This describes the inconceivability of
Guanshiyin Bodhisattva's spiritual powers, wisdom, expedient
means, and everything about her. There is no way to completely
express such an incredible state. Her pure, adorned features
were gained through many eons of cultivation, not just one life.
She has been cultivating blessings and wisdom in life after
life, for many great eons. That's why she has such pure,
adorned features and such a perfect appearance.
朵朵紅蓮安足下，彎彎秋月鎖眉頭
Sea-vast a red lotus flower Fragrant rests beneath her foot.
Bay-curve of an autumn moon Is in the crescent of her brows.
Guanshiyin Bodhisattva has red lotus flowers beneath her feet.
She stands upon red lotuses, extremely wonderful and fine. Her
curved brow resembles the crescent moon. His appearance is
extremely fine and perfect.
瓶中甘露常遍灑
Everywhere and constantly, Sweet dew sprinkles from her vase.
In her
hand, Guanshiyin Bodhisattva holds a pure vase filled with sweet
dew, which she sprinkles upon our heads, refreshing us and
wiping out our disasters and offenses. Our sicknesses disappear,
disasters and offenses are wiped out, and blessings are
produced. The sprinkling is all-pervasive. She can rescue any
person who is in trouble.
手內楊枝不計秋
In her
hand, the willow branch, Through the countless autumns.
Among
the hands of Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, there is a willow branch
hand. When she dips the willow branch in sweet dew water and
then sprinkles the water, the place is immediately purified. All
demonic obstacles and all troubles are gone, and everything is
pure and clear. Wherever Guanshiyin Bodhisattva sprinkles sweet
dew, that place will be peaceful and untroubled. The willow
branch has been there for countless autumns, for who knows how
many years.
千處祈求千處應
Prayers depart a thousand hearts; In a thousand hearts she
answers.
Guanshiyin Bodhisattva doesn't rescue only one person who is
praying to her in one place. However many people pray to him, be
it a thousand, ten thousand, or a hundred million, she will
answer their prayers. She will rescue that many beings from
their woes and bring them happiness.
苦海常作度人舟
Sailing the sea of suffering, Crossing people over.
我們這個世界就好像一個苦海一樣，觀世音菩薩在這個茫茫的苦海裏邊，常常地作度人的這麼一條船的樣子。
Our
world is like a sea of suffering. In this boundless sea of
suffering, Guanshiyin Bodhisattva constantly acts as a ferry to
take people across.
One
could never finish speaking of the wonderful functioning of
Guanyin Bodhisattva's spiritual powers and of her adorned
features. However, now at least we have a general idea and know
a little bit about Guanyin Bodhisattva, so in the future we will
be able to draw near to and learn from Guanyin Bodhisattva. We
should emulate Guanyin Bodhisattva's kindness and compassion in
manifesting universal doors to teach and transform living
beings.
At this point, I will tell everyone a true story that has come
to my mind. I've told this story before, but since some people
haven't heard it before, I will retell it for their sakes.
Once there was a merchant from Shangyu county of China. This
merchant, who engaged in all kinds of trade, believed in
Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, recited Guanshiyin Bodhisattva's name
very sincerely, bowed in homage to Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, and
recited Guanshiyin Bodhisattva's Universal Door Chapter. One
night, Guanshiyin Bodhisattva came to him in a dream and said,
"A disaster is about to befall you. Remember this verse that I'm
going to tell you now, for it will come true in the future." The
verse went:
逢橋莫停舟，遇油即抹 頭；
斗穀三升米，蒼蠅捧筆頭。
When you come to a bridge, don't stop the boat. When you see
oil, smear some on your head. One peck of grain yields three
pints of rice: Flies will cluster on the tip of the brush.
說了這四句，觀音菩薩就不見了。那麼這商人把這四句也就記得明明白白，很清楚。
After saying these lines, Guanshiyin Bodhisattva vanished. The
merchant remembered the four lines very clearly.
One day, he loaded his boat with many goods, intending to travel
from city to city to sell them. As the boat went down the river,
it began to rain heavily. Just then the boat was approaching a
large bridge, similar in size to the Oakland Bridge. The oarsman
planned to stop the boat under the bridge to wait out the rain,
so the goods would not get soaked. The merchant thought, "Oh!
The Bodhisattva said, 'When you come to a bridge, don't stop the
boat.' So we'd better not stop the boat under this bridge!" Then
he quickly told the oarsman, "Keep on rowing. We can't stop
here." After they moved the boat out from under the bridge, the
bridge collapsed. If it had collapsed when they were still under
it, then both they and the goods would have tumbled into the
Yangzte River and that would have been the end of them. The
merchant said, "Guanyin Bodhisattva is truly efficacious! Since
I didn't stop the boat under the bridge, I missed being caught
in that disaster."
When he got home, he bowed in gratitude to Guanyin Bodhisattva.
As he was bowing, one of the oil lamps on the altar fell down,
spilling the oil all over the ground. "Ah!" thought the
merchant, "The verse said, 'When you see oil, smear some on your
head.' This must be the oil." So he smeared some of the oil on
his head. At night, he went to bed and fell asleep. He woke up
at midnight and smelled the rank odor of blood. Becoming wide
awake, he took a look—oh! Someone had cut off his wife's head.
His wife had been murdered, and all the blood had stained the
bedsheets red. At midnight the man rushed over to the home of
his wife's parents and reported what had happened. He told them,
"I don't know how it happened, but your daughter died tonight. I
don't know who killed her."
His parents-in-law went to take a look and said, "Who killed
her? You must have come up with this plot to kill her and take
her money. You're a Buddhist but your wife wasn't, so you two
must have had a difference of opinions. You were upset with her,
so you used that pretext to murder her, and then you came and
told us." So saying, they reported him to the authorities.
The county magistrate inquired into the case but could not
figure out what had happened, so he decided to pronounce the
merchant guilty of murder. As he picked up the brush to write
the verdict, a swarm of flies suddenly converged on the tip of
his brush, covering the brushtip completely. The merchant said,
"Oh! How strange! This is really very peculiar: 'Flies will
cluster on the tip of the brush.'"
那個縣官就問他:「你說什麼奇怪、奇怪的？」
"What are you talking about? What's so strange and peculiar?"
the magistrate asked.
"I believe in Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Guanyin Bodhisattva came to me in a dream and told me four lines
of verse, three of which have come true. That's why I think it's
very strange," replied the merchant.
這個縣官說：「這三句是什麼呢？」
"How did those three lines go?" asked the magistrate.
The merchant replied, "The Bodhisattva
told me, 'When you encounter a bridge, don't stop the boat.'
When I was going to sell my goods, my boat passed under a bridge
just as it started to rain. The oarsman wanted to stop, but I
told him not to stop there. Right after the boat passed under
the bridge, the bridge collapsed. If I had stopped the boat
there, it would have been smashed to pieces by the bridge and we
would have lost our lives. That's one line. Guanyin Bodhisattva
also said, 'When you see oil, smear some on your head.' When I
was bowing to the Buddhas at home, one of the oil lamps on the
altar fell to the ground, spilling the oil. I rubbed some of
that oil on my head. That night I slept until midnight, when I
woke up and found my own wife murdered.
"The Bodhisattva also said, 'One peck of grain and three pints
of rice: Flies will cluster on the tip of the brush.' I don't
know what 'one peck of grain yields three pints of rice' means,
but just now when you were going to write out the verdict, all
those flies swarmed onto your brush tip. So the line, 'Flies
will cluster on the tip of the brush' also came true."
Hearing this, the magistrate thought, "Oh! So that's what's
going on. Three lines have come true already, and there's only
one left: 'One peck of grain yields three pints of rice.'" He
looked into the case with his advisors and deduced that the
murderer's surname must be either Mi ("rice") or Kang ("chaff").
A private detective was sent to the village to search for such a
person, and indeed, there was a man named Kang Chi. If a peck of
grain contains three pints of rice, then there must be seven
pints of chaff. And so his name was Kang Chi ("chaff seven").
When the man was brought in for questioning, it turned out he
and the merchant's wife had been doing unspeakable things. The
two of them had planned to kill the merchant so that they could
live together. That night when Kang Chi went to commit the
murder, he had felt the oil on the merchant's hair with his
hand. He reasoned that the oily hair must belong to the
woman—only a woman would grease her hair, not a man—so he
beheaded the other person, the one who didn't have greasy hair.
After the county magistrate had questioned him and gotten all
the facts straight, he sentenced Kang Chi.
After that incident, the merchant reflected, "Ah! The causes and
effects that govern the affairs of the world are really
devastating." He then renounced the householder's life to
cultivate the Way, relinquishing all worldly things. From this
story, we can see that as long as one sincerely believes in
Guanyin Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva will respond. Whenever a
disaster happens to you, he will come to your rescue.
