The Kannon Sutra

Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra is a popular devotional text in East Asian Buddhism. It is often referred to as the “Avalokiteśvara Sutra”, or Kannongyō (観音経) in Japanese. Despite the name, it is not a stand-alone text, but simply a famous chapter in the larger Lotus Sutra. This particular chapter is the main introduction to one of the most popular Bodhisattvas in Buddhism, Avalokitesvara. It describes attributes of Kannon that are familiar Buddhists, such as his vows to help all beings who call on him, his ability to take on various forms to teach people, and his unwavering compassion to lead all beings to Enlightenment.

So, the Sutra is popular among devotees of Kannon/Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, though in practice people often chant the verse section only. I was lucky to find a full copy of the sutra for chanting after visiting the famous Sensōji temple in Tokyo, though it’s very, very long. For now, I will post the verse section only, which is still pretty long, but often used in Japanese Buddhist chanting, such as the Tendai liturgy linked here.

A note on the characters. The prayer book I have uses the original, classical Chinese characters, but some characters are so old and obscure that they have modern simplified versions in common use now. For example 應 is replaced by 応. I wanted to keep the original characters, but some are too obscure and I can’t find them in my Japanese input program on my Mac, nor do other Japanese sites use them when posting the sutra. So, I decided to go with the modern equivalents like everyone else. Readability is more important, I think.

Can’t read the characters?

If you’re having trouble reading the Kanji characters, you might have one or two problems with your computer:

• Your computer may not have Asian fonts installed. In Windows you have to enable UTF8 and East Asian fonts under the Control Panel. Modern Mac computers are fully compatible already.
• Your browser may be assuming the wrong character set. If you use a relatively modern browser and use UTF8 as character set, you should be able to read fine. IE, Firefox and Safari all read this fine as far as I can tell.

Even if not, then you can still use the romanized characters. Also check out this excellent page for more information.

Disclaimer and Legal Info

I hereby release this into the public domain. Please use it as you see fit, but if you attribute it to this site, greatly appreciated. Also, please bear in mind this is an amateur work, and should not be taken too seriously.

Dedication

I dedicate this effort to all sentient beings everywhere. May all beings be well, and may they all attain perfect peace.

Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu

The Kannon Sutra, verse section

Thanks!

Thanks to a blogger here, who provided a nice Chinese version of the sutra. This allowed me to find certain characters that aren’t in modern Japanese software on the Mac, but still exist in Chinese use, which in turn allowed saved me hours of time by copying and pasting the characters I needed.

Also I want to thank this website and this website, which both provided helpful references when I wanted to find a modern version of a Chinese character, and to get the proper liturgical format.

Great work, Annie!

Translation

This sutra is much too long to translate myself, but Burton Watson has provided an excellent translation of the verse section, which others posted here. The verse section is the large indented section near the end.