The Soundless Sound
Question: What is the dharma door of Guan Yin (Avalokitesvara)?
Answer: What is the dharma door of Guan Yin? In Buddhism, there is this term called "The Four Immeasurables - love, compassion, joy and equanimity". Love must have boundless love, Compassion must have boundless compassion, Joy must have boundless joy, Equanimity must have boundless equanimity. Within the Four Immeasurables, Love and Compassion is a very important dharma door, within the Bodhisattvas, many Bodhisattvas are representations of qualities. For example, Great Wisdom Manjusri Bodhisattva represents Wisdom, Great Action Samantabhadra Bodhisattva represents Great Action, Great Vow Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva represents Great Vows, Great Strength Bodhisattva represents Joyful Equanimity. Whereas, what Guan Yin Bodhisattva represents is the great Love and Compassion. The Primordial substance of the universe has the heart of Great Love and Compassion, and Guan Yin represents this Great Love and Compassion.
Guan Yin Bodhisattva is a bodhisattva at the Western Sukhavati (Western Pure Land), in future will succeed Amitabha in his 'Buddha seat'. Actually, Guan Yin Bodhisattva has through past lifetimes over many eons already attained Buddhahood, his Buddha name is 'Brightness of True Dharma Thus Come One'. There is a phrase "Because compassion is too strong, he treats Samsara as his place of practise" (zi ying ci bei xin tai qie, que ba suo puo dang dao chang - did I translate wrongly?) Because Guan Yin is too compassionate, he never discriminates who to save, so his place of practise (dao chang) is right in Samsara. Guan Yin Bodhisattva resides in Western Sukhavati (The Western World of Utmost Bliss), as the name suggests, that place is too joyful. However we in Samsara have too much sufferings. This is because the world of samsara is full of sentient beings with suffering minds, Guan Yin Bodhisattva has a special affinity with us, therefore relieves our sufferings. Whoever has sufferings, you just have to chant the name of the Bodhisattva, Guan Yin Pu Sa will come to aid you.
Buddhism talks about equality of 'friends and foes' (yuan qing). Not only Buddhists venerate Guan Yin, even deviant cults and outer paths venerate Guan Yin Bodhisattva, Guan Yin Bodhisattva will equally relieve their sufferings. Our society has a lot of deviant cults, outer paths, ghost-deity temples, they all venerate Guan Yin Bodhisattva. That is because Guan Yin Bodhisattva is too compassionate, he never discriminates who he should save, who he shouldn't save, he will save (du4 hua4) all of them, therefore Guan Yin Bodhisattva is venerated everywhere.
Guan Yin Bodhisattva manifests his appearance according to categories. There are billions of manifest-bodies. For example: if a man needs to be saved by a 'zai guan', he will appear as a 'zai guan' to speak the dharma. If one needs to be saved by the form of the King of Ghosts, Guan Yin will appear as the king of ghosts to him and speak of the dharma. If one needs to be saved by the appearance of male or female children, Guan Yiin will appear as a male or female child and speak of the dharma. Not only will Guan Yin manifest as 'zai guan', male or female children, Bhikkhu as well as Bhikkhuni, manifest as various bodies to speak of the dharma, Guan Yin Bodhisattva can also manifest as 'Grass-Wood Deity' and speak of the dharma.
E.g. in hell, there are many rulers of hell, who are manifestations of Guan Yin in manifest-bodies, because Guan Yin Bodhisattva's 'compassionate form' does not work in saving these difficult-to-reform sentient beings. Therefore, Guan Yin will manifest as 'Vajra vengeful eyes' (Jing Gang Nu Mu) to save the sentient beings. There are also many 'small ghosts' who are not afraid of compassionate and virtuous looks, Guan Yin Bodhisattva has great love and compassion, so he manifests as King of Ghosts to save them. As for Guan Yin Bodhisattva manifest as 'zai guan sheng' to speak the dharma, what is zai guan sheng? That is to the masses there are officials who have the authority to judge/sentence people on trial, these are called 'zai guan', doesn't necessarily have to be mean the appearance of 'zai xiang'. There are many 'small ghosts' who are hard to reform, Guan Yin Bodhisattva then manifests as King of Ghosts, for example, manifest as police, or even as a a judge of court to deal with it, this will be able to save (du hua) these 'small ghosts'.
Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva practises "Ear Faculty Complete/Rounded Penetration" dharma door, this is because he practises till "turning perceiving inwards to perceive self-nature". What is "turning perceiving inwards to perceive self-nature"? That is not like ordinary people who listens to sounds outside, then follow the sound away. In contrast, his hearing faculty listens to self-nature, therefore he could succeed when practising this dharma door, irregardless of where sentient beings reside in the universe, suffering from whatsoever disasters, only if you chant his name, he will hear it. Actually, the dharma door he practises is very simple, everyone can practise it, let us all now discuss how to practise dharma, let everyone learn Guan Yin Bodhisattva, I will state an example.
Once, there is a small child who is eating rice, suddenly he puts down his chopsticks and said "Shi Fu! Shi Fu! I heard it!" I asked, "What did you hear?" He said "I heard the sound of no sound." May I ask, have all of you heard of the sound of no sound? Shen Kai is talking here, you all can hear, hear what? Heard Shen Kai talking. Now Shen Kai stops talking, does everyone hear it? Three minutes later everyone answer this question. Ok! Three minutes passed, does everyone hear it? If you hear, raise your hands. Good! Please say, (one of the audience said: at this place other than Fa Shi's voice, there are no other voices.) Wrong! Wrong! When Fa Shi is talking, you hear the voice of Fa Shi speaking the dharma. When Fa Shi is not speaking, you hear the sound of "no speaking dharma". This is called awareness-nature, awareness-nature does not change, when talking about 'ear faculty complete/rounded penetration' dharma door, that is called 'perceiving nature not changing', other than perceiving external sounds, you perceive your self-nature, that is the sound of no sound. You only need to go back, everyday with your ear faculty attend to self-nature and not move, 'turning inwards and perceive self-nature', if you practise this way, one day you will succeed. If everyone practises 'ear faculty complete/rounded penetration', everyone will be able to be Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
Because Guan Yin Bodhisattva has great love and compassion, we also should learn Guan Yin Bodhisattva's great love and compassion. When we hear about society's whatever sufferings, we should also be Guan Yin Bodhisattva, and relieve all the sufferings. If we do not learn from Guan Yin Bodhisattva, then why are we asking this question? Since we want to ask this question, we should venerate Bodhisattva, respect Bodhisattva, learn from Bodhisattva, be a Bodhisattva, congratulations to everyone who shall be Guan Yin Bodhisattva.
