Bodhisattva Vows

There’s a story about two monks – I think in a Catholic monastery – one of them noticed the other one smoking during evening prayers and said, "Why are you smoking? When I asked for permission to smoke while I was praying, I was told, ‘No. When you pray, you should only pray.’" To which the other man responded, "Well, I asked if it was alright to pray while I was smoking." There is a subtle difference in emphasis: do you smoke while you are praying, or do you pray while you are smoking? We hear it said that, "when you sit zazen, you should just sit, and when you chant, just chant."

Renewing our intention to wake up as we go about our activity is a way to bring practice into our daily life. We start wherever we are, with whatever we’re doing, by fostering our intention to wake up, or by fostering our determination to untie our knots for the benefit of all beings. This is the Bodhisattva Vow. The Bodhisattva vows, out of compassion, not to enter nirvana until all beings have entered nirvana. This means the Bodhisattva practices not for her or his enlightenment alone, but for the enlightenment of all beings. The Bodhisattva vows to remain in this world of ignorance and confusion, vows to be willing to experience whatever living beings experience, until all beings are liberated.

Sometimes we say the bodhisattva’s vow as, "Sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them," or "I vow to liberate them," and sometimes we say it as, "Beings are numberless, I vow to awaken with them." I’ve also heard it translated as, "Beings are without end, I vow to be one of them." This reminds me of a retreat I read about. Tetsugen Bernie Glassman is a Zen teacher in Yonkers, NY, who trained with Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles. For several years now, Tetsugen’s group has been involved in providing job training and developing housing for homeless people. Last spring he led a retreat on the streets of New York City. For two to five days the participants ate in soup kitchens, slept in the streets, sat zazen twice a day together outdoors, and, they said, spent most of their days looking for a place to relieve themselves.

Usually, when we think of helping others, we think of giving them something: food, shelter, money, health care, or education. These are certainly necessary; but what is the most important thing to have or to give, and can it be given? For me, mental stability or mental health is the most important quality. We could say that enlightenment is the ultimate mental health. Many of us know people whose physical needs are met, or are even quite well met, who live in mental torment. Of course, when someone lacks food, or shelter, or medicine, it affects their state of mind. I’m not suggesting that we don’t need to help people in this way. But we can also benefit beings by meeting them, by being open to them, by seeing them and accepting them just as they are, without pulling back or closing ourselves off. In Buddhism, the meaning of compassion is wishing to relieve the suffering of others. The root of all suffering is duality, feeling separate. When we meet others as our self, we support nonduality. I think one of the ways to express compassion is to not turn away – from the suffering of others, or from our own pain. When we try to protect ourselves from pain, our own or someone else’s, we build barriers which reinforce our feeling of being separate.

During Tetsugen’s retreat, the participants didn't work in a soup kitchen or a shelter, although I think his group also does that at other times. They joined the homeless people in their activity of being homeless. The most common response from the participants in the retreat was that now when they see homeless people they see them as people. They no longer avoid looking at them, or see them as a blur, or label them as Homeless People. To some extent, this retreat is about helping others by changing our attitude towards them. I’ve heard that Tetsugen worked with the homeless not just to benefit them, but also because, in helping them, he gained access to parts of himself that he had been shut off from. Being open to the difficulties of others can help us open up to the difficult parts of ourselves or our past. The enlightened way to give is to give because there is no difference between their need and my need, between their pain and my pain, between their joy and my joy. So, "Beings are numberless, I vow to be one of them, to be one with them."

There are three other aspects of the Bodhisattva Vow. The second vow is, "Desires are inexhaustible, I vow to put an end to them." By "desires" we mean both the big, passionate, overwhelming desires, like the ones we see in the movies, as well as the small, subtle cravings, or wants. When things are going well, or when we are feeling fairly content, our tendency is still to imagine that things could be better, if we had just a little more than what we have, or if things were just a little bit different from the way they are. This wanting keeps us in a subtle state of unrest or dissatisfaction. This underlying state of dissatisfaction is propelled by our judgement and comparative thinking. Whenever we feel dissatisfied, there is craving, and ignorance is the root of craving – ignorance of the truth, or the way things really are. We have replaced the word "desires" in our translation with the word "delusions," which includes desires and all kinds of confusion. "Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them." The phrase "to end them" can also be translated as "to cut through them," or "to penetrate them". Our effort in practice is not to stop desire as much as it is to cut through delusions, to see through our delusions, to see our delusions for what they are. Thich Nhat Hanh translates the second vow as: "The causes of suffering are without end; I vow to end them."

The third vow is, "Dharma Gates are boundless, I vow to master them", or, "I vow to enter them." "Dharma Gates" refers to the "knowledge of all modes," or all the methods of practice that lead to awakening, which are numerous as there are people. Dharma Gates also means the Buddha’s teaching or Buddhist doctrine. In Buddhist doctrine, there are 84,000 delusive paths. Each path, if we practice with it, may become a path of realization, a door to enlightenment. Dogen’s disciple, Koun Ejo said, "Even if 84,000 idle thoughts arise (in zazen), each and every thought may become the light of prajna, the light of non-discriminating wisdom." I remember Katagiri Roshi saying that our problems are Buddha’s gift to us. He explained that the parts of our lives that go smoothly are much harder to bring our practice to, while painful or difficult situations demand our attention, demand that we practice. So our delusions and our practice go hand in hand.

The fourth vow is, "Buddha’s Way is unsurpassable, I vow to attain it," or, "I vow to become it." The way of Buddha, Buddha’s practice, Buddha’s enlightenment, anuttara samyak sambodhi – the unsurpassed, complete, and perfect enlightenment – is inconceivable. We are never separate from it, yet, we need to practice in order to realize it. We vow to become, to embody this inconceivable realization. This vow is also translated as, "Buddha’s Way is unsurpassable, I vow to follow through." Sometimes when people hear these vows, they become discouraged. They feel that the vows are too idealistic, that they are impossible to achieve. Why should we promise, why should we vow to do something that is impossible? What is the usefulness in doing this?

In Buddhism we say actions are done through body, speech, and mind. Each action is a cause carrying some momentum which produces an effect. When we take these vows, an intention is created, the seed of an effort to follow through. Because these vows are so vast, they are, in a sense, undefinable. We continually define and redefine them as we renew our intention to fulfill them. If you have a well-defined task with a beginning, middle, and end, you can estimate or measure the effort needed. But the Bodhisattva Vows are immeasurable. The intention we arouse, the effort we cultivate when we call forth these vows, extends us beyond the limits of our personal identities.

How are we to practice these vows? One way is to investigate or to ask yourself, "How can I save all beings while driving my car? How can I awaken with all beings while taking my coffee break? How can I see through delusion while buying groceries?" Katagiri Roshi said, "How do you save all sentient beings? By chewing your food quietly during the zendo meal so you don’t disturb the person next to you." Asking the question, "What does this vow mean?" is another way to practice with these vows. When we dedicate our activity to the enlightenment of all beings, each action supports enlightenment. Whether you investigate "saving all beings," or dedicate your activity to waking up, both bring our attention to our intention.