Love and kindness are timeless and borderless. If ever in doubt, stop; and remember this — compassion is your endless and limitless source of joy.

Yet, there’s no better season for nurturing compassion, love, and kindness, than the season of giving! ✨✨✨

So, I invite you to turn off any strong lights, light up a candle, grab a soft blanket and get yourself cosy for our epic legends of the feminine — today, a tale of compassion, love, and kindness.

Long, long time ago….

… in a remote Eastern realm, there lived a terribly cruel King who had a daughter esteemed in the whole kingdom and beyond for her beauty and kindness.

Her name was Miao Shan.

The King, one day, decided that his daughter should marry a very rich but uncaring man.

The girl agreed; with one condition — she will carry on with her father’s will, only if her marriage will ease the three biggest misfortunes in the world: the suffering people endure as they age, the suffering people endure when they fall ill, and the suffering caused by death.

If her marriage could not ease any of the above, then she would rather retire to a life of prayer.

Filled with rage, the King asked: “who could ever do all that?!”

“A healer could”, whispered Miao Shan.

Chocking with ire, the King forced Miao Shan into hard labour and reduced her food and water to the minimum.

Yet, the girl was thirsty only for prayer; so, she bagged her father to allow her to enter a temple and become a nun.

The King agreed, but asked the monks to give her only the hardest errands!

The monks pushed Miao Shan to hard labour, all day and all night. Yet, her larger than life love and kindness brought her the aid of all crawling, flying and walking animals living around the temple.

When the King saw this miracle, his rage scaled up and set the temple on fire. But Miao Shan put out the fire with her bare arms. She suffered no burns.

Struck with fear, the Kind called for her death.

The Reprisal

According to the legend, as the executioner tried to carry out the King’s orders, his axe shattered into a thousand tiny pieces. He then tried a sword which likewise shivered to dust. Ultimately, he tried to bring Miao Shan down with an arrow which ended up in the sky.

Finally, in despair, the executioner attempted to kill Miao Shan with his bare hands.

Acknowledging that the man would be killed by the King if he failed to carry out his duty, Miao Shan allowed herself to die, forever forgiving the executioner for his deed, by taking upon her the man’s karmic sin.

She eventually descended into the Hell-like realm.

The miracle of love and kindness

Here, she witnessed, with her own eyes, the sufferings of all men and women. Filled with infinite compassion, she released all the good karma that she had gathered throughout her life, freeing as many suffering souls as she could.

Witnessing this, Yanluo, the feared Lord of the Hell-like realm, sent Miao Shan back to Earth, in order to prevent the downfall of his world.

The legend tells that upon her descent back on Earth, an immense cypress forest, with maple trees, smoke trees and persimmon trees grew, out of nowhere, at the foot of the Western Mountains. Today, we call this place The Fragrant Hills.

During all this time, The King fell awfully ill. No physician was able to cure his suffering. One day, a monk prophesied that the only medicine that existed was “made out of the arm and the eye of one without anger”.

The monk further suggested that such a person lived in the forests of the Fragrant Hills.

When asked if she would give up her arm and one of her eyes to heal the King’s suffering, Miao Shan willingly said “yes”.

The second the King discovered that his own daughter had made this huge sacrifice to save his life, he was shot down by immense suffering and begged for forgiveness.

The birth of Guan Yin, the goddess of compassion

The legend ends with Miao Shan being metamorphosed into the Thousand Armed Guan Yin, the goddess of mercy and compassion.

Guan Yin has remained, up to this day, one of the most powerful symbols of compassion, working her grace and magic not only over the lands of the Far East, but over the whole world.

In Chinese, Guanyin is short for Guanshiyin, which means “[The One Who] Perceives the Sounds of the World.”

Now, our story ends here.

I truly hope you will hold it dear and please trust that each and every time you feel the slightest need for kindness or compassion, Guan Yin is there, watching over you.

Wishing you the most wonderful Christmas or whatever your faith wishes to celebrate during the upcoming days! ??

Also, never forget — sharing is more than caring; sharing is your commitment to a better world.

My love,

p.s. If you enjoyed this wonderful story and missed our previous entries on Compassion, you can continue your journey with The Feminine Mantra For Compassion, Love, and Healing.

Also, if you’re curious to learn why new beginnings ask for compassion, here’s a courageous answer! ?