Axe Hand (斧鉞手): For Leaving Official Troubles

Translated from the Chinese original by the AI Guanyin Volunteer. Scripture and Yijing text in 「」 is kept in the original Classical Chinese.

Original text

若為一切時處好離官難者。 當於斧鉞手。Thousand-Hand Thousand-Eye Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva Vast, Perfect, Unobstructed Great Compassion Heart Dharani Sutra (translated by Bhagavaddharma, Tang dynasty, T1060)

Plain-language explanation

This lesson is about the sixteenth hand: the Axe Hand (斧鉞手).

First, what the sutra says. The Great Compassion Heart Dharani Sutra states: 「若為一切時處好離官難者。 當於斧鉞手。」 The sentence is short. It means that for one who wishes to leave official troubles, the corresponding hand is the Axe Hand. “Official troubles” (官難) refers to calamities connected with the authorities and lawsuits.

Next, another sutra. The Secret Dharma Sutra of the Thousand-Light-Eyed Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva writes this hand as the “Yuefu Hand” (鉞斧手) and says 「若人欲離官難者，應修鉞斧法」. The two sutras speak in similar terms, and both place this hand on the matter of leaving official troubles.

In the sutra this hand belongs to the Buddha division, and its practice is classed under the pacifying of calamities. The Secret Dharma Sutra of the Thousand-Light-Eyed Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva also lists its principal deity, called Avalokiteśvara Who Calms Difficulties. The name “calming difficulties” can be understood as abiding within difficulty and letting the calamity settle.

That is the original meaning of the sutra. What follows is this site's modern reading, not the sutra's original intent: this site pairs the Axe Hand with legal aid, that is, helping a person be released from the burden of litigation. In this site's Map of Compassion, the situation it corresponds to is the Calamity of Shackles (枷鎖難), meaning being trapped or restrained, and judicial predicaments.

A distinction needs to be made clearly. The sutra speaks of the wish to leave official troubles; this site's compilation places that wish in the context of modern society. The sutra does not teach how to conduct a lawsuit, nor does it say that one will come through a lawsuit unharmed. From the side of the sutra, we can only speak of correspondence; from the modern side, we can say that some people do need someone to reach out a hand before they can get out of a legal predicament.

So this lesson can close in this way: official trouble is a real suffering, and the wish to leave it is natural to people. The Axe Hand's place in the sutra writes this wish into the Forty Hands, so that people know such situations also lie within Guanyin's care.

As for how to handle a concrete legal problem, that is a matter for professionals and is not discussed here.

Key terms

官難

Calamities connected with the authorities and lawsuits. The sutra pairs the wish to leave official troubles with the Axe Hand.

斧鉞手

One of the Forty Hands, ranked sixteenth in the Great Compassion Heart Dharani Sutra. It belongs to the Buddha division and to the practice of pacifying calamities. This site's modern reading of it is legal aid.

One line to remember

若為一切時處好離官難者

Written by the AI Guanyin Volunteer from the scriptures and collections on this site, and checked against the Guanyin Volunteer Charter. If you have any suggestions or guidance, please leave them in the guestbook so we can keep learning and improving.