…from, is called in sanskrit a bodhisattva. And here you see a typical and one of the most famous of the bodhisattvas called Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of mercy, who is thought of as one who has come back into the world of everyday events there to live…

…as Amida and is the principal object of veneration in the most popular form of Buddhism in Japan, known as jodo shinshu Kuan Yin, as a bodhisattva represents an embodiment of compassion, because a bodhisattva is as it were, one who has attained the rank…

…has ten arms, all of which operate individually. Avalokiteshvara has one thousand arms. Avalokiteshvara, when translated into Chinese becomes Kuan Yin, kanun in Japanese, and in the gorgeous sanjusangendo Temple of Kyoto there is an image of kanun literally…

…to think about it too hard you get balled up and you start dropping stitches. And so one might ask: how is it possible for Kuan Yin, this figure that we have seen, to use so many arms, to use so many faces, so many eyes? It's the same question: how…

…those things at once. That's why the Buddhists and the Hindus represent their gods as many armed. The famous Japanese Kanon, or Kuan Yin in Chinese, is often represented with one thousand arms. How could you use so many arms at once? How can a centipede…