There is a koan in the Blue Cliff Record of two monks talking. One asks the other what it is like for the great bodhisattva of compassion to have so many hands. The bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokiteshvara, or Quan Yin, or Kannon, sometimes is depicted with many, many hands–a thousand hands, 84,000 hands–and often each hand has a different implement in it. Most monks in East Asia would have known that the reason Avalokiteshvara has all these hands and all these implements is to be infinitely useful to all the beings in the world. No matter what situation different beings find themselves in, the bodhisattva will have the tool to go and fix that, to help that being. Having so many different hands means that they are infinitely capable of reaching out in all directions.
"What is it like for the great bodhisattva of compassion to have so many hands?" The second monk responds: "It's like groping in the dark at night for your pillow." That's kind of an unusual answer. The idea of "groping at night for the pillow" is that you're kind of sleeping or half asleep or not comfortable and the pillow has gotten a little off base somehow, and, even without thinking, your hands will kind of puff up the pillow or fold it over or do whatever you do to make it more comfortable for your head. This idea is of not even thinking, of taking care of some situation that needs taking care of without even necessarily thinking about it but responding from some other place. When you are arranging the pillow when you're half asleep, perhaps you're almost not even aware that the pillow is different from you. Maybe you're hardly even aware that there's a problem that needs to be fixed–it's kind of automatic. It's just that this needs to happen.
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