Hello, I’m Cheng Qing. Welcome to Relief for Life: Forty Introductory Lectures on Buddhism.

Vistopia recently launcheda fifth-anniversary projectasking me about my darkest moments. I first thought of teachers encountered during confused years. Their inspiration lay not only in knowledge but in a way of being that showed life could hold hope. They also offered immense acceptance and care despite having no advantage to exchange with a young stranger met briefly through chance conditions.

In Buddhist terms, beings who set aside personal gain and tirelessly help others are bodhisattvas, combining wisdom that lets go of self with love and compassion for beings.

What, then, is compassion in Buddhism?

In Chinese culture, compassion naturally evokes Buddhist symbols such as Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara. A familiar saying declares:“Amitābha in every home, Avalokiteśvara at every door.”Amitābha guides people at life’s end and gives those despairing of this life hope for the Pure Land. Avalokiteśvara more often symbolizes deliverance from disaster and difficulty. Thishelps explain why Buddhism rooted deeply in East Asia as popular faith even though most believers knew neither advanced doctrine nor meditation.Young people uncertain about the future still enter temples to seek happiness, whether wealth or peace. They intuitively regard Buddhas and bodhisattvas as inclusive and selfless, an image built through two millennia of Buddhist compassion.

Early Dunhuang silk paintings portray Avalokiteśvara as a bearded man, as in famous guide paintings. Over centuries, including through the rise of popular precious-scroll literature, female forms became dominant until most people now assume Avalokiteśvara is female.

Scholars offer many explanations. Most simply, Chinese people found gentle feminine images approachable, gradually softening masculine traits into a compassionate form accessible to ordinary people. The 1997 South Sea Avalokiteśvara statue by the shore at Mount Putuo exemplifies this familiar female image.

What characterizes Avalokiteśvara’s compassion? In the Avataṃsaka Sutra, Sudhana asks about the gate of great compassion. Avalokiteśvara answers: