View allAll Photos Tagged Compassion
Act like the sun in love and compassion.
Act like a river in friendship and fraternity!
Act like the night in covering the faults of others!
Act like the soil in humility and selflessness
Act like dead one in anger and furry!
Either act in accordence with the way you look,
or look in accordance with the way you act!
RUMI
Karen Armstrong, in accepting her 2008 TED Prize, has two things to say that I find very important to me these days. One is that compassion as expressed by the "golden rule" is common across all the major religions. Two is that our modern conception of belief as applied to religion is quite likely flawed.
Belief, which we make such a fuss about today, is only a very recent religious enthusiasm. It surfaced only in the West in about the 17th century. The word belief, itself, originally meant to love; to prize; to hold dear. In the 17th century it narrowed its focus [...] to mean an intellectual ascent to a set of propositions. Credo -- [i.e.,] I believe -- it did not mean I accept certain creedal articles of faith. It meant "I commit myself. I engage myself."This trip I took last weekend to Tijuana to help with the building of homes there for families who need but can't afford them was, in part, a test of Ms. Armstrong's statement.[...] So, if religion is not about believing things, what is it about? What I've found across the board is that religion is about behaving differently. Instead of deciding whether or not you believe in God, first you do something -- you behave in a committed way and then you begin to understand the truths of religion. And religious doctrines are meant to be summons to action. You only understand them when you put them into practice. -- Karen Armstrong
This dock channel leads out to the Halifax River. The largest marina in Daytona is downtown, on Beach Street. The Halifax Harbor Marina is where friends of mine live, and so I spend some time there now and then, watching the water, boats, and wildlife. The boating lifestyle isn't for everybody, but those who live on boats don't seem to want to exchange them for houses until they are too old to still have their sea legs!
This view is especially poignant for me, since a couple of weeks ago, my friends and I had just gotten back from a drive, and a photo shoot, when we heard the news that the man in the boat just behind the big one had been found dead by his girlfriend.
Before learning of his fate, I had been in a hurry to get home and get things organized for work the next morning. When something like this hits you, though, everything else fades into the background. We waited while the police finished up their reports, and for the medical examiner to arrive to determine cause of death. It was completely sobering, especially since just hours before, we had been having a quiet prayer meeting right about where this shot was taken, and we sensed nothing unusual, even though the man had been dead for hours, perhaps even a day or two.
Just before they wheeled his body down the dock, leaving for the morgue, where he would be autopsied, his traumatized lover, stunned and sobbing, made her way out to a waiting car, while two friends held her up so she wouldn't stumble and fall. I've only heard that kind of grief coming from a human being three times in my life. The first was at my highschool boyfriend's funeral after he died of leukemia, and his mother couldn't be consoled. The second was when my own mother died, and I was the grieving person left behind, and the third was that night. I cried for my dad when he passed, but we weren't that close, and it was nothing like that.
That woman's pain made me realize how precious life is, and how we should value others, but it also made me realize that certain situations leave people completely vulnerable and unprepared, and I'm not talking about just the grieving over a loved one. I'm talking about the complications that can arise after a loved one passes.
The lady whose boyfriend died, had never married him, or, I should say, he never married her. They lived on the boat together, and when he died suddenly, she not only found herself without a lover, but without a home! She had no legal right to the boat, and she had just lost her job, too! Thank goodness she had some good friends who came to her aid when she called! Now, she will have to live with family in another city. Her life is permanently disrupted and altered simply because they were not legally married.
Many of you on here know my religious beliefs. I am a born again Christian. (The term is redundant, since no true Christian ISN'T born again, but I use the term to denote that for me it is much more central to my life than for most. I'm not better, but perhaps a little more zealous than some.) Anyway, while morally I side with scripture on issues such as marriage being between a man and a woman, and know that sleeping around is considered wrong by God, I still can recognize a permanent couple when I see one, regardless of the legality. When people choose to make a life together, there should be some way to designate property, etc.
People I know would believe that this lady made her own bed, and now she must lie in it. While technically that is true, there's certainly no compassion coming from that perspective! She helped pay bills, and cook, and shared a life with her lover. His decision not to marry probably had its roots in bad relationships of the past, (who hasn't had those?!) and while the commitment was in his heart, it wasn't on paper.
We Christians can come across somewhat judgmental about our stand on moral issues. I don't judge. I know that I am far from sinless, and that I do plenty that could be judged by others, and by God! I DO feel that if a couple lives together monogomously, there should be some laws in place to protect things like property. I've been told that in many places, if an unmarried person is hospitalized, their partner can't even visit or receive updates simply because they're not married
Perhaps it's time to consider life partnership as a legal route to protect people with common law marriage and gay relationships. All I know is no matter if this couple was living "in sin" or not, I don't think that he would've wanted her to go through what she's going through now, and had he really thought ahead, might have at least taken some legal steps to ensure she wouldn't be left without a home after his death.
Life is complcated enough without having to suffer something like that on top of grieving for a loved one! Is there a way not to compromise one's faith and beliefs without becoming callous and judgmental? I think so. Love the sinner; hate the sin. On that Sunday night a couple of weeks ago, that phrase made more sense to me than it ever had before. We are all imperfect, and there's not one of us who hasn't done something wrong in our lives. Compassion rules.
made with vinyl, cut out with the sihouette sd -- these are jars to hold money for the Compassion International Children.
Those leaves in the crack revealed they had struggled to grow through the crack to reach surface to survive.
They thought once they reached the surface they could have a better life.
One who liked them, walked pass with a smile, and one who didn’t “see” them, step on them, ended their hopes and lives.
This photo was taken one night on a street when I was heading home after dinner. At the moment I photographed this photo, I thought of recently refugee crisis in Mediterranean.
People are dying and suffering, their homeland has became war field and they are fleeing continuously from war and conflict to European country. They struggle across the ocean on overcrowded boats seeking for shelter. Some survived, but some buried in the ocean.
I believe that every living beings have the desire to be happy and to overcome suffering. And this desire should be equal.
I believe that this is the hard time for the refugees, but also the time to test one’s compassion.
This is the a Buddha I inherited from my grandfather when he passed away.
He sits facing east in a little wooden house under my favorite staghorn fern.
When I speak about love and compassion, I do so not as a Buddhist, nor as a Tibetan, nor as the Dalai Lama. I do so as one human being speaking with another. I hope that you at this moment will think of yourself as a human being rather than as an American, Asian, European, African, or member of any particular country. These loyalties are secondary.
Dalai Lama
When the College of Humanities and Fine Arts no longer had use for a billboard to advertise its spring musical and was unable to get a refund, the University decided to use the space to give the community a message of support.
(Jason Halley/University Photographer/CSU, Chico)
Make no judgments where you have no compassion.”
—Anne McCaffrey (b. 1926), novelist
The values we live by are worth MORE when we pass them on.
My heartfelt sympathy and compassion to the people of Japan
and all those who have lost family, friends, homes, farms
and wellbeing in the earthquake and tsunami.
I hope and pray the Japanese will overcome this shocking tragedy...
no group invites please
A terrific read. A sincere and honest look ay human feelings and how much we need to allow when we relate to one another. Walk a few miles in "other" shoes.
Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit, "Lord who looks down", Tibetan: སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་, Wylie: spyan ras gzigs, THL: Chenrézik) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. This bodhisattva is variably depicted and described and is portrayed in different cultures as either female or male. In Chinese Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara has become the somewhat different female figure Guanyin. In Cambodia, he appears as Lokeśvara.
Avalokiteśvara is one of the more widely revered bodhisattvas in mainstream Mahayana Buddhism as well as unofficially in Theravada Buddhism.
ETYMOLOGY
The name Avalokiteśvara combines the verbal prefix ava "down", lokita, a past participle of the verb lok "to notice, behold, observe", here used in an active sense; and finally īśvara, "lord", "ruler", "sovereign" or "master". In accordance with sandhi (Sanskrit rules of sound combination), a+iśvara becomes eśvara. Combined, the parts mean "lord who gazes down (at the world)". The word loka ("world") is absent from the name, but the phrase is implied. It does appear in the Cambodian form of the name, Lokeśvara.
The earliest translation of the name into Chinese by authors such as Xuanzang was Guānzìzài (Chinese: 觀自在), not the form used in East Asian Buddhism today, Guanyin (Chinese: 觀音). It was initially thought that this was due to a lack of fluency, as Guanzizai indicates the original Sanskrit form was actually Avalokitasvara, "who looks down upon sound" (i.e., the cries of sentient beings who need help). It is now understood that was the original form, and is also the origin of Guanyin "Perceiving sound, cries", a translation furthered by the tendency of some Chinese translators, notably Kumārajīva, to use the variant 觀世音 Guānshìyīn "who perceives the world's lamentations"—wherein lok was read as simultaneously meaning both "to look" and "world" (Sanskrit loka; Chinese: 世; pinyin: shì). The original form Avalokitasvara appears in Sanskrit fragments of the fifth century.
This earlier Sanskrit name was supplanted by the form containing the ending -īśvara "lord"; Avalokiteśvara does not occur in Sanskrit before the seventh century.
The original meaning of the name fits the Buddhist understanding of the role of a bodhisattva. The reinterpretation presenting him as an īśvara shows a strong influence of Hinduism, as the term īśvara was usually connected to the Hindu notion of Krishna (in Vaishnavism) or Śiva (in Shaivism) as the Supreme Lord, Creator and Ruler of the world. Some attributes of such a god were transmitted to the bodhisattva, but the mainstream of those who venerated Avalokiteśvara upheld the Buddhist rejection of the doctrine of any creator god.
In Sanskrit, Avalokiteśvara is also referred to as Padmapāni ("Holder of the Lotus") or Lokeśvara ("Lord of the World"). In Tibetan, Avalokiteśvara is Chenrézik, (Tibetan: སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་) and is said to emanate as the Dalai Lama the Karmapa and other high lamas. An etymology of the Tibetan name Chenrézik is spyan "eye", ras "continuity" and gzig "to look". This gives the meaning of one who always looks upon all beings (with the eye of compassion).
ORIGIN
MAHAYANA ACCOUNT
According to Mahāyāna doctrine, Avalokiteśvara is the bodhisattva who has made a great vow to assist sentient beings in times of difficulty and to postpone his own buddhahood until he has assisted every sentient being in achieving nirvana. Mahayana sutras associated with Avalokiteśvara include the following:
Lotus Sutra
Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra
Heart Sutra (Heart Sūtra)
Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī Sutra
Eleven-Faced Avalokitesvara Heart Dharani Sutra
Cundī Dhāraṇī Sūtra
The Lotus Sutra is generally accepted to be the earliest literature teaching about the doctrines of Avalokiteśvara. These are found in the Lotus Sutra chapter 25 (Chinese: 觀世音菩薩普門品). This chapter is devoted to Avalokiteśvara, describing him as a compassionate bodhisattva who hears the cries of sentient beings, and who works tirelessly to help those who call upon his name. A total of 33 different manifestations of Avalokiteśvara are described, including female manifestations, all to suit the minds of various beings. The chapter consists of both a prose and a verse section. This earliest source often circulates separately as its own sutra, called the Avalokiteśvara Sūtra (Chinese: 觀世音經; pinyin: Guānshìyīn jīng), and is commonly recited or chanted at Buddhist temples in East Asia.
When the Chinese monk Faxian traveled to Mathura in India around 400 CE, he wrote about monks presenting offerings to Avalokiteśvara. When Xuanzang traveled to India in the 7th century, he provided eyewitness accounts of Avalokiteśvara statues being venerated by devotees of all walks of life, from kings, to monks, to laypeople. Avalokiteśvara remained popular in India until the 12th century when Muslim invaders conquered the land and destroyed Buddhist monasteries.
In Chinese Buddhism and East Asia, Tangmi practices for the 18-armed form of Avalokiteśvara called Cundī are very popular. These practices have their basis in early Indian Vajrayana: her origins lie with a yakshini cult in Bengal and Orissa and her name in Sanskrit "connotes a prostitute or other woman of low caste but specifically denotes a prominent local ogress ... whose divinised form becomes the subject of an important Buddhist cult starting in the eighth century". The popularity of Cundī is attested by the three extant translations of the Cundī Dhāraṇī Sūtra from Sanskrit to Chinese, made from the end of the seventh century to the beginning of the eighth century. In late imperial China, these early esoteric traditions still thrived in Buddhist communities. Robert Gimello has also observed that in these communities, the esoteric practices of Cundī were extremely popular among both the populace and the elite.
In the Tiantai school, six forms of Avalokiteśvara are defined. Each of the bodhisattva's six qualities are said to break the hindrances respectively of the six realms of existence: hell-beings, pretas, animals, humans, asuras, and devas.
THERAVADA ACCOUNT
Veneration of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva has continued to the present day in Sri Lanka, where he is called Nātha. In more recent times, some western-educated Theravādins have attempted to identify Nātha with Maitreya Bodhisattva. However, traditions and basic iconography, including an image of Amitābha Buddha on the front of the crown, identify Nātha as Avalokiteśvara. Andrew Skilton writes:... It is clear from sculptural evidence alone that the Mahāyāna was fairly widespread throughout [Sri Lanka], although the modern account of the history of Buddhism on the island presents an unbroken and pure lineage of Theravāda. (One can only assume that similar trends were transmitted to other parts of Southeast Asia with Sri Lankan ordination lineages.) Relics of an extensive cult of Avalokiteśvara can be seen in the present-day figure of Nātha.Avalokiteśvara is popularly worshiped in Myanmar, where he is called Lokanat, and Thailand, where he is called Lokesvara.
MODERN SCHOLARSHIP
Western scholars have not reached a consensus on the origin of the reverence for Avalokiteśvara.
Some have suggested that Avalokiteśvara, along with many other supernatural beings in Buddhism, was a borrowing or absorption by Mahayana Buddhism of one or more deities from Hinduism, in particular Shiva or Vishnu, although the reason for this suggestion is because of the current name of the bodhisattva: Avalokiteśvara.
The Japanese scholar Shu Hikosaka on the basis of his study of Buddhist scriptures, ancient Tamil literary sources, as well as field survey, proposes the hypothesis that, the ancient mount Potalaka, the residence of Avalokiteśvara described in the Gaṇḍavyūha Sūtra and Xuanzang’s Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, is the real mountain Pothigai in Ambasamudram, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu. Shu also says that mount Potalaka has been a sacred place for the people of South India from time immemorial. With the spread of Buddhism in the region beginning at the time of the great king Aśoka in the third century BCE, it became a holy place also for Buddhists who gradually became dominant as a number of their hermits settled there. The local people, though, mainly remained followers of the Hindu religion. The mixed Hindu-Buddhist cult culminated in the formation of the figure of Avalokiteśvara.
The name Lokeśvara should not be confused with that of Lokeśvararāja, the Buddha under whom Dharmakara became a monk and made forty-eight vows before becoming Amitābha.
MANTRAS AND DHARANIS
Mahāyāna Buddhism relates Avalokiteśvara to the six-syllable mantra oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ. In Tibetan Buddhism, due to his association with this mantra, one form of Avalokiteśvara is called Ṣaḍākṣarī "Lord of the Six Syllables" in Sanskrit. Recitation of this mantra along with prayer beads is the most popular religious practice in Tibetan Buddhism. The connection between this famous mantra and Avalokiteśvara occurs for the first time in the Kāraṇḍavyūhasūtra. This text is first dated to around the late 4th century CE to the early 5th century CE. In this sūtra, a bodhisattva is told by the Buddha that recitation of this mantra while focusing on the sound can lead to the attainment of eight hundred samādhis. The Kāraṇḍavyūha Sūtra also features the first appearance of the dhāraṇī of Cundī, which occurs at the end of the sūtra text. After the bodhisattva finally attains samādhi with the mantra "oṃ maṇipadme hūṃ", he is then able to observe 77 koṭīs of fully enlightened buddhas replying to him in one voice with the Cundī Dhāraṇī: namaḥ saptānāṃ samyaksaṃbuddha koṭīnāṃ tadyathā, oṃ cale cule cunde svāhā.
In Shingon Buddhism, the mantra for Avalokiteśvara is On aruri kya sowa ka (Japanese: おん あるりきゃ そわか?)
The Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī is an 82-syllable dhāraṇī for Avalokiteśvara.
THOUSAND-ARMED AVALOKITESVARA
One prominent Buddhist story tells of Avalokiteśvara vowing never to rest until he had freed all sentient beings from saṃsāra. Despite strenuous effort, he realizes that still many unhappy beings were yet to be saved. After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, his head splits into eleven pieces. Amitābha, seeing his plight, gives him eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the suffering. Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokiteśvara attempts to reach out to all those who needed aid, but found that his two arms shattered into pieces. Once more, Amitābha comes to his aid and invests him with a thousand arms with which to aid the suffering multitudes.
The Bao'en Temple located in northwestern Sichuan has an outstanding wooden image of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteśvara, an example of Ming dynasty decorative sculpture.
TIBETAN BUDDHIST BELIEFS CONCERNING CHENREZIG
Avalokiteśvara is an important deity in Tibetan Buddhism, and is regarded in the Vajrayana teachings as a Buddha.
In Tibetan Buddhism, Tara came into existence from a single tear shed by Avalokiteśvara. When the tear fell to the ground it created a lake, and a lotus opening in the lake revealed Tara. In another version of this story, Tara emerges from the heart of Avalokiteśvara. In either version, it is Avalokiteśvara's outpouring of compassion which manifests Tara as a being
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