Quan Yin, a Bodhisattva, is "one who hears the cries of the world" and personifies the compassion of the Buddha for the needy. She is a true Enlightened One but vowed to remain in the earthly realms and not enter the heavenly worlds until all other living things have completed their own enlightenment and thus become liberated from the pain-filled cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.