Kuan Yin and Guadalupe: Compassion and Conflict

This essay explores the resonances between the Buddhist bodhisattva Kuan Yin and Our Lady of Guadalupe through the images and texts of the Lotus Sutra (25th chapter), the Shurangama Sutra (vol. V), and the Nican Mopohua, the Nahuatl account of Guadalupe. This is done through the framework of a dialogy that places dialogue as part of a religious quest, in solidarity rather than competition, revealing an alliance of compassion. It is a conversation with both Kuan Yin and Guadalupe along the way, in the spirit of the dialogical nature of God's Trinitarian self, deepening understanding in each knowing about the other. As an Asian American with Buddhist and Catholic religious heritages, it is reflective of an internal dialogue process indicative of an interreligiosity or interspirituality of compassion. Such a new synthesis can release the relational energy of compassion, rooting a call to mission in the partnership of both religious traditions. This has pastoral implications for religious identity, spiritual practices, and vocational call to respond to a suffering world.