Avalokiteśvara or Padmapani is a supreme deity who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. In Tibet, he is known as Chenrezik. In Chinese Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara has become the somewhat different female figure of Guanyin. In Japan, this figure is known as Kanzeon or Kannon. In Nepal Mandal, this figure is known as Jana Baha Dyah, Karunamaya, Seto Machindranath.
1. Etymology
The name Avalokiteśvara combines the verbal prefix ava, meaning (down), lokita, a past participle of the verb lok, meaning (to notice, observe, watch), here used in an active sense; and finally isvara, “lord,” “ruler,” “sovereign,” or “master.” According to sandhi (Sanskrit rules of sound combination), it becomes eśvara. Combined, the parts mean “lord who looks down (upon the world).” It appears in the Cambodian form of the name,
The first translation of the name into Chinese by authors such as Xuanzang, not the form used in East Asian Buddhism today, Guanyin. Initially, this was thought to be due to a lack of fluency, since Guanzizai indicates that the original Sanskrit form was Avalokiteśvara, “who despises sound” (i.e., the cries of sentient beings in need of help).
It is now understood that this was the original form, and it is also the origin of Guanyin, “the sound that perceives, cries.” This translation was favored by the tendency of some Chinese translators, especially Kumarajiva, to use the variant Guanshiyin,“who perceives the cries of the world,” where lok was read as meaning both “to look” and “world.”
The original meaning of the name is consistent with the Buddhist understanding of the role of the bodhisattva. The reinterpretation that presents him as an isvara shows a strong influence from Hinduism, since the term isvara was generally related to the Hindu notion of Vishnu (in Vaishnavism) or Śiva (in Shaivism) as Supreme Lord, Creator, and Ruler of the world.
In Tibetan, Avalokiteśvara is Chenrézik, and is said to emanate as the Dalai Lama, the Karmapa, and other high lamas. An etymology of the Tibetan name Chenrézik is spyan “eye,” ras “continuity,” and gzig “to look.” This gives the meaning of one who always looks at all beings (with the eye of compassion).
2. Origin
According to the Sutra, it is said that the sun and moon are born from the eyes of Avalokiteśvara, Shiva from his forehead, Brahma from his shoulders, Narayana from his heart, Sarasvati from his teeth, the winds from his mouth, the earth from his feet, and the sky from his stomach. In this text and others, such as the Sukhavativyuha Sutra, Avalokiteśvara is an assistant to Amitabha, another Tibetan deity.
The Lotus Sutra is generally accepted as the oldest teaching on the doctrines of Avalokiteśvara. These are found in chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra. This chapter is dedicated to Avalokiteśvara, describing him as a compassionate bodhisattva who hears the cries of sentient beings and works tirelessly to help those who invoke his name.
A total of 33 different manifestations of Avalokiteśvara are described, including female manifestations, all to suit the minds of various beings. The chapter consists of a prose and a verse section. This first source often circulates separately as its own sutra, called the Avalokiteśvara Sutra, and is commonly recited or chanted in Buddhist temples in East Asia.
Tibetan four-armed form of Avalokiteśvara.
When the Chinese monk Faxian traveled to Mathura in India around 400 CE, he wrote about monks presenting offerings to Avalokiteśvara. When the monk Xuanzang traveled to India in the seventh century, he provided eyewitness accounts of statues of Avalokiteśvara revered by devotees from all walks of life: kings, monks, and laypeople.
Avalokiteśvara and Padmapani
In Chinese Buddhism and East Asia, Tangmi practices for the 18-armed form of Avalokiteśvara called Cundi are very popular. These practices have their basis in early Indian Vajrayana: their origins lie in a yakshini cult in Bengal and Orissa, and their Sanskrit name “denotes a prostitute or other low-caste woman, but specifically denotes a prominent local ogress, whose deification becomes the subject of an important Buddhist cult from the eighth century onwards.”
The popularity of Cundi is attested to by the three existing translations of the Cundi Dharaṇi Sutra. From Sanskrit to Chinese, from the late seventh to the early eighth century. In late imperial China, these early esoteric traditions still flourished in Buddhist communities. Robert Gimello has also observed that in these communities, the esoteric practices of Cundī were extremely popular among the population and the elite.
In the Tiantai school, six forms of Avalokiteśvara are defined. Each of the six qualities of the bodhisattva is said to break the obstacles of the six realms of existence: hell beings, pretas, animals, humans, asuras, and devas.
Theravāda account
The veneration of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva has continued to this day in Sri Lanka:
In the past, both Tantrayana and Mahayana were found in some of the Ravada countries, but today the Buddhism of Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia is almost exclusively Ravada, based on the Pali Canon. The only Mahayana deity that has entered the worship of ordinary Buddhists in the Ravada countries is the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara.
In Ceylon, he is known as Natha deva and is mostly confused with the Buddha who is to come, Bodhisattva Maitreya. The figure of Avalokitesvara is usually found in the sanctuary room near the image of the Buddha. In more recent times, some Western-educated Theravādins have attempted to identify Nātha with Maitreya Bodhisattva; however, the traditions and basic iconography identify Natha as Avalokiteśvara.
Modern scholarship
Avalokiteśvara is worshipped as Nātha in Sri Lanka. The Tamil Buddhist tradition developed in the literature of Chola, as in Virasoliyam by Buddamitra, claims that the Vedic sage Agastya learned Tamil from Avalokiteśvara. The earlier Chinese traveler Xuanzang recorded a temple dedicated to Avalokitesvara on Mount Potalaka in southern India, a Sanskrit for Pothigai, where the Tamil Hindu tradition places Agastya learning the Tamil language from Shiva. The cult of Avalokitesvara gained popularity.
Based on the study of Buddhist scriptures, ancient Tamil literary sources, and field research, Japanese scholar Shu Hikosaka proposes the hypothesis that the ancient Mount Potalaka, the residence of Avalokiteśvara described in the Gaṇḍavyuha Sutra and Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records in the Western Regions, is the true Mount Pothigai in Ambasamudram, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu.
Mantras and Dharanis
Mahayana Buddhism associates Avalokiteśvara with the six-syllable mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ. In Tibetan Buddhism, due to its association with this mantra, a form of Avalokiteśvara is called Ṣaḍakṣari “Lord of the Six Syllables” in Sanskrit. The recitation of this mantra while using prayer beads is the most popular religious practice in Tibetan Buddhism.
The connection between this famous mantra and Avalokiteśvara is first documented in the book called “Karaṇḍavyuha sutra.” This text dates back to the late 4th century CE to early 5th century CE. In this Sutra, the Buddha tells a monk that reciting this mantra while focusing on the sound can lead to the attainment of eight hundred samadhis.
Avalokiteśvara with a thousand arms
A prominent Buddhist story tells that Avalokiteśvara vowed never to rest until he had liberated all sentient beings. Despite his strenuous efforts, he realized that many unhappy beings had not yet been saved.
Seeing their plight, he gave himself eleven heads to hear the cries of suffering. Baoen Temple, located in northwestern Sichuan, a region of Tibet, has a prominent wooden image of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, an example of decorative sculpture from the Ming dynasty.
3. Tibetan Buddhist Beliefs
In Tibetan Buddhism, Tara was born from a single tear shed by Avalokiteśvara. When the tear fell to the ground, it created a lake, and a lotus opening in the lake revealed Tara. In another version of this story, Tara emerges from the heart of Avalokiteśvara. In either version, it is Avalokiteśvara’s outpouring of compassion that manifests Tara as a being.
