"I am the one who brushes
my lips against your cheek
as you sleep.
Do not be afraid.
I have come to love you."
- Quan Yin
"The Goddess of 5th Avenue"
by Carol Simone
MY JOURNEY WITH QUAN YIN
The Goddess of Compassion
My relationship with Quan Yin began in 1990 when a female form, of purple shimmering light, glided toward me on Maui's ocean floor and fixed her dark eyes directly into mine, transmitting a love so pure my whole being shivered and let go. My body became liquid, every cell immersed in an ocean of light. And then she was gone.
A year later, I glanced into an antique store in my hometown and there sat a marble head with the same face I had seen on the ocean floor. “Who is this?” I asked the storeowner. “It is Quan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion — she who hears the cries of the world.” He told me that she belongs to no religion, no country, and that she embodies both the masculine and the feminine in all of us. I knew I had come home.
I brought the sculpture home, lit candles, and set them around her in a circle. Her face was captivating. I put my hands on either cheek and they soon became warm. Then I heard, “I am the one who has come to teach you to forgive. Do not be afraid. I have come to love you.”
Soon after, I began my lifelong adventure into the world of Quan Yin, becoming a clairaudient medium to her wisdom,spreading the word that an energy so protective, so kind and loving, was present and waiting — being mirrored, now, to everyone. Once we experience her mirror in the outer world, we can meet the energy of compassion in our inner worlds. I could never express what peace of mind, what love, her energy has awakened within me.
I say “her” because that is the form in which she appeared when we first met. I suspect it's because that was how I unconsciously chose to see her at that time. But she appears in many forms, including as an ancient shape shifter who began, it is said, as the male spiritual warrior Avalokiteshvara, the Lord of Love in India, who walked the Silk Road arriving in China somewhere around 200 A.D. Several centuries later, when it was politically more appropriate, the statues of Avalokiteshvara, who was now called Kuan Shih Yin, began to look more female. Gradually she was revered as a feminine spiritual saviour and stories of her purple ray of healing light — that brought prosperity, protection, pregnancy, and healing energy — traveled throughout the East. In TIbet, she is worshipped as Chenrezig, in India as Avalokiteshvara, in China as Guan Shih Yin, in Japan as Kannon, in Viet Nam as Guan Am, and so on. Many religions and countries have tried to claim her but her soul belongs to none of these. She is free and unencumbered like love itself, attached to no one way. She is the great mirror reflecting our utter lovability.
And the best part of the adventure with Quan Yin is this: All you have to do is close your eyes, open your heart, and whisper, “Quan Yin, please, come to me now.” Then feel your heart opening. It is that simple.
Enjoy the journey!
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