Guānshìyīn and Mahāprajñāpāramitā

[Caoimhghín]

So I may have accidently picked a bouquet of oopsy-daisies on this thread when I said this:

For what it's worth. I consider myself a solitary practitioner of shin buddhism. Kannon is the goddess of compassion and seishi represents wisdom. Amida however has both of those attributes by the truckload.
Once /day I say 10 nembutsu to kannon and 10 to seishi and 10 to Sakyumani. But amida gets a lot more nembutsu than the rest of them put together.
Also unlike a lot of shin Buddhists I do meditate. The main difference being with my meditation and other sects is that i don't hope or expect to achieve enlightenment. I hope that it helps me with deep listening and self evaluation.
The real beauty of shin /pureland buddhism is it's simplicity and the fact that generally speaking there are no right or wrong ways to go about it.
Namu Amida Butsu.

I'm not saying this to try to "correct" you or your practice, by the sounds of it you are a much more devout practitioner than I, I hope some of your enthusiasm can rub off on me.

But for the sake of sharing perspectives/knowledge, you listed Kannon/Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara as "goddess of compassion" and "seishi" as "wisdom". Kannon/Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara is also a bodhidattva of wisdom because it is generally believed that the goddess Prajñāpāramitā is also another feminine aspect of Avalokiteśvara like Kannon and Guanyin. For instance, the Heart Sutra is attributed to Kannon/Guanyin/Avalokiteśvara and is a prajñāpāramitā sutra, in fact, the "heart" of the prajñāpāramitā sutras.

This comes from a book I was reading at the time on Avalokiteśvara, but as the book continued, more and more New-Age tendencies and perennialism started to creep into the text, to the point where I am now questioning what appeared to be solid scholarship and research at the beginning of the book.

Is there any *actual* Buddhist tradition of conflating the figure of Mahāprajñāpāramitā as a "mask" or emanation of Avalokiteśvara? Is there a tradition of Mahāprajñāpāramitā being treated as a goddess/tutelary deity at all, outside of esoteric practice?

Another red flag is that the book claimed that Avalokiteśvara was the tutelary deity of the Prajñāpāramitā scriptures, but it appears that, if anything, it is actually Mañjuśrī.

Can anyone provide a relationship between Guānshìyīn and Mahāprajñāpāramitā that doesn't originate in Martin Palmer's Kuan Yin: Myths and Revelations of the Chinese Goddess of Conpassion?

If not, then I suspect the information I gave out in the quote above was accidently false.

[kirtu]

Is there a tradition of Mahāprajñāpāramitā being treated as a goddess/tutelary deity at all, outside of esoteric practice?

Yes, taken directly from the Mahayana sutras, specifically one or more of the Prajnaparamita sutras. Mahāprajñāpāramitā is treated as a female Buddha which may or may not be regarded as a metaphor depending on your perspective at the time. Lex Hixon wrote a book devoted to exploring this tradition: "Mother of the Buddhas". In Tibetan Buddhism she has a thankga (a painted image) and practices associated with her.

Prajnaparamita

mahaprajnaparamita.jpg (20.97 KiB) Viewed 769 times

Another red flag is that the book claimed that Avalokiteśvara was the tutelary deity of the Prajñāpāramitā scriptures, but it appears that, if anything, it is actually Mañjuśrī.

The reason for that is the ubiquity of the Heart Sutra. However is it true that Manjushri is the main deity(not that it really matters)? We are only now getting further translations of the Prajnaparamitta sutras in any western language. Basically we have been stuck with Conze's groundbreaking but flawed translation of various Prajnaparamita sutras. Retranslations are in the works. Unfortunately most people haven't read what is available already, flawed or not. I personally haven't reread them since I dabbled at reading them as a teenager and don't really remember if Manjushri gets more airtime than Avalokiteśvara overall. Neither appear in the Diamond Sutra at all. In many sutras higher Bodhisattvas are used to support specific teachings in a dialogue with the Buddha and these Bohisattvas come to embody those aspects of the teachings.

Kirt