What Is the Eleven-Faced Kannon?

"Kannon" is properly called Kannon Bosatsu, the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (also called Kanjizai Bosatsu). A bodhisattva is one who seeks awakening while at the same time working to save those who suffer.

Kannon is said to appear in many different forms according to the people to be saved and the work to be done. These forms are called the transformation Kannon (henge Kannon), and the Eleven-Faced Kannon is one of them. With the eleven faces on the head, this Kannon looks out in every direction and is said to answer and save anyone who suffers, in any direction.

In Japan, the Eleven-Faced Kannon was the earliest of the transformation Kannon to be worshiped, and many images were made from the Nara period on. The sutras teach freedom from illness, protection from calamity, and rebirth in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss after this life. The Eleven-Faced Kannon is cherished as the Kannon of recovery from illness, good health, and protection from misfortune.

The formal name is the Eleven-Faced Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Jūichimen Kanzeon Bosatsu). The Sanskrit name, Ekādaśamukha Avalokiteśvara, means "Avalokiteśvara with eleven faces."

Each of the eleven faces of the Eleven-Faced Kannon wears a different expression. Kannon turns a fitting face to each person in order to save them, meeting those who do good with loving kindness and those who do evil with sorrow. The arrangement of the faces is given in Xuanzang's translation, and the saving work of each face is explained in the commentary Jūichimen jinju shingyō gisho (Commentary on the Eleven-Faced Heart Dhāraṇī Sutra).

The name is "Eleven Faces," but counting the bodhisattva's own face beneath them (not included in the table above), there are twelve. The commentary explains the relationship between eleven and twelve in three pairs.

The sutras teach two forms of the image: two-armed (nihi) and four-armed. The two-armed form follows Xuanzang's translation, and the four-armed form follows Amoghavajra's. The form that spread in Japan is the two-armed one based on Xuanzang's translation: the left hand holds a water vase with a lotus in it, and the right hand, with prayer beads hanging from it, forms the gesture of fearlessness (semui, removing people's fear). Each face on the head wears a jeweled crown, and in each crown dwells a small transformation buddha (kebutsu). The large buddha-face at the very top is distinct from these crown buddhas. Yaśogupta's translation identifies these crown buddhas as Amitābha.

The sutras teach the blessings received by those who recite the mantra of the Eleven-Faced Kannon (the Eleven-Faced dhāraṇī). The best known are the "ten victories" and the "four meritorious blessings" of Xuanzang's translation.

The ten victories and the four meritorious blessings appear, as ten and four, in the oldest surviving translation by Yaśogupta as well. Every translation teaches both the wish to live this life in health, free of illness and calamity, and rebirth in the Pure Land after death. The Eleven-Faced Kannon has been cherished as the buddha of recovery from illness, good health, and protection from misfortune because of this teaching of the sutras. Doing everything possible to treat illness and praying to the Buddha have gone together since long ago. If you are living with illness, please continue your treatment and pray with peace of mind.

At the center of the sutras of the Eleven-Faced Kannon is a mantra named "Eleven Faces."

A mantra is regarded as the true words of the Buddha, and it is recited in its own sounds rather than translated into its meaning. The central mantra that expresses the heart of a particular buddha is called the heart mantra (shinshingon).

The sutras of the Eleven-Faced Kannon have come down in Sanskrit and were also translated into Tibetan and Chinese.

In every version, at the center is the mantra named "Eleven Faces," which Kannon is said to have received from a tathāgata in the distant past.

The version most widely read in Japan is the Eleven-Faced Heart Dhāraṇī Sutra (Jūichimen jinju shingyō), translated by Xuanzang (Genjō Sanzō), the monk-translator on whom the pilgrim monk of Journey to the West is modeled. In this sutra, too, Kannon introduces his mantra to the World-Honored One (Śākyamuni) in these words:

In this sutra, "Eleven Faces" is the name of the heart mantra. The number of buddhas who taught it is also given in elevens: in the original, "the buddhas of eleven koṭis" (eleven hundred million).

This mantra holds the compassion that seeks to save people in every direction, and the image with eleven faces expresses that compassion. How to make a four-armed Eleven-Faced Kannon is taught in the eighth-century translation by Amoghavajra (Fukū Sanzō).

Several explanations of the meaning of the number eleven have come down. Of the four below, the first two are scholarly theories about how the name came about, and the last two read the number eleven through Buddhist teaching.

In Tibet, there is also a reading of ten of the faces as expressions of the ten perfections, the ten practices that carry one across to awakening. Every reading sees in the eleven faces the compassion and wisdom that turn toward every direction and lead those who suffer to awakening.

The sutras of the Eleven-Faced Kannon have come down in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. The four main Chinese translations are listed below, oldest first.

Common to every translation is the heart mantra "Eleven Faces." The instructions for making images and for the goma and healing rites are given in more or less detail depending on the translation.

Several mantras have come down for the Eleven-Faced Kannon. If you are reciting for the first time, the second below, "oṃ mahā-kāruṇika svāhā," is a good place to start; it is the most widely recited. The Eleven-Faced dhāraṇī shown above in Chinese characters is also given here in an easy-to-recite reading.

"Oṃ mahā-kāruṇika svāhā" is originally a mantra of great compassion that praises Kannon in general. The mantra distinctive to the Eleven-Faced Kannon is the long heart mantra given here (the Eleven-Faced dhāraṇī). Whichever mantra you recite, recite it with your heart turned toward Kannon's great compassion.

In Shingon, the Eleven-Faced Kannon is one of the transformation Kannon of the lotus family (renge-bu), which carries out the compassionate work of Mahāvairocana Tathāgata.

Shingon is the school of esoteric Buddhism transmitted by Kōbō Daishi Kūkai. In the maṇḍala, the diagram of the buddhas' world, esoteric Buddhism groups buddhas of similar work into families (bu). At the center is the buddha family of Mahāvairocana Tathāgata, the root of all buddhas; to its right is the lotus family, which governs compassion, and to its left the vajra family, which governs wisdom.

The Commentary on the Mahāvairocana Sutra (Dainichikyō sho) explains the lotus family as "the Tathāgata's great compassion, which nourishes every good and makes it flourish," and the vajra family as "the Tathāgata's wisdom, which crushes the hindrances of delusion (the three hindrances) that block the way to awakening" (fascicle 5). It then names Avalokiteśvara (Kannon) the lord of this lotus family (the family head, the deity who leads the family). The deities of the Avalokiteśvara Court, such as Tārā, Hayagrīva, and Pāṇḍaravāsinī, each express a virtue of Avalokiteśvara. The Eleven-Faced Kannon, too, is one of the transformation bodies that belong to the lotus family. Its secret name in esoteric Buddhism is Hen'i Kongō, "Vajra of Transformation," named after its work of changing form to save. The late-Heian ritual text Gyōrinshō also records the name Jimin Kongō, "Vajra of Compassion," taken from its work of deep compassion.

The same commentary explains the appearance of Amitāyus (Amitābha) at Avalokiteśvara's crown as the awakening in which practice culminates. The buddha-face at the crown of the Eleven-Faced Kannon reflects this teaching. The compassion of the lotus family also includes a strictness that pulls people back from evil, as the wrathful and laughing faces show.

The Rishushaku, a commentary on the Rishukyō (Sutra of the Principle of Wisdom), teaches what Avalokiteśvara sees in people's hearts.

Just as a lotus is not stained by the mud it grows in, a person's true nature is pure from the beginning. Avalokiteśvara sees that the light of the nature to become a buddha within everyone (the tathāgatagarbha, pure by nature) cannot be stained by any delusion. Through his empowerment, it is taught, a person gains a purity free of defilement and becomes equal to the holy ones. Awakening to this nature leads to the aim of Shingon: becoming a buddha in this very body (sokushin jōbutsu).

When one practices with the Eleven-Faced Kannon as the principal deity, one forms mudrās with the hands (the secret of body), recites the mantra (the secret of speech), and visualizes Kannon's form in the mind (the secret of mind). Through this practice of the three secrets (sanmitsu), which brings the three together, one brings Kannon's great compassion to fruition in oneself. The Hishō kuketsu teaches that when forming the root mudrā of this deity, the practitioner adds his own face to the ten faces above the head to make eleven, an oral teaching that shows the principal deity and the practitioner to be one. Xuanzang's Eleven-Faced Heart Dhāraṇī Sutra teaches that in the goma rite of accomplishment, when the practice is complete, the tathāgata-face at the crown tells the practitioner that his wish has been fulfilled.

Joining your hands, reciting the mantra, and thinking of Kannon are the beginning of the three secrets.

As Xuanzang's translation spread, many images were made in China and Japan. The Eleven-Faced Kannon became the most widespread of the transformation Kannon and later came to be revered as deeply as the Thousand-Armed Kannon.

In Japan, the Eleven-Faced Kannon was worshiped even before esoteric Buddhism was transmitted as a complete system. The murals of the Golden Hall of Hōryūji include a figure thought to be the Eleven-Faced Kannon, and in the Nara period many images were made as principal images for wishes in this life, such as healing from illness. Most of the sutras prescribe a small image, one shaku three sun (about 40 cm) tall, carved from white sandalwood (a fragrant wood), but in Japan many large images taller than life size were also made.

Distinctively Japanese iconographies also arose, such as the "Hasedera-style Eleven-Faced Kannon," which stands on a rock holding a pilgrim's staff in the right hand and a water vase with a lotus inserted in the left.

Eleven-Faced Kannon Designated National Treasures (seven sculptures and one painting)

• Kōgenji (Dōganji Kannon Hall, Shiga). Counted among the finest masterpieces in the history of Japanese sculpture.
• Shōrinji (Nara). The image was formerly kept at Daigorinji, the jingūji (shrine-temple) of Ōmiwa Shrine.
• Hokkeji (Nara). The principal image, said to have been modeled on Empress Kōmyō.
• Kannonji (Kyoto), Murōji (Nara), Rokuharamitsuji (Kyoto), and Dōmyōji (Osaka).
• The Eleven-Faced Kannon image in color on silk, held by the Nara National Museum (a painting).

The Eleven-Faced Kannon is also counted as one of the "six Kannon" who save the beings of the six realms (the realms of delusion), assigned mainly as the Kannon who saves the realm of the asuras.

The Omizutori of the Nigatsudō at Tōdaiji is formally called the Jūichimen keka, the Eleven-Faced Repentance, a rite in which participants confess their wrongs before the principal image, the Eleven-Faced Kannon, and pray for the peace of the nation and the happiness of the people. It has been held without a break since 752, the fourth year of Tenpyō-shōhō.

At Byōdōji (Anan, Tokushima Prefecture), Temple 22 of the Shikoku pilgrimage and a temple of Kōyasan Shingon Buddhism, the Eleven-Faced Kannon is enshrined as the principal image of the Jibutsudō, together with Yakushi Nyorai (the Medicine Buddha), the principal image of the main hall. Byōdōji has two temple titles (ingō): Iō-in, after Iō Zenzei, another name of Yakushi Nyorai, and Nikkō-in, after the Eleven-Faced Kannon. The name Nikkō-in (Hall of Sunlight) is said to come from the morning of the temple's founding, when the sunlight reflected on the surface of the empowered water was received as the form of the Eleven-Faced Kannon.

The Eleven-Faced Kannon of the Jibutsudō is a standing image carved from a single block of wood (ichiboku-zukuri). It bears eleven faces on the head and holds a lotus and a water vase, and temple tradition says it was already enshrined here when Kōbō Daishi came on his travels. Shingon oral tradition holds that this vase is filled with the wisdom-water of the nectar (kanro) of great compassion, and teaches that because this nectar heals fevers, the rite of this deity is performed especially in prayers against epidemics.

On the night of the 18th of each month, Kannon's holy day (ennichi, a day of special connection with a buddha), Byōdōji performs the Eleven-Faced Kannon goma before this image. The goma is an esoteric rite in which the sacred fire of wisdom (chika, the fire of the Buddha's wisdom) is kindled in a hearth and offerings are made to carry prayers to the Buddha. In this goma we pray for freedom from illness and protection from calamity, as taught in the ten victories of the sutra. The Kamakura-period Shingon oral-instruction text Usuzōshi kuketsu also gives the purpose of this rite as removing troubles such as illness and epidemics. The Hishō kuketsu prescribes that, as a rule, the rite be performed for averting calamity.

If you are praying for recovery from illness, please pray together with your treatment. Byōdōji, whose main hall enshrines Iō (the King of Physicians, Yakushi Nyorai), has received the prayers of those living with illness in the past and still does today.

About the Statue