Avalokitasvara (“he or she that looks down upon the sound (cries) of the world”— Chenrezig in Tibetan) is the bodhisattva of compassion, embodying the compassion of all Buddhas. Chenrezig vows to free all sentient beings from suffering.
…the approach [that the Buddhist tradition takes] to compassion is a little bit different, because it’s founded on the recognition that, whether or not you can benefit that being or that person in their immediate situation and circumstances, you can generate the basis for their ultimate benefit. And the confidence in that removes the frustration or the misery which otherwise somehow afflicts ordinary compassion. So, when compassion is cultivated in that way, it is experienced as delightful rather than miserable.
The way that we cultivate compassion is called immeasurable compassion. And, in fact, to be precise, there are four aspects of what we would, in general, call compassion, that are called, therefore, the four immeasurables. Now, normally, when we think of something that’s called immeasurable, we mean immeasurably vast. Here, the primary connotation of the term is not vastness but impartiality. And the point of saying immeasurable compassion is compassion that is not going to help one person at the expense of hurting another. It is a compassion that is felt equally for all beings. The basis of the generation of such an impartial compassion is the recognition of the fact that all beings without exception really want and don’t want the same things. All beings, without exception, want to be happy and want to avoid suffering. There is no being anywhere who really wants to suffer. And if you understand that, and to the extent that you understand that, you will have the intense wish that all beings be free from suffering. And there is no being anywhere who does not want to be happy; and if you understand that, and to the extent that you understand that, you will have the intense wish that all beings actually achieve the happiness that they wish to achieve. Now, because the experience of happiness and freedom from suffering depend upon the generation of the causes of these, then the actual form your aspiration takes is that all beings possess not only happiness but the causes of happiness, that they not only be free of suffering but of the causes of suffering.
From The Reason We Practice Meditation by Venerable Thrangu Rinpoche
One manifestation of Chenrezig—Sahasra-bhuja—has a thousand eyes and arms to simultaneously see and help as many beings as possible.
In another, earthly form, he manifests as the spiritual leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama.
A lot of people have asked me if I’ve met the Dalai Lama, if he is the reason I’m in Dharamsala—to interview him for a documentary, to find spiritual enlightenment, or to simply say I met the man. I have had no intention to meet him, but would be honored if it were to ever happen.