Perhaps you’ve seen dancers reproduce the formation above. I never thought much of it until some Wikipedia-wandering lead me to a wonderful connection.

You most likely recognize the man to the right.  This is the 14th Dalai Lamb. You probably know he won a Nobel Peace Prize for his courageous expectation of non-violence from his disenfranchised Tibetan people in the face of Chinese aggression. But did you know that he’s a god, well Bodhisattva, to be accurate?

“Tibetans traditionally believe him to be the reincarnation of his predecessors and a manifestation of the Bodhisattva of Compassion.” The name of this Bodhisattva is Avalokiteśvara, and he embodies all of the compassion of the Buddhas. I was familiar with this concept, but this the part that delighted me:

One prominent Buddhist story tells of Avalokiteśvara vowing never to rest until he had freed all sentient beings from samsara. Despite strenuous effort, he realizes that still many unhappy beings were yet to be saved. After struggling to comprehend the needs of so many, his head splits into eleven pieces. Amitabha Buddha, seeing his plight, gives him eleven heads with which to hear the cries of the suffering. Upon hearing these cries and comprehending them, Avalokiteśvara attempts to reach out to all those who needed aid, but found that his two arms shattered into pieces. Once more, Amitabha Buddha comes to his aid and invests him with a thousand arms with which to aid the suffering multitudes.

Which brings us back to the image above. These dancers are representing this being of a thousand arms who has denied himself his own rest from care, trouble, sorrow, and the rounds of rebirth and instead stays behind with a thousand compassionate arms outstretched until the day all all life has entered into rest ahead of him.

I may not be one of the 10-20 million Tibetian Buddhists, but I too worship a God with a thousand arms.