[AUDIO AND TEXT]
Each evening as we close our meditation session, we recite the Great Vows for All. These are the vows of the Bodhisattvas – those who promise to delay their own full enlightenment until all beings have been enlightened. Kind of like Jesus. Here is Robert Aitken Roshi’s translation of the Great Vows:
The many beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly, I vow to abandon them.
Dharma gates [also referred to as “the teachings”] are countless, I vow to wake to them.
Buddha’s way is unsurpassed, I vow to embody it fully.
Robert Aitken Roshi was an early student of the Sanbo-Kyodan Zen tradition. He studied in Japan with the eminent Japanese masters who trained many of our Western Zen teachers. Aitken Roshi initiated the Diamond Sangha in Hawaii and continued there until his death in 2010. In fact, our own guiding teacher, Fr. Greg Mayers, began his Zen study under Aitken Roshi. He then met Willigis Jaeger, OSB, and continued as his student until the end of Willigis’ life, in 2020.
Tonight I’d like to touch on Aitken Roshi’s experience of the Great Bodhisattva Vows, as presented in his book The Practice of Perfection: The Paramitas from a Zen Buddhist Perspective (© 1994, Robert Aitken, Pantheon Books. © 1997, Counterpoint). But beyond this master’s experience, I’d like all of us to consider the Great Vows as they may relate to us today.
First, let’s just summarize the Buddhist Paramitas, which were first set out over two thousand years ago. The Paramitas are the “perfections” that Mahayana Buddhist practitioners adhere to – or more precisely, in Aitken Roshi’s presentation, aspire to, in order to fully embody the Way of the Buddha. I won’t go into detail about all of them; you can consult his or nearly any book about Buddhism, and you’ll likely find a treatment of the Paramitas. Here are the first six:
Dana – giving
Shila – the moral code
Kshanti – forbearance
Virya – vitality, or zeal
Dhyana – sitting meditation (which we call zazen)
Prajna – wisdom
Later in the evolution of Buddhism, four more Paramitas were added:
Upaya – compassionate means
Pranidhana – aspiration
Bala – spiritual strength
Jnana – knowledge
Aitken Roshi stresses the quality of Aspiration that the Paramitas carry. He says, “The Paramitas are inspirations, not fixed rules.” This ought to make it easier for us when we place ourselves under their sway. He says, “There are milestones on the path … but they are no more than milestones and are not any kind of ultimate consummation. Perfection is a process.”
Now, let’s skip down to the Great Vows for All, which is our focus this evening. Aitken’s presentation gives us the Great Vows in the chapter on Aspiration (a telling arrangement, I think). He says:
These brilliant, ultimate kinds of vows and promises lend deep encouragement to one’s personal vows and promises and fuel their efficacy. It takes a while to understand this.
In other words, we needn’t chastise ourselves if we don’t “get it” right away. It’s a lifelong journey. Let’s look at each line of the Vows in turn.
The many beings are numberless, I vow to save them.
Aitken Roshi shares that people often ask him how is this possible? How can I save the many beings? He says this about such encounters:
I respond, “Carry that question with you.” It is your daily life koan and mine, governing all words and deeds – from the inside, as it were.
This response resonates with me. We aren’t Sutra-thumping (or Bible-thumping) crusaders going about wildly trying to save every being that crosses our path, human or otherwise. Rather, it may be that our very own fealty to the Way of compassion and wisdom emanates from our own being and gets transmitted to those whom we encounter along that Way. Without our even trying. It’s just who we are.
The next line:
Greed, hatred, and ignorance rise endlessly, I vow to abandon them.
You may have heard the phrase “The Three Poisons.” These are the pesky intrusions that come up so often in our minds, in the minds of all of us. They poison our relationships with others, and they so often result in confrontation and exclusion and violence and all the things we’d rather not see in our world. With respect to the vow to abandon these Three Poisons, Aitken Roshi says this:
We motivate ourselves with our vows to move from the singular to the plural, to abandon indulgence in the sole self and divert energy to the community. Zazen is the ground for this transformation; daily life is its garden. We practice it together.
The third vow has different translations, depending. Aitken Roshi himself had two, one referring to “The teachings” and the other to “Dharma gates.” I like “Dharma gates.”
Dharma gates are countless, I vow to wake to them.
For me, this simply means that anything and everything we encounter and experience in our daily lives has teaching potential. Everything that is opens us to some aspect of the universal Dharma – the “what is” of life and living. And from these gates, these teachings, we can learn and experience unity, nonduality, oneness with everything that is. Here’s what Aitken Roshi offers about this vow:
You must wake to the Dharma teaching of the mynahs as they squabble on the lawn, to the wind in the casuarina trees. Who is hearing that sound?
Who indeed! And this brings us to the final vow:
Buddha’s way is unsurpassed, I vow to embody it fully.
Aitken gives some real-world examples of embodying a way. “The parent embodies the role of parent as intimately and personally as possible or the child cannot mature.” To this, he adds the machinist, the nurse, the surveyor, the patient, and so on ad infinitum. All of these characters are fully embodying their respective roles in the play. If they aren’t, the fabric of society and indeed of the Universe is weakened. He follows these examples with this conclusion:
In the same way, the Buddhist too is practicing the noble task of embodying the Buddha Way. By practicing the Buddha Way we fulfill it. And we continue to fulfill it endlessly.
Okay, that’s enough for now. I invite you to sit with these Great Vows for All, within your own inner space, and consider what they may mean for you in your own life. These are not just formulaic recitations. Indeed, they can be much more for each of us. It’s worth our time and energy to visit them in the silence.
To which we’ll return now. Thank you.
EMPTY CLOUD ZEN 