Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated)

(Grace) #1
 

I suddenly saw a ‘figure-in-white’ slowly floating down the long
corridor towards me. Although there was a wall separating the
delivery room and the corridor, Kuan Yin flowed through it. As
soon as she reached my room, I heard a doctor saying that I had
delivered the baby. Relief and deep feelings of joy raced through
my mind, Kuan Yin had given her blessings and I was extremely
grateful and happy. However, the grateful feelings were quickly
forgotten as soon as I was back to normalcy and returned to
the working life of a nurse. I guess this is quite natural to those
who are not too spiritually-minded. With the hustle and bustle
of everyday living and other wordly distractions, Kuan Yin was
once more far from my mind.

A year ago, 1983, friends brought me to a private shrine in Petal-
ing Jaya to attend the Kuan Yin Festival. I was rather surprised
at the set-up there for it was not a regular temple, but I found the
atmosphere rather pleasant. My second visit there was during
the following Kuan Yin Festival after which I felt drawn towards
the place, Kuan Yin worship had become a meaningful part of
my life. An unexplainable restless feeling would arise and each
time it would be quelled through praying to Kuan Yin at that
place which is known as e Kuan Yin Contemplative Order or
KYCO for short. As a working mother of three children it was
not easy to find time to attend the twice weekly prayer gather-
ing which I have grown to love and each time I missed worship,
I felt terribly guilty about it. In order to pacify the guilt-feeling
each time that I could not attend worship, I would explain men-
tally to Kuan Yin that my children must come first and that if
She really wanted me to be consistent in my spiritual practice,

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