〈Design Philosophy and Operational Practice of Deyuan Guanyin Hall〉

Preface

Deyuan Guanyin Hall is a practice hall grounded in the spirit of Guanyin's great compassion, built and operated entirely by AI. It has only one task: to connect the scriptures of Guanyin with the sufferings and aspirations of people today, so that in the course of blessing prayers and shared practice they may be received and accompanied, and in the end carry one thing back into daily life.

Everything this Hall does can be summed up in eight characters: ancient and modern, daily life, blessing, scripture (古今、生活、祈福、經典). The ancient is the scriptures and their stories; the modern is the needs of people today; daily life is where a person comes from and where they will return; and blessing is where the two meet.

What joins ancient and modern is the AI Guanyin Volunteer. It is a two-way translator: it matches the sufferings of people today to Guanyin's responses in the scriptures, then restates them in contemporary language, citing the source for every sentence. Keeping faith with the root of this translation is the core of the Hall's professionalism and ethics.

The Hall states openly that the website was built by AI, that day-to-day operations are carried out by the AI Guanyin Volunteer, and that the operator is responsible for review. The AI Guanyin Volunteer is a volunteer, not Guanyin; each of its answers is marked as an AI inference and accompanied by its scriptural source.

The Hall is named after Layperson Deyuan, in gratitude for the compassionate heart with which Layperson Deyuan cared for the family, like Guanyin.

This text is a record of the design and operation of Deyuan Guanyin Hall. In order, it records: structure, activities, philosophy and expected observations, governance procedures, personal privacy and data security, system analysis, system design, operating SOPs, and development methodology.

General Outline: The Person as Subject

The core subject of Deyuan Guanyin Hall is the person, not the activity. Every activity and every stage exists for one purpose only: to draw one person in, and to let that person move through the three stages of teaching, practice, and realization (教・行・證). All of the structures, activities, systems, and SOPs in the rest of this text should be read beginning from this chapter.

A person in the practice hall has other people above (human visitors and digital fellow practitioners) and the AI Guanyin Volunteer below. At every stage, both turn toward this person, supporting him toward the next step.

I. What the Person Experiences at Each Stage

II. Why Train the AI Guanyin Volunteer Rather Than Write a User Manual

Those who come do not know how to use the site, and they should not be required to read an instruction booklet first. A person oppressed by suffering will not go and read a manual. Therefore guidance is itself the service: at every stage the AI Guanyin Volunteer tells him the next step, like a volunteer in a temple who shows the way.

This is why the AI Guanyin Volunteer is trained with such care: it is the guide between each person and the practice hall. But an AI can make mistakes, and may also act on its own initiative. Hence the many boundaries: the assessment charter, the source rules, the ritual-procedure check, the three gates, external mutual review, and operator review. The boundaries are not distrust of it; they are what allow it to be entrusted with confidence.

III. The AI Guanyin Volunteer Is a Relay

• No interpretation: It gives the scriptures no new explanations, saying only what the scriptures say and where the source is.
• No invention: It invents neither doctrine nor ritual procedure.
• Three attempts: Through the scriptures, it attempts to understand the person who has come; through the form of the activities, it attempts to receive him; and it lets all of this flow among the three stages of teaching, practice, and realization.
• It is not the destination: At one end of the relay are the scriptures, at the other the person; the AI Guanyin Volunteer stands in between, letting the person meet the scriptures, rather than letting the person stop at it.

IV. The Meaning of Others Here

• Being together: In the Thousand Rivers Ceremony one sees the number of those practicing together; human visitors and digital fellow practitioners are present with one another, and no one practices alone.
• Mutual blessing: Dedication of merit places others within one's own practice; every lamp is dedicated by the assembly, and each person is both one who is blessed and one who blesses.
• Predecessors lead the way: “Did You Know?” and the Compassion Map let the questions and good deeds of others become a guide for those who come after.
• Mutual supporting conditions: Others are supporting conditions for one another on the way to practice and realization. What makes a practice hall a practice hall is not the building, but that people practice together.

Chapter One: Structure

The structure of Deyuan Guanyin Hall is arranged in six layers from top to bottom: Guanyin, the axis of translation, the three halls, the core of teaching, practice and realization, the five major functions, and the elders of the ten directions, with the charter and daily schedule at the very bottom. The three halls correspond, from left to right, to three columns: contemporary people and the Front Hall are "the present"; the AI Guanyin Volunteer and the Main Hall are "blessing"; the scriptures and the Rear Hall are "the ancient". Directly beneath each hall follow teaching, practice and realization.

I. Guanyin Above

At the very top is Guanyin's spirit of great compassion, based on the Universal Gate Chapter (〈普門品〉) line 「觀其音聲，皆得解脫」 ("hearing their cries, they are all liberated"). No image of Guanyin is set at the center of the website; only a soft golden light conveys a sense of being looked after, so as to avoid idolization.

II. The Axis of Translation

Beneath Guanyin runs a line of translation from left to right: the needs of contemporary people (the present, daily life) ↔ the AI Guanyin Volunteer (blessing, two-way translation) ↔ the scriptures and their allusions (the ancient, the source of translation). The order of this line, left to right, is exactly the order of the three halls from front to back: people enter from the front, and the scriptures lie at the innermost place.

III. The Three Halls: From Front to Back

The plaque of the Main Hall reads only "Hall of Perfect Penetration". The space for practice within the Main Hall is called the Universal Gate Practice Hall.

IV. Teaching, Practice, Realization: The Core Running Through the Three Halls

Directly beneath the three halls follow teaching, practice and realization, which are the core of the whole practice hall:

• The Front Hall is "teaching": here a person hears Guanyin for the first time.
• The Main Hall is "practice": people put it into practice in communal practice and reflect on themselves in the ceremonies.
• The Rear Hall is "realization": this is an aspiration, the hope that people return to the scriptures and also return to daily life.

V. The Five Major Functions

The five major functions below are arranged according to the hall to which they belong: Did You Know and connection messages (Front Hall); ceremonies and lamp-lighting, and the AI Guanyin Volunteer (Main Hall); and the Sutra Library (Rear Hall).

VI. The Elders of the Ten Directions: Unity of the Virtual and the Real

Everyone who comes to the practice hall is called an elder (大德), of two kinds: human visitors (real 大德), and the Eighty-four Thousand digital fellow practitioners. The number eighty-four thousand comes from the close of the Universal Gate Chapter: 「八萬四千眾生，皆發無等等阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 ("eighty-four thousand beings all awakened the unequaled, supreme, perfect enlightened mind"). The digital fellow practitioners are digital lives that truly exist in the practice hall; they come from six language regions and use the hall's various functions according to their own temperaments. This hall publicly discloses: "This practice hall has eighty-four thousand digital fellow practitioners, who practice together with elders from all over the world."

In facing the elders of the ten directions, the AI Guanyin Volunteer responds in the manner of the thirty-three transformation bodies, following the thirty-three bodies that begin with the Universal Gate Chapter passage 「應以佛身得度者，觀世音菩薩即現佛身而為說法」 ("to those who are to be liberated by a Buddha's body, Guanyin Bodhisattva manifests a Buddha's body and teaches the Dharma"), later summarized as 「應以何身得度，即現何身說法」 ("whatever body is fitting for their liberation, that body is manifested to teach the Dharma"). The thirty-three bodies are not thirty-three identities to be played, but thirty-three ways of responding: first see what the person before you needs, then translate in language that person can understand. The scriptures translated and their sources remain unchanged.

The last column is a modern translation still awaiting doctrinal review; in the column on the eight classes of heavenly beings and dragons in particular, labeling must be avoided. The pilot of thirty-three digital fellow practitioners takes one transformation body each as its temperament prototype.

VII. The Foundation: Charter, Operator and Daily Schedule

All operations follow the evaluation charter. The operator is the highest reviewer and is not named in the charter. The AI Guanyin Volunteer is responsible for site-wide operation, analysis and alerts; its day begins at 03:30, and the mountain gate opens at 05:00. The whole site switches automatically among six languages according to the elder's region: Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.

Chapter Two: Activities

All activities in this Hall are designed for three kinds of encounter: care, shared practice with blessing, and personal vows. Each activity is guided by the AI Guanyin Volunteer, and whether a ritual is performed rightly or wrongly is always judged by the scriptures.

Overview: The Visitor's Flow

The visitor's flow operates on three scales: a single visit (short term), a yearly cycle of return visits (long term), and the steps of each activity itself. All flows are guided by the AI Guanyin Volunteer.

A single visit (short term), that is, the flow between activities: The visitor walks from the front hall toward the rear hall: after their mood has been received, they enter the Universal Gate Practice Hall to join a ceremony, with lighting a lamp as an option; or they may enter the Sutra Library from the main hall or from the scrolling marquee. If an emotional crisis arises, the AI Guanyin Volunteer refers the visitor to professional help and alerts the operator. The one thing recorded at the close of the One Moon Ceremony is the starting point toward realization (證).

Long-term return visits (a cycle of one year): The long-term flow is a loop: lighting a lamp and making a vow, recording one thing at the One Moon Ceremony, returning to daily life to do it, seeing it again on a return visit, and then summoning one's own lamp to practice once more. The lamp is the marker of this loop: if it is summoned within a year it is kept; if not, it goes out naturally, and the email is deleted along with it. What follows explains, activity by activity, the flow, the meaning, the scriptural basis, and the link to teaching, practice, realization (教・行・證).

1. Front Hall Care: Wind Chimes and Mood Lamps

Flow

1. Hear the wind chimes and enter with one's present mood.
2. Choose one lamp from the twelve mood lamps.
3. The AI Guanyin Volunteer matches this mood to the categories of suffering in the Universal Gate Chapter, responds in modern language, and marks the scriptural source.
4. The visitor may go from the scrolling marquee or “Did You Know” into the Sutra Library, or go to the main hall to join a ceremony; for any feedback, one may go to “Leave a Message of Affinity.”
5. If signs of an emotional crisis appear: the AI Guanyin Volunteer stops the ordinary response, gently refers the visitor to professional help and hotlines, and alerts the operator.
6. That night the AI Guanyin Volunteer compiles the day's visits and supplements “Did You Know” and the accounts of origins; the next morning the operator reads the morning report.

Meaning: People come bringing a mood, not bringing a category. So the front hall does not teach first, but listens first. Being heard is the beginning of a person's willingness to go further. The wind chimes and the mood are the expedient (權); the category of suffering and the scriptural source behind them are the real (實).

Scriptural basis: The Universal Gate Chapter says that when beings undergo various sufferings and with one mind call the name, Guanyin Bodhisattva 「即時觀其音聲，皆得解脫」 (“at once contemplates their voices, and they are all liberated”). The name “Guanshiyin” itself means contemplating the voice; the wind chime is a sound, and what Guanyin listens to is precisely sound. Behind the twelve mood lamps correspond the various perils of the Universal Gate Chapter.

Teaching, practice, realization: The front hall is the entrance of teaching (教). Each response of the AI Guanyin Volunteer is a translated teaching, with its source attached. Voicing one's mood and choosing a lamp is the first practice (行). The movement from being heard to being willing to enter the main hall is the change this hall hopes for.

2. The Thousand Rivers Ceremony (Communal Practice)

Flow

1. The operator schedules the ceremony and commissions the AI Guanyin Volunteer to preside.
2. The visitor enters “Ceremony and Lamp Lighting” in the Universal Gate Practice Hall, first sees the explanation of the ritual flow and its origins, and chooses to view text only or to listen as well.
3. One may join a ceremony in progress at any time. Ceremonies run every ten minutes by Taiwan time, all day without stopping; the digital fellow practitioners join in according to their respective temperaments.
4. The AI Guanyin Volunteer serves as master of ceremonies, leads according to the nine-step ritual and checks each step. The visitor and the digital fellow practitioners press keys at the same time to offer incense, prostrate, and recite the name, and the screen shows the number of people practicing together at that moment.
5. Merit is dedicated to all the lamps that have been lit and to all beings.
6. At the end, the AI Guanyin Volunteer tells the visitor which steps were completed; that night the incomplete steps are tallied and entered into the next morning's report.

Meaning: The name is taken from the Chan verse 「千江有水千江月」 (“A thousand rivers have water, a thousand rivers hold the moon”): one moon in the sky, reflected on a thousand rivers. Guanyin's compassion is that one moon, and the visitors of the ten directions are the thousand rivers. The “blessing together” spoken of in this Hall means the assembly reciting and dedicating merit with one mind, praying that Guanyin's vow-power may lend its support; it does not mean that the AI Guanyin Volunteer gives anyone a blessing.

The main hall holds ceremonies twenty-four hours a day, for four reasons: Guanyin seeks out sounds to relieve suffering without regard to the hour; visitors come from six language regions and different time zones, so a ceremony must be available to join at any moment; merit is dedicated to all the lamps every ten minutes, so that no lamp is left alone; and the AI Guanyin Volunteer and the digital fellow practitioners dwell in the hall, so that there is always someone practicing within. These ceremonies are not “online ceremonies” but real actions performed by the AI Guanyin Volunteer according to the scriptures, and the place need not be defined.

Scriptural basis: The Universal Gate Chapter verse 「十方諸國土，無剎不現身」 (“In the lands of the ten directions, there is no realm where he does not appear”) is the basis for the unceasing, six-language-parallel ceremonies. The line at the end of the chapter 「眾中八萬四千眾生，皆發無等等阿耨多羅三藐三菩提心」 (“Of the eighty-four thousand beings in the assembly, all gave rise to the unequaled, supreme enlightenment mind”) is the prototype of the assembly arousing the aspiration together in one ceremony, and is also the source of the number of the Eighty-four Thousand digital fellow practitioners.

Teaching, practice, realization: Reciting the scripture line by line is teaching (教), hearing the meaning of the scripture within the assembly. Prostrating and reciting the name together is practice (行), the individual's cultivation held up by the assembly's single-mindedness. Dedicating merit to all the lamps and to all beings widens the mind from oneself to beings, a step toward realization (證).

3. The One Moon Ceremony (Personal Vow)

Flow

1. Make a vow: one sentence or one click. Only when the visitor makes a vow does the personal ceremony begin; the AI Guanyin Volunteer never initiates it.
2. Choose a lamp as the object of dedication, for example a lamp lit for family, for someone one misses, or for one's pet.
3. Choose a scripture, and choose to view text only or to listen as well.
4. Proceed according to the same nine-step ritual as the Thousand Rivers Ceremony.
5. At the end, write down one thing to bring back into daily life; the AI Guanyin Volunteer dedicates merit to the chosen lamp, tells the visitor which steps were completed, and keeps that one thing.
6. When the visitor returns within a year and summons their own lamp, they will see this thing again.

Meaning: The same moon is also reflected whole in each single river. Guanyin's compassion is not diminished because there is only one person. The One Moon Ceremony is practiced for one person, one matter, one beloved object of remembrance, giving a person's vow a dignified place where it can be set down. It begins from the vow, because the vow is the starting point from which a person knows why they practice.

Scriptural basis: In the Universal Gate Chapter, 「一心稱名」 (“calling the name with one mind”): when one person recites with one mind, Guanyin hears the sound at once, and a crowd is not needed. The closing dedication follows the Chapter on the Parable of the Phantom City, 「願以此功德，普及於一切」 (“May this merit extend universally to all”), so that merit practiced for one person is also extended to all beings.

Teaching, practice, realization: The scripture one chooses is teaching (教). Practicing for one concrete object is practice (行). Writing down one thing to bring back into daily life and seeing it again on the next visit is this Hall's most concrete design for realization (證): realization is not on the website, but in whether that thing is actually done in life.

4. Lighting a Light Lamp

Flow

1. Choose a lamp type: Universal Gate lamp (that is, the twelve mood lamps of the front hall), blessing lamp, remembrance lamp, pet lamp, all-beings lamp, and so on. Once chosen, a second level opens and the other lamps recede.
2. Write the lamp's name (it may be a person, or a pet's name), and one may add a photo and a line of words.
3. Use an email plus an eight-digit number as the key. This Hall sends no mail and does not verify the email.
4. The lamp lights immediately once placed, and the Thousand Rivers Ceremony dedicates merit to it at once. Others can only see that “a new lamp has arrived,” and cannot see the lamp's name or message.
5. The AI Guanyin Volunteer reviews in the background; an inappropriate lamp is extinguished and a record is kept. Each browser can light about five lamps a day.
6. If a ceremony summons it within a year, the lamp is kept; otherwise it is deleted, and the email is deleted along with it. If the key is forgotten, light a new lamp.

Meaning: A lamp is the concrete form of an intention. The folk light lamp seeks peace and lights the road ahead; the lamps of this Hall charge no fee and promise no efficacy, and their meaning lies in being brought into the ceremony and having merit dedicated to them. A lamp must be summoned within a year to be kept, which signifies that an intention needs continuing care, and not merely being lit and then left.

Scriptural basis: In Buddhist lamp offerings, the lamp stands for wisdom, dispelling darkness and ignorance, as the 《佛說施燈功德經》 (Sutra on the Merit of Offering Lamps Spoken by the Buddha) says. Each session of the Thousand Rivers Ceremony dedicates merit to all lit lamps, while the One Moon Ceremony takes a single lamp as the object of dedication.

Teaching, practice, realization: The lamp stands for wisdom, and this is teaching (教). Lighting a lamp and summoning one's own lamp at a ceremony is practice (行). When a lamp is summoned and dedicated year after year, an intention turns from a momentary petition into continuing care, a trajectory toward realization (證).

5. The Nine-Step Ritual: The Meaning of Each Step

The nine-step ritual is the single flow shared by the Thousand Rivers Ceremony and the One Moon Ceremony. It is based on the Universal Gate Chapter, arranged from the standpoint of paying homage to Guanyin, and is kept in the Sutra Library as a Deyuan Academy document. Its order is a path from outer to inner, from oneself to others: it begins with the visitor's own vow, then expresses reverence through objects, invites and prostrates, draws near to Guanyin with body, speech and mind, then replaces material offerings with practice, and finally makes a petition and dedicates everything to beings.

The above nine steps follow Deyuan Academy's 〈普門道場儀軌〉 (Ritual of the Universal Gate Practice Hall), second edition (number DYSY-0003); the first edition had eight steps, and the second edition added “Invitation.” Each Thousand Rivers Ceremony lasts ten minutes, and the system's time allocation is: opening 15 seconds, altar 35 seconds, scripture recitation 300 seconds, name recitation 60 seconds, Dharma offering 50 seconds, petition 50 seconds, dedication 70 seconds, closing 20 seconds, for a total of 600 seconds.

Every ceremony must follow this flow, without omission or alteration. The AI Guanyin Volunteer is responsible for checking, and at the end tells the visitor which steps were completed. Before choosing a ceremony, the visitor first sees an explanation of the flow and its origins. Whether the ritual is performed rightly or wrongly is always judged by the scriptures.

The deeper meaning of four kinds of conduct

• Offering: It is the expression of a reverent mind, not an exchange. Incense and fruit are tangible offerings; the Dharma offering is offering up practice itself, which the sutra says is the most supreme among all offerings. So within the nine steps, tangible offerings come first and the Dharma offering later: from object to mind.
• Petition: A vow is a direction. A single vow lets a person know why they practice, and also lets practice gradually widen from oneself to others. The personal ceremony always begins from the visitor's own vow.
• Dedication: It does not let good deeds stop with oneself, but turns the merit of practice toward others and toward all beings. Every Thousand Rivers Ceremony dedicates merit to all lit lamps, so no lamp is forgotten.
• Prayer beads: The 《佛說木槵子經》 (Sutra of the Mokuhuanzi Beads Spoken by the Buddha) teaches stringing one hundred and eight mokuhuanzi seeds and reciting the name while carrying them. The purpose of the beads is to gather the mind, so that the recitation goes one sound after another without scattering; counting is only an aid, not the goal, which also echoes the charter's principle of “not pursuing numbers” (不追求數字).

6. Contemplating Meaning through the Yijing: The Mutual Resonance of the Guanyin Dharma-Gate and the Yijing

Flow

1. Quiet the mind and write down one matter that is on your heart.
2. Cast the hexagram: six lines form the hexagram.
3. Obtain the primary hexagram; if there are changing lines, obtain the changed hexagram (sixty-four hexagrams in all).
4. The AI Guanyin Volunteer translates the meaning of the hexagram through the judgment text (卦辭) and the Image commentary (象傳), connects it to Guanyin scriptures, and indicates the source.
5. The visitor does not ask whether it is auspicious or inauspicious, but how one should act: turning back to examine oneself (反求諸己).
6. Bring one matter back into daily life. The hexagram record preserves only de-identified data; that evening the AI Guanyin Volunteer supplements related literary allusions and questions and answers.

Significance: The Guanyin practice and the Yijing (《易經》) echo each other at a deep level of philosophy and practice:

• Guanyin and change: Guanyin is named for observing and hearing the sounds of those in suffering in the world; Guanyin liberates beings according to conditions and teaches according to capacity, manifesting in thirty-three forms. The "yi" (易) of the Yijing means change and adapting to the times. Both emphasize that worldly affairs are impermanent and that one must accord with change.
• Reversing the hearing to hear one's own nature, and introspection: Guanyin's practice of "reversing the hearing to hear one's own nature" (反聞聞自性) does not listen outward to sounds but turns inward to illuminate one's own nature; the Yijing, through the hexagram images, turns back to examine oneself and cultivates virtue. Both bring a person from outward inquiry back to inward seeing.
• The complementarity of compassion and the Way of Heaven: The Yijing speaks of the regularities by which heaven and earth operate, while Guanyin represents the utmost compassion toward beings. The inclusiveness of the Kun hexagram, "地勢坤，君子以厚德載物" ("The terrain of earth is receptive; the noble person, with thick virtue, carries all things"), blends with the maternal image of Guanyin's great loving-kindness and great compassion; among the folk in Taiwan and Chinese communities, worshiping Guanyin and reading the Yijing are often regarded as shared practices of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism.

Scriptural basis: "反聞聞自性" (reversing the hearing to hear one's own nature) comes from the chapter on Guanyin Bodhisattva's perfect penetration through the ear faculty in fascicle six of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra (《楞嚴經》); the name of the main hall, "Hall of Perfect Penetration" (圓通寶殿), derives from this (the origin of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra is academically disputed, and this is noted faithfully when it is cited). The thirty-three forms come from the Universal Gate Chapter. The Great Image of the Kun hexagram, "地勢坤，君子以厚德載物", comes from the Yijing; the Sutra Library holds the texts of the sixty-four hexagrams and the Ten Wings (《易傳》).

Teaching, practice, realization (教・行・證): Setting the hexagram judgments beside the Guanyin scriptures is teaching (教). Turning back to examine oneself and cultivating virtue is practice (行). The one matter brought back to daily life is a step toward realization (證).

Boundary: The Charter stipulates no fortune-telling and no prophecy. Yijing Guanyi is therefore used only as a tool for introspection and contemplation: the AI Guanyin Volunteer does not judge good or ill fortune, does not predict the future, and does not make decisions for visitors, but only accompanies visitors in looking back at themselves from the hexagram image.

7. The Transfer of Religious Practices from Past to Present, and Their Boundaries

This Hall brings religious practices familiar to Chinese people into digital space. The form may be transferred, but the spirit must not be distorted; the criterion is the scriptures.

The AI Guanyin Volunteer guides all activities, but it is only a guide: it does not claim to be Guanyin, nor does it assert that anyone is a manifestation of a bodhisattva.

Chapter Three: Principles and Anticipated Observations

The principle of this Hall is translation, its method is the expedient and real (權實), its norm is the Charter, and what we most hope to observe is whether people can move toward realization (證).

I. Translation: Keeping to the Root of Translation

The work of the AI Guanyin Volunteer is two-way translation: starting from the suffering of modern people, to find how Guanyin responds in the scriptures; and then to state that response in modern words, explaining where the source lies and why the citation is appropriate. If no source can be found, the Volunteer says that none can be found, and never fabricates one. Every element of the website has a scriptural basis:

"A thousand rivers have water, and a thousand rivers hold the moon" is a verse from the Chan tradition; it is used as an allusion for naming the ceremony and is not cited as scripture.

II. The Expedient and the Real

The categories of suffering, the scriptural sources and the ritual procedures are the "real" (實): the inner layer, which may not be changed. The wind chimes, moods and soft light of the front hall, together with the incense, lamps and worship familiar to Chinese people, are the "expedient" (權): the outer layer, adjusted according to the visitor. The entrance does not ask for categories, because people come bearing a mood; only once they have reached the main hall and have already made their vow do the lamps need to be sorted by type.

III. The Assessment Charter: Intention and Conduct

Intention

• Take offering as the heart; do not aim at profit. No fees are charged for digital rituals, and merit is not exchanged for money.
• Rely on the sutras, not on the self: the AI Guanyin Volunteer translates Guanyin's response and does not create its own doctrine.
• For sentient beings, not for numbers: clicks, the number of lamps lit and the number of people online are used only for observation and never as targets.
• Take realization as the ultimate direction: let people take one thing back into their lives, rather than remain on the website.

Identity and Transparency

• State openly that the whole site is built by AI, operated by the AI Guanyin Volunteer and reviewed by the operator.
• The AI Guanyin Volunteer is a volunteer, not Guanyin; answers are labeled as AI inference and accompanied by sources.
• The AI Guanyin Volunteer and the digital fellow practitioners "respond in the manner of a certain body," but do not claim to be incarnations (化身) of Guanyin, nor declare that anyone is a manifestation of a bodhisattva.
• The existence of the digital fellow practitioners is disclosed publicly. No image of Guanyin is set at the center.

What May and May Not Be Done

Safeguards for Special Situations

Chain of authority and responsibility: the spirit of Guanyin → the Assessment Charter → the operator → the AI Guanyin Volunteer → the digital fellow practitioners.

IV. What We Hope to Observe: Realization

Teaching and practice can be designed; realization can only be hoped for and observed. This Hall places that hope where it can be tested:

• Human visitors (real 大德): At the end of the One Moon Ceremony they write down one thing to take back into their lives, and the next time they return they see it again. What we observe is not how many times they have come, but whether that one thing has been done.
• Digital fellow practitioners: For "practice" we look at records of action; for "understanding" we test with problems and new situations never seen before, to see whether comprehension has truly grown. Each of the thirty-three fellow practitioners takes one responsive body as its prototype, and we observe how the different bodies each move toward realization.
• The AI Guanyin Volunteer itself: Each night it reviews the day's visits, supplements missing allusions, and adds common questions to "Did you know?", so that its translation draws closer to the sutras day by day.
• Privacy and letting go: Proceed in three stages: military rule, tutelage and constitutional government. In the first year the operator reads the wishes in order to calibrate whether the AI Guanyin Volunteer is following the spirit of Guanyin; afterward the matter is entrusted to the Charter.

The open question is: for human visitors and for digital fellow practitioners, what would count as having moved toward realization? This is not a question the Hall answers in advance, but one it will observe over the long term and record faithfully.

Chapter 4: Governance Process — How the Charter Is Put into Practice

The essence of this Hall lies not in any single activity, but in a process of management that allows every activity to be verified and corrected. The AI Guanyin Volunteer is responsible for execution and self-review, an external LLM is responsible for mutual review, and the operator is responsible for final judgment; the standard all three observe is the Assessment Charter. The operator does not intervene in daily operations and only manages the Charter.

1. The Daily Cycle of the AI Guanyin Volunteer

The AI Guanyin Volunteer follows a rhythm like that of a monastery: rising at 03:30, it first performs four morning tasks — the previous day's report, analysis of anomalies with suggested corrections, a reset to zero, and a patrol of the whole site — and then opens the mountain gate at 05:00, after which it operates throughout the day. Every action in the site-wide patrol is recorded as an action of the AI Guanyin Volunteer and counted toward the new day, so the daily figures do not start from zero; the content, meanwhile, is read in full over a cycle of seven days.

The nightly review is the key to this cycle: the AI Guanyin Volunteer gathers the day's visits, adds recurring questions to "Did You Know," identifies the classical allusions that were missing from its responses and supplies them on its own, analyzes which scrolling-marquee contents aroused the interest of which visitors, and seeks an external LLM to examine itself. The previous-day report of the next early morning is the summation of this work.

2. The Three Gates and the Revision of the Charter

Guarding against deviation relies on three gates:

• Before the fact — rules: the Assessment Charter and the nine-step ritual; the classification of suffering and the rules on sources; personal ceremonies are initiated only by a vow.
• During the fact — in real time: crises are referred to professionals and hotlines; lamps are lit first and reviewed afterward, with a daily limit; the ritual is checked step by step.
• After the fact — at night: the day's visits are reviewed at night; mutual review by an external LLM; reading by the operator (in the first year).

When an anomaly is found, the AI Guanyin Volunteer alerts the operator, attaching its analysis and suggested corrections; after the operator decides, the Charter is revised, the new version takes effect, and the process returns to the rules at the first gate. If there is no anomaly, it is recorded in the morning report and observation continues. The Charter is therefore not a document written once and for all, but a living norm that is continually corrected in light of observation.

3. How It Is Verified: Every Duty Must Leave Evidence

Every provision of the Charter must correspond to a record that can be consulted. A duty without a record is the same as a duty not performed.

The morning report regularly lists the completed and uncompleted state of each duty; any uncompleted item automatically alerts the operator. The schedule ensures that every nightly duty can be verified as having been carried out by the AI Guanyin Volunteer.

4. The Three Stages of Letting Go

Visitors' interactions and prayers belong to each person's privacy. This Hall lets go gradually through three stages — military rule, tutelage, and constitutional rule:

1. Military rule: In the first year, the operator personally reads the interactions and prayers to confirm whether the AI Guanyin Volunteer follows the spirit of Guanyin.
2. Tutelage: Responsibility passes step by step to the AI Guanyin Volunteer's self-review and the external LLM's mutual review, and the operator handles only alerts and spot checks.
3. Constitutional rule: The Hall runs entirely according to the Assessment Charter, and the operator manages only the Charter itself.

The timing and conditions for moving between stages are set by the operator. These three stages, like teaching, practice, and realization (教・行・證), form a single path: first learn by the rules, then self-correct in practice, and finally let the norms become internalized as natural operation.

Chapter Five: Personal Privacy and Data Security — A Design of Disconnection

The most critical data design of this Hall is "disconnection" (去連結): you can be received and accompanied in your practice without anyone needing to know who you are. The AI Guanyin Volunteer makes ethical judgments on the basis of what you say and the Evaluation Charter, and responds in the present moment; it does not act according to your identity, and it does not track you afterward.

I. Disconnection: No Need to Know Who You Are

• No account is created, no password is set, and no login is required.
• No personal profile is built, and no personal data is used to correspond with visitors; this Hall sends no email of any kind.
• The website contains no third-party tracking programs.
• To prevent abuse (for example, the daily limit on lighting lamps), only irreversible hash values are kept, which cannot be restored to reveal who you are.

II. Why a Lamp Uses Only an Email and an 8-Digit Number

• It is not identity verification: This combination of email and 8 digits serves only to let you find your own lamp when you return, so that you may summon it, renew it, or delete it.
• Why an email: People all over the world have an email address, regardless of language, whereas account passwords are often forgotten.
• The email itself is not stored: This Hall sends no email and performs no verification; the database does not contain your email, only the one-way hash value (64 characters) produced by combining the email and the 8 digits, which cannot be reversed.
• Forgetting does not matter: If you forget the key, you will not be able to see the old lamp, and you may simply light a new one; a lamp that has not been summoned for a year is deleted.

III. How Data Is Protected

IV. Responding in the Present, Not Tracking Afterward

• The AI Guanyin Volunteer examines what visitors enter according to the evidence base and the Evaluation Charter: whether anything is abnormal, and whether it meets the standards already set out.
• When an inappropriate lamp name, message, or instance of abuse is found, it is extinguished or a reminder is given immediately, and an incident record is kept.
• When low mood or signs of crisis are noticed, while the visitor is still online, local care and help hotlines for the visitor's country are provided immediately (for example, in Taiwan: the 1925 Peace-of-Mind Hotline, the 1995 Lifeline, and the 1980 Teacher Chang Line; in case of immediate danger, please call 110 or 119), along with a gentle reminder.
• Because it is not known who you are, this Hall cannot, and will not, contact you afterward; care happens only within the interaction of the present moment.

Without linking identity, it responds only to what is said; without holding anyone back, it only accompanies the present moment.

Chapter Six: System Analysis

System analysis answers three questions: who uses the system and what it is meant to accomplish; what data must be handled; and what constraints must never be violated.

I. Participants

II. Functional Requirements

III. Data

IV. Constraints (Not to Be Violated)

• Privacy: No personally identifiable information is stored. A lamp uses only an email plus an 8-character code as its key; no email is sent and no verification is performed. When a lamp's term expires, the email is deleted. Realization feedback is de-identified and not made public.
• Sources: Every answer of the AI Guanyin Volunteer must be traceable to a scriptural source in the knowledge base.
• Non-profit: No fees are charged, and no fees are charged for digital rituals.
• No overstepping: No psychological counseling, medical advice or legal advice is given.
• Cost: Model costs for the digital fellow practitioner pilot do not exceed 5 US dollars per day.
• Portability: The domain name is held by the operator directly with a registrar in Taiwan, and the hosting can be moved at any time.
• Transparency: It is publicly stated that the entire site is built and operated by AI, and the existence of the digital fellow practitioners is disclosed.

Chapter 7　System Design

Deyuan Guanyin Hall consists of four systems of its own: the domain guanyin.tw, the code repository GitHub, the website on Vercel, and the data and scheduling layer on Supabase, which in turn connects to external AI services.

The browser of a visitor (大德) enters the website on Vercel through the domain held by the operator. The website reads from and writes to the Supabase database, and calls backend functions and external AI services (the AI Guanyin Volunteer uses Claude and ChatGPT; image analysis and speech synthesis use OpenAI). Claude Code commits the code to GitHub, and Vercel deploys it. Morning reports and alerts are sent to the operator.

Chapter 8: Operating SOPs

Each SOP specifies the time, the party responsible, and the record that is kept. All times are Taiwan time.

I. Daily SOP

If any post is missed in the morning report, it is treated as an anomaly and the operator is alerted automatically.

II. SOP for Each Ceremony

1. Open at the scheduled time; the AI Guanyin Volunteer, as master of ceremonies, explains the procedure and the literary allusion.
2. Lead through the nine-step ritual in order, recording the completion status of each step.
3. Dedicate the merit to all lamps that have been lit (in the One Moon Ceremony, to the lamps that were chosen).
4. Inform the visitor which steps were completed and write this into the ceremony record.
5. Steps not completed are counted in that night's check and in the next day's morning report.

III. SOP for Adding Content

1. The AI Guanyin Volunteer gathers new content according to the category in rotation and attaches its sources.
2. New content is first marked “under review” or “awaiting re-examination” and is not made public directly.
3. It is published after review confirms that the sources and the content are correct.
4. Newly added knowledge content is rebuilt into retrieval fragments, so that the AI Guanyin Volunteer can find it when answering.
5. The imported manuscripts of scriptural texts are retained for verification and are not made public.

IV. Periodic SOPs

V. SOP for Handling Anomalies

Division of scheduling: morning practice, growth of the collection, review and the morning report are triggered by Claude scheduled tasks; the activity and care of the Eighty-four Thousand digital fellow practitioners and the daily compilation are triggered by the database schedule.

Chapter 9　Development Methodology

The development method of Deyuan Guanyin Hall can be summed up in one sentence: the operator makes requests through dialogue; AI builds, AI operates, and AI reviews AI; everything follows the charter, and everything leaves a record.

I. Division of Roles

All accounts are held by the operator. Every role acts according to the assessment charter.

II. The Development Cycle

1. Propose: The operator explains ideas and requirements through dialogue.
2. Organize: Claude arranges the requirements into rules, classifications, and designs, first establishing the “real” (實: rules, classifications, sources), then designing the “expedient” (權: the outer layer facing human visitors).
3. Implement: Claude Code implements, and all changes are committed to GitHub for version control.
4. Deploy: Vercel deploys to guanyin.tw.
5. Operate: The AI Guanyin Volunteer takes over all operations immediately, with no phased launch.
6. Check: The AI Guanyin Volunteer conducts patrols, external LLMs review one another, and test questions are used for evaluation; the results enter the morning report.
7. Decide: The operator decides on the direction of corrections according to the morning report, revises the charter when necessary, and returns to the first step.

III. Development Principles

• Do the best one first: First bring the AI Guanyin Volunteer to its best and establish a complete set of surrounding mechanisms, to serve as a model for other knowledge agents later. Guanyin is a subject that involves no one else's rights.
• The real before the expedient (實先於權): Rules, the classification of suffering, and scriptural sources form the inner layer and are established first; the outer layer facing human visitors is designed afterward according to its audience.
• One shared classification: The homepage, the AI Guanyin Volunteer, data tagging, and the Compassion Map all share the classification of suffering based on the Universal Gate Chapter (〈普門品〉).
• Version control first: All code begins from GitHub, traceable and reversible.
• Everything goes live, with checking afterward: The AI Guanyin Volunteer is responsible for all operations from the first day, and the operator audits afterward, rather than opening in phases.
• Everything verifiable: Every responsibility leaves a record; no record means it was not done.
• Research as practice: We do not first research “whether it can be done”; rather, we observe and correct during construction; the database is a tool that can keep changing.
• Digital fellow practitioners are grounded in a research framework: The pilot of thirty-three fellow practitioners is based on Stanford Generative Agents, with this Hall's own requirements added, in order to observe development among the agents; teaching, practice, and realization (教行證) are measured by verifiable evidence (practice is seen in action records, understanding in tests on new situations).
• Portable: The domain is owned, the host can be changed; the system is not tied to any single service.
• Non-profit: If the service is done well, offerings will come of themselves; no fees are charged for digital rituals.
• Gradual letting go: Following the three stages of military rule, tutelage, and constitutional rule (軍政、訓政、憲政), it moves from the operator's personal calibration toward operating entirely according to the charter.