homework

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Buddhist Reading on Ethics

The Vow of a Boddhisattva

A bodhisattva resolves, "I take upon myself the burden of all suffering; I am resolved to do so; I

will endure it. I do not turn or run away, do not tremble, am not terrified, nor afraid, do not turn

back or despond.

"And why? At all costs I must bear the burdens of all beings. In that, I do not follow my own

inclinations. I have made the vow to save all beings. All beings I must set free. The whole world

of living beings I must rescue from the terrors of birth, of old age, of sickness, of death and

rebirth, of all kinds of moral offense, of all states of woe.... My endeavors do not merely aim at

my own deliverance. For with the help of the boat of the thought of all-knowledge, I must rescue

all these beings from the stream of Samsara, which is so difficult to cross.... I myself must

grapple with the whole mass of suffering of all beings. To the limit of my endurance I will

experience in all the states of woe, found in any world system, all the abodes of suffering. And I

must not cheat all beings out of my store of merit. I am resolved to abide in each single state of

woe for numberless eons; and so I will help all beings to freedom, in all states of woe that may

be found in any world system whatsoever.

"And why? Because it is surely better that I alone should be in pain than that all these beings

should fall into the states of woe. Therefore I must give myself away as a pawn through which

the whole world is redeemed from the terrors of hells, of animal birth, of the world of Death, and

with this my own body I must experience, for the sake of all beings, the whole mass of painful

feelings. And on behalf of all beings I give surety for all beings, and in doing so I speak

truthfully, am trust-worthy, do not go back on my word. I must not abandon all beings."

(Sikshasamuccaya 280-81, Vajradhvaja Sutra)