Praise to Maha-Bodhisattva the Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin

Chinese Original by Guru C. M. Chen
Translated by his disciple Yutang Lin


Veneration in the presence of Guru Gong Ga who is no different from the Thousand-arm and Thousand-eye Great Compassionate Guan Yin!
Veneration in the presence of the combined totality of the compassionate minds of all Buddhas in the past, present and future!
Veneration in the presence of the holy protectors of the Supreme Ocean of Great Compassion (Red Chenrezi)!

Your inspirational responses pervade everywhere all the time.
Met in Brightness of dream even before I saw you, Guru!
Prostrating before you who is no different from Great Compassion,
Once met, like old acquaintances, hence I praise Guru at first!

I witnessed the Karma-Vajra sign that appears on your spine.
Dharma King Karmapa foretold in a dream that you are my Root Guru.
Your two upper legs are adorned with signs of a lion and a dragon.
Those are signs of having superior disciples; hence I praise Guru at first!

Transforming into all one thousand Buddhas of the Good Kalpa (Bhadrakalpa),
Hevajra, Chakrasambhara, Guhyasamaja, Kalachakra, Four-seat Vajra, Vajradhara,
And even issued Green Tara and White Tara from your compassionate tears,
Being pitiful of the difficulty to convert beings to the extent of crumbling your own body,
Having awesome power to transform into the Eleven-face Guan Yin
With thousand arms and thousand eyes, and inspired Amitabha's head to join atop.
Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) and Guru Gong Ga are indifferentiable up to now!

Enhancing opportune conditions to help practitioners attain accomplishments,
You transformed into the great protector the Six-arm Mahakala.
Through overcoming adverse conditions to make practitioners more diligent,
You transformed into the evil army of the Heavenly King Mahadeva.

Merits of your bodily activities transform and appear again and again,
Layers over layers, like Indra's nets, indescribable through analogies.
Appearing as Samantabhadra yet with the tongue (talent in speech) of Manjusri,
And blessed with the power of all Buddhas in the four directions, above and below,
Still could hardly praise in reverence the Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin!
What a pity for this little one who would like to praise but could not exhaust the merits!

In the Southern continent of Jambudvipa, except those who are deaf,
Has anyone anywhere not heard the Six-syllable Mantra of Guan Shi Yin?
Six classes of devil, six kinds of illness, and six sorts of hindrance all destroyed.
Six kinds of damage, bad influences of six constellations, and six poisons all eradicated.
Six karmic sufferings, six passes of difficulty, and six delusions all demolished.
Six kinds of supernatural accomplishment all attained without hindrance.
Beings in the Six Realms all attain Buddha's body in their respective realms.

From beginningless time there are so many practitioners, be they wise or slow-witted,
Through repetition of this mantra they had all attained rebirth in Pureland.
Up until the time when Dharma will eventually fade away in this world
This Six-syllable Mantra will incessantly remain in people's minds.

Among all Sutras and all supreme mantras, those of superior merits
And can benefit people of superior, ordinary or inferior propensities,
None could exceed the grace of this Six-syllable Mantra.
Not only those maintaining its repetition can obtain superior rebirth,
But also those hearing it, encountering it, seeing it, or even disparaging it,
All will be benefited justly through such connections and none will be left out.

The long Mantra of Great Compassion has long been famous for its inspirations.
The ancients had long passed down legends of how it helped overcome calamities.
Even up to other mantras of other transformations of the Compassionate Guan Yin,
Each and every one of them is none other than crystallization of Great Compassion.

Merits of your speech activities transform and appear again and again,
The Great Mantra Sound pervades the Earth, Water, Fire and Wind Elements.
Appearing as Samantabhadra yet with the tongue (talent in speech) of Manjusri,
And blessed with the power of all Buddhas in the four directions, above and below,
Still could hardly praise in reverence the Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin!
What a pity for this little one who would like to praise but could not exhaust the merits!

In Salvation Karma you transformed into bodies of Thirty-two Kinds of Response.
Without distinguishing nobilities or low castes, nor recognizing the rich or the poor,
Be they good or bad, all just need to have pure faith in the merciful Bodhisattva,
And none will be excluded from the graceful blessing of Compassionate Guan Yin.

Calamities of water or fire, catastrophe of war or fighting, and epidemics or famine,
All sufferings and hardships born of the Devil of Illnesses or sinful karmic hindrances,
Upon hearing the sounds of beings in distress Guan Yin will arrive to render relief.
What the practitioner seeks to attain, such as the Compassion of Oneness Beyond Causal Connections,
And even up to the Five Wisdoms and the Thirty-seven Bodhi Branches,
Will all be granted fulfillment through the grace of Compassionate Guan Shi Yin.
The Secret-Wisdom Yogini and the four Dakinis in the four cardinal directions,
Are capable of bringing the practitioner supreme pleasure beyond limitations of time and space.
None of them will not correspond through the grace of Compassionate Guan Shi Yin.

For any practitioner who cultivates Sunyata meditation or other practices,
There will be no possibility of attainment without sprouting of the Compassionate Mind.
Embodying the oneness of Compassion and Sunyata is the Compassionate Guan Shi Yin.
All dharmas (things) are originally free in the transcendental state of meditation,
Just as the very profound state in the Gate of Transcendental Wisdom that you entered.
Neither increasing nor decreasing, minds of Buddhas and sentient beings are the same.
Neither born nor perished, and neither dirty nor clean.
Those ancient virtuous ones during their pilgrimages to the holy sites of India
Were saved from perils only through recitation of and dependence on this Heart Sutra.
The wondrous philosophy matches the Great Compassion beyond Causal Connections.
Sunyata is form; thus compassionate vows extend boundlessly without ending.
Form is Sunyata; thus there is neither enlightenment nor ignorance.
Thus sentient beings may safely pass through dangers and obtain wisdom life as a whole.
Such profound grace, layers over layers, when will I attain mutual correspondence,
Harmonizing Sunyata and Compassion in oneness, and become identical with Your Holiness?

Merits of your mind activities transform and appear again and again,
Higher than I can esteem, harder than I can penetrate, as if afar and yet as if near.
Appearing as Samantabhadra yet with the tongue (talent in speech) of Manjusri,
And blessed with the power of all Buddhas in the four directions, above and below,
Still could hardly praise in reverence the Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin!
What a pity for this little one who would like to praise but could not exhaust the merits!

Sentient beings in this Kali Age are far more difficult to tame than those in previous ages.
I have developed the Great Compassionate Mind beyond Causal Connections as Your Holiness did.
When will I attain the virtues and merits to be in oneness with Your Holiness?
I solemnly supplicate in the presence of the Great Compassionate Guan Shi Yin!

The thirty great vows I made toward salvation at will in the worldly realms,
I am ashamed that due to lack of merits so far they had not been fulfilled.
May Your Holiness grant exceptional blessings by embracing me in your Compassion!
Grant me rapid growth in Great Compassion, Great Wisdom and Great Powers
So that I can save all beings in the Six Realms to adorn the Great Compassion!
T'is so urgent that I couldn't wait any longer, and my compassionate tears are pouring beyond control!
I prostrate and supplicate to the Great Compassionate Bodhisattva Guan Shi Yin,
May blessings be granted so that all beings and I will soon attain Full Enlightenment!

Translated on August 3, 2005
Lunar 29th, date to make offerings to Dharma Protectors
El Cerrito, California


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