Page 86 - Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated) and Symbols

I suddenly saw a ‘figure-in-white’ slowly floating down the long

corridor towards me. Although there was a wall separating the

delivery room and the corridor, Kuan Yin flowed through it. As

soon as she reached my room, I heard a doctor saying that I had

delivered the baby. Relief and deep feelings of joy raced through

my mind, Kuan Yin had given her blessings and I was extremely

grateful and happy. However, the grateful feelings were quickly

forgotten as soon as I was back to normalcy and returned to

the working life of a nurse. I guess this is quite natural to those

who are not too spiritually-minded. With the hustle and bustle

of everyday living and other wordly distractions, Kuan Yin was

once more far from my mind.

A year ago, 1983, friends brought me to a private shrine in Petal-

ing Jaya to attend the Kuan Yin Festival. I was rather surprised

at the set-up there for it was not a regular temple, but I found the

atmosphere rather pleasant. My second visit there was during

the following Kuan Yin Festival after which I felt drawn towards

the place, Kuan Yin worship had become a meaningful part of

my life. An unexplainable restless feeling would arise and each

time it would be quelled through praying to Kuan Yin at that

place which is known as e Kuan Yin Contemplative Order or

KYCO for short. As a working mother of three children it was

not easy to find time to attend the twice weekly prayer gather-

ing which I have grown to love and each time I missed worship,

I felt terribly guilty about it. In order to pacify the guilt-feeling

each time that I could not attend worship, I would explain men-

tally to Kuan Yin that my children must come first and that if

She really wanted me to be consistent in my spiritual practice,

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