Avalokiteśvara rupa

Object location: Living room

Avalokiteśvara, ‘The Lord who Looks Down’, not only looks down with compassion on both the beauty and the horror of this suffering world; he also reaches out to release all beings from suffering (dukkha). At the heart of this image on Sangharakshita’s shrine, Avalokiteśvara’s hands, lotus-like, are raised in prayer. Cradled within is a wondrous jewel – the jewel of the bodhicitta, symbol of the non-dual luminosity of our own hearts and minds and the co-arising of compassion and wisdom.

This image of the four-armed form of Avalokiteśvara has taken centre place on Sangharakshita’s shrine for more than a decade. It was given to him by the Triratna Buddhist Order itself and as such, it was a gift that Sangharakshita cherished and of which he took great care. The figure of Avalokiteśvara has a deep symbolic significance for our community. In his talk ‘Looking Ahead a Little Way’, given to the Order in 1999, he said, 

We sometimes liken the Order to the eleven-headed and thousand-armed Avalokiteśvara … it’s not just a manner of speaking, it's not just a figure of speech, we should take it very seriously, even take it literally.