What Kwan Yin most clearly embodies is the quality of compassion. She is called "She Who Hears the Cries of the World" and steps forward to help all suffering beings. Meditating on Kwan Yin-as she sits by the river holding a willow branch, or as she stands on a lotus blossom holding her vial containing the elixir of compassion to pour out over the world-can soften our hearts and open us to the truth of our sharing with all human beings, human and otherwise, in our living. She asks us to listen, as she does, to the cries of the world, and to begin always by sending compassionate caring to ourselves.
Sandy Boucher