Bodhisattva vow

A commitment to attain awakening and work for the liberation of all sentient beings. It expresses the bodhisattva ideal across several Buddhist traditions.

Bodhisattva: A being who seeks awakening and cultivates compassion to benefit sentient beings. The vow articulates the bodhisattva’s defining aspiration.
Sentient being: A being capable of experience or consciousness, especially in Buddhist accounts of rebirth. The vow’s scope encompasses all beings capable of suffering.
Four great vows: A four-part formulation of the bodhisattva aspiration commonly recited in East Asian Mahayana Buddhism. This concise liturgical form makes the vow repeatable in communal practice.
Mahayana: A major Buddhist tradition that emphasizes the bodhisattva path and the aspiration to buddhahood for all beings. The vow is a defining aspiration within Mahayana Buddhist traditions.
Arhat: A Buddhist practitioner who has attained liberation from the cycle of rebirth. The bodhisattva ideal is often contrasted with the arhat path in Mahayana accounts.
Bodhicitta: The mind of awakening: the aspiration to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all beings. The vow gives this aspiration a declared and sustained form.
Nirvana: Liberation from the suffering and compulsive rebirth associated with ignorance and craving. It names a form of liberation the vow seeks for beings.
Brahmā’s Net Sutra: A Mahayana Buddhist scripture influential in East Asian accounts of bodhisattva precepts. It supplies a prominent framework for vows and ethical commitments.
Avataṃsaka Sūtra: A major Mahayana scripture portraying the bodhisattva path and the interconnection of phenomena. Its narratives and teachings elaborate the expansive reach of bodhisattva commitment.
Theravada: A Buddhist tradition grounded in the Pali canon and preserved chiefly in South and Southeast Asia. Its presentations of the path differ from Mahayana formulations centered on the bodhisattva vow.

Linked from 8 pages