Avalokiteshvara vowed never to rest until he had liberated all sentient beings from saṃsara. Despite his strenuous effort, there remained many unfortunate beings to be saved. After struggling to understand the needs of all, his head was divided into eleven parts.
The Buddha Amitabha, observing his plight, gave him eleven heads to hear the cries of the sufferers. Hearing those cries and understanding them, Avalokiteshvara tried to reach out to all those in need of help, but found his arms shattered. Once again, Amitābha came to his aid and endowed him with a thousand arms so that he could help the suffering multitudes.
These thousand arms can be understood as the virtue of infinite compassion for sentient beings, the infinite capacity to teach the dharma path of liberation from suffering through compassion.
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