The Buddhist Goddess Kwan Yin, Bodhisattva of Compassion who hears the cries of the world, is sometimes conceived of as a female buddha, Wat Plai Laem, Koh Samui Island, southern Thailand (Joachim Leppala/Flickr.com)Divine Source
Who art in consciousness
Hallowed be thy name-and-form
Empire come where will is One
On Earth as it is in space
Thank you for granting our daily wishes
And for overlooking our awkward trespasses
Lead us unto liberation, and point the way
To avoid all that is unskillful
Aum
Virgin Maryām [Note 1], blessed bodhisattva [lord] full of grace,
Was cultivating the perfection of wisdom
When she perceived that all Five Heaps are impersonal.
She thereby overcame all suffering [and exclaimed]:
"O, Wise One, form does not differ from the impersonal [the empty],
The impersonal does not differ from form.
Whatever is form, that is impersonal,
Whatever impersonal, that is form.
The same is true of feelings,
Perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness."
"Herein, all phenomena bear the universal mark of the impersonal.
They are neither produced nor stopped,
Neither defiled nor immaculate,
Neither deficient nor complete [but are beyond all duality].
"Therefore, O Wise One, in the impersonal
There is neither form, nor feeling, nor perception,
nor formation, nor consciousness;
"No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind [sense apparatuses];
No forms, sounds, smells, tastes, tangibles,
nor objects of mind [sense impressions];
No sight-organ element [sensitive material in the eye],
and so forth, until we come to:
No mind-consciousness element [heart base];
"There is no ignorance, no extinction of ignorance,
and so forth, until we come to:
There is no decay and death, no extinction of decay and death.
There is no suffering, no origination, no stopping, no path.
There is no cognition, no attainment, and no lack of attainment.
"Therefore, O Wise One, it is because of one's non-attaining
That a bodhisattva, through having cultivated the perfection
of wisdom [prajna-paramitta],
Dwells without conceiving.
In the absence of conceiving, one is free of trembling,
Having overcome all that can upset
and in the end attains to nirvana [2].
"All who appear as fully awakened teachers
in the past, present, and future
Fully awake to the utmost, supreme and perfect illumination,
Because they have cultivated the perfection of wisdom.
"Therefore one should recognize the perfectionof wisdom as the great blessing,
The blessing of great knowledge, the utmost blessing,
the unequalled blessing,
Allayer of all suffering, in truth -- for what could go wrong?
"The perfection of wisdom has brought it about:
"This completes the heart [pithy essence] of perfect wisdom."
- A different take on the Heart Sutra (BuddhaNet.net)
- Great Mahayana sutras (www4.BayArea.net)
- Mariology: the study of Mary
1. Avalokiteshvara, "the lord who hears the cries of the world," came to be called Kwan Yin, who also takes the form of the Virg Yin, popularly known in the West and in Islam as Mother Mary. Originally an Indian male, the figure metamorphosed in the popular imagination into a Chinese female and then a goddess (devi). So it is not a stretch to reconcile them: They embody and represent the same thing in the marriage of wisdom and compassion.
2. An alternative phrasing might run: "There is no wisdom, and there is no attaining whatsoever. Because there is nothing to be attained, the bodhisattva pursuing the perfection of wisdom has no obstruction of mind. Because there is no obstruction, one has no fear, and one passes far beyond confused imagining and ultimately experiences nirvana.
