Taking The Bodhisattva Vow
A Bodhisattva vow is found at the end of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Samantabhadra. In Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, Shantideva explains that the Bodhisattva vow is taken with the following famous two verses from Sutra:
| “ | Just as all the previous Sugatas, the Buddhas Generated the mind of enlightenment And accomplished all the stages Of the Bodhisattva training, So will I too, for the sake of all beings, Generate the mind of enlightenment And accomplish all the stages Of the Bodhisattva training. |
” |
Alexander Berzin (1997) asserts that the bodhisattva vow transcends the present lifetime:
| “ | The promise to keep bodhisattva vows applies not only to this life, but to each subsequent lifetime until enlightenment. Thus these vows continue on our mind-stream into future lives. | ” |
Read more about this topic: Bodhisattva Vows
Famous quotes containing the word vow:
“Love is free; to promise for ever to love the same woman is not less absurd than to promise to believe the same creed; such a vow in both cases excludes us from all inquiry.”
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)