Compassion
In life she was known as Miao Shan, born several thousand years ago. She was the third daughter of a king that wanted a son and heir. The Queen, also, treated all of her daughters badly. All three of the girls were given to other men as wives. The two older girls accepted their fate, but Miao Shan refused to marry the man her father had chosen for her. Her father went into a rage and ordered her killed and thrown in the river. A great white tiger came and snatched her out of the river. He gave her a small dose of what he called “immortality” medicine and she woke up.
After many years learning to perfect her Buddhist nature she climbed a mountain where she meditated for many years, perfecting her Bodhisattva nature.
Her father, though, had not fared well during this time, and was suffering much from all of his sins. He was told by a monk that he would be healed only by using a potion made from an eye and an arm of one who is without anger. The monk told him of a holy person on the top of a nearby mountain that might be willing to help. He sent a messenger speaking of his fate, and of his wife’s, for it was found that she was also sick. When the messenger told the woman she gladly plucked out both of her eyes and both of her arms and gave them to the messenger. When the king drank a potion made from these things he drank it and was healed immediately.
The king and his wife had to go thank the holy person and undertook a journey to her mountain. When they arrived they looked into the sockets where her eyes had been, and where her arms had been. They saw their own daughter. The king fell to his knees and begged her to forgive him.
She did not answer but stood and assumed the aspect of the Thousand-Armed Guan Shih Yin, hovered over her parents, and then ascended to the Gates of Paradise. But she would not enter. So great was her compassion that she swore to never enter these Gates until all living things had passed through before her.
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