Lessons from the Buddhist Goddess Quan Yin

The Buddhist goddess of compassion can teach us how to balance softness with fierceness and show us how bearing witness can be good medicine.

Quan Yin (also spelled Guanyin, Kuan Yin, or Kwan Yin) is “She Who Hears the Cries of the World,” the embodiment of compassion in Buddhism and other Eastern traditions. She is said to have once been Avalokiteshvara, a man who became a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who maintains their earthly form to help other beings attain liberation. Avalokiteshvara took the form of a goddess who could hold all those suffering in their pain and help them heal. Keep reading…