Finding Pusa
Many people who have adopted children feel that fate of
some kind is involved in the matching of their child to
their family. By fate I mean that some people believe
God’s hand intervened, or perhaps more abstractly
that “spiritual forces” have worked to bring
about this union. I think about the spiritual nature of our
world a lot, and while I was raised in an active Christian
home (my father is a retired Methodist minister) I have, so
far, never felt a clear understanding of this part of my
life. Sometimes I think the best I can do is to say that I
believe spirituality is a mystery to be experienced by the
individual. In light of this, some elements of our adoption
experience have made me ponder more deeply ideas like fate,
coincidence, and divine intervention or providence.
A few years ago there was a resurgence in the popularity of
angels, they became a symbol and an explanation for the
provision of aid to those in need. I have had a number of
experiences myself where strangers have stepped forward to
help me in difficult situations. Their seemingly
spontaneous appearance was wondrous to me at the time.
Maybe these people were just there by odd circumstance, and
were generous by nature, but I like to think of these
encounters as brushes with Angelic Manifestations.
There are a variety of supernatural beings referenced in
Buddhist scriptures. One type of these is called a
bodhisattva, or in Chinese, “pusa”. There are
four main pusas, but the one most widely revered is Guanyin
(or Kuan Yin). In fact, she has become nearly synonymous
with the word Pusa and is commonly referred to as just
this. Guanyin Pusa is considered the personification of
compassion and kindness, a “mother-goddess” and
the patron of, among others, mothers and women seeking to
have children. Guanyin is also considered to be the female
embodiment of the male bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, "One
Who Hears the Cries of the World". So while here in
Christian, North America we refer to our guardian angels,
and look to them for help, in China, Buddhists would look
to Guanyin or “Pusa” for aid when in need.
Before I went to China I knew the word bodhisattva and had
a vague understanding of what it meant, but I had never
heard of Guanyin or Pusa. Now that I have been to China and
learned of her, for me, Pusa has become a beautiful symbol
for what feels like a divine providence over the adoption
of our third son.
Our family’s trip to China was different than most
forms of foreign travel. We experienced some small tastes
of tourism; such as visiting Tiananmen Square and The
Forbidden City, we spent an afternoon hiking along a
popular stretch of The Great Wall. But for the most part we
were in China to navigate a maze of complex bureaucracy. We
had to officially adopt Kai, we had to get him a Chinese
passport, and we had to get him a United States visa. We
had to travel to to 3 different cities to do all this. We
could not speak or read the language, and we had very
little time to complete all of this work. At many times I
felt completely useless in the process. We were totally
dependant on the help of other people to see that
everything happened as it was supposed to. If there was
ever anyone in need of Pusa’s help it was us.
The first time I knowingly heard the word Pusa was from our
first guide in China; a young woman name Chen who met us at
the airport and took us touring around Beijing. Here's a
picture of her with Tina and Matt Oplinger in Tiananmen
Square.
The first morning we woke up in Beijing, she took us to The
Great Wall. It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for the
outing ahead of us. But the most amazing part of that day
happened when we sat down in the van and headed out from
the hotel. Chen turned to us and said that our plans for
tomorrow had changed. Originally we were to drive from
Beijing to Shijaizhuang, the capital of Kai’s
province. We would drive through Bao Ding, the city where
Kai lived, but we would not get to see him there or see his
orphanage as it was closed to visitors. They would bring
him to us the following day in Shijaizhuang. Now, Chen told
us, we would be going to the orphanage tomorrow, and we
would get Kai then! This was mind-blowing news to us and
pretty much sent us into shock. It was the sort of news you
don’t really know how to process.
We did our best to hold on, and live into the rest of our
day. I remember as we drove along I noticed a pendant that
Chen was wearing around her neck. I asked her if it was of
Buddha. she explained that it was "Pusa". She told us girls
usually wore Buddha medallions, and Pusa was worn by boys.
But she said she liked Pusa better so she wore this
medallion anyway. We didn't really go into it any further,
but that was my first exposure to the name, or word,
"Pusa".
Our second guide, who was with us in Shijaizhuang, was
"Bob". Here's a picture of him holding Kai at a restaurant
we went to for lunch on the day we visited the Longxing Si.
I wish I could explain to you how deeply thankful I am to
Bob for all he did for our family. He is a beautiful
person, and a truly deep and sensitive one as well.
Bob told us more about "Pusa" during our visit with him to
Longxing Si. This was where we saw our first really
impressive representations of Pusa. In fact, these were
some of the most impressive things we saw while we were in
China. Longxing Si is an important historical site as it
dates back as far as 586 A.D. One of the most impressive
things at Longxing Si is inside a beautiful wooden pagoda
called The Temple of Lavish Prosperity. When you enter you
find yourself at the feet of a 72 foot high bronze statue
of Guanyin with 42 arms. Pusa has many forms, one of which
is with a thousand arms which she uses to reach out to all
of those in need.
If you climb the stairs to the top of the pagoda like Cam
and Ben did you can look into her eyes.
When Bob told us about Pusa he explained to us that she was
originally a man, a great prince who had become enlightened
and earned entry into "The Buddha World", but he wanted all
people to be allowed to enter Buddha-World (Nirvana).
Buddha said this was impossible, so Pusa chose to stay in
the Human World and help all people to reach enlightenment.
Because Pusa was so compassionate and loving, he took the
form of a woman.
The more I have read about Pusa the more impressed I am
with this simple explanation Bob gave in his second
language to someone whom he probably assumed (pretty much
correctly) knew nothing of Buddhism.
It was here at Longxing Si that I truly became aware of
Pusa. She suddenly became a presence in my consciousness,
and I began to ponder her meaning more and more. The
bodhisattva, or Pusa, wants to help us all to reach
enlightenment. This journey we had undertaken has certainly
been the biggest push forward in consciousness I have ever
experienced. And by journey I don’t just mean going
to China. I mean the whole experience of bringing Kai into
our family and everything that has meant.
When we first received Kai, he was overwhelmed and
withdrawn. But after a couple days he quickly began to
relax and open up to us, revealing his playful and sanguine
nature. We were pleased to learn he had a funny and
mischievous side to his personality and gave him the
nickname “Monkey King”. At this point all I
knew about The Monkey King was that he was a Chinese
folktale character. He appears in the video “Big Bird
in China” and it was just a funny name we started
using for Kai. But as I began researching the character
more the connection to Guanyin Pusa appeared again. The
Monkey King originates in the 1553 Chinese novel
“Journey To The West”. He begins by being
arrogant and rebellious, but ends up the main hero of the
tale; and instrumental to his transformation is Guanyin
Pusa.
By the time we got to Guanzhou, I began actively seeking
out “Pusa”. Our guide there, Connie, took us to
visit the Six Banyon Temple. It was a beautiful day, and
just our family went. Connie knew a lot of the
temple’s history and we spoke about Buddhism as well.
She helped us present our incense and make an offering to
have the monks perform a blessing for Kai and our family.
To one side of the main courtyard was this beautiful bronze
of Pusa.
In this statue she is holding a vase of nectar through
which she brings wisdom and relieves suffering. You can see
that the vase is polished through the touching of many
hands.
Our guides in China were amazing people. I know they are
paid professionals who do this kind of work for many people
all the time, but for me it was more than just that. They
looked after us and made sure we were safe, they saw that
our adoption process went as planned. All three of our
guides taught us about Pusa, not only through their words,
but through their actions as well.
As I reflect on our adoption journey so far, I feel as
though a mantle of protection and blessing has surrounded
us. We deeply wanted another child in our family. On the
other side of the world Kai was in great need. Maybe it was
just chance that brought us together, but I like to believe
it was Guanyin who lifted us up like an instrument wielded
by one of her thousand hands, gave us the courage to push
ourselves past what we thought we could do and gave our
family a new destiny.