Kwan Yin: How Your Sensitivity is a Super Power

As a teen, I experienced sensing the whole world at once. ALL the beings — their turmoils and joys — filled me up, and I held them all inside. I wrote a little poem about it, “The Roar of the World:”

… can they hear the hum, the song,
the shout, the ROAR around them?…

North and South and East and West
sounds of human behavior

do they feel the swarming crowds, the riots, the fires, the floods, the deaths, the births, the rapes, the kidnapping, the stealing, the starving, the pain, the hate

do they fell the Passion of the People?
do they sense the world around them?
those lights far out, blinking, those pulsing, rhythmical lights…

do they fell the outward circle of Life pressing in on them,
Passionate Love and Passionate Hate

or do they simply forget?

Kwan Yin
16×20 | orig. and prints here…

Kwan Yin (aka GuanYin, Kuan Yin, or Kwannon) is an old Buddhist goddess representing compassion. Her name means “hearing the cries of the world.”

I used to think being sensitive was a burden. But I learned empathy makes you more human, more real. My life choices are rooted in my empathy (i.e. I’m vegan and I shy away from drama, gossip, and anger).

This Kwan Yin, with the golden hair, is my homage to that divine quality in all of us, should we choose to listen — to listen to the cries of the world, to feel them, and most importantly — to do what we can about it.

Want to see the full process, but REALLY FAST!? Here’s a time-lapse: