A Field Guide to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas 4/

Welcome to the Mountain Rain Zen Dharma Podcast featuring talks by our guiding teachers, Miochen Kate McCannless and Shinman Michael Newton, as well as other members of our community. Find out more about us and how to support our work at mountainrainsen.org. Well, good evening, everyone here and there, cross town and farther away. Thank you for coming out this beautiful, beautiful evening. As many of you know, Michael and I this past week began a series of talks on both Wednesdays and Sundays that we're calling a field guide to the Buddha's and Bodhisattvas, which is inspired by our recent trip to Japan where we visited where we followed a very ancient pilgrimage route on the island of Shikoku and we visited 53 of the 88 temples on that route. And as we went from one temple to another over and over again, we saw images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas both inside the temple and along the road, stone images sometimes covered with moss. And these images became companions along the way, offering us courage, wisdom and compassion according to their particular qualities and our needs as we went along. We've mentioned the 13 Honson, which means "main," I'm avoiding using the word "deity" because I don't think of them as deities, but they're the primary figure that's enshrined in the main hall at each of the temples. So I tried to do a count to see which ones were the most popular among the 88. And if my count is correct, it's "kanban bodhisattva," the bodhisattva of compassion, who was the main figure in 28 temples, followed closely by Yakushinodai the medicine Buddha with 24 temples, which makes sense, doesn't it? We humans need all the compassion and healing we can get on our pilgrimage through this life. So this evening I thought I would talk about Kanan or in Sanskrit, avalokitishvara, probably the most beloved and popular bodhisattva throughout the Mahayana Buddhist world and said to be revered as a folk deity, even in some terabattin Buddhist cultures and countries such as Sri Lanka and Burma. Myanmar. Now, avalokitishvara became Kuanyan in China or Kuan Shurian and Kanan in Japanese or Kanzean. So in Japanese Kanan Bodhisattva, "kan" means to regard, observe, perceive or contemplate, "ze" means world and in means sound, hence one who perceives the sounds of the world or the cries of the world. So Kanzean perceiving the world sounds or cries. And of course, bodhisattva means awakening being, being who vows to awaken not just for oneself but for the benefit of and liberation of all beings. And this meaning is quite close representation of the Sanskrit. Sometimes she's also called Kanji's eye, as you see in the second line here. Kan is that same character meaning to regard or contemplate and "je"'s eye means self-existence or without obstruction, thus contemplating self-existence without obstruction. As we chant, in the heart sutra we chant avalokitishvara bodhisattva and practicing deeply the prasnipara to clearly see that all vayasgandhas are empty and thus relieved all suffering. So it's the bodhisattva of compassion who plays a key role in perceiving the dynamic interconnectiveness of all phenomena. Avalokitishvara is speaking the heart sutra. This figure of avalokitishvara is speculated to have been absorbed into Mahayana Buddhism from the Hindu deity Vishnu or Shiva in this picture. And when Buddhism moved from India into China in the 5th century, avalokitishvara was clearly a male or somewhat endogenous figure, wearing the robes and jewelry of the ancient Indian Brahmanic caste or class. In China, avalokitishvara underwent a transformation into Kuan Yin, a female bodhisattva of compassion. This is a Chinese image of Kuan Yin still looking more endogenous. This shift to a feminine avalokitishvara or Kuan Yin was influenced by Chinese daoist female deities and maybe even a dose of Christian worship of Virgin Mary imported along the silk road and images. Likewise, this rise of Christian devotion to Mary occurred around the same time as Kuan Yin took on female form in China. So we could speculate and it has been speculated that this transformation came out of a similar need for a compassionate female spiritual figure in strongly patriarchal cultures. In Japan, Kannon became even more consistently depicted and revered as female but may also appeal as masculine or endogenous. Avalokitishvara is also an important bodhisattva in Tibetan Buddhism as Chen Raizi and his female manifestation as Tara. So here's a Tara image. So I'm going to continue to refer to Avalokitishvara as Kannon because the name is so familiar in our Japanese and tradition. Kannon appears with more variation than any other bodhisattva in Buddhist iconography. So I wanted to show you some images of the main forms that Kannon takes in art and sculpture. Perhaps the earliest female Kuan Yin image in China and still the most popular is the white robed Kuan Yin. The bodhisattva wears a white robe covering her head and body, often holds a mala in one hand and in the other asutra which would be the lotus sutra or a vase like a bottle symbolizing her outpouring of compassion. So it's to contain pure water. One version and this is a very contemporary Chinese rendering. The white robed Kuan Yin is the Willow branch. She's holding actually just a twig in this picture. The Willow branch Kuan Yin. The Willow has many layered associations. It symbolizes the flexible strength that the Dharma gives us to respond to adverse circumstances without being broken by them. also an ancient Chinese symbol of them. femininity and compassion, the willow. And it was also used as a shamanistic implement for exorcisms and for contacting spirit realms. Willow wand is often in Western cultures used to divine water, because the water diviners who hold a fort willow branch, and when they come near looking for a place to dig a well, apparently it bends down. And white willow bark was long used medicinally for its anti-inflammatory properties long before its active ingredient, salison, salison acid. The precursor of aspirin was discovered. Willow bark. The imagery of his white-robed quanian and the folklore surrounding her closely resemble the images and folklore around the Virgin Mary in Europe. Another of the earliest forms of canon or images is called the show canon or holy canon. And it's portrayed very simply and gracefully, standing often on a lotus, a lotus blossom, or a pedestal, and standing with one hand holding either a lotus or a vase of healing water. And the other hand extended in the mudra of fearlessness, offering us freedom from fear. I put on our altar, a show canon, that Michael carved in his Buddha carving class many long years ago. And her-- she had a little lotus, a little carved lotus in her hand, but somehow it broke or disappeared. We don't know where it is. She needs a new one. And this is the first one. She carved. This is a very, very old style, very, very simple. And hold it up so the folks-- this is the first one he carved. And then-- Another kind is the neo-edine or turning the jewel canon, who sits on a lotus. Sorry, I said that about the other one. This style sits on a lotus often. And holds a wishful-feeling jewel. This is the precious jewel of the Dharma. See, she's holding the jewel of the Dharma depicted as a single globe, sometimes with a halo of light, or as a cluster of three jewels for Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the triple treasure. It's called the money jewel. You've heard the mantra, "Oh, money, padme, home," the jewel in the lotus. The wishful-feeling jewel or chinta money is not some kind of Aladdin's lamp that we rub and ask the genie who pops out for what we desire, which magically appears. The wishful-feeling jewel symbolizes our deepest wish, beneath all our cravings for material things, achievements, even love. Our deepest wish is to be free from suffering and discontent, and to manifest our lives fully without endurance. So that's what the wishful-feeling jewel symbolizes or grants us offers us. In the folktales about canon, though, she often provides a means of prosperity for a poor but faithful individual, as a skillful means to allow them to live a more beneficial life. Maybe next time, I'm going to do part two because there's so much about canon and maybe I'll bring a couple of the folktales. Perhaps the most well-known image is the thousand-arm canon. Oh, sorry, this is another of the jewel, the turning the jewel, canon. Who often sits in that pose with one leg down and one up. And here is the thousand-arm canon. Which depicts canon's ability to use skillful means, because each of the hands has an eye in the palm of the hand to perceive the particular needs of suffering beings and then to respond with the right tool. So there's a different tool in each hand, an implement to help a mirror for drawing forth wisdom, a moon ring for dispelling poison or relieving fever and arrow for meeting true friends, a vile for bringing harmony in relationships, an open hand for relieving fear and anxiety, a bell for a beautiful voice, a duster for removing obstacles, a hook for pulling down harmful dragons, just in case you need a hook to pull down a harmful dragon and a skull for casting out demons. So each of these tools has a purpose. Here's a very new, very large thousand-arm senju canon that we visited on the last sangatrip to Japan. The eleven-- oh, sorry. Oh, here it's going back. This is a picture of the famous sanju sangando or hall of 33 bays contains 1,000 golden images of 1,000 armed canons. And though you can hardly tell without looking closely, each of their faces is unique. If you look closely, you'll see each face is unique. They are us. A moving display of our own bodhisattva nature, each of us making an offering to sentient beings from our own unique repertoire of abilities. This is in Kyoto. Some of you may have been there. And then there's the eleven-faced cannon, the juicimen cannon, has above her own head three gentle or compassionate faces, three fierce faces for occasions when tough love is required, three fanged faces, which curiously are for encouraging those who are already making strong efforts, apparently. And one, the most in the back is always a laughing face so that we don't take ourselves so seriously. Above them all-- so this makes the 11th-- is the face of Amida Buddha. Michael talked about Amida Buddha, the Pure Land Buddha, last Sunday. The Buddha who helps us on our way to the Western Pure Land free of delusion and suffering, which turns out to be not in the far distance, but right here all along. And the story of this cannon is that she had saved many beings from suffering and was accompanying them to the Pure Land of Liberation, Amida Buddha. When she looked back-- oh, sorry, this cannon, this bodhisattva, when she looked back and saw all the myriad more beings left behind that she still hadn't saved, filling immediately the spaces of those that she was helping. And her grief was so great, her head split open. And Amida Buddha helped her restore her head 10 times and then added his own head on top to help her to give her a cannon the deep faith in her capacity to bring compassion to the suffering beings of the world. Now, this is a pretty powerful image for our time now, for anyone who has fell overwhelmed by the suffering in our world and feels like it could split your head open. Sometimes, huh? So these images have a certain power. And some of them, as you can see, have both many arms and 11 faces. They are-- they are-- exceptionally well-equipped to do their work of compassion in the world. Cannond is not always gentle and means. This one you can't really tell in the picture, but she is called a horse head canon, and often presents a fierce aspect. Like this one you can see has a fierce face and you can't really see the horse. The horse is just a small head up on top. And this canon is associated with the overcoming obstacles and protecting beings in difficult situations. That previous one, if you could see closely the horse, the horse's mane becomes the canon's hair. It's quite a beautiful image. Cannond is the bodhisattva who watches over beings in the animal realm. So there's this association with animals. Though I couldn't find a reason exactly for it to be a horse. In modern Japan, new specialty canon figures have emerged with increasing wealth, urbanization and more people living singly on their own. The role of animals as pets has changed. And thus a pet protecting canon. She's holding a little dog. It's a little blurry, but she's holding a little dog. And with an increasingly aging population, a dementia preventing canon now appears. So here's one we found on our pilgrimage. It's with an old woman, an old man at her feet. One had already been associated with easing childbirth and raising children. So she's depicted as a compassionate mother holding a child. And is associated with protecting children and mothers. So that role overlaps with the role of Jizo Bodhisattva who we'll talk about later. Who protects is the protector of children who die young as well as through miscarriages and abortions. And that role has been extended to canon too. So you will find images like this or that previous one, the gold one as part of a Jizo shrine. This one we found on our pilgrimage, she's holding a baby and she's a canon for easy childbirth. And if you can see in the background, these are wooden ladles. And if a woman has a successful childbirth, she'll remove the cup of the ladle and place it here. So they're empty ladles because the child has been born safely. This one is very old, it's called a Maria canon. And it's an image when Christians were being persecuted during the years of the Tokugawa Shogunate. These images of canon would be used to symbolize the Virgin Mary amongst the hidden Christians in Japan. So that's a Maria canon. Canon has also served to memorialize the dead. There was one on our pilgrimage that we found memorializing pilgrims who had died without any family members to tend their graves or to remember them. So there was a canon memorializing them. A modern iteration is the peace canon. There's a huge big white peace canon and incorporated, peace canon is incorporated into the peace parks in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to memorialize those who died in the atomic bombings of those cities. And also more controversially in Shinto shrines. So Shinto being the pre-Buddhist kind of earth-based spirituality in Japan that was invoked as a kind of nationalistic emperor-based rational rationale for imperialist war-making in Asia in prior to war, prior to enduring war or to. So to have these Shinto shrine memorials to war veterans has been controversial. After the war many people were angry and felt betrayed by the military and government leadership. Canon has been associated with water for centuries, particularly in Japan as an island country. So she's often depicted as in this tattoo with a fish or with a dragon. Many folk tales depict her helping fisher folk or those traveling by sea. There's a story of Dogan Zenji who founded our school of Zen returning from China by ship when a great storm blew up. And while the crew and passengers retreated below deck to escape being washed overboard, Dogan remained on deck in Zazen chanting the canon chapter of the Lotusutra in the head of vision of canon writing on a leaf, a little leaf boat through the waves which calm to as he continued to chant until the storm died down. And this canon writing on a little, writing on a leaf boat is in a pond at the entrance to a haji, the monastery Dogan founded that we visit still today. And finally from our own continent, here is the artist Mayomi Oda's Green Gulch canon, blessing the gardens and fields of San Francisco's and Seniors Green Gulch farm. And her kitchen canon. This is a canon to support the Tenzo who needs many arms to feed all the monks and care for the other kitchen workers. So I'm showing you and I will show some more perhaps of Mayomi Oda's work in hopes that it will give you inspiration for your own imagined Bodhisattva creations. The American Zen teacher Taigan Layton wrote a book about Bodhisattvas as archetypes and he chooses examples from our times like Mother Teresa for canon. Oh, and just as a bonus, for those of you who are here last week, you may remember that I talked about Fudo Mio, the unmoving wisdom king. And this is Mayomi Oda's representation of Fudo as a female figure. And she created this image when she was doing activism in Japan, anti-nuclear activism after the Fukushima disaster, joining others in opposing nuclear proliferation in Japan. So these images can serve us still and be adapted to our lives in this world today. You've been listening to the Mountain Reigns in Dharma Podcast. These talks are made possible thanks to donations from our worldwide community. If you find value in these teachings, please consider supporting our work. Visit mountainrainsand.org/donate. [Birds chirping] [Birds chirping]