ACROSS THE SEA OF SUFFERING 
IN A BOAT OF VOWS

1. I vow to draw near to the greatly virtuous Venerable Master Hsuan Hua in every life and leave home under him, entering the Path as a young virgin and offering up my conduct in accord with the teaching.

2. I vow always to study the Dharma and translate Buddhist Sutras.

3. I vow to obtain the five eyes and six spiritual penetrations.

4. I vow to be complete with health, a strong memory, intelligence, with prajna wisdom, eloquence, linguistic, literary, and musical ability and whatever other endowments may serve as expedient means to vastly propagate the proper Dharma.

5. I vow to cultivate the Dharma door of Buddha recitation as well as faith, vows, and actual practice, and thereby attain rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

6. I vow to always accord with living beings and attain the four unlimited minds of kindness, compassion, joy, and giving, and universally cross over every living being in the nine Dharma realms.

7. I vow to cross over every aerial, aquatic, and terrestrial plant and animal by speaking the Dharma in appropriate and opportune ways, and hold the precept against killing by eating pure vegetarian food.