Who is this little parrot often seen perched beside Guan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy?
He is a symbol of filial piety, based on an ancient legend involving red cherries and an evil aristocrat.
In the 鹰歌宝卷 / Yingge Baojuan (The Precious Scroll of the Parrot), legend goes that once upon a time, a parrot’s mother was ill and asked to eat red cherries, her favourite food.
The little parrot quickly flew out to find it.
Alas, it was caught by hunters. For more than a year, he was trapped, helpless in a little cage, separated from its sick mother, desperate to escape.
During that time, many passers-by stopped to see him. Among them was an evil aristocrat, who was somehow touched by the encounter with the gentle bird. It sparked a reflection, causing him to turn over a new leaf.
Moved by this, a Buddhist monk took pity on the parrot and secretly taught it a trick to escape - by feigning death.
The parrot did just that - and finally escaped.
It flew home quickly to see its sick mother - with red cherries that it still remembered to gather along the way.
Alas, he found out that his mother was already dead. Heartbroken, the little parrot died of grief too.
When Guan Yin heard the story, she was moved and brought the parrot back to life by pouring a drop of dew water into its mouth.
She then ordered the gods to find the souls of the parrot’s parents. She sprinkled dew water from her willow wand onto their souls, cleansing them from the sins of their former lives and allowing them to be reborn into the human world.
Guan Yin then took the little parrot as her 3rd disciple, to remind men of the importance of filial piety.
Guan Yin’s question was: If even a bird knows to be filial, what about us?
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