August 26, 2005

kwan yin holy packaging

You've met our new dog, Kwan Yin. I think she appeared because I invoked Kwan Yin, the bodhisattva of infinite compassion. I had a statue of Kwan Yin on my little altar at home and sat before her and chanted the Heart Sutra. Then a day later I heard that Wallace was offered a puppy and brought her home, and called her Kwan Yin.

But this is actually an entry about packaging, of all things. The statue of Kwan Yin that I have I bought in a box in the Atlanta airport. In fact, it was the packaging that largely attracted me, because it was packaging that converts to an altar. I liked that idea, so I bought it.

Here you can see how it looked when I bought it:

You open the box and see the altar space, though the mandala artwork is hidden by the book about Kwan Yin that the statue comes with (thus it's presence in a book store). You remove the book and it looks like this:

The mandala depicts Kwan Yin with a thousand (i.e. an infinite number) arms, which symbolizes her desire to save infinite beings. Kwan Yin is also traditionally depicted (and is on the statue), with one foot taken out of the lotus position, showing her poised to step out of meditation and into the world, to help relieve suffering.

I really, really like the design of this book/statue/altar box set and especially how what we normally throw away--the packaging--is converted into a space that can be considered sacred.

Now the statue/altar is on the window sill above my meditation altar. It fits in perfectly. Now I just need a little electric fountain to go with it, since Kwan Yin the bodhisattva is traditionally associated with water, as she floats upon the ocean of birth-and-death, and relieves the suffering of others by dipping a willow branch into water and then, in a kind of asperges, anointing the supplicant.

There were a couple of other book/statue box sets, one of Kali and another of the Green Man. I may invest in the Green Man some day (a key pagan personage), but I'm not sure of Kali, the Goddess of creation and destruction.

Posted by jeb at August 26, 2005 7:19 PM | TrackBack