Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin was translated in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, at the beginning of the fourth century A.D., and is one of the products in the "Myoho-renge-kyo" translated by Master Kumaroshi. Later, there was a monarch named Mengxun, King of Hexi, in the Beiliang of the Hexi Corridor, who took out the "Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin" in the "Myoho-renge-kyo" and recited it separately, and later this sutra was called "Guanyin Sutra".
In other words, it didn't take long for the translation of the "Myoho-renge-kyo - Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin", and during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, many Buddhists popularly recited the "Guanyin Sutra", that is, "Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin", and then there were also a large number of induction stories of reciting "Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin" and reciting the holy name of Guanyin Bodhisattva.
If you study it rigorously, and there are scholars who do this kind of research, the Chinese vernacular** is inseparable from Guanyin Bodhisattva. Because it was in the era of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, there were many people who recited "Guanyin Bodhisattva Pumen Pin", and there were many induction stories. Then these stories are circulated among the people, and then there are people who write it down. Because it is described very specifically and vividly, the induction story of Guanyin Bodhisattva has become a special literary theme.
But the story recorded in it, if you look at it from a Buddhist point of view, it is all well-founded. Of course, some details will be literary, there will be some exaggeration, and there will be some rendering. But it's all stories of many people who have been saved, helped, and sensed by reciting the holy name of Guanyin. Therefore, when we look at Chinese Buddhist literature, there are many such documents as the induction records of Guanyin Bodhisattva, and there are also many stories.
Before the Tang Dynasty, and even during the Tang Dynasty, we looked at the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva – for example, some of them looked like it had a beard, and that was the male figure;Others are neutral, it is impossible to tell whether they are male or female, and their faces may be skewed towards women. After the Tang Dynasty, gradually the Chinese preferred to express their Guanyin beliefs in the image of women and motherhood.
So how should this question be viewed?Some people may ask, is Guanyin Bodhisattva male or female?So the question is very similar to someone asking us, "Is there or nothing in the Western Elysium?""Same. When people ask me whether there is or nothing in the Western Elysium, I usually ask him, "What do you mean by being and not being?""Because behind this question there is an understanding of what you have and what you don't have.
So ask, "Is Avalokiteshvara male or female?"Behind such a question, there is also an understanding of Avalokiteshvara. Many people probably understand Avalokiteshvara as a god with some immutable characteristics, or even a god with specific image characteristics. If this is understood, then he treats Avalokiteshvara as a special person, and there is a question of whether he is male or female.
In fact, when Avalokiteshvara was incarnated in the thirty-three bodies, there were both male and female bodiesThere is a human body, and even a ghost body, and a heavenly body, and there are bodhisattvas, shravakas, karmic senses, and the images of Buddhas. Therefore, in the realm of Avalokiteshvara, there is no treatment between men and women.
If you have to say that Avalokiteshvara has any life qualities?The life trait of Avalokiteshvara is great compassion, that is, great compassion, and this great compassion is Avalokiteshvara. Then, starting from great compassion, the appearance of men, women, people, heavens, and all kinds of other appearances, so to speak, is innumerable, and it is completely based on the need to help sentient beings, and it is not unchanging. If we understand such a state of the Bodhisattva, then we can understand that in the belief of Han Buddhism, after the Tang Dynasty, we gradually expressed the belief in Guanyin in the image of women and motherhood.
Some of the believers would say to me, "No!"In a certain realm, I really saw Guanyin Bodhisattva in person, and I saw a Bodhisattva in the image of an old lady, or a Bodhisattva in the image of a mother helping me. Or if we look at the induction story recorded in the Goddess of Mercy Inspiration Record, Guanyin Bodhisattva will also appear such an image.
The appearance of such an image of Guanyin Bodhisattva does not mean that it will always be such an image, which is called Yinghua. We sentient beings in Han are more inclined to use women and mothers to express Guanyin Bodhisattva, so Guanyin Bodhisattva will also appear as such an image, which is the root mechanism of our sentient beings.
So why do the sentient beings in Han have this kind of root mechanism?It should be that all beings in Han land have their own common merits and karma, and they have their own common karma. When we look at Guanyin's transformation as a woman and a mother in the Han land, I remember that some scholars have discussed that the personality of traditional Chinese culture is feminine - the moon, feminine wisdom, like Tai Chi, like Zhou Yi, and the wisdom of the Chinese is like this. Therefore, Guanyin Bodhisattva was expressed as a woman in the Han land, which is very corresponding to this statement.
Of course, this kind of mother's love for her children is something that each of us can experience in our lives. Then the unconditional love of a mother for her children to express the great compassion of Guanyin Bodhisattva is also very accurate, very accurate, and very good.
When we see these statues of Guanyin, these paintings, the beauty of this art is perfectly integrated with our sense of sacredness in our faith. In modern times, there are also painters who use oil painting and modern art to paint Guanyin Bodhisattva, which is okay, but this beauty and the sacredness of our faith should be unified, which is my personal opinion.