Avalokitesvara and the

Tibetan Contemplation of Compassion

Karen M. Andrews
May 31, 1993
Tibetan Contemplative Traditions

Who is Avalokitesvara? What is his place in Buddhist doctrine

and history? Why is he important in Tibetan Buddhism? What is his
function in Tibetan Buddhism? What does he do? What are the
philosophical explanations of his existence? How is he used in
contemplative practice?

Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, is one of the

most important and popular Buddhist dieties. Although he originally
was conceived of in a Mahayana context, he has been worshipped under
different names and in different shapes in nearly every form of
Buddhism in every country Buddhism has entered.

Avalokitesvara first appears in Indian Buddhism. He is

originally mentioned as one of a number of bodhisattvas. These
bodhisattvas are personifications of various attributes of the
Buddha. Avalokitesvara is the personification of compassion. The
development of a Buddhist doctrine of bodhisattvas is more or less
contemporaneous with the development of brahmanic deity worship.
Either the same societal forces led to both developments, or the
bodhisattva doctrine was a response to the rival movement of
brahmanic deity worship. The bodhisattva doctrine may have appeared
as early as the second century B.C.E.

Originally, bodhisattvas were considered to be less important

than buddhas. Buddhas, of course, are completely enlightened
beings, whereas bodhisattvas are beings who are on the verge of
being completely enlightened. Bodhisattvas originally appear as
attendants of the buddhas. Texts speak of there being vast numbers
of bodhisattvas. A few of the bodhisattvas are more important than
others. Avalokitesvara does not appear in the earliest texts about
bodhisattvas. However, after a while he becomes one of the
important bodhisattvas. By the second century C.E., in the larger
Sukhavativyuha, Avalokitesvara is described along with
Mahasthamaprapta as one of the two bodhisattvas in Sukhavati, the
pure land of the Buddha Amitayus. The two of them are described as
the source of the light that illumines the pure land. They also
teach the devotees of Amitayus, adapting their techniques to the
understanding of the listeners.

Avalokitesvara's prominence changed as the doctrinal position

of Mahayana Buddhism changed. In Mahayana, compassion and wisdom
are seen as being the two most important qualities a person can
develop. In early Mahayana, wisdom was seen as more important than
compassion. Therefore, Manjusri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, was the
most highly regarded bodhisattva. However, with time, compassion
came to be seen as the more important quality, and thus
Avalokitesvara became the most honored bodhisattva.

Avalokitesvara's rise in prominence did not stop at this

point. Probably around the fifth century C.E., a full-blown cult of
Avalokitesvara emerged. Avalokitesvara evolves into the supreme
savior of all suffering beings. He takes on the characteristics of
various brahmanic gods, such as Brahma, Visnu, and Siva. Like
Brahma, Avalokitesvara is described as the creator of the universe.
"From his eyes arose the sun and the moon, . . . from his mouth, the
wind, . . . from his feet, the earth."1 He is also described as
being the creator of the brahmanic dieties. This attribution of
power to Avalokitesvara may well have been aimed at proselytizing
among brahmanic followers.

Descriptions of his physical form become increasingly

fantastic. He is described as being enormously large. His face is
a hundred thousand yojanas in circumference (a yojana is a few miles
long). His body is gold colored. He has a halo in which there are
five hundred buddhas, each attended by five hundred bodhisattvas,
each attended by numberless gods. From the hair between his
eyebrows there flow eighty-four kinds of rays. Each ray contains a
vast number of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Each of his ten finger
tips has eighty-four thousand pictures and each picture has
eighty-four thousand rays which shine over everything that exists.
And so forth.

At this point, Avalokitesvara takes precedence over the

buddhas. Even the buddhas cannot estimate Avalokitesvara's merit.
It is said that just thinking of him garners more merit than
honoring a thousand buddhas. Avalokitesvara's rise to prominence
may be partially caused by the Mahayana doctrine of the bodhisattva
vow. This doctrine says that the most wonderfully compassionate
decision is to vow to stay a bodhisattva instead of becoming a
buddha, because bodhisattvas can more effectively help other beings
become enlightened. Because of his compassion, Avalokitesvara has
vowed not to become a buddha and slip into nirvana until after all
sentient beings are saved from the nearly endless round of suffering
in samsara. Instead, he has committed to continued existence so
that he can help suffering beings. Avalokitesvara is not the only
bodhisattva who has made this vow. However, he embodies the
compassionate motivation which led all bodhisattvas to the vow.
Thus, valuing the bodhisattva vow leads to valuing Avalokitesvara
and everything he signifies.

As compassionate action is Avalokitesvara's essence, he is

supremely helpful. He can assume any form in order to help sentient
beings, and there are descriptions of him appearing as buddhas,
brahmanic gods, humans, and animals. In all these forms he does
wonderful things to help alleviate the suffering of beings and bring
them towards enlightenment. He rescues his followers from fires,
from drowning, from bandits, from murder, from prisons. He gives
children to female followers who want children. He helps release
beings from the three mental poisons of passion, hatred, and
delusion. He helpful both on the physical, worldly plain, and on a
more psychological or spiritual level.

In addition to being the personification of compassion,

Avalokitesvara has been connected with light more thoroughly than
any other Buddhist deity. The stories say that he was created from
a ray of light which emanated from Amitabha Buddha. Avalokitesvara
is a luminous being of light, and is repeatedly described as
radiating light which shines over all sentient beings and over all
corners of the universe. Similarly, he sees everything and everyone
in all corners of the universe, a fact that is emphasized by his
name. "Avalokitesvara" comes from two roots, "avalokita" and
"isvara". "Avalokita" means "glance" or "look". "Isvara" means
"lord". "Avalokitesvara" has been taken to mean such things as
"Lord of what we see", "Lord who is seen", "Lord who is everywhere
visible", "Lord who sees from on high", and "Lord of compassionate
glances". None of these interpretations are definitive, but
regardless of how his name is interpreted, Avalokitesvara is
certainly connected with lightness and sight. His ability to see
everywhere is important because it allows him to manifest his
compassion everywhere. The light that he emanates everywhere is
sometimes described as a representation of the flow of his
compassion to all parts of the universe.

As Buddhism spread throughout Asia, the teachings about

Avalokitesvara were carried everywhere Buddhism went. In China and
Japan, Avalokitesvara is the most popular bodhisattva. However, he
has undergone a sex-change, and is almost always portrayed in
feminine form. In China, he/she is called Kuan-yin or occasionally
Kuan-tzu-tsai. In Japan, she is called Kan-non or Kwan-non. In
both countries, she is seen as the supreme savior of suffering
beings and is worshipped widely as the goddess of mercy and
compassion. She gives children to women who pray to her for
offspring.

The cult of Avalokitesvara also spread to Sri Lanka. This is a

little surprising as Sri Lanka primarily follows Theravada Buddhism,
while Avalokitesvara was originally a strictly Mahayana conception.
In Sri Lanka, he is called Natha, which is an abbreviation of
Lokesvaranatha, which means "Lord of the World". He has become
identified with the bodhisattva Maitreya, the "future Buddha". He
is also seen as being identical with several Hindu gods. Natha is
seen as the guardian deity of Sri Lanka, and is reportedly
worshipped primarily because he is regarded as a pragmatically
useful source of advantages in the phenomenal world. Although I
have been able to find very little information on it, apparently the
cult of Natha has also spread with little change to other Theravada
Buddhist countries, such as Cambodia and Burma.

In Nepal, Avalokitesvara is conflated with the Brahman deity

Matsyendranath. He is worshipped in elaborate rituals which are
performed by a priestly caste. Ordination is handed down from
father to son, with some important positions being sold to the
highest bidder from within the caste. According to one reporter,
the meanings behind the rituals have been largely forgotten.
However, they continue to be performed because they are customary
and are considered to bring luck.

In Tibet, Avalokitesvara has reached a position of tremendous

importance. The stories surrounding him, his integration in the
practicalities of life, and his use in meditative practice have all
been highly developed. The Tibetans started with Avalokitesvara
(here called Chenrezi) where the Indians left off.

Traditional Tibetan belief holds that the cult of

Avalokitesvara was brought to Tibet by the eighth century C.E.
During the eighth century, King Srong-btsan sgam-po was active in
bringing Buddhism to Tibet. This king is considered an incarnation
of Avalokitesvara. Tibetans traditionally believe that he was
active in propagating a cult of Avalokitesvara. Not long after his
reign, Buddhism went into a decline, and did not revive until the
eleventh century. Western scholars believe that although there may
have been a small following of the Avalokitesvara cult during the
reign of Srong-btsan sgam-po (and there is not much evidence that
there was any such cult then), the cult certainly died out between
then and the eleventh century. Traditional Tibetan belief holds
that the cult continued in secret during this period. However,
everyone agrees that the cult of Avalokitesvara first became widely
popular during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

The belief that Avalokitesvara is the creator of the universe

was accepted and elaborated upon. In Tibetan writings, he is seen
as not only creating the world and the Hindu gods, but also as
creating the buddhas and the buddha-fields. The whole cosmos exists
as a manifestation of Avalokitesvara's creative activity.

This is especially true of Tibet, which is depicted as having a

particularly close relationship with Avalokitesvara. His vow to
save all beings becomes a vow to first save Tibetans, because they
need his teachings particularly badly and because the Buddha asked
him to concentrate on Tibet.

Stories arose which describe Avalokitesvara as being intimately

involved with the creation of Tibet. One of the more popular of
these stories describes the creation of the Tibetan people. Once
there was a monkey who was an incarnation of Avalokitesvara. He
lived in the mountains, where he practiced meditation. One day, a
demoness saw him and fell in love with him. She tried
unsuccessfully to court him, and finally said that she would bring
disaster on all the living beings in the area if he did not marry
her. The monkey was confused, and asked Avalokitesvara what to do.
Avalokitesvara told the monkey to marry the demoness. The monkey
and the demoness wed and had six children, who were the progenitors
of the Tibetan people. Thus, all Tibetans are direct descendants of
a manifestation of Avalokitesvara.

Tibetan Buddhism also produced the innovation of recognizing

mortal human beings as the incarnations or manifestations of
dieties. As far as I am aware, Tibet is the only Buddhist country
that has this understanding. Incarnations of Avalokitesvara are
particularly important in Tibetan history. I have already mentioned
the progenitor monkey and King Srong-btsan sgam-po. Another
manifestation of Avalokitesvara which plays a crucial role in
Tibetan history is the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama has been
repeatedly incarnating in Tibet since the fifteenth century. He is
now in his fourteenth incarnation. The Dalai Lama is the head of
the Kagyu-pa school, which is one of the four major schools of
Tibetan Buddhism. Also, from the time of his fifth incarnation in
the early seventeenth century until the Chinese conquered Tibet, the
Dalai Lama was the ruler of Tibet. Thus, Tibet was governed by a
manifestation of their protective deity, who was also the progenitor
of the Tibetan people and the ruler who had brought Buddhism to
Tibet. Further, this deity, and therefore also his manifestation,
is the personification of compassion, which should guarantee that
his rule is kind and reduces suffering.

Avalokitesvara is important not only in Tibetans' understanding

of their history, but also in their practice of Buddhist
meditation. Particularly in tantric visualization practices,
Avalokitesvara, as the embodiment of compassionate action, is
critically important. In tantra, practitioners create
visualizations which are structured so as to bring about
experiential realizations of Buddhist teachings2. In order to
understand the purpose of these visualizations, it is necessary to
understand the philosophy which the visualizations serve to make
experientially real.

What is this philosophy? It is beyond the scope of my paper to

lay forth the entire teachings of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism,
but I will try to briefly outline the philosophies which are most
commonly used in tantric visualizations of Avalokitesvara.

The most obvious Buddhist teaching used in these practices is

the importance of compassion. What, precisely, is the Buddhist
understanding of compassion? Compassion starts with sorrow at the
suffering of others. As such, it incites action aimed at reducing
the suffering of others. Compassion is the motivating force behind
useful action. It is a warm, positive energy directed towards
helping others.

Compassion can only arise when we do not have a strong sense of

separation from others. If there is a feeling that I am over here,
and you are over there, and we are totally separate individuals,
then we will not be able to truly sorrow at each others' pain,
because others' pain will not touch us. In order to truly be
touched by the suffering of others, we have to abandon our
attachment to sharp divisions between individuals. We need to live
in awareness of the flow of energy between ourselves and others.
Chšgyam Trungpa explains, "When a person develops real compassion,
he is uncertain whether he is being generous to others or to himself
because compassion is environmental generosity, without direction,
without 'for me' and without 'for them.'"3

This sense of identity with others is taken to its logical

conclusion, producing a profound awareness of the relational, open,
empty nature of reality. Reality is relational because everything
is intimately affected by everything else. There is no such thing
as an independent entity. My well-being is affected by your
well-being. The consequences of every action spread throughout the
universe just as ripples spread from a splash in a pond. Reality is
open because there are no boundaries. "There is the . . . panoramic
vision of open meditation--the experience of dhyana--openness. You
do not regard the situation outside yourself as separate from you
because you are so involved with the dance and play of life."4
Openness involves accepting everything just as it is. There is no
boundary between "pure" and "impure" or "good" and "bad".
Everything is seen as a manifestation of pure wisdom mind. Reality
is called empty because everything is empty of permanent,
individual, essence. Thinley Norbu says, "In the undeluded purity
of self-appearance, . . . there is no reality of an object of
sentient beings and no substantiality of an object of dieties."5
There is no individual existence of things. Everything is
intimately interconnected.

When we live in awareness of the empty, interconnected nature

of reality, then compassion arises spontaneously. In the Madhyamaka
school of Buddhist philosophy, "wisdom" means an experiential
understanding of emptiness and interconnectedness. Using this
definition of wisdom, it seems that the development of compassion
and wisdom are integrally intertwined, each arising from the other.
H. H. the fourteenth Dalai Lama has written, "These three, the
awakening mind of bodhicitta, compassion and discriminating wisdom,
should be totally . . . combined, integrated and enhanced."6
Bodhicitta is the mind which is seeking enlightenment in order to be
of benefit to all sentient beings. So from a philosophical point of
view, seeking enlightenment, caring for the welfare of all beings,
and understanding the empty interconnected nature of reality, all go
together as pieces of the same enterprise.

These elements are brought together in the tantric

visualization practices. In practices focusing on Avalokitesvara,
compassion is emphasized, but compassion is so integrally connected
with wisdom that they cannot be separated. Nearly every element of
the visualizations brings forth another aspect of compassion and
empty interconnectedness.

All of the tantras on Avalokitesvara that I have read use many

of the same elements. Different tantras have somewhat different
emphases. Some leave out aspects which are included in others. In
order to demonstrate how the tantric visualizations use
Avalokitesvara to lead to an experience of compassion and wisdom, I
will analyze a single tantra which was written by the second Dalai
Lama7. I chose this tantra because it includes all of the most
common elements and few of the unusual elements of the tantras I
have read. Also, it is described in a way which makes the
philosophical roots of the visualizations especially clear.

This tantra skips the traditional preliminaries to meditative

practice. These preliminaries differ a little from practice to
practice, but most contain at least three elements. Briefly, the
traditional preliminaries are to take refuge in the Buddha, the
dharma (teachings), the sangha (Buddhist community), and usually
also the lamas, the meditational dieties, and the beings in the
retinues of the deities (dakas, dakinis, and dharma protectors).
Then, one generates the wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit
of all sentient beings. Finally, one wishes that all beings have
happiness, be free from suffering, never be separated from
happiness, and abide in equanimity. The preliminaries are there to
assure that people do the practice with an appropriate intention.

The tantra we are looking at begins with a visualization of a

light, transparent stupa on the crown of your head. This is the
only practice I have found which includes a stupa. Within the stupa
sits "your root Guru in the form of the venerable Noble
Avalokitesvara." Your "root Guru" is your spiritual teacher. In
Tibetan practice, the spiritual teacher is seen as being "the
manifestation and humanly intelligible formulation of Buddhahood."8
In the spiritual teacher, the transcendent finds expression.
Similarly, the deity is also an expression of the transcendent. In
the guru, the transcendent manifests with more personal, individual,
and conditioned traits, whereas is the deity, the transcendent
manifests in a more ethereal, divine form. However, in both the
important thing is that they manifest the transcendent. In so far
as this is the case, the guru can be envisioned as being the deity.

Next, the form of Avalokitesvara is described. His form,

posture, clothing, and the items he is holding and sitting on are
all filled with symbolism. They primarily symbolize compassion,
purity, and enlightenment. The final description of him says, "Thus
he appears in the midst of a great burst of rays, like a rainbow in
the sky with no true independent existence." Having just built up
an elaborate description of Avalokitesvara's form, we are reminded
that that form is empty of independent existence. We are not to
attribute a permanent essence to his form.

The stupa on your head has a thousand doors. At each door you
imagine the thousand buddhas of this eon. Although the particular
form of this visualization is unique, it is quite common for tantras
of Avalokitesvara to invoke lots of other buddhas and bodhisattvas
at some point.
 Having visualized your guru as Avalokitesvara on the crown of
your head, you next visualize Avalokitesvara as himself in your
heart. His form is identical as on your head. He is sitting on a
red lotus with a thousand petals. On each petal is the letter A.
"A" symbolizes emptiness. At his heart is a moon-disk with the
syllable "HRIH" on it. "HRIH" is the seed syllable of
Avalokitesvara. It symbolizes Avalokitesvara and all he signifies.
The moon symbolizes bodhicitta, the altruistic aspiration to attain
enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Moon disks are common in
Avalokitesvara visualizations. Around the edges of the moon disk
are the syllables of the six-syllable mantra, OM MANI PEME HUNG.
This mantra is Avalokitesvara's mantra. It literally means
something like "the jewel in the heart of the lotus." It is used in
every Avalokitesvara tantra, and has a myriad of meanings and uses.

This Avalokitesvara is in your heart. The heart is symbolic

location of the mind. So Avalokitesvara is in your mind. The
instructions say he is "inseparable from your own mind." Although
you are maintaining an image of him which is not totally unified
with your own self, you are not actually separate from him.

Next, thinking of the guru-diety and the thousand buddhas on

your head, you generate faith "so intense that tears stream from
your eyes and the hairs of every pore of your body quiver." With
great yearning, you beg the guru-diety thus:

My mothers and fathers, all the beings of the six rebirth states,
are drowning in the great ocean of samsara's suffering. They have
no one to protect them, no refuge, these poor beings who are in such
agony. I beseech you, please save them right now from this great
ocean of samsara's suffering.

Firstly, what does it mean to refer to "my mothers and fathers, all
the beings in the six rebirth states"? Traditionally it is thought
that all beings have been reborn so many times that at some point,
every single sentient being has been our mother. Mothers are
considered to be a source of unconditional love and nurturing. So
at some point, all sentient beings have been a source of
unconditional nurturing for us. If we live in awareness of this,
then we will automatically want to return the nurturing we have
received from each being, just as we return our mother's love and
wish the best for her. Seeing beings as our parents makes it easy
to generate an altruistic attitude towards them. This is a very
common image in Tibetan contemplative practice. The six rebirth
states refer to the six realms of samsara. The realms include all
of the forms in which beings can be reborn. All forms contain
suffering.

Second, why do we ask the guru-diety to save all beings from

the suffering of samsara? It is clear why we would want beings to
be saved from suffering. But why do we ask the guru-diety to save
them? The second Dalai Lama says, "Until you have become a
Buddha, . . . it will be impossible for you to liberate all sentient
beings from samsara."9 Since we are not yet capable of causing the
liberation of all beings, we request help from the manifestation of
transcendence and compassion which is our guru. It is common in
tantric visualizations to request either the guru or Avalokitesvara
himself to save all sentient beings in the six realms of samsara.
It is especially appropriate that we ask for help from the guru,
because in Tibetan tradition it is impossible to practice at all
without the help of a spiritual teacher. Tantras cannot be
practiced without an initiation from a teacher. Since access to
spiritual practice is granted by our teacher, it is appropriate that
help in reaching the goal of such practice would also be granted
through the vehicle of the teacher or guru.

What happens next?

Rays of light are emitted from Avalokiteshvara's body on the crown

of your head and touch the Avalokiteshvara in your heart. And rays
of light stream forth from the from the thousand Buddhas . . . and
strike the thousand A's in your heart. From these thousand A's and
the Avalokitesvara in your heart streams of white nectar flow in
immeasurable waves. The nature (of this nectar) is the wisdom of
non-duality; it merely appears in this (white) form.

The manifestation of the guru as Avalokitesvara activates

Avalokitesvara as deity of compassion. The buddhas activate the
symbols of the empty, interconnectedness of reality. Together, the
A's and Avalokitesvara (empty interconnectedness and compassion)
emanate nectar which is the "wisdom of non-duality". This image of
nectar is common. Sometimes it is referred to as nectar of
compassion. So the nectar may be both wisdom and compassion.

The nectar fills your body, purging you of all your unripened
karma and all your unwholesome instincts. All the unwholesomeness
within you oozes out of your pores as black tar, filth, and
scorpions, leaving you completely purified. This is the essence of
an extremely important Tibetan contemplative practice of
purification. Traditionally, every practitioner does this practice
at least 100,000 times. It is also included within various
tantras.

In this tantra, once your impurities have left you, "your body
becomes fully transformed into Avalokiteshvara." So you are now a
manifestation of the transcendent, a manifestation of the principle
of compassion. Although you already recognized that Avalokitesvara
is inseparable from your own mind, now you are visualizing that
inseparability in a much more palpable manner. In fact, at this
point it becomes impossible to say whether "your" actions are yours
or Avalokitesvara's. There is not any differentiation.

Next, you as Avalokitesvara act with the enlightened power and

compassion of Avalokitesvara, answering the prayer you made earlier
when you were still seeing yourself as separate from
Avalokitesvara. "Streams of nectar flow from all the pores and
openings of your body." The nectar flows in turn to each of the
realms of samsara, where it purges all the inhabitants of their
sufferings and the causes of suffering, which are karma and
delusion. It also purifies the surroundings, turning them into pure
buddha-fields. All beings are transformed into Avalokitesvara, and
have "no true independent nature, just like rainbows in the sky."

You as Avalokitesvara save all sentient beings from the

sufferings of samsara. This transforms them into Avalokitesvara and
samsara into pure land. This is the working out of a principle
elucidated in the Havajratantra, which says, "When an individual is
no longer confused, samsara is experienced as pure and hence samsara
turns into nirvana."10 In this visualization, all delusions have
been purified, so samsara and sentient beings are experienced as
pure. All beings are experienced as manifestations of transcendent,
enlightened, compassion, and have no independent existence.

Now, you as Avalokitesvara may recite the six-syllable mantra,

OM MANI PEME HUNG. As you do so, imagine that all beings who are
all also manifestations of Avalokitesvara recite the mantra with
you. "It is as if the sound of this mantra causes the universe to
shake." All of reality becomes a manifestation of compassion, and
invokes itself.

Finally, you imagine light coming from the HRIH at the heart of
the deity in your heart. The light lands on all the pure lands you
have been imagining. When the light strikes:

These places completely melt into light and dissolve into the beings
you have been envisioning as Avalokiteshvara. These beings then
completely melt into light and dissolve into yourself. The
Avalokiteshvara at the crown of your head melts into light and
dissolves into the Avalokiteshvara at your heart. The thousand
Buddhas of the fortunate eon dissolve into the thousand A's in your
heart. The stupa vanishes like a rainbow in the sky. Then you
yourself, whom you have been visualizing as Avalokiteshvara,
dissolve into the lotus in your heart with the A's on its petals.
This dissolves into the Avalokiteshvara at its centre and he into
the (moon-disk) seat in his heart, with the rosary of the six
syllabled mantra around it. This then dissolves into the HRIH at
its centre and finally even this disappears into a state of clear
mind without any object.

All throughout this tantric practice, the lack of individual

essences has been mentioned, while we have maintained individual
appearances. Now, the individual appearances collapse into one
another, as their non-dual nature becomes manifest in complete
oneness, beyond subject-object distinctions. When all individual
appearances are dissolved, what is left is "a state of clear mind."
This is analogous to what Thinley Norbu calls "the undeluded wisdom
mind of all Buddhas [which] continues permanently in one stainless,
unchangeable essence of sky."11 This is sometimes referred to as
dharmakaya.

Mahayana philosophy says that there are three realms of

manifestation of enlightened energy. The first is dharmakaya, which
is simple, stainless, enlightened existence. Pure appearances arise
from dharmakaya. These comprise sambhogakaya, which is the realm of
intuitive and imaginative communication. Radiant deity appearances
belong to this realm. Pure tangible phenomena arise from
sambhogakaya. These comprise nirmanakaya, which is the realm of
physically existent phenomena which communicates enlightened
energy. Incarnate buddhas and other physical manifestations which
guide others towards enlightenment belong in this realm.

In this tantra (as in others), practitioners start with their

guru, who is an aspect of nirmanakaya. Their guru gives them access
to deity appearance, which is sambhogakaya. Most of the practice
takes place in this realm, as the realization of emptiness,
interconnectedness, and compassion gets spread to more and more
aspects of reality. Finally, sambhogakaya dissolves into
dharmakaya, and the practitioners concentrate single-mindedly in
non-dualistic wisdom mind.

The idea of Avalokitesvara has been used for numberless

purposes. He has been used for philosophically unsophisticated
rituals and story-telling, and for highly sophisticated syntheses of
Mahayana doctrine and practice. He has gone from being a relatively
unimportant attendant deity to being the tool which brings tantric
practitioners into an experiential understanding of the most
profound level of wisdom mind.

Bibliography

Dalai Lama, H. H. the fourteenth. "Activating Bodhicitta: The

Awakening Mind." In rya´ra's Aspiration and a Meditation on
Compassion. Edited and Translated by Brian C. Beresford, L. T.
Doboom Tulku, Gonsar Tulku, and Sherpa Tulku. Dharamsala, India:
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979.

Dalai Lama, H. H. the fourteenth. A Mahayana Method for Accomplishment:

The Sadhana of the Inseparability of the Spiritual Master and
Avalokiteshvara: A Source of all Powerful Attainments. Translated
by Sherpa Tulku. Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and
Archives, 1975.

Encyclopedia of Buddhism, 1967 ed. S. v. "Avalokite½vara." by S. K.

Nanayakkara.

Goodman, Steven. Institute of Buddhist Studies, Graduate Theological Union,

Berkeley, California. Lectures, Spring semester, 1993.

Govinda, Lama Anagarika. Foundations of Tibetan Mysticism. New York:

Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1969.

Guenther, Herbert V. "The Spiritual Teacher in Tibet." In Tibetan Buddhism

in Western Perspective, pp. 178-195. Berkeley, CA: Dharma
Publishing, 1989.

Guenther, Herbert V. "The Symbolic Re-creation Process." In The Creative

Vision, pp. 10-21. Novato, CA: Lotsawa, 1987.

Gyalpo, Terton Thangton. "The Meditation and Recitation on the Great

Compassionate One Benefitting Beings Throughout the Universe."
(Xeroxed.)

Holt, John C. Buddha in the Crown: Avalokite½vara in the Buddhist

Traditions of Sri Lanka. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Kapstein, Matthew. "Remarks on the MaÃi bKa'-'bum and the Cult of

Avalokite½vara in Tibet." In Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and
Revelation, pp. 79-93. Edited by Steven D. Goodman and Ronald M.
 Davidson. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992.

Locke, John K. Karunamaya: The Cult of Avalokitesvara-Matsyendranath in

the Valley of Nepal. Kathmandu: Sahayogi Prakashan for Research
Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies, Tribhuvan University, 1980.

Mullin, Glenn H. and Richards, Michael, eds. Meditation on the Lower

Tantras: from the collected works of the previous Dalai Lamas.
Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983.

Norbu, Thinley. White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene
Continent of the Triple Gems. Boston: Shambhala, 1992.

Trungpa, Chšgyam. Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism. Boston:

Shambhala, 1987.

Wangyal, Geshe, ed. and trans. The Door of Liberation: Essential Teachings
of the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. New York: Lotsawa, 1978.

1 John C. Holt, Buddha in the Crown. (New York: Oxford

University Press, 1991), p. 41.

2 I am only beginning to understand tantra, myself. Therefore, my

explanation is necessarily elementary and may very well contain
serious errors. I have tried to set forth my current understanding
of this difficult and profound subject.

3 Chšgyam Trungpa, Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism.

(Boston: Shambhala, 1987), pp. 98-99.

4 Ibid., p. 100.

5 Thinley Norbu, White Sail: Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to

the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems. (Boston: Shambhala,
1992), p. 106.

6 Dalai Lama, H. H. the fourteenth. "Activating Bodhicitta: The

Awakening Mind," in rya½´ra's Aspiration and a Meditation on
Compassion, ed. and trans. by Brian C. Beresford, L. T. Doboom
Tulku, Gonsar Tulku and Sherpa Tulku (Dharamsala, India: Library of
Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979), p. 111-12.

7 H. H. the second Dalai Lama, "Oral Teachings Concerning the

Method of Requesting your Guru and Meditational Diety," in "The
Steps of Visualization for the Three Essential Moments (A Stairway
for Ascending to Tushita Buddha-field)," in Meditation on the Lower
Tantras: from the collected works of the previous Dalai Lamas,
eds. Glenn H. Mullin and Michael Richards (Dharamsala, India:
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1983), pp. 53-57.

8 Herbert V. Guenther, "The Spiritual Teacher in Tibet," in Tibetan

Buddhism in Western Perspective, (Berkeley, CA: Dharma Publishing,
1989), p. 188.

9 H. H. the second Dalai Lama, "Requesting your Guru and

Meditational Diety," pp. 53-54.

10 Hevajratantra, II, iv, 34, quoted in Herbert V. Guenther, The

Creative Vision (Novato, CA: Lotsawa, 1987), p. 15.

11 Thinley Norbu, White Sail, p. 147.