It's said that the four Bodhisattvas are all in China. Wutai Mountain in Shanxi Province was once the place of Manjusri Bodhisattva, Emei Mountain in Sichuan Province was the place of Puxian Bodhisattva, Putuo Mountain in Zhejiang Province was the place of Guanyin Bodhisattva, Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui Province was the place of Tibetan Bodhisattva, so it's called "four famous Buddhist mountains".
But among the four great bodhisattvas, the belief of Guanyin Bodhisattva is far beyond the other three, and it is the highest Bodhisattva in China.
Why is that?
/The origin of Guanyin
In fact, as early as before the birth of Buddha and the birth of Buddhism, there was worship for Guanyin in the Brahmanic classic Rigveda.
According to legend, Guanyin was originally a Bodhisattva of Brahmanism, named "horse head Guanyin" or "horse head Ming Wang". It is also said that it came from the good God of Brahmanism, the double horse boy.
When Sakyamuni founded Mahayana Buddhism, the mainstream religion of ancient India was Brahmanism, which divided people into four classes.
Sakyamuni is the prince and the second person of King Jingfan, but he can't bear to see the sufferings of the second person, so he founded Mahayana Buddhism.
However, in order to win the Democratic trust and support, the early Mahayana Buddhism must absorb some theoretical knowledge and figures of Brahman.
So when the primitive Buddhism established, consolidated and publicized its own theoretical system, it absorbed the figure of avalokitesvara of Brahmanism and transformed his life experience.
Therefore, there are also Buddhist scriptures saying that he is the eldest son of Amitabha. Together with Amitabha and Bodhisattva, he is called the three saints of the West.
Since then, avalokitesvara of Brahmanism has become the original Buddha of Avalokitesvara, that is, the self body in Buddhism.
Let's popularize the four bodies in Buddhism.
The four bodies are self body, Dharma body, reporting body and incarnation. The unity of Dharma body, karma body and incarnation body is self body. The other three bodies are differentiated after practice, and only self body is the real self.
Therefore, it is understandable that Guanyin, as an alien god introduced by Buddha, has a higher status.
In fact, there are two kinds of Bodhisattvas. One is the Bodhisattvas who have experienced various kinds of practices, various kinds of awareness, various kinds of calamities, and then achieved the right results, such as Maitreya Bodhisattvas before they became Buddhas.
The other is that these Bodhisattvas have become Buddhas in the past. In order to help all living beings and understand their suffering, they voluntarily release the Buddha fruit and turn to be Bodhisattvas. Only when they achieve some grand wish can they be willing to achieve the Buddha fruit again.
Among them, the most famous are the four Bodhisattvas: the Bodhisattva of universal virtue, the Bodhisattva of the Tibetan king, the Bodhisattva of Avalokitesvara, and the Bodhisattva of Manjusri.
Because the four Bodhisattvas have different functions. Guanyin Bodhisattva's "compassion" is a symbol of compassion, Manjusri Bodhisattva's "wisdom" is a symbol of wisdom, the Bodhisattva's "wish" is a symbol of great wish, the Bodhisattva's "action" is a symbol of action.
There is no difference between the four Bodhisattvas in Buddhism, but among the people, Guanyin is far more popular than Manjusri and Puxian.
Guanyin Bodhisattva is the symbol of compassion. Since it is compassion, it must be salvation. For the common people in the world, salvation always has great attraction and temptation.
The first sentence in the Heart Sutra, which is well known to people, is: when you see the Bodhisattva at ease, when you walk deep in Prajna and paramita, you can see that all five connotations are empty, and you can overcome all hardships.
According to the Buddhist scriptures, when the Buddha introduced Guanyin Bodhisattva, he said that she had become a Buddha long before the ancient times, and the Buddha's Dharma was one of her Dharma bodies.
In addition to the various titles of zhunti Buddha mother and lotus Buddha, it is reasonable for Guanyin to be above most Buddhas.
/Guanyin men and women
Among all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, Avalokitesvara is the only female Bodhisattva, but the earliest Avalokitesvara portrait that appeared before is male.
There has been a debate for thousands of years about when to change from male to female.
In fact, at the beginning of Buddhism, Guanyin was indeed a man.
According to the sad China Sutra, "there is a rotating Saint King, whose name is not pure. The king has four sons, the first Prince is not dazzled, that is, Avalokitesvara; the second prince is named Nemo, that is, Bodhisattva of great power; the third prince is named Wang Xiang, that is, Manjusri Bodhisattva; the fourth son is named mintu, that is, Bodhisattva of universal virtue. "
This shows that the prototype of Guanyin Bodhisattva is the prince of the wheel Saint King.
The Huayan Sutra also proves that: one day, the boy of good fortune went to Mount Putuo to visit Guanyin and saw a brave husband on the diamond in the rock valley forest.
Brave husband is the standard image on Guanyin's ID card in that era.
People who have a little knowledge of Buddhism know that at the beginning of Buddhism, there is no way for women to become sages and Bodhisattvas.
Because of the serious female discrimination in early Buddhism, women were not allowed to enter the religion, and even regarded as the enemy and destroyer of practicing and learning Buddhism.
The position of bhikuni was established only after Sakyamuni's aunt Mahabharata bhati (great love way) became a monk.
According to the great love Sutra of bhikuni, Mahabharata vowed to observe the eight dharmas, so he was allowed to take the precepts by special cases.
But there are still several levels between bhikuni and sages and Bodhisattvas.
Guanyin Bodhisattva was introduced into China in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. When he first came in, he sat high in the Buddha Hall in the image of "great husband".
This can be confirmed by the murals of Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang and the wood carvings of the southern and Northern Dynasties. In Tibetan Buddhism, Avalokitesvara is a male figure, the most obvious sign is "Lotus hand".
So, when did Guanyin become a female again?
First of all, theoretically, Guanyin can be male or female
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