The two primary vows or commitments of the Zen path include the refuge vow: taking refuge in the teachers, in the teachings themselves and in the community of people who are training to live by the teachings. The other vow we take is called the bodhisattva vow. In it, we vow to help all beings free themselves from suffering. More simply, the two primary commitments one makes on the Zen path are to work on ourselves and to work for the happiness of others. These two vows provide fundamental guidelines for how to approach our spiritual practice and bring them into daily life.
One can take the refuge and bodhisattva vows in a formal ceremony, but the main commitment takes place in the heart. A formal ceremony is simply an acknowledgement of the pledge that we have already made. Any vow is nothing other than a promise that we make to ourselves. It is a statement of an intention to live by a set of principles that are good for us and good for others.
When you make the refuge vow, you promise to honor and respect the teachers who have kept the teaching fresh and who have transmitted them from the historical Buddha who lived in 400 BC, through the teachers in ancient China, medieval Japan and right to Canadian teachers in the present day. Then you promise to practice these teachings in all situations. Finally, you vow to make an effort to create and maintain harmony in your spiritual community. On an inner level, you make a commitment to awaken from the conditioning of your past, to live the teachings and to connect with others who have taken the same vow.
With the bodhisattva vow, you dedicate your life to the welfare of all beings. You make a commitment to develop the wisdom, compassion, and skillful means to be of real benefit to the world. You make a commitment to, as best you can, teach others the practices that have eased your own suffering and brought happiness into your own life.
Zen practitioners don’t take many vows, but when we do, we take them seriously. To observe these two vows, it is not enough to go to a ceremony, celebrate our intention and then forget about them. These vows need to be woven into the fabric of daily life. To remind us of that, we take these vows every day after Zen meditation.
Finding stillness by sitting on the meditation cushion is just the beginning of spiritual practice. Daily vows help place everything we do in the context of these two simple, but profound, promises to live a life that is based in spiritual values — that is, a life that is focused on working on oneself and helping others.
Today’s practice: What would change if you took seriously the two principles of working on yourself and helping others as the measure of your actions? How committed are you to yourself or to others?
This column is a long series of short essays exploring the meaning of the Lojong Slogans. It is inspired by the work of Judy Lief.
Kuya Minogue is the resident teacher at Creston’s ZenWords Zen Centre. For more information, she can be reached at 250-428-3390.
