ACROSS THE SEA OF SUFFERING IN A BOAT OF VOWS

Vows by Sramanera Heng Hsien

1. In every future lifetime, I vow to leave the home-life, except occasionally where there is a seriously important service for the Dharma, which can only be performed by a layperson.

2. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to seek out the highest wisdom and upon finding it to teach it to other beings.

3. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to cultivate all possible samadhis and upon learning how to enter them, to teach them to other beings.

4. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to cultivate Great Compassion, virtuous conduct, and all other paramitas.

5. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to provide as many other beings as karmic conditions permit with food, clothing, medical care, kind words, courage, instructions in the Dharma, and whatever else they may have need of, and to rescue them from difficult and dangerous situations.

6. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to encourage other beings to follow wholesome practices, which will lead them towards Buddhahood.

7. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to give offerings to the Triple Jewel.

8. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to serve the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and spiritual teachers to be of help to them in their compassionate projects to cross over other beings.

9. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to transfer as much merit as possible to other beings and whenever I do receive rewards from past meritorious acts to use the rewards to help other beings. In this regard I will establish wheels of merit where the merit from a past act will help beings, then that merit of helping those beings will be directed to helping new beings, then that merit of helping the new beings will be directed to helping even newer beings, and so forth until no more beings need to be helped.

10. In this and every future lifetime, I vow to search out and follow the spiritual path which will lead to the crossing over, directly and indirectly, of the largest possible number of beings in the shortest possible period of time. This means for example that I will not attain the Right Enlightenment until all other beings have attained Buddhahood, unless I should come to a lifetime where all beings in the future extending from that lifetime would attain to Buddhahood more rapidly if I did enter Right Enlightenment than if I did not.