The Sound that Perceives the World

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The Sound that Perceives the World: Calling Out to the Bodhisattva

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Musings and autobiographically informed commentary on the human condition through the lens of the Kannon-gyo—chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra—connecting Zen and Pure Land Buddhism through the practice of venerating and chanting the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas.

The Kannon-gyo is chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra, and its focus is the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, known in China as Guanyin, and in Japan as Kannon or Kanzeon. The text describes the many ways in which calling out the bodhisattva’s name—Namu Kanzeon Bosatsu—can relieve suffering.

Most schools of Zen Buddhism, and especially the Soto school, eschew such practices as chanting the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas, along with venerating such figures.

The eminent Soto Zen master Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, however, while doing hard physical labor early in his career, could not practice zazen—that is, formal sitting meditation. He came to appreciate the Kannon-gyo and the practices related to it. In particular, he took to reciting Kannon’s name, as recommended in the text of the Kannon-gyo.

Later in life, Uchiyama Roshi suffered from illness that again prevented him from practicing formal Zen, so he returned to the Kannon-gyo and the practice of chanting. He went so far as to assert that chanting Kannon’s name is completely equivalent to zazen, that the two practices are simply two sides of the same coin—a revolutionary idea seemingly at odds with Zen.

Chanting practice is especially accessible, as it can be done while working, traveling, or suffering from illness, and other activities that would ordinarily get in the way of formal Zen practice.

With these practices, the Kannon-gyo, and Kannon herself as a backdrop, Uchiyama Roshi muses about the purposes of religion, the goals of religious practice, and the meaning of enlightenment—and their relation to suffering itself. (Source: Wisdom Publications)

Citation

Lazzarini, Howard, trans. The Sound that Perceives the World: Calling Out to the Bodhisattva. By Kōshō Uchiyama. New York: Wisdom Publications, 2025.

Table of contents

Foreword vii
Translator's Preface xi
Translator's Introduction xv

Appreciating the Kannon-gyo

Preface1
Introduction 3

1. My Personal Connection with the Kannon-gyo 9
2. The Sound That Perceives the World 17
3. The Main Thread of the Buddhadharma 21
4. An Unobstructed View of Life and the World 27
5. The Religious Meaning of Suffering in the World 33
6. Resolving Problems with Money versus Emancipation through Religion 43
7. God's Yardstick versus Our Human Yardstick 49
8. Before Yardsticks, Part 1 57
9. Before Yardsticks, Part 2 63
10. The Sound of Silence 75
11. "One Mind" 83
12. The Reality without Language and the Undefiled Self 91
13. The Buddha Who Practices within Delusion 99
14. The Scenery of My Life 109
15. The Difficulty of Maintaining Bodhisattva Vows 119
16. Single-Mindedly Chanting the Name of Kanzeon Bosatsu as the House Where We Live 129
17. Freedom and the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination 137
18. My Mind Is Like the Weather 143
19. The Relaxed and Spacious Life 151
20. Everything We Encounter Is Our Life 159
21. The Thirty-Three Forms of Avalokiteshvara 167
22. Where I Place My Weak Mind 175
Afterword 187

Afterword by Shusoku Kushiya 189
Appendix 1: The Kannon-gyo, Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra 195
Appendix 2: Uchiyama Roshi's Postscript to the Kannon-gyo 205
Appendix 3: Appreciating the Ten-Line Kannon-gyo 207

Bibliography 227
Index 229
About the Author and Translator 239

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Partial translation of

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra [सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्र]. dam pa'i chos pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Mahāyāna Sūtra "The White Lotus of the Good Dharma" (84000)]. Translated by Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Kumārajīva, Dharmarakṣa, Dharmakṣema, Jñānagupta, Dharmagupta. Kangyur, RKTSK 113 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=113&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly known as the Lotus Sūtra, is taught by Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak to an audience that includes bodhisattvas from countless realms, as well as bodhisattvas who emerge from under the ground, from the space below this world. Buddha Prabhūtaratna, who has long since passed into nirvāṇa, appears within a floating stūpa to hear the sūtra, and Śākyamuni enters the stūpa and sits beside him. The Lotus Sūtra is celebrated, particularly in East Asia, for its presentation of crucial elements of the Mahāyāna tradition, such as the doctrine that there is only one yāna, or "vehicle"; the distinction between expedient and definite teachings; and the notion that the Buddha's life, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa were simply manifestations of his transcendent buddhahood, while he continues to teach eternally. A recurring theme in the sūtra is its own significance in teaching these points during past and future eons, with many passages in which the Buddha and bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra describe the great benefits that come from devotion to it, the history of its past devotees, and how it is the Buddha's ultimate teaching, supreme over all other sūtras. (Source: 84000)