While living that difficult life in the mountains, I discovered how to appreciate the rather mysterious expressions in the Kannon-gyo. I was reading a Japanese version rendered from the Chinese text. The sutra begins with a question from another bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva of Inexhaustible Intent, who asks the Buddha, “For what reason (what cause and conditions) did Kannon get his name, Perceiver of the World’s Sounds?” The Buddha’s reply is mysterious. He says,
Suppose there are immeasurable hundreds, thousands, ten thousand,
millions of living beings who are undergoing various trials and
suffering. If they hear of this bodhisattva Perceiver of the World’s
Sounds and wholeheartedly call his name, then at once he will perceive
the sound of their voices and they will all gain deliverance
from their trials. For this reason, he is called Kanzeon (Perceiver
of the World’s Sounds).
What is so strange about this answer? Well, usually in order to call a name there needs to be someone who already had that name—that’s why we can call someone by their name. I am called Uchiyama-san because a person exists who is called Uchiyama-san. If someone calls me by that name, I respond, “Yes.” But in the Kannon-gyo this is not the case. First of all, living beings suffer, and everything starts from when they wholeheartedly, without thinking, call out the name. What name did the first person to call on Kanzeon call out? Well, you simply call out, and Kanzeon perceives the sound, answering “Yes.” Living beings will all gain deliverance from their suffering. The Buddha said that when this bodhisattva perceives the cries of the world and responds, he is given the name Kanzeon Bosatsu. This is a strange phenomenon. It is clear that Kannon is not just some wooden or metal representation, and of course Kannon is not a historical person. So, what is Kanzeon?
This is how I interpret the words of the sutra: “When a person is in distress and suffering, and when they call out wholeheartedly, by this action some kind of mysterious power comes into play, and we will immediately gain deliverance from our suffering.” This is the process described in the sutra. This process happens because we humans all have an innate ability to employ this inherent power within ourselves, and this is named Kanzeon Bosatsu. If it is correct to understand that Kanzeon is the power that works to free us from suffering when we call out wholeheartedly, then we can relate this to the crucial Soto Zen phrase, “Sanzen (zazen) is dropping off body and mind” or “Dropping off body and mind is zazen” taught to Dogen by his teacher in China, Tiantong Rujing, discussed by Dogen in Hokyoki. In Asia since ancient times, we have studied the structure of the self through body and mind during our practice, training, and personal experience. We have been refining practices for a long time based on reciting the name of Amitabha, which is the practice of the Pure Land sect of Buddhism and sitting zazen.
"We humans all have an innate ability to employ this inherent power within ourselves, and this is named Kanzeon Bosatsu."
In any case, this experience was the first step that I took in appreciating the Kannon-gyo. After that, for a period of about twenty years I integrated my zazen practice with deepening my appreciation for this sutra. At some point, I came to the conviction that the name Kanzeon should be read as the Sound that Perceives the World instead of the traditional reading, Perceiver of the World’s Sounds. That reading is derived from a treatise on the Kannon-gyo called “The Deep Meaning of Kannon” written by Tiantai Zhiyi (538–97 CE), an important master of the Tiantai sect of Buddhism. Tiantai Zhiyi writes,
Because Kanzeon Bosatsu thoroughly illuminates the true nature
(of reality) and realizes it from beginning to end as a whole, he is
called perceiver (the subject of the sentence). So, the sound of the
world is the object of the bodhisattva’s perceiving.
In other words, Zhiyi interprets Kanzeon to mean “the perceiver of the world’s sounds.”
However, looking at zazen practice and nenbutsu practice as the main threads of Buddhism, I have come to believe that reading Kanzeon as “the sound that perceives the world” is the best way to exactly express our religious faith and practice. Therefore, we should not think of the zazen practice of the Soto Zen and the nenbutsu practice of the Pure Land sect as incompatible; rather, we must understand them as being one unified Buddhadharma. I believe that we must understand this Buddhadharma to be none other than our own religious life.
Zen uses direct expressions to point to the absolute: “not to be grasped,” meaning that which cannot be measured with our human intellect; or “no thinking,” meaning unknowable by human intellect. At one time the absolute was expressed by words like God or emptiness or “no permanent (fixed) self.” In other words, perceiving the world before any measurement, and with an attitude absent of measurement. According to the Lotus Sutra, “Only among buddhas can the true character of all things be fathomed.” Similarly, the Nirvana Sutra says, “Buddha nature can only be known by buddhas.”
So, the word perceiver in the name Kanzeon is nothing other than this perceiving the world before yardsticks, and with an attitude absent of yardsticks. This is like how a child’s mind perceives the world, as in the Bible: “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”; or as it says in the Nirvana Sutra, “the practice of an infant”—that is, bodhisattva practice free from discriminating thoughts, like how an infant behaves naturally without thinking. Before, I used the words “human intellect,” but I didn’t mean that in the sense of some half-baked adult intellect, but completely polishing it up like the mind of a child.
The perceiver part of Kanzeon is the absolute view: it is perceiving from the point of view of having arrived at your life’s ultimate destination, having finally returned to a true way of life after having taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.
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Musings and autobiographically informed commentary on the human condition through the lens of the Kannon-gyo—chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra—connecting Zen and Pure Land Buddhism through the practice of venerating and chanting the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Chanting practice is especially accessible, as it can be done while working, traveling, or suffering from illness, and other activities that would ordinarily get in the way of formal Zen practice. With these practices, the Kannon-gyo, and Kannon herself as a backdrop, Uchiyama Roshi muses about the purposes of religion, the goals of religious practice, and the meaning of enlightenment—and their relation to suffering itself.
