Why Are There 42 Hands and Eyes?

(Translated from a lecture given by Master Heng Chang in Vietnamese)

Question: “Dear Master, you’ve explained why Kwan Yin has a thousand hands and a thousand eyes, but why are there only 42 Hands and Eyes?”

Answer: “That is quite a mystery. When I was young, I wondered about that too. It wasn’t until I studied the Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Flower Adornment Sutra) that I had a conversation with Venerable Master Hsuan Hua. He told me this: ‘Do you see that these 42 Hands and Eyes are directly connected to the 42 seed syllables?’”

The Avataṃsaka Sūtra (Flower Adornment Sutra or Hua Yen Sutra) mentions the 42 seed syllables.

• These “Seeds” give rise to radiant light.

• “Syllable” is like the alphabet lettter A, B, C.

  We have 26 letters, yet they form countless words. The dictionary may have around 60,000 words or even more than that.

  
  

The seed syllables are the seeds for becoming a Buddha.Therefore, these seeds are deeply connected to our spiritual world.

The Venerable Master Hsuan Hua told me: "You should study them. These 42 seed syllables and the 42 hands and eyes are the same, because they are all related to the path of cultivation and the practice of the Way."

Thanks to that, I realized that in cultivation, we must go through the stages that the sutra named as:

• Ten Grounds [10]

• Ten Practices [10]

• Ten Dedications [10]

• Ten Stages [10]

• Equal Enlightenment

• Buddhahood

When we count them, we see there are 42 stages of cultivation, 42 stages of the Bodhisattva Path.

Thus, we reach a very important conclusion: Why do we cultivate the 42 Hand-Eye Gestures? What is the purpose, and what do we attain?

It turns out that practicing the 42 Hands and Eyes means cultivating through the 42 stages, with each stage corresponding to one hand and eye. We cultivate the 42 Hands and Eyes in order to accomplish the Bodhisattva Path.

In cultivation, there are two aspects: 

• the worldly aspect, when we live and work with others in society

• and the transcendent aspect, when we sit in solitude to practice.

  
  

During the cultivation process, each Hand and Eye corresponds to a different stage of practice. There are times when we no longer practice with a certain Hand and Eye and instead, move on to another one.

“Hand and Eye" literally refers to a hand with an eye in it, but it can also simply be called a “Hand”. I once saw Venerable Master Hsuan Hua open his palm, and inside it, was an eye. That deeply shocked me. This happened in 1988, in France.

At that time, Venerable Master Chân Thường, who practiced at Quan Âm Monastery, expressed a wish to learn the Dharma. He was already very old, had memorized the Lotus Sutra, and had cultivated for many lifetimes. Venerable Master Hsuan Hua gave him the Dharma name started with Hằng and accepted him as part of his lineage.

Then Master Hsuan Hua called me over and asked me to share my understanding with Venerable Chân Thường. But I wasn’t sure whether I truly had the ability to teach, so I asked Master Hsuan Hua:

“Master, please show me—how can I teach? Please help me understand what the term ‘Celestial Eye’ means. How can I know what ‘Wisdom Eye’ means? How can I explain the term ‘Hand and Eye’?”

The Venerable Master then called me into his room and opened his palm to show me the eye in the center of his hand. Not only that—he even took my hand and let my fingers touch the eye.

That eye wasn’t like an ordinary eye with eyebrows or eyelashes. It was truly a real eye, but it was incredibly unique—it looked like a crystal gem, shimmering with brilliance. It resembled mercury, very strange and mysterious.

Then, the Master closed his hand and open again, and the eye disappeared.

Because of this experience, I felt I had a deep karmic connection with the Hand and Eye Dharma, and I wanted to cultivate it, because I had witnessed something truly inconceivable.

Now, whenever I teach the Hand and Eye Dharma, I always remember its sacred mystery and hold it in the deepest reverence.

I truly believe that this is a method to realize the Bodhisattva Path.

When we cultivate, we must be careful not to become attached to psychic powers. Venerable Master Hsuan Hua said it so well:

“If you truly have spiritual powers, then use them. If you have real power, it means you have no Self. And if you're selfless, you can help others anytime—no one will object. But the problem is, you don’t have real spiritual powers; what you have are ghost powers or demonic powers.”

Examples of ghost or demonic powers include seeing spirits standing behind someone, or perceiving ghosts causing trouble here or there. But those things are not truly important.

What truly matters is how to eliminate our afflictions, develop the ability to help others, and gain a clear, penetrating insight—what we call the Wisdom Eye, the Dharma Eye, the Celestial Eye, the Fleshly Eye, and the Buddha Eye.

Many people claim they can see into past lives—but how can one truly see past lives, if we haven’t even resolved the issues in this life? Often, we overstate ourselves, without being grounded in reality.

The Hand and Eye Dharma is a method that helps us become more honest with our own hearts, and to cultivate in order to reach the Bodhisattva Path.

Our practice formula is to develop gentleness, kindness, compassion, joy, and forgiveness.

• Kindness means being gentle and endearing

• Compassion is the ability to truly care.

• Have joy in your heart and also bring joy to others.

• We must develop both Prajñā wisdom and transcendent wisdom.

• Then, we bring them together to create skilful means for liberating sentient beings— what’s known as expedient or skillful means. These skills are needed to serve and help others.

This wisdom is a kind of clarity, and it is also related to the Five Eyes. Hence, anyone who practices will eventually develop these Five Eyes. Whoever cultivates the 42 Hands and Eyes Dharma Practices will certainly attain at least one of these five:

• If not the Fleshly Eye, then the Celestial Eye;

• If not the Celestial Eye, then the Wisdom Eye or the Dharma Eye.

  
  

Back in the day, my master had immense supernatural powers. Even when he was in his twenties, he had young disciples cultivating under him and when he wanted to know something, he would simply ask:

“Who is coming to the temple tomorrow?”

A small child would sit quietly and then say:

“Such a lady will come, and she will bring such-and-such as offering.”

These were just children, but they had extraordinary spiritual powers. Though we say “children,” those disciples would now be in their 80s and 90s—they’re no longer young!

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua said that: "As we study the Hand and Eye Dharma and develop great spiritual powers, we must also grow in maturity and character. If not, we will veer off the path, and our ego will only grow stronger.

There are three essential directions in this practice:

1. Great Compassion

2. Skillful Means

3. Wisdom 

   
   

These three are also the core content of the 42 stages of the Hand and Eye Practice.

We must go through all 42 stages of cultivation, and in each stage, we learn one main Hand And Eye, possibly accompanied by several supporting ones.

I’d like to end with this sentence to help you all gain a deeper understanding:

To cultivate is to develop skillful means, and at the same time, to nurture wisdom and great compassion within our heart.

Skillful means are like our hands and feet—they allow us to take action and serve.

Great compassion is our heart, the source of care and kindness.

And great wisdom is like our brain, guiding us with clarity and insight.