THE BODHISATTVA VOW OF ARYA ASANGA.

[Shi Da Dao]

The Bodhisattva Vow of the Vast Understanding Tradition.

Arya Asanga (circa 4th century AD) was a very extraordinary being. He founded the Yogacara School (Cittamaitra), or ‘Consciousness Only’ School of Buddhist thought, and authored one of two versions of the Bodhisattva Vow. This version of the Vow is said to have been transmitted to Arya Asanga from Maitriya Buddha – the Buddha yet to come – through a spiritual vision. Arya Asanga’s Vow is called that of the ‘Vast Understanding’, or ‘Vast Action’.

The Bodhisattva Vow can be taken by anyone regardless of circumstance; whether ordained or lay-person – all are viewed as essentially equal. There are no exclusionary requirements. A person may make a sincere wish to take the Vow, on their own, in front of a Buddha Image (or similar religious object), or guided by a master or teacher. What is important is that the motivation behind the taking of the Vow is sincere and pure. The Bodhisattva Vow transcends the boundary between the laity and the ordained.

The Vow is designed to create a mind stream based upon compassionate thought and action. The Vow reminds us that life is not simple, and that right action is often not ‘either-or’, but often ‘both-and’. To reflect this diversity, the Vast Understanding tradition has four ‘root’ vows, and forty-six ‘branch’ vows. In some Buddhist schools the basic vows have been clarified by further additions – in Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s translation for instance, the four root vows have been extended to eighteen –thus elaborating on the original four.

Dedication.
We take refuge in the Buddha.
We take refuge in the Dharma.
We take refuge in the Sangha.
We take refuge in the triple gem within ourselves.

All are equal is the eyes of the Lord Buddha. Adopt a profound and sincere mindset, either infront of a holy object (such as a Buddha statue), or infront of your teacher. The Bodhisattva Prayer should be recited three times in the morning, and three times in the evening. When taking the Bodhisattva Vow for the first time, the Prayer, the Four root , and forty-six branch vows should be recited three times in their entirety. Then, once the Bodhisattva Vows has been taken, and you feel that you it has entered your mind stream, the daily practice usually involves the recitation of the Bodhisattva Prayer – three times in the morning, and three times in the evening. This practice keeps your vows intact. If the vows are broken, depending upon the nature of the transgression, the Vow in its entirety should be re-taken. A minor transgression however, if immediately repented and regretted, does not require a complete recitation of the Vow – but perhaps the re-reading of the specific vow in question.

The Bodhisattva Prayer.

O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and gurus, please listen to
What I say now, from the depths of my heart.
Just as all the Buddhas of the past have developed the
Thought of enlightenment, true Bodhichitta,
Then practiced the stages of graded development,
Following the training of all the Buddha’s children,
So may I too, for the sake of all Beings,
Develop Bodhichitta and follow the teachings,
Exactly as all Bodhisattvas have done.

[Shi Da Dao]

The Four Root Vows.

You must abandon;

1) Praising oneself and criticising others with the intention of receiving offerings, of acting like someone important, or of gaining profit.

2) Propagating a false Dharma. Not giving material goods or the Dharma, because of stinginess, to those who are needy, the poor, or those who request the teaching.

3) Not accepting apologies from a person who has harmed us or offended us in one way or another, but punishing this person.

4) Rejecting Mahayana. Criticising and dismissing the Mahayana teachings and

[Shi Da Dao]

The Forty Six Branch Vows.

(Vows 1 – 7 develop the Perfection of Generosity)
You must abandon the following;

1) Not making offerings everyday to the Three Jewels, with body, speech and mind, by making prostrations, offering praises, and meditating on their qualities.

2) Without trying to oppose your greed or dissatisfaction with what you have, following the mind that strives to accumulate more.

3) Not showing respect for your elders – those who have taken these vows before you. You should not think that you are equal to or compete with them. It is better to make offerings to them. If you respect masters and elders, it increases your knowledge and brings prosperity to the place.

4) Through hatred or laziness, not answering or giving wrong or distorted answers to sincerely asked questions that you are capable of answering.

5) Not accepting invitations or offerings of food or clothes from others because of either anger – wanting to hurt the other person’s feelings, pride – considering yourself of too high a rank to be seen with humble people; or jealousy – thinking that others of a higher rank than yourself will look upon you with scorn if you are with humble people.

6) Not accepting gifts of money, gold, and so forth from others, such as a sponsor, because of anger, pride, jealousy, laziness, or harbouring a grudge. Not accepting because of compassion, seeing that the person will be short of that item, is not a transgression of this vow.

7) Out of hatred, laziness, jealousy, miserliness, a grudge, or negligence, not giving teachings to someone who is interested and sincerely approaches you for Dharma. You should not think of your own hardship in giving teachings.

(Vows 8 – 16 develop the Perfection of Morality)
You must abandon the following;

8) Ignoring, belittling, not forgiving, and not helping those who have broken their moral discipline by cultivating the ten immoralities, defiling their Pratimoksha vows, committing the five uninterrupted crimes or breaking a root Bodhisattva Vow. Instead of being harmful and disdainful, you should generate compassion.

9) Not instilling faith in those who follow a path that is not your own practice or your main interest. For example, if a follower of the Hinayana desires that kind of teaching, it should be given so that he develops faith in that path. If you refuse to give a requested teaching that you are qualified to teach, it is a transgression.

10) Performing actions which are of lesser benefit to others because of rigidly adhering to the vinaya. By preoccupying yourself with small activities, you may miss an opportunity to help sentient beings. If you have an opportunity to immaculately benefit others, you transgress this vow by rigidly adhering to the Vinaya and the seven virtues of body and speech, even though it hinders your opportunity to help.

11) Not committing one of the seven non-virtues of body and speech to benefit others out of compassion. If circumstances deem it necessary, a Bodhisattva is allowed to commit one of these non-virtues and must do so. However, you must be very careful. Without having actualised Bodhichitta, it is difficult to transform into virtue the seven non-virtues of body and speech.

12) Accepting material that has been gained by yourself or others through one of the five wrong livelihoods:
a) Flattery; praising others to gain something for yourself.
b) Hinting; such as saying “The gift you gave before was so nice.” Imply that you want more.
c) Bribery; giving a small thing to receive a larger one.
d) Extortion or blackmail; pressuring somebody so that he has no choice.
e) Hypocrisy; changing your usual actions to make a good impression so that others will give you something.

13) Having your main interest be in idle gossip and frivolous activities, such as dancing, playing sports, listening to the radio, drinking, or involving others in frivolous talk. All of these cause your mind to wander, and you waste time that could be used to practice the Dharma.

14) Wrongly thinking that as Bodhisattvas remain in Samsara for three countless great eons and are not afraid of delusions, it is not necessary to try to abandon delusions and achieve Nirvana. This is incorrect thinking. Bodhisattvas come to this world to benefit sentient beings, but they have an even greater renunciation of Samsara and wish for Nirvana than Hinayana practitioners. However, through great compassion, they will happily take birth in the Naraka if this would benefit just one sentient being. It is mistaken to not cultivate the opponents to the delusions and try to achieve Nirvana, and also a mistake to dissuade others from trying to attain Nirvana because of the above wrong views.

15) Not trying to avoid a bad reputation or not abandoning the bad habits of body and speech that are the cause of your bad reputation. In order to be more effective at helping others, you need to abandon notoriety. You must try to stop a bad reputation, whether it is deserved or not, so that you can benefit others. Any other motivation is part of the eight worldly Dharmas.

16) Not correcting the deluded actions of others when you are capable of doing so, that is, not pointing out somebody’s negative habits of body and speech. When wrathfulness would be beneficial, not punishing a non-virtuous to correct him because you think it would hurt his feelings or because of fear of his anger.

(Vows 17 – 20 develop the Perfection of Patience.)
You must abandon the following;

17) Becoming angry and retaliating with your body, speech, or mind when you are insulted or blamed, beaten, the object of somebody’s anger, or when your shortcomings are exposed to others.

18) Rejecting someone who is angry with you. Through harmful intent, anger, or just laziness, ignoring the angry person and not trying to relieve the situation that made him angry by explaining why you acted, pacifying him, or apologizing to him.

19) Refusing to accept the sincere apologies of others out of anger or laziness. This differs from the third root vow because the four conditions are not needed to transgress it.

20) Following your anger and not trying to abandon it; feeding your anger by thinking that you acted rightly. Instead, you should contemplate the disadvantages of anger.

(Vows 21 – 23 develop the Perfection of Perseverance.)
You must abandon the following;

21) Giving teachings, having disciples, building monasteries, or gathering people for the purpose of receiving reputation, profit, or remuneration. You should have Dharma gatherings with the intention to benefit others and make them receive enlightenment.

22) Not eliminating laziness, procrastination, delusions of incapability, and sleep (during the day or during the first and final periods of the night) –which are detrimental to your practice; and wasting time and energy on the trivial matters of Samsara. Your should avoid sleeping late or irregularly.

23) Passing time by frivolously talking about objects of attachments.

[Shi Da Dao]

(Vows 24 – 26 develop the Perfection of Concentration.)
You must abandon the following;

24) Not making an effort to study the means of attaining Samadhi through requesting teachings. If you desire to meditate, you must approach a qualified teacher for instruction. The transgression is to not do this because of laziness, evil intent, arrogance; or meditating on Samadhi without having received proper instruction.

25) Not trying to eliminate the obstacles that hinder your attainment of Samadhi. The Five Obstacles in particular are; attachment to the desire realm and the five sense objects; harmful intent; sleep and foggy-mindedness; regret and agitation; doubt.

26) Attachment to the bliss of remaining of remaining in Samadhi without doing any other virtuous activities, or deliberately concerning for the sake of this bliss. Thinking that Samadhi is a special kind of knowledge, and thus not having the strong wish to progress further.

(Vows 27 – 34 develop the Perfection of Wisdom.)
You must abandon the following;

27) Looking down on the Hinayana scriptures and saying the study of them is not necessary for Mahayanist.

28) Studying Hinayana discourses and practices to the extent that it compromises your study and practice of the Mahayana.

29) Making an unnecessary study of non-Buddhist scriptures, thus neglecting to study the Buddha’s teachings. Although such study is permitted and is advantageous for understanding and helping others, you should not use excessive time and energy in studying non-Buddhist tenets.

30) Favouring, becoming attached to, or cultivating interest
in non-Buddhist teachings even in cases when you have to study them. You are allowed to study non-Buddhist texts so that you can refute wrong views, or to better understand those you are trying to help; bit instead of doing this, you become attracted to these scriptures.

31) Casting aspersions on the Mahayana teachings, the author, or the subject, such as saying a scripture is poor in subject matter, composition, or power to help sentient beings, or that the subject is boring.

32) Praising yourself or belittling others out of anger or arrogance.

33) Not attending discourses, debates, discussions, pujas, or ceremonies because of arrogance, laziness, or anger.

34) Not respecting but abusing the guru who gives teachings and shows the path, seeking only his words without contemplation of their meaning.

(Vows 35 – 46 develop the Perfection of the morality of helping others.)
You must abandon the following;

35) Not helping those in need of help when you have the capacity to do so. Eight types of sentient beings in need of help are specified;

a) Not helping someone doing purposeful work who asks for help, you make excuses or are lazy.
b) Not helping someone on a journey, who needs help carrying things or needs protection, due to laziness.
c) Not teaching language and Dharma if asked.
d) Not doing work which may not be Dharma, but which concerns Dharma, if asked.
e) Not helping protect another person’s possessions if you have the time and ability, if asked.
f) Not unifying a couple, if asked.
g) Not going to a meal, if you have the time and ability, if asked.
h) Not going, if invited, to create merits, such as to a puja if you have the time and ability.

36) Not helping sick persons with materials or service because of hatred or laziness.

37) Not working to alleviate suffering but instead avoiding to help eliminate it through anger, laziness, or negligence. This refers to people such as the blind, deaf, paralysed, those with missing limbs, those with difficulty in breathing, travellers on a difficult journey, people having for five obstacles (see No: 25), those in mental distress, those who are paranoid, who have lost their authority or position, or have been abused by others.

38) Through anger or laziness not exhorting, correcting, or activating a lazy person or a person who does not know virtuous from non-virtuous actions. If you see a person engaging in frivolous activities, you should give timely advice in appropriate situations and under proper circumstances so that a person can avoid those actions and engage in virtue.

39) Through anger or laziness not repaying the kindness of someone who has helped you materially.

40) Through harmful intent or laziness not consoling those who are grieving because of separation from their dear ones or possessions.

41) Through harmful intent or laziness not giving food, clothes, or other necessities to the poor and needy if you are asked and if you have enough time to spare.

42) Through hatred or laziness not working for the welfare of your disciples and attendants, or not giving teachings and/or materials.

43) Failing to get along with others. Being self-assertive and not acting in accordance with the wishes of others. People have differing levels of understanding – and a Bodhisattva must apply the correct interpretation of the Dharma, to the appropriate level of understanding of the practitioner. This vow is transgressed if the needs of others are not considered, whilst a Bodhisattva behaves in a self-indulgent manner.

44) Not praising those deserving praise, or not rejoicing in others who praise learned and realised beings.

45) Not preventing those doing harmful actions from continuing their actions by whatever means is necessary according to the circumstances. The boastful may need to be looked down upon; the violent punished physically; those harmful to society banished. Out of laziness or attachments to those people, you do not act when you have the authority to do so. Abbots and disciplinarians should punish or reprimand those who are misbehaving. Transgression consists of having the power to do something and not doing it because you do not care about the harmful person himself or about those he is harming, or because you are lazy.

46) If you posses psychic powers, not using them in a time of need, such as to frighten someone who is about to do a non-virtuous action so that he will stop, to enhance the faith of others, or to subdue them.

The Bodhisattva Prayer.

O Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and gurus, please listen to
What I say now, from the depths of my heart.
Just as all the Buddhas of the past have developed the
Thought of enlightenment, true Bodhichitta,
Then practiced the stages of graded development,
Following the training of all the Buddha’s children,
So may I too, for the sake of all Beings,
Develop Bodhichitta and follow the teachings,
Exactly as all Bodhisattvas have done.

[Shi Da Dao]

Two source texts were referenced in the compiling of the above Bodhisattva Vow;

Taking the Bodhisattva Vow: By Bokar Rinpoche (ClearPoint Press-1997).
The Bodhisattva Vows: By Lama Rinpoche (FPMT).

There are two extant versions of the Bodhisattva Vow;

1) Arya Asanga (circa 4th century AD) founded the Yogacara School, and developed the Bodhisattva Vow termed 'Vast Action', or 'Vast Understanding' - a version of this is reproduced above. It has Four Root Vows and Forty Six Branch Vows, all covering the essential aspects of Buddhism.

2) Nagajuna (circa 200 AD) founded the Madhyamika School and developed the 'Profound View' Bodhisattva Vow. This has fourteen Root Vows - with a further four vows for those of lessor ability. This Vow maybe read here;

Nagarjuna's Bodhisattva Vow
chanbuddhismuk.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=bv&thread=135

The two Vows reflect one another, and a practitioner is encouraged to study both.

[Shi Da Dao]

'Hitherto it has usually been thought that the founder of the Yogacara school was Asanga or Aryasanga. Considerable evidence has, however, been accumulating in favour of the view, gradually forcing itself into acceptance, that the real founder of the system was Maitreya or Maitreyanatha. The tradition is that five of his works were revealed to Asanga by Maitreya in the Tusita heaven and this would imply that Maitreya was a mythical character, rather than a historical personage. It now appears however, that he was a historical person, the teacher of Asanga, and real founder of the Yogacara school.'

(Yogacara Idealism: By AS Chatterjee - Page 31.)