March Dharma Assembly Celebrating Birthday of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara

OPEN TO PUBLIC: MARCH DHARMA SERVICE

Birthday of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara Blessing Ritual

The 19th day of the second lunar month is the birthday of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.

Avalokiteśvara is the Bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. Although Avalokitêśvara Bodhisattva manifested himself as a Bodhisattva, he had actually attained  Buddhahood eons ago. His Dharma name is "the Tathāgata who clearly understands the true law". In order to save and liberate all sentient beings, he returned to the Saha world (the secular world) out of kindness and compassion and revealed himself in the body of a Bodhisattva.

Originally a male deity, Avalokiteśvara gradually became indigenized as a female deity in China over the span of nearly a millennium: first as Guanyin in China, and later Kannon in Japan, Gwanseum in Korea, and Quan Am in Vietnam, all meaning “Observing the Sounds (or Cries) of the World”. Around the…