☼

This is a four-line affirmation sangha members chant and avow every day.  To take the Bodhisattva Vow means that at least for a moment, one can see past one’s own problems and preoccupations and elevate the spiritual gaze toward universal fulfillment.  The moment you affirm that great intention—to work for the good of all living creatures—whether or not you are always able to follow it as perfectly as you might wish—you are called a Bodhisattva, a child of the Buddhas.

When this epiphany occurs, all the Buddhas rejoice.  The scriptures say that as soon as you make this Bodhisattva Vow to realize enlightenment and relieve universal suffering, all the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, devas, angels, and guardians of the Dharma clap their hands and rain down celestial flowers and divine nectar.  It’s like you scored a touchdown or hit a home run.  As poetic as that seems, I really feel that this is true in a spiritual sense.  You can feel it yourself as you open a little more to the joy of spiritual awakening.  It also says in the scriptures that when the Bodhisattva Vow has taken root in your heart, then everything you do is beneficial==even snoring, sleeping, and brushing your teeth.  They say that when a bodhisattva turns over in his or her sleep, beings are awakened.  Even if this is mainly metaphorical, it still means that this awakening mind and aspiration for enlightenment is extraordinarily important.

Page 143, Awakening the Buddha Within.  Lama Surya Das.  Broadway Books, New York, 1997.