# Guanyin Hall

## Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva
In Mahayana Buddhism, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva represents the foundation of “filial piety toward parents and respect for teachers,” while Guanyin Bodhisattva represents the “great compassion and great kindness” built upon the foundation of filial piety.
Meaning of the name: “Avalokitesvara,” or Guanshiyin, means to contemplate the sounds of suffering and distress among beings in the world. “Contemplate” does not mean looking with the eyes, but illuminating with wisdom; “sounds of the world” refers to the calls and needs of all beings.
Putting compassion into practice: Compassion is not blind sympathy. “Compassion removes suffering; kindness gives joy.” When we see others suffering, we should do our utmost to help them leave suffering and gain happiness.
In Guanyin Hall, there is usually a child attendant and a dragon girl beside Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, representing the joint functioning of compassion and wisdom.

## Sudhana
Sudhana is the central figure in the “Entering the Dharma Realm” chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sutra.
**“Goodness” and “wealth”: **“Goodness” represents wholesome roots, receptivity, and the ability to accept Buddhist wisdom; “wealth” represents blessings and Dharma wealth, the treasury of merit inherent in one’s own nature.
**The meaning of the Fifty-Three Visits: **Sudhana demonstrates the model of an ordinary person becoming a Buddha within one lifetime. Through visiting fifty-three teachers of different professions and identities, he tempers himself in the realities of all sectors of society. Sudhana seated beside Guanyin means that after developing a mind of great compassion, one must also have the genuine wisdom to enter the world and train the mind through circumstances, just as Sudhana did.

## Dragon Girl
She represents “compassion” and “sudden transcendence through transformation.” Dragon Girl appears in the “Devadatta” chapter of the Lotus Sutra. At the age of eight, after hearing Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva teach the Lotus Sutra, she awakened immediately and went to the southern world called Stainless, where she manifested Buddhahood.
**Breaking attachment and discrimination: **In Indian society at that time, Dragon Girl represented several supposed “obstacles to cultivation”: she belonged to the animal realm, as a dragon; she was female; and she was very young, only eight years old. Yet before the Buddhadharma, she could transform and become a Buddha in an instant.
**Purity and great compassion: **Dragon Girl standing beside Guanyin Bodhisattva represents utterly pure and genuine great compassion. She proves to the assembly that learning Buddhism and attaining Buddhahood are not divided by male or female, old or young, or even by species, whether animal or human. As long as one lets go of false thinking and attachment, everyone can turn the light around in a single thought and realize one’s own nature.

## The Three-in-One Combination: How to Apply Them in Daily Life
Guanyin Bodhisattva in the center, Sudhana on the left, and Dragon Girl on the right form a complete modern “course in conduct for daily life”:
Sudhana (wisdom) + Dragon Girl (compassion) = Avalokitesvara, the complete embodiment of great kindness and great compassion.
**Inner cultivation: **We should learn from Sudhana, training the mind through circumstances in all fields of society while maintaining high rationality and wisdom.
**Outward conduct: **We should learn from Dragon Girl, preserving an innocent, pure, and equal mind of compassion, embracing and caring for all suffering beings.