That So Many People Need Our Help

As various times in my life, I have seen pictures or statues of Kanzeon Bodhisattva with many, many, many arms. Kanzeon is known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who hearing the cries of the world, reaches out to help All Being.

When I first saw these images, to be honest I thought it was a little gross. At one point I asked a friend Seigan Fudo Ed Glassing, "Why is this image with so many arms? I thought Buddhism was about realism. There's no such thing a person with a thousand arms." He told me to look closer. I noticed in the palm of each hand was an eye, which made me like the image even less. He laughed, but then went on to say, "a thousand eyes, in one thousand palms to see all the suffering that is taking place in the world. The thousand hands, is necessary, because there are so many people that need help, in being lifted from suffering."

After Seigan said that, I no longer saw the image as ugly. As a matter of fact, instantaneously it became beautiful. Recalling the suffering that I went though in my own life caused a sensation that made me want to cry, yet I held back the tears, because I recognized there was something just as important as my self. There is You too. In my consciousness "Shu Jo Mu Hen Seigan Do," (However innumerable all beings are, I vow to help them all) surfaced. It's one of the Truest thing that I had ever known.

I share this story, because though it happened many years ago, it remains an important pointer. That point is that we can be there for each other. We can and do get beyond the crap, the baggage, the anger, the frustration, the disappointment if we really work at it. But it's not going to happen by itself. We have to practice, to condition ourselves, to live authentically.

It may take a long time but we can do it. As one of my friends once said, "God never wears out and because of this, neither will you." That so many people need our help, how could it be otherwise.

May All Beings Be Happy and Free,

Jaye Morris, Curator
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