Follow-up to WATERmeditation with Cynthia Tootle
“Kuan Yin: Goddess of Compassion”
Monday, February 3, 2025, at 7:30 pm ET
Mary E. Hunt
WATER thanks Cynthia Tootle for bringing the Goddess Kwan Yin to the fore. The presence of such a powerful spirit is helpful in these difficult times.
The video link can be found at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFo4pqPijA .
Our evening began with a special note of thanks to our Canadian friends whom we cherish and respect. Please accept my apology on behalf of the US—self-appointed representative but nonetheless sure I speak for millions—for the reckless, disrespectful, and unwarranted words and deeds of the US President. Dear neighbors, your sovereignty is sacred, your culture enviable. Let our time together tonight as WATER be a countersign to such hideous dealings.
Last month, which was last week, Brad Lutz focused on “Finding a Cure for Loneliness.” He urged us toward solitude which many people, even those in deeply supportive relationships and with families and communities galore need for balance. You can review it, use it on our website at https://www.waterwomensalliance.org/january2025-watermeditation-brad-s-lutz/
The Rev. Cynthia Tootle is WATER’s nearest neighbor, living scant blocks from the office. Cynthia is an expert on Goddesses. She picks one each month and studies, focuses on, and sometimes channels the messages of the Goddess.
Cynthia is an engineer by training and vocation. She had a long career with the federal government, and I bet today she’s glad that is behind her! Now in retirement she has embraced her calling to the ministry at the Takoma Metaphysical Chapel where both her intellectual and pastoral skills are welcome. I watched a recent sermon she gave and was struck by her ability to strike the right chord at the right time.
We need the compassion with which Kuan Yin is associated and the wisdom Cynthia brings to us.
Cynthia’s sermon can be found: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=9281073661923370
Minutes 26:09 – 1:16:00.
Cynthia’s input:
The Chinese Buddhist Goddess of Compassion, Kuan Yin, is always present in Cynthia’s sphere. She specifically came to Cynthia to be presented during this WATERmeditation. The goddess’s statue sits on a shelf above Cynthia’s right shoulder, watching over the meditation.
Through her studies of the goddess, Cynthia has learned the nature of divine compassion. One of her most profound lessons is the “Prayer for the Abusers” below. Even though it is not certain who wrote it down, it nevertheless leaves an impression and a source of contemplation of how divine compassion functions.
Kuan Yin’s “Prayer for the Abusers”
To those who withhold refuge,
I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.
To those that cause a child to cry out,
I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.
To those that inflict terror,
I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.
To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,
I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.
To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,
I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.
To those who cling and grasp,
I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.
To those who vent their rage on small children,
I return to you your deepest innocence.
To those who must frighten into submission,
I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.
To those who cause agony to others,
I give the gift of free flowing tears.
To those that deny another’s right to be,
I remind you that the angels sang in celebration of you on the day of your birth.
To those who see only division and separateness,
I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.
For those who have forgotten the tender mercy of a mother’s embrace,
I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.
To those who still feel somehow incomplete,
I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.
This prayer is a source of contemplation. Most of the meditation participants and the WATER community spend their lives in compassion, seeing and fulfilling the needs of other people. Right now, they need to hear something else.
We need not only pray for compassion, but also for compassionate people to be graceful and kind to themselves. It is important to not only be present and compassionate to others but also oneself.
Cynthia calls Kuan Yin a goddess, but she is a bodhisattva, a human woman who studied spiritual practices. After finishing her studies, she was prepared to leave the human sphere of rebirth and pain, and ascend. But Kuan Yin heard a cry for help and decided not to go. Her name translates to ‘She who hears the cries of the Earth.’ She vowed not to leave until everyone reaches enlightenment and can go and ascend with her. She promised to stay with us. The promise moved Cynthia to tears. In these uncertain times, it is especially beautiful to become aware of her presence with us.
The reading Cynthia shared is from the book An Animal of the Sixth Day by Laura Fargas. Cynthia had looked it up to give to someone else but felt like she needed to share it with us. Ironically, she had received it a while ago from Mary Hunt who found it in the newsletter of the Center for Women, the Earth, the Divine and had sent to Cynthia thinking she might enjoy it – and she did. Amazing how such things circulate.
Thank you, Kuan Yin, for being and staying with us!
Conversation among participants was brief but pointed. Many people simply enjoyed the silence, and the chance to be with like-hearted people in a world seeming spinning. A sample of comments follows:
–One person imagined Kuan Yin as steel in structure covered with silk.
–Two people reflected on the idea of “I will always be with you” that crosses several traditions.
–A colleague who lives near Detroit, hence near a border, was remined of immigrants in peril.
–A person in ministry spoke of the value of be present especially with those who are dying, and so to, how valuable to have Kuan Yin with us.
–One person spoke of adopting a baby in China and taking her baby to be blessed in a Chinese Buddhist temple that was dedicated to Kuan Yin; the presence is permanent both in family and with the Goddess in whom compassion and presence seem to go hand in hand.
—A minister pointed out that presence is important, but that there are times, for example, when someone is dying, when one can’t stay. It is compassionate to forgive ourselves for any guilt in such a situation.
Conversation gave way to more silence as we went our separate ways in the presence of Kuan Yin and in gratitude to Cynthia Tootle.