Yulan Guan Yin

Hi everyone, it is great to meet everyone in front of the TV. I'm based in Canada, Toronto, and today we are going to talk about a little story about Guanyin.

The Guanyin Bodhisattva (Guanyin Pusa) is very famous in Greater Chinese area, and if you ask your mother who is Guanyin Pusa? I'm sure every single one of them will tell you that Guanyin Pusa represents great compassion. Which is the core virtue of the Bodhisattva. And because this great compassion, then we can develop bodhicitta. And then having developed bodhicitta, finally all sentient beings can reach enlightenment in Buddhahood. So today we are going to choose a story about Guanyin Pusa, and we know that Guanyin Pusa has so many forms of the body. She can be reborn as a very elderly sick lady. She can also appear as a very young little girl, or she can be a beautiful young woman.

And today, we choose this story, which we in Chinese we call "Yulan Guanyin," in English it is "Fish Basket Guanyin Pusa." This story dates back to the Tang Dynasty in a small village. In that village, there is no one that believes in Buddhism at all. They don't know about the Three Jewels: which are the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. One day in this small village there was a very beautiful young lady. She walked into this village and so many of the young men in the village could hardly ever find us such a beautiful young girl appearing in front of them. So, they were impressed and attracted to this young lady, and they kept asking her: "What's your name young lady?" Every young man wanted to propose to her and wanted to marry this young lady. And the lady said: "My name is very simple. You see, I'm carrying a basket. A basket with the inside full of fish. And my name is Yulan." So all of the young men said "Oh please marry me Yulan. I really want to marry you."

The Yulan Guanyin said "Okay, I'm only one woman. How can I marry over 100 people with a young man living in this small Village?" And suddenly the Young Lady Yulan said "Okay, now I'm going to give you a test. If any one of you can memorize in one night is Pu Men Pin (the Universal Door Chapter of the Lotus Sutra) then I can marry you right away the following day, and on the second day in the morning, wow - all the village's young men were unbelievable. Over 20 of the young men could memorize the Pu Men Pin in one single night, and all of them proposed to the young Guanyin. Guanyin said: "No, I cannot marry any one of you because there are still more than one. How can I marry all of you?" She continued to say: "Okay, let me give you another exam. If any one of you can memorize the Jin Gang Jing (the Diamond Sutra) in one single night, which the Jin Gang Jing is a part of the Dabore Jing (the Perfection of Wisdom Sutras). It is longer than the Pu Men Pin of course." And she said "Okay at this point, maybe not maybe only one young man can memorize the Jin Gang Jing." Then you know all the men happily went back to their homes.

They started to memorize the Jin Gang Jing. On the second day in the morning. Oh, they still have ten men young men who came to Yulan Guanyin and said: "Can you please marry me, because I already memorized the Jin Gang Jing as you requested us to do." Now Yulan Guanyin said: "Okay no way, no, I cannot marry ten of you. I cannot. I'm going to give you one more most difficult test, and then you guys can try to see how you can memorize this or not."

Then she said "The ten of you young men, please go back home and try to memorize the Lotus Sutra in Chinese way say it is the Fa Hua Jing. Consider that it is one of the longer Sutras during the Buddha's 42 years of giving Dhamma talks in India. The young men said: "Okay, If I can memorize the Jin Gang Jing, I am sure I can finally still complete my mission, which is memorizing the Fa Hua Jing." So the ten young men back home in one single night were focused and they concentrated. Only one man remembered. His name was Ma Lang. His real name was Ma Lang, but because he was very handsome looking, everyone in the town said his name was Ma Lang. Finally, Ma Lang was the only person who memorized the Fa Hua Jing (lotus sutra).

Of course, Yulan Guanyin finally nodding her head said: "Okay, you are the one. I'm going to marry you." On the following day, Ma Lang was so excited he prepared all of the ceremonies and got the marriage ceremony with all the most luxurious the most fancy goods He invited all of the young men, all of the people, relatives in the town to attend his wedding on the following day. But unfortunately, something happened. Because Yulan Guanyin you know, as we said she had a very attractive face, very generous compassion. On the day she married Ma Lang, unfortunately he discovered that she suddenly died, inside of his house.

So that's why she was so shy. He was so shocked. He finally won the three exams: He could memorize the Pu Men Pin, he could memorize the Jin Gang Jing, he could memorize the Fo Hua Jing. But he still cannot win Yulan Guanyin in order to have a happy life with her. So, he was so depressed, but on the same night Yulan Guanyin's body, even though she was so beautiful when she was alive, immediately after she died her body began to so smell bad. It became dark, and then all the family members of Ma said "Oh, please, please, please take her dead body out of the house." Ma Lang could not reject all the family members and requests, and he was so sad because he just got married to this young lady he has been fighting for, and on that day he still tried to keep her dead body outside the house and didn't want to bury her yet.

On the following day, very early in the morning, Ma Lang had not been able to sleep at all for the whole night, and he was awake, sitting next to Yulan Guanyin's dead body, in a very soul sad mood. And he suddenly heard inside his house someone knocking on the door. Knock, Knock, Knock! Ma Lang said: "Okay, this early in the morning why is someone knocking at my door?" And then he felt that he should check who is the person was. He was so sad, and he was so sorrowful when he opened the door. He suddenly saw this is a monk. So, Ma Lang suddenly feels very relieved. He said: "Okay, please come in," and Ma Lang told this monk "Okay, I just married this young lady." He tried his best, doing all the things you know, to win this woman on the final run. But unfortunately, impermanence happened. Yulan Guanyin passed away, but no one knew that she was Guanyin at the time. So, the monk heard this long story, and after he finished hearing Ma Lang's story, the monk was laughing. He said "Ha ha ha ha, you don't understand!"

This Yulan Guanyin was not an ordinary lady. She was not an ordinary woman at all. She was Guanyin Pusa. She appeared in the form of the human body. She came to this town to make all you guys, the young men in the town believe in Buddhism, to respect the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha.

So, Ma Lang suddenly realized, okay he realized the woman was not a regular ordinary woman. She was Guanyin Pusa in the form of the human body. So, he decided not to you live an ordinary man's life. He was not going to marry another woman. He decides to follow this monk's life. He wanted to become a monk, so he continued to study all the Buddhist Sutras. He realized what in this life is called impermanence. Nothing is permanent. So, he decided to follow the monk to take the path to study Buddhism. And finally, he also became a monk. So, all these little towns of young men, all of the villages, the people, senior, young, men, women, realized this young lady's name was Yulan.

She was not a ordinary girl. She was a Guanyin Pusa's representative. So, all the small towns and villages' citizens, all of them believed they must change their behavior. They no longer fished for fish, they became non-killing, they believed in the Buddha, they believed in the Dhamma, and they believed in the Sangha. So, now we have heard the very famous story about Guanyin Pusa in Chinese history. And this is called the Yulan Guanyin.

Today we are just briefly telling you this interesting story about Guanyin Pusa, and on the next day, the following section, we are going to talk more about Guanyin Pusa. How Guanyin Pusa has been in different bodily forms, in order to help the six realms of sentient beings. As you know, in Buddhist terms under the Buddha's teachings, we have a lowest realm is the sentient beings in hell, the sentient being hungry ghosts, the sentient being animals, and of course, you know we are born as humans. And above, we have angry deities, and also, we have angel deities, celestial beings. So, we in Buddhist terms we say these are the six realms in which to be reborn. If we don't reach our enlightenment of Buddhahood. So today we are going to end our story here, and we hope in to see you on the next day in the next section.

Thank you very much for your cooperation, and I hope to see you soon. Amituofo.

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