The History of Buddhist Thought c23.3

c23.3

¹ The difficulty in interpreting this name lies in *avalokita*. The whole may mean either “Lord of *avalokita*” or “the Lord who is *avalokita*”. The former is the more probable judging by similar compounds—*Dharmeśvara* “Lord of the doctrine”, *Dharaṇīśvara* “Lord of the earth”, and another title of Avalokiteśvara, *Lokeśvara* “Lord of the world”. *Avalokita* comes from the verb *avalokayati* “to look at, to survey”. It does not mean “to look down at” (herabschauen). The latest discussion is by H. Zimmer, *Z. f. Indologie u. Ir.*, 1922, 73 ff. There is no doubt that *avalokitam* can be used as a noun “Looking at or surveying.” Zimmer says that it is not likely that Av. was so named from the activity of looking in general. That is so, but he has taken no notice of the fact that the verb in Pāli is frequently used of Buddha in a very special sense. In the Pāli commentaries he looks at the world, or surveys it, twice a day in order to see what beings need his help (*mahākaruṇā-samāpattito vuṭṭhāya lokaṃ volokento*, rising from the attainment of great compassion and surveying the world, *Dīgha com.*, 673). It is also used in *Mvst.* in the two *Avalokita-sūtras*, where he makes the “surveys” before deciding where and when to be born. Śāntideva quotes one of them as *Avalokana-sūtra*. *Vilokitaṃ* is also used in the same sense (*Mvst.*, ii, 1; *Lal.*, 21; but *olokitāni*, *Mvst.*, i, 142). Avalokiteśvara, just like Buddha, surveys the world in his compassion for all beings, and in this sense is “Lord of the survey”. The *Lotus* itself explains that he is so called because he will help anyone who hears his name or bears it in mind, and again in the verse portion (p. 451) says: “He having seen beings afflicted with many hundred pains, and, as he possesses the power of pure knowledge, having beheld (*vilokiyā*) those distressed with many pains, is therefore the saviour in the world including the gods.” The same explanation was given by Burnouf (*Int.*, 226) on the authority of the *Guṇa-kāraṇḍavyūha*. It is probably the exigency of verse which has caused the compound with *vi-* rather than *ava-* to be used. Some of the Chinese translators read the name as *avalokita-svara*, and according to Giles (*Chin. Dict.*, 6363, 13,209) translated it as *kwan* “to gaze at”, “to view,” *yin* “sound”. This is as meaningless in the Chinese as the Sanskrit, but the translators had to make it mean something, so they interpreted it, according to Giles, as “the hear-prayer Bodhisattva”. Other Chinese translators read the word correctly, and translated it “on-looking sovereign”. Eitel, *Handbook of Chinese Buddhism*, s.v.