Why Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes?

Translated from a lecture by Dharma Master Heng Chang in Vietnamese. The lecture is in a series regarding the Dharma of The 42 Hands and Eyes.

Why does Kwan Yin Bodhisattva have so many hands and eyes?

The thousand hands are called "skillful means" (upāya). These skillful means arise because of great compassion. It is only through compassion (mahākaruṇā) that one can develop such skillful means. Why do we want to help others? Because we care. Without compassion, we wouldn’t want to help. The hands are for action, which is why the thousand hands symbolize engaging with the world (entering worldly life).

The eyes are for seeing and understanding, so the thousand eyes represent great wisdom. However, this is a spiritual kind of seeing. Looking outward enables us to help others; looking inward allows us to attain meditation (dhyāna), and only through meditation can one transcend the mundane world.

Therefore, wisdom is extremely important. Great compassion without wisdom is incomplete. Great compassion must go hand in hand with great wisdom — the two together form a powerful path.

You see that the Bodhisattva does not just have a thousand hands, but in each hand also holds a sacred object? If you count carefully, most statues actually have a total of 42 hands, each holding a Dharma instrument or sacred item.

First of all, why are the thousand hands and thousand eyes so important?

There’s a common saying: “You’d need three heads and six arms to get everything done.” Some people even say, “If I had four arms and a 25-hour day, maybe I could finish all my work.” The idea behind this is — the more hands, the better.

Once, I went to Taiwan and met a nun who was running a center to help children with disabilities and from poor backgrounds. I asked her, “What kind of practice do you do?” In my mind, I assumed she must be reciting the Great Compassion Mantra or practicing deep meditation. But she replied, “I only recite the Universal Gateway Chapter (Phẩm Phổ Môn). I don’t do any high-level meditation. I just make sure I have some quiet time each day. Then I go out and get to work — fundraising, finding teachers to come help these children. Because even with disabilities, they still need to learn.”

She said something really endearing, if I remember correctly, she said, “My supernatural power is simply putting my palms together in prayer and asking all the capable people to come help.” I looked at her and said, “You’ve truly understood what spiritual power means.” All the people who helped her were indeed very skilled and talented. That was a meaningful lesson I learned during my time in Taiwan.

Later, I went to meet Venerable Master Cheng Yen. She had established a place to train nurses. Next to that was a hospital. She opened the hospital so that the nurses who were being trained could have a place to work. This was in 1991, and I was traveling with Venerable Master Hsuan Hua at the time. Venerable Cheng Yen said,“Dear Master, we don’t have any kind of supernatural powers. I don’t possess any special strength. But I rely on the kindness of others — and those with real spiritual power are the doctors and professors who come to teach. They are the ones with true power. They come to teach and to help with the work, and the nurses serve everyone wholeheartedly. As for me, I have no spiritual power at all.”

Venerable Master Hsuan Hua replied,“You may say you don’t have spiritual powers, but you are none other than Kwan Yin Bodhisattva.”

What struck me deeply was this realization: Kwan Yin Bodhisattva is the one who has great compassion, who helps others, and who possesses many skillful means to serve and relieve suffering.

So, a charitable organization with thousands of people helping others also represents a thousand hands. Therefore, the definition of "a thousand hands and a thousand eyes" is very broad.

But the interesting point is: what happens if there are hands but no eyes?

In the past, when people wanted to symbolize wisdom guiding action, they placed an eye in the palm of the hand — a very figurative and unique idea.

The concept of "Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes" emphasizes the Buddha Eye among the Five Eyes.

The Five Eyes include:

1. Flesh Eye (Nhục Nhãn):

   
   

   The Flesh Eye can see through coverings like bags or wrappings — essentially, things that obscure vision.

   
   

   For example, there was a very special man who was studied by scientists. If you put something in a bag, he could see through the clothing or bag. Out of 100 experiments, he guessed correctly 99 times. When asked how he could see, he said: “I just see it.” Out of hundreds of millions of people, someone like that may naturally appear — truly extraordinary. This is the capacity of the Flesh Eye.

   
   

   Shakyamuni Buddha once said: “When we practice meditation, we can attain such vision.”

   
   

I also read an article about a person in Brazil who could detect whether someone going through security had swallowed cocaines. When they followed up with an X-ray, it was correct. It was very strange — no one could explain it, but some people have such abilities. However, if someone had swallowed something else, he wouldn’t know — only with narcotics would he know.

2. Heavenly Eye (Thiên Nhãn):

   
   

   “Heaven” means sky or celestial. The Heavenly Eye is the “eye of the heavens.” It is the eye that can see events that have already happened or are currently happening in a place extremely far away.

   
   

   Nowadays, the Americans — particularly the CIA — even train people (not just one person, but a group) who have the ability to see things at a distance (also known as "remote viewing"). They can know what is happening in another country by focusing their mind on that place. For instance, they might see that a certain factory is manufacturing nuclear bombs or some other device.

   I have read reports about such mysterious phenomena, and now people have acknowledged that there are indeed individuals who can do such things.

   
   

3. Wisdom Eye (Huệ Nhãn):

   
   

   The Wisdom Eye sees the truth and is never caught or stuck in illusions.

   
   

4. Dharma Eye (Pháp Nhãn):

   
   

   The Dharma Eye sees dependent origination — it sees the causes and conditions behind all phenomena. It knows what will happen in the future. It understands why someone says a certain thing, what their motive is. It sees why this woman marries that man — what karma or connection from a past life brought them together, and why they are now doing what they do.

   
   

   And this isn’t just vague vision — those with the Dharma Eye see things very clearly.

   
   

One story about the Dharma Eye:

Back in the 1980s, some of my American Dharma brothers went to buy supplies for the temple. They had no money, so they asked Venerable Master Hsuan Hua for funds. The Master asked, “How much do you need? Just tell me and I’ll give it.” There was no Google at that time. The monastics, along with a layperson, discussed the cost but couldn’t figure out an exact number. So they said to the Master, “Please just give us a rough amount — if there’s any extra, we’ll return it.” The Master then went inside, took out his wallet, and handed them some money, including coins. The two of them counted it and silently wondered: “Why did Master give us exactly this amount? Why not a little more? Why even add these small coins?” They didn’t understand, but when they finished the shopping and totaled the bill — it matched exactly, off by only 2 cents. They were stunned. They asked the Master how he knew, and he said, “You needed it, so I gave it. I didn’t think about it.” When they asked how he could know without thinking, the Master explained, “It’s because I didn’t think that I knew. True knowing doesn’t come from thinking or calculation.” This is the Dharma Eye — seeing things instantly, like a reflex.

Another story about the Dharma Eye:

Manly Palmer Hall was a philosopher who lived to the age of 90. At one point, a group from the Japanese Royal Family visited him in America. They brought a tiny engraved object and asked him to tell them its age, when it was made, and the history behind it.They said they could use carbon dating (C14) to determine the age of the material, but they wanted to know what happened around the time it was made — the events surrounding it.Manly Hall, who possessed the Dharma Eye, held the object and precisely identified where in Japan it had come from. He described where it was buried, its history, who owned it, which family lineage it came from, and why it had ended up lost. He spoke as if he were telling a story.

What was especially remarkable was that each year, Manly Hall wrote a prediction or prophecy for that year — and out of 100 times, he was right 100 times. Whatever was going to happen, he would describe it clearly in advance. That means he could perceive the future.This is one of the characteristics of the Dharma Eye.He even founded a center dedicated to philosophy. He was profoundly insightful and said that human beings have tremendous potential — and that some individuals are not from this world, but have descended from higher realms to teach the Dharma.

5. Buddha Eye (Phật Nhãn):

   
   

   When one practices the Forty-Two Hands and Eyes method or the Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes practice, the Buddha Eye will manifest. The Buddha Eye is the eye that sees absolutely everything — inside and out, top to bottom. It sees causes and conditions, the corresponding results, past lives, what’s behind oneself, the spirit world, the heavenly realms — nothing is beyond its perception.

   
   

The practice of Thousand Hands and Thousand Eyes refers to having both skillful means and wisdom to save sentient beings. And if we don’t have great compassion (mahā-karuṇā), then there’s no need for a thousand hands and eyes — the Wisdom Eye alone would be sufficient. But because we do want to rescue beings in a vast and unobstructed way, we need all five eyes and a thousand hands.

Question: “Dear Thầy, when you say the Buddha Eye sees everything, does that mean it includes all four of the other eyes as well?”

Answer: Not only does the Buddha Eye include the other four eyes, but it surpasses them. The Buddha Eye is not merely the sum of the four capacities — it is a transcendent vision that penetrates all things, with nothing beyond its scope.

The Dharma Eye understands the past, present, and future.

The Heavenly Eye can see the past and present, but cannot perceive the future.

The Wisdom Eye doesn’t concern itself with past or future — it stays centered in the Middle Way, always abiding in non-duality and never getting stuck.

The Dharma Eye sees the causes and conditions (karma) of all events.

The Wisdom Eye is realized when one leaves the mundane world behind, with not a shadow of defilement remaining in the mind.

The Dharma Eye means that there is no external event for which one cannot see the karmic causes.

Thus, the Wisdom Eye corresponds to realizing True Emptiness, also called Ego Emptiness (Ngã Không).

The Dharma Eye, in more poetic language, is the realization of Dharma Emptiness (Pháp Không), the understanding of the causal web behind all phenomena.

Conclusion of this teaching:

Kwan Yin Bodhisattva is a being who can help us awaken these inner virtues. The virtues mentioned above — compassion, joy, kindness, generosity and forgiveness, skillful means, and wisdom — along with the thousand hands and eyes, are all qualities that assist in liberating others.

Although we are not “descending from above,” we can awaken those noble qualities from within. That is the most important message we receive when we contemplate the image of Kwan Yin Bodhisattva with a thousand hands and thousand eyes.

The message is this:

We have the potential to accomplish many great things, to possess deep wisdom, and to love all beings with boundless compassion. We already have this potential — but it has not yet been activated. The Bodhisattva appears in symbolic form to remind us and help us awaken that hidden potential.