Narcissus on Chinese New Year (or: Kuan Yin Instructs the Student How to Change the Face of the World)

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Introduction 1
4. Wake 21
5. Kuan Yin is Mobbed by Reporters at Honolulu International Airport 25
6. Valley of the Temples, O‘ahu 27
7. Crack Seed 28
8. Crush 31
9. There Was Some Debate 32
10. Kuan Yin Faces Charges 34
11. Kuan Yin Mingles with the Ghosts, Now on Guided Tour, of the Slave Population Which Constructed the Great Wall of China 36
12. Kuan Yin Turns Her Photo Album to a Certain Point 38
13. Columbia Glacier 41
14. The Grandmother 42
15. Kuan Yin in the Folds of an Old Letter 44
16. Kuan Yin at the Honolulu Academy of Arts 47
17. After Thirty Years 49
18. Lotus Hook 53
19. Kuan Yin Rides to the Hunt 55
20. Kuan Yin, Inventor 56
21. Some Days 59
22. Pent 61
23. Tozen’s White-Robed Kannon 65
24. Ryozen’s White-Robed Kannon 66
25. Lin Ruyi’s White-Robed Kuan Yin 67
26. Narcissus on Chinese New Year (or: Kuan Yin Instructs the Student How to Change the Face of the World) 70
27. Problems in Taxonomy 73
28. Kuan Yin Takes the Long View 75
29. To Kuan Yin 77
30. While Kuan Yin Waits at the Airport 80
31. Kannon Submits to Freedom in the Tea Ceremony 83
32. This Isn’t a Picture I’m Holding 85
33. Jellyfish 88
34. Cambodian Collage 91
35. Happy Land Ltd 93
36. Kannon Sweeps Up at the Mo‘ili‘ili Japanese Cemetery 95
37. Stuck at the Buddha’s First Precept 97
38. Predictable Fire, 1911 99
39. Testimonial 103
40. Kannon Goes Bon Dancing 104
41. Statue of Kannon Brought Back by a Soldier 107
42. To Please a Buddha 109
43. Kuan Yin as the One Who Sees Sounds 112
44. Who Reads, Who Writes 113
45. It’s Natural 115
46. Lesson in Ink 119
47. To a Working Mom Whose Babysitter Hasn’t Shown Up 121
48. Outpatient in Hawai‘i Thinks of Snow 125
49. On the Non-Duality of Dung and Deep Waters in a Brooklyn Museum 127
50. World Wide Web 131
51. The Named Is the Mother of Ten Thousand Things 133
52. Footnote to Vietnam War 136
53. The Thirty-Three Sites of Kannon 141
54. Mr. Alzheimer’s 144
55. Holding On to a Bodhisattva 147
56. How Kuan Yin Loves 149
57. Kuan Yin Hears Cries 150
58. Buddha-Bodies 153
59. Photograph Sites 155
60. Acknowledgments 157
61. About the Author and Photographer 159