Re: Buddha or Guanyin? | |||||
Re: Buddha or Guan-yin? -- Rosanna | Post Reply | Edit | Forum | Where am I? |
The Quanyin was a bodhisattva—an enlightened being (a Buddha) who made the choice to remain in the human world in order to help people prosper, evolve, and attain enlightenment. Originally Guanyin was a male person, but was gender-fluid, and could materialize as a woman, a child, an animal, to have both genders, or neither. Whatever was required for the situation. The aspect of her being a "goddess of mercy" is one manifestation—and an important one among Chinese people. Her strong suit is compassion.
Wikipedia is sometimes frowned-upon as a reliable source of information. In the instance of the entry related to Guanyin, I was impressed that it includes in one essay more than I have seen previously in my past researches. So I think it's worth a read, for anyone interested in the topic of Guanyin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanyin
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