Discovering Kwan Yin, Buddhist Goddess of Compassion: A Path Toward Clarity and Peace

by Sandy Boucher

Book Overview

Sandy Boucher, celebrated author of Opening the Lotus and Turning the Wheel, now offers North American readers their first opportunity to share in Kwan Yin's illuminating wisdom. Along with providing meditations, chants, and prayers this lovely, illustrated volume recounts the stories of this bodhisattva (one who delays her own full enlightenment to work for the liberation of all beings) and explains Kwan Yin's role in Buddhism. Discovering Kwan Yin...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807013412
• ISBN13: 9780807013410
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Length: 140 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

The key word is "discovering"

If Sandy Boucher had presented this book as an academic text, a philosophical treatise, or a spiritual training guide, I would have rated this book much lower. But the key word is "discovering." As a communications professional and educator, as well as a Buddhist, I think you must evaluate a book in terms of it's intended audience and purpose. When institutions lose sight of universal compassion as a living principle, when tradition is monopolozed by an aristocracy of scholars and clerics indifferent to the suffering of everyday people, then people rediscover Kwan Yin - "she who hears the crying of the world." Sandy Boucher has gathered the stories of several women who have "discovered" Kwan Yin in their own lives, in their own ways, for their own reasons. Sandy Boucher steps back and does not impose an aggressive point-of-view of her own. She is non-judgemental, not because she is a flake, but because her main purpose is to tell the stories of a few women, and let those stories speak for themselves. The "discovery" of Kwan Yin is the discovery of how, in a multitude of ways, compassion becomes a living reality in the lives of these women, based on THEIR experience of Kwan Yin. A more scholarly, critical, or polemical approach would have weakened -- not strengthened -- this book. Try reading it with a beginner's mind.

"Introducing the universal goddess of compassion"

In her book, Sandy Boucher celebrates the goddess Kwan Yin, who is known throughout Asia as the Goddess of Compassion. Boucher begins by giving a short and accessible history of this goddess and then tells stories about women from both Eastern and Western cultures who have found support in her. She includes both classic rituals used to honor Kwan Yin and contemporary songs and poems written in her honor. This book will inspire a broad range of spiritual seekers including Buddhists, mystics, people struggling with illness and adversity, and women looking for positive role models. Kwan Yin is, in Boucher's book, an entity one can dialogue with and get comfort from. This is a beautifully written and uplifting book.

Finally, a beautiful book about the beautiful Kwan Yin.

I waited for months for this book to be printed. It was worth the wait. It is full of the tenderness and strength of Kwan Yin herself. The author's clear and sensitive prose and the simple format of the book make it a true gift. It has the history of Kwan Yin, legends, songs chants, resources...so much for such a little book. There is not a single wasted word. I especially enjoyed the various interviews with different women around the country who love Kwan Yin. I am a man, and although this book is subtitled, "A Woman's book of ruminations, meditations, prayers, and chants," I didn't for a minute feel left out as I read the book. It's a must have for anyone interested in Kwan Yin. By far the best book in English on Kwan Yin. Very sensitively done.