Bodhisattva vow

The Dharma is infinite and our path of growth continues for our entire lives.

So we rededicate ourselves to practice by reciting Shantideva's Bodhisattva vow.

Shanti Deva's Way of the Bodhisattva can be found in the ceremony program.

Shanti Deva's Way of the Bodhisattva I rejoice

In the role of Fukudo, or chant leader, we have Soki West and Yoli Suarez.

In the role of Kokkyo, or Cloud Chant Leader, a very specific role for Brightway Zen, which you don't find elsewhere and that we're very proud of, we have a variety of people from around the world, including Eva Zamandel, Kyozen Nick Stukes, Hokaku Greg Kulik, Anjo Mark Williams, Cassie Bonette, Josh Allen, and Tyler Roach.

In our Saturday morning just sitting and bodhisattva vow practice, chanting practice, we have four different people in the role of timekeeper and also coordinating the sangha check-in that takes place afterwards, including Zach Bartel, Paul McCafferty, Mark Whiteford, and Anthony Allen.

In our Wednesday morning zazen and chanting service, our coordinator is Soki West.

But this all takes place slowly compared to the quick nerviness of animals.

How could a tree fulfill Bodhisattva vows then to do good, avoid evil, and save the many beings? Yet in this Jataka, the Buddha in the past life, ages ago, is the bodhisattva consciousness of a tree.

And he demonstrates wide-ranging awareness as well as an ability to influence events at a distance.

So this is a 2500 year old view of what trees might be capable of and science is kind of bringing us into understanding of how this might actually be true.

It comes down to integrity.

And for Zen Buddhists, practicing Zen Buddhists, it comes down to a vow.

We take Bodhisattva vows at the end of every formal period of Zazen.

Many beings are numberless.

Again, there's emphasis on the merits of the practice of generosity, the four wisdoms.

To me, Great Master Dogen's comment seems to be a reference also to the Bodhisattva Vows, continuously offering the merit of our practice to all those in need each day, as we've been talking about.

No matter what we think of ourselves, without judging the value of our meditation and training, just keeping the flow of the joy and goodness of practice open, and we more naturally find ways of being of genuine help to beings.

I don't think of the bodhisattva vows as me personally saving all beings, but I see them more as myself as joining with the great vows of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas that are continually at work, as Dogon says, a non-diluted progression.

And this includes for me also our bodhisattva vows, helping our own karma not leaving any stone unturned, a willingness to pick up every bit of it and not leave any of it abandoned.

However innumerable beings may be, I vow to save them all.

However inexhaustible the passions may be, I vow to transform them all.