How a pendant brought me closer to Guan Yin
It was not until 2016 that I began asking myself the name of the Buddha on the pendant I have worn since I was a child.
I remember when I was about 4 years old, my mother taught me to chant Om Mani Padme Hum. This is Guan Yin's sacred mantra. I was always afraid of the dark and she told me this mantra will protect me. So I would chant this mantra whenever I was scared. She also gave me a pendant of a Buddha to wear around my neck and told me never to remove it as it will also protect me from harm and evil. She didn’t tell me who the Buddha on the pendant was and I never asked. The Buddha had many arms holding different spiritual instruments in each hand. As the years passed, the Buddha pendant became part of me like a good friend who is always there. I wore it like a badge of honor. It has been with me since till this day.
It was not until 2016 that I began asking myself the name of the Buddha on the pendant I have worn since I was a child. I have always thought it was one of the many Buddhas in Thai Buddhism because I thought my mother had bought the pendant from Thailand. I did not make the connection with Guan Yin as the Guan Yin statue we prayed to at home since my childhood, was not the in the form of Thousand Hands and Thousand Arms Guan Yin. It was the more ubiquitous Goddess of Mercy Guan Yin sitting on a lotus flower.
When I asked my mother for the name of the Buddha on the pendant, she said she did not know. I was disappointed. I tried to look for the same pendant on the web but found nothing.
Another year went by and one day the query came back to nudge me to ask my mother again. This time, she suddenly remembered that the pendant is called “Jun Ti Jing” (Jun Ti Mirror). I searched the internet and finally found out the name for the Buddha on the pendant is Cundi (Jun Ti) Guan Yin - one of the six major manifestations of Guan Yin. I began to study about the powers and significance about this Guan Yin. It felt like getting reacquainted with an old friend. Then a few years later, I learned that the largest Cundi Guan Yin statue in Southeast Asia can be found in Malaysia. I told my mother and brother right away about it. Soon, they went to visit the Putuo Village temple, named after Guan Yin’s sacred mountain in China, Putuo Mountain.
In 2020, I finally had the opportunity to visit this beautiful temple myself and I was in total awe to be in the majestic presence of Jun Ti Guan Yin. It felt like a long-awaited reunion with an old family friend.