I am a traveling devotee of Kannon. Since I have many opportunities to travel in my work, I visit statues of Kannon everywhere my travels take me.

Although there are many Kannon statues that I have become deeply attached to, the most compelling one is definitely the Kogenji Temple Eleven-Headed Kannon (a National Treasure) close to Lake Biwa near Kyoto. I have seen it many times while traveling; its elegant features and its softly pursed mouth show an exquisite tenderness, yet there is also forcefulness. Within the expression of contemplation and calmness, there is an overflowing intelligence and benevolence. Contemplating the image, my mind clears and becomes calm. As I contemplate it, I always recall the word semui. It means "bestowing fearlessness." That is the special quality with which the Buddha and Kannon save us, saying "Fear not."

I know a person who has suffered a series of misfortunes in life. He lost his mother when he was in primary school and went to work right after junior high school. He has a timid personality, so when an unethical employer accused him falsely of a crime, he was forced to leave his job. From then on, no matter what he did, jobs didn't pan out. He drifted from job to job, and whenever he thought he'd gotten settled, the company would go out of business. He became ill, and then his father died. Yet he persevered. He was about in his mid-thirties when he told me, with a sunny expression, "I'll be fine. I've got a job in a nice place. It's just a small factory in town, but the owner and his wife are both good people. It looks like I'm settled from now on. I've been working here for a half year, and for the first time in my life I have someone working under me. Since I'm not getting any younger, I'm even thinking about getting married." It was a short while later that he lost the use of his fingers in a machinery accident.
Something should be done about this, an outside observer might think, but life does not move so smoothly.

When he was in his fifties, I happened to see him again, and he told me, "I've been worshiping Kannon." He said there was someone who had been teaching him, and for the past three years, in his spare time, he had been sitting silently and praying to Kannon. He found himself complaining, saying, "O Kannon, if you are the bodhisattva who saves people, why do you make me suffer?" Or imploring, "O Kannon, I beg you to restore my body."
"But that's not how it works, is it?" he said.

"Now, I am able to realize that praying to Kannon has nothing to do with complaining or imploring; rather, it means paying reverence to oneself," he said.

He said this casually, but from just that much I got a sense that I could understand his hardships, the depth of his psychological troubles, and the peace of his now-saved mind. That had been his reality, resulting from a combination of many causes and conditions. Complaining got him nowhere. He made up his mind to accept his reality at face value and to live on with a positive attitude. There is no doubt that this happened after he entrusted everything to Kannon.
He and Kannon had become one.

I thought, "The belief in the 'mindfulness of the power of Kannon' in the Kannon Sutra has become a central part of his life." In Buddhism, the word nen (mindfulness) can mean "to recall." But it's not recalling something that has been forgotten but etching something in one's mind so that it won't be forgotten. For instance, the feeling of being in love is comparable to nen. Asleep or awake, one cannot forget the loved one. The loved one is recalled many times, and one's whole life is caught up with love.

That is how nen works, and so to be "mindful of the power of Kannon" is to always be mindful of Kannon, to live with Kannon every day of our lives. The process of living like that is itself a testament to the belief in Kannon.

I recalled the Zen priest Teikei Denson (1648-1735), who said, "Kannon is not a different being. He is you and everyone." Just so, Kannon had encouraged my friend, had become one with him, and had saved him, pure and simple.

However, Kannon is a bodhisattva who also imparts benefits in this world gained through the observance of Buddhist teachings.

Not only in Japan but in China and India as well, Kannon's compassion saves us in very tangible ways. Even if you are dropped into a burning pit of fire, "if you mindfully recall Kannon's power," the fire pit will change into a cool pond; if you are adrift on the seas, "if you mindfully recall Kannon's power," the waves will not drown you. If you are pushed off a cliff, you will stop in midair, and if someone tries to cut off your head, the sword will break into pieces. These are some examples of "salvation from the eight difficulties" that are mentioned in the Kannon Sutra.

In fact, from early times, it has been understood that these accounts of Kannon's benefits in this world are metaphors. It goes without saying that in reality, a person who is dropped into a pit of fire will burn to death, that it would be an impossibility even for Kannon to literally turn a pit of fire into a cool pond. But that is not what the sutra is really saying. The interpretation is that the "fire" refers to our desire; Kannon saves us from destruction in the flames of our burning desire.

This is an easily understood interpretation. Somebody, such as the acquaintance I mentioned earlier, laments the misfortunes and physical disability that have befallen him; he is tormented by the desire to have his original body back; his mind is saved, and he comes to accept his actual reality and can now live each day with a positive attitude. He was thus saved from the flames of desire, the interpretation goes.

But I disagree with this. Why should it be wrong to cry out, when about to be burned in flames, "O Kannon, help me"? We cannot avoid, as we go through life, praying constantly for things. Along with prayers asking, "Please strengthen my devotion," there are certainly also prayers that implore, "Save me!" Historically speaking, Kannon was originally prayed to in India to obtain benefits in this world. In the course of the evolution of Buddhism, the level of devotion to Kannon has been raised, and he has become the bodhisattva who leads us to satori (enlightenment). But he has not lost his original character of bestowing benefits in this world, and it is for this reason that many people believe in him in Japan as well.

Another very important thing to realize is that it is the very fact that Kannon is the bodhisattva who becomes one with us and saves us that makes it possible for us to receive benefits in this world through him.