- sion.

become the mother of a son conceived by the Holy Spirit. After the annuncia- tion, Mary went to see her cousin Elizabeth, who greeted her with the words, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Luke 1:42). These words were later combined with the words of the angel Gabriel to form the prayer of the rosary.

The Gospel of Luke portrays Mary as a pensive mother, who contemplates the

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miraculous events surroundingJesus' birth and his acclamation by the prophets Simeon and Anna in the temple of Jerusalem. Mary seldom speaks, but again and again, as the gospel says, "kept all these things, pondering them in her heart" (e.g., Luke 2:19, 51). Almost all the biblical references to Mary show her in relation to the divine mission of her son. From the Gospels, it is not, however, entirely clear to what extent Mary really understood or supported this mission because Jesus' behavior toward his mother appears so harsh.7 At the wedding of Kanaa, he rebukes her by saying, "O woman, what have you to do with me?" (John 2:4). He distances himself from his family by asking, "Who is my mother, who are my brothers?" (Mark 3:33). He addresses his mother again from the cross, calling her not "mother" but "woman" (John 19:26).

The book of Revelation adds a different dimension to the image of a Mary as a pensive mother, describing "a woman, clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev. 12:1). The woman is pregnant and cries out in pain at the birth of her child threatened to be devoured by a terrible dragon. But the birth takes place safely, and she brings forth a "male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron" (Rev. 12:5).

Since there are so few references in the Bible to Mary, early Christians felt the need to fill in the blanks by inventing stories about Mary's birth, her relation- ship to Joseph, and her death. The Protoevangelium ofJames tells about the appearance of an angel to Mary's aged parents, promising them the birth of a child "who will be spoken of in the whole world."8 Mary's mother, Anna, promises the child to the temple, where the temple priests later choose Joseph, a widower, as Mary's chaste and fatherly husband. Another tale, known as the Pseudo-Melito, relates how, after her death, Mary was taken up to heaven, where she remains incorrupt and eternal.9

These tales gave rise to the most ancient Marian feasts: the Nativity (8 Sep- tember) and the Assumption (of body and soul into heaven, August 15). The appearance of the angel to Mary's parents was later interpreted as the announcement of Mary's immaculate conception, which means that Mary was preserved free from the original sin borne by all other human beings. After cen- turies of resistance by the church hierarchy, the Marian feasts were made offi- cial. The Immaculate Conception was declared dogma in 1854 and the Assumption in 1950.10

POPULAR CULT

In popular piety, Mary and Guanyin do have more in common than the simple fact that their birthdays are celebrated. While in the early iconography Guan- yin was still depicted with a small moustache, starting from the T'ang dynasty the bodhisattva gradually evolved into a female-looking, slender figure clad in a white garment. Because of Guanyin's promise in the Lotus Satra to grant a healthy male child to those who implore his/her name, the bodhisattva was

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especially worshiped by women, whose whole existence depended on their abil- ity to produce a male heir. Guanyin is often portrayed surrounded by a crowd of small children, who cling to her garment and playfully try to climb on her lap. Guanyin was predominantly portrayed as female after the circulation of the Miao-shan legend.

Catholic women who desire a child or are about to give birth also pray to Mary for protection. (On a personal note, when my own labor started, the first thing I put into the hospital bag was a small icon of the Virgin and the Child.)

Both Mary and Guanyin are venerated by fishermen and sailors, who pray for protection from the dangers of the sea. In many places in France, beautifully decorated boats carrying a statue of the Virgin participate in a water procession on 15 August, the feast of the Assumption.

In countless tales and biographies of monks, Guanyin has miraculously appeared to those who invoke her name. One of the most famous centers of the Guanyin pilgrimage in China is P'u-t'o Island near Shanghai, where Guanyin is still believed to show herself to her devotees. Unlike in Catholicism, however, there is no Buddhist Vatican to examine the credibility of these apparitions.

The most well-known sites of Marian apparitions are Guadalupe, Lourdes, Fatima, and Medjugorje; the latter, however, is not yet fully recognized by the authorities. The message that Mary has delivered to the people who have seen her in Europe is basically the same: the world has gone astray and can be saved only through prayer, repentance of sins, and the intervention of a loving mother, the only intermediary between sinful humanity and God.

Interestingly, the necessity of repentance is also emphasized by Guanyin. And, while Christianity attributes to the rosary the power to overcome sin, Buddhism ascribes the same efficacy to the Great Compassion Mantra of the thousand-armed Guanyin.11

Both Mary and Guanyin are venerated for their healing powers. One interest- ing motif that appears again and again in Latin, Greek, and Coptic tales (twelfth to fifteenth centuries) of wonders worked by Mary is the power of milk from her breasts to cure blindness, cancer, and other illnesses. The same heal-

ing power is attributed to the "sweet dew" that Guanyin emanates, not from her breasts (an idea too erotic for the puritan Confucian censors of Buddhist

scriptures), but from the tips of her fingers. While people from all over the world make pilgrimages to Lourdes, many of them in the hope of being healed through the water from the miraculous spring, Guanyin's "water of great com-

passion" is believed by Buddhists to possess the same miraculous healing powers. 12

Finally, Mary and Guanyin intercede not only on behalf of the living but especially on behalf of the dead. During Marian processions, during the eve- ning prayer of the rosary at church, or on the occasion of a funeral service, the last verse of the rosary is commonly repeated over and over again by the whole congregation: "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the

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hour of our death." In the same way, the Great Compassion Mantra of Guanyin is recited during every funeral or memorial service.

SPIRITUAL SIGNIFICANCE

From this discussion of common themes in Marian and Guanyin popular piety, several conclusions regarding the spiritual significance of both figures can be reached.

Both figures are appealed to for help and protection in the most basic aspects of our lives, such as birth, mental and physical health, and death. Since, all over the world, it is the women who give birth and take care of the sick, wounded, and dead, it comes as no surprise that only a female saint or bodhi- sattva is believed to possess enough understanding, love, and compassion to be of true help. In iconography, this unconditional love and compassion is expressed through the image of a mother holding a child. The child is every one of us; the mother is those of us who nourish and care rather than compete and destroy. It is a sad fact that, in materialistic Western societies, women are valued less and less as mothers than for their ability to go out and earn and sub- sequently spend money.

While in iconography Guanyin is mostly portrayed as benevolent, ferocious images of Guanyin subjugating demons are also known. Mary too is shown crushing the head of a dragon, an image based on the passage in Revelation. This power of Mary's to crush the corporate evil of unjust social institutions and oppression has been rediscovered by Christians in Third World countries who struggle for social justice and survival. In this regard, it is no coincidence that in 1531 our Lady of Guadalupe appeared to Juan Diego, a native Indian who had been a Christian for only a short time, and not to the bishop. As in the other apparitions, Mary speaks to those who are left behind by the establishment: natives, the helpless, and uneducated children. To many believers, there is no doubt that the overthrow of oppressive Communist structures in the East is also due to Mary's intercession.

The power of intercession that Mary and Guanyin share springs from the fact that they equally participate in the realm of the human and in that of the divine. As Mater Dolorosa Mary has shared all the struggles, fears, and suffer- ings of a human mother, and as queen of heaven she is the single most impor- tant spokeswoman on behalf of those who appeal for her help. Equally, the Surangama Sutra (T. no. 945) explains Guanyin's "two unsurpassed merits" by the fact that the bodhisattva fully shares in the enlightenment and compassion of all the buddhas above and in the plea for compassion of all sentient beings below.

Finally, there are two levels of understanding regarding Guanyin and Mary. On the first level, expressed in popular piety, both figures are revered as "madonnas" or "deities of compassion." (Saying this, I am fully aware that

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Catholic teaching is as opposed to calling Mary a "deity" as the Buddhist hier- archy in China was opposed to the Miao-shan legend and its message that women are able to achieve enlightenment.) On this level of understanding, both figures are believed to be "out there," in Amida's paradise or in the Chris- tian heaven, and to come down and intervene on behalf of the faithful who appeal for their help.

The second level of understanding involves what we can call a mystical dimension. It is the understanding that was indicated to me in my first encoun- ter with Guanyin in Taiwan that I related earlier: "You are Guanyin." This understanding is fully orthodox in Mahayana Buddhism. Several commentaries on sutras about Guanyin, as well as poetry, clearly express the idea that Guan- yin is nothing but our own selfless and compassionate true nature. On the theo- retical or intellectual level alone, this understanding is, however, inefficacious and powerless. It is only the lifelong and committed practice of meditation and compassion that is able to undo the subtle fetters of our ego attachment and give birth to the true Guanyin in us.

A similar way of understanding the "true Mary" would seem quite unortho- dox in Christianity, yet it has been presented. In Meister Eckhardt's view, "vir- ginity" means the state of the person who is free of all false images and is there- fore able to bear God in himself or herself.13 To me, it is at this level that we human beings reach the true purpose of our existence in becoming the true Mary. It is at this level that Mary and Guanyin find a point of convergence.

NOTES

1. Wu-liang-shou ching, Taisho shinshu daizokyo (hereafter abbreviated as T.) no. 360.

2. Miao-fa lien-hua ching, T. no. 263. It has been translated into English by Leon Hurvitz as Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976).

3. Pan-jo p 'o-lo-mi t'o hsin ching, T. no. 251. For an English translation, see Donald S. Lopez, The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and Tibetan Commentaries (New York: State University of New York Press, 1988).

4. Ch'ien-shou ch'ien-yen Kuan-shih-yin p'u-sa kuang-ta yian-man wu-ai ta-pei hsin t'o-l'o-ni ching, T. no. 1060. For a translation into English, see The Dharani Sutra, Buddhist Text Translation Society, trans. (Talmage, California: Dharma Realm Buddhist University, 1976).

5. For an excellent study of the Miao-shan legend, see Glen Dudbridge, The Legend of Miao-shan (London: Ithaca Press, 1978).

6. Such celebrations can be seen in Chiin Yu-fang's video The Pilgrimage to Hang- zhou andPu-to shan.

7. In this context, see Raymond Brown et al., Mary in the New Testament (Philadel- phia: Fortress Press, 1978).

8. E. Hennecke and W. Schneemelcher, New Testament Apocrypha, vol. 1, trans. A. J. B. Higgins (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963), pp. 370-388.

9. See the summary in ibid., p. 429. 10. For the development of the Marian dogmas, see Hinda Graef, Mary: A History of

Doctrine andDevotion (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1964).

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11. The mantra is incorporated into the Ch'ien-shou-yen ta-pei hsin-chu hsing-fa (The repentance ritual of the thousand-armed Guanyin), T. no. 1950, by Chih-li (960- 1028).

12. On Mary in popular piety, see E. Ann Matter, "The Virgin Mary: A Goddess?" in The Book of the Goddess Past and Present: An Introduction to Her Religion, ed. Carl Olson (New York: Crossroad, 1983); and Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York: Pocket Books, 1976). Very little work has as yet been done on Guanyin in Chinese popular piety. My dissertation, "Die Dharani des grossen Erbarmens des Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara mit tausend Handen und Augen: Ubersetzung und Untersuchung ihrer textlichen Grundlage sowie Erfor- schung ihres Kultes in China" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Miinchen, 1989), Monumenta Serica Monograph Series 27 (Sankt-Augustin-Nettetal, 1993).

13. See sermon 20 in Breakthrough: Meister Eckhart's Creation Spirituality in New Translation, with an introduction and commentaries by Matthew Fox (Garden City, New York: Doubleday Books, 1980), pp. 273-278.