So here i was thinking i was a know-all when it comes to religion Watch out with that arrogance Viv, cuz it will be your downfall one day. Hehehehe, and so it was that when my mum took me to this Chinese Restaurant (to celebrate my safe landing back home in Holland) I saw an image of a Deity I had not seen before. She was standing on a dragon and in white robes (see attached pict).
Gorgeous, I thought, but who the hell is she?
So I asked the lady at the restaurant, who kindly informed it was a female Buddha. Mkay ? details please, I wanted details. What?s her name, what does the dragon mean, what is she holding in her hand????? I had an urge to know.
The kind lady had no [edit] clue herself, which made me feel slightly better at my own ignorance, considering I am a European Atheist and she a practising Chinese Buddhist ?..
Anyway, thanx to Google I found out who this lady is. She is called Kwan Yin, Kuan Yin, or Quan Shi Yin. She is the Goddess of Compassion and can be compared with the Christian Mother Mary (by no means am I wanting to insult anyone with that remark)
In her earthly life she was a Princess named Miao Shan and she lived around 700 BC ? The dragon is an ancient symbol for high spirituality, wisdom, strength, and divine powers of transformation. And the white thingie she is holding in her hands is a small vase which holds healing water, known as the Water of Life.
Cool huh? Wanne know more? Look it up on the internet, cuz I ain?t no expert *lol*
"
Never will I seek nor receive private, individual salvation;
never will I enter into final peace alone;
but forever and everywhere will I live and strive
for the redemption of every creature throughout the
world from the bonds of conditioned existence."
- The Vow of the Bodhisattva, Kwan Yin