Please Contribute a 'Bodhisattva Vow' ...

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  • Jundo
    Treeleaf Founder and Priest
    • Apr 2006
    • 41233

    Please Contribute a 'Bodhisattva Vow' ...

    Dear All,

    As you know, we Zen folks regularly recite the Four Bodhisattva Vows. At Treeleaf, our wording is:


    To save all sentient beings, though beings numberless
    To transform all delusions, though delusions inexhaustible
    To perceive Reality, though Reality is boundless
    To attain the Enlightened Way, a Way non-attainable


    Our Treeleaf Priests hold a monthly tea meeting to catch up with each other, and about everyone always has some struggle or hard personal story to relate from their own recent lives, or about their friends and family. It confirms that Zen priests do not escape life. During the week, Sangha members write me almost daily about things they are facing too. Often, these are problems that cannot be easily solved, or are simply unsolvable. These are my friends and people I care deeply about, or nice people I have just met, and it always breaks my heart, each time, that they are facing such things. There is often so little that I can say to bring even a touch of comfort, although I so wish I could. Some stories are beyond anything that could ever be said ...

    We Zen folks cannot solve all life's pains and problems. Far from it. We will always grow sick, older, lose love ones, suffer threats and fears to our well-being, business and job worries, see our family members struggle although we wish they knew peace. I know folks gravely ill, folks who do not know where their next meal is coming from, folks in war zones. Zen Practice allows us to see through these sufferings, to a realm where there is no suffering, where all is light and whole, where nobody grows sick, nobody dies, nothing can be lost ...

    ... and yet, alas, so long as we are alive in this world, the hardships, illnesses, loss and times of grief will remain. That is just to be human and alive in this world.

    Our Teachings let us know freedom from all such things, yet all such things remain ... like two sides of a no sided coin.

    We also know that, even a small effort, a single hand offered in friendship, a shoulder to rest on, is overflowing in its power, even if it can only give a little extra strength and comfort to others.

    So, I thought to expand the Bodhisattva Vows a bit, to express our wishes that we could all help our friends and loved ones in their times of pain, although we also know that it is often impossible to help as much as we would desire. We can include ourselves too. We keep on hoping and making the effort, sending Metta and a Helping Hand, working for things to be a little better, even when the mountain of troubles seems insurmountable.

    Would you do me a favor? Would you think up, and post below, some additional verses like these, to reflect your own difficulties or the battles of friends and loved ones in your life that you wish you could somehow improve, though it seems so hard right now?

    I will somehow organize the verses into something that we will recite at our Sangha's weekly Zazenkai next Friday (I may not be able to recite all, and may combine some, but I will recite as many as I can.) It may not cure anything, but the wishes and mutual feelings which we will share, as a group, will certainly help each other. It will help cure our feeling alone in all this. None of us is alone in this.



    To cure all cancers, though cancers ever cancering ...

    To keep all workers, though workers unemployable ...

    To lose no loved one, though loved ones sometimes losing ...

    To keep our relatives sober, though relatives just keep drinking ...


    * * *

    To strain no back, though backs we're often straining ...

    To heal all broken marriages, though marriages are sometimes breaking ...

    To keep all cats healthy, though the vet is always busy ...

    To solve all kid's problem, though parent's new grey hairs are endless ...





    Those are just some about a whole bunch of folks I know. Please add more. It can be about you or those you know.

    And it's okay to be serious, but also okay to put a little humor into your verses too if you want: Sometimes a little wry humor is the best medicine for something not so funny really.

    Gassho, J

    stlah
    Last edited by Jundo; 02-06-2023, 07:40 AM.
    ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE
  • ZenKen
    Member
    • Mar 2022
    • 149

    #2
    What a wonderful idea. I would like to contribute the following:

    To uplift the depressed, though the black clouds ever looming
    To restore loving kindness, though family rifts are deepening

    Gassho
    ZenKen (Anna)
    satlah
    Prioritising great gratitude.

    ZenKen (Anna)
    禅犬

    Comment

    • Jundo
      Treeleaf Founder and Priest
      • Apr 2006
      • 41233

      #3
      Originally posted by ZenKen
      What a wonderful idea. I would like to contribute the following:

      To uplift the depressed, though the black clouds ever looming
      To restore loving kindness, though family rifts are deepening

      Gassho
      ZenKen (Anna)
      satlah
      Lovely.
      ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

      Comment

      • Bion
        Senior Priest-in-Training
        • Aug 2020
        • 5110

        #4
        To deeply love others, though they do not love themselves
        To unreservedly show kindness, though kindness is not given in return
        To forgive abundantly, though not asked to


        [emoji1374] Sat today
        "Stepping back with open hands, is thoroughly comprehending life and death. Immediately you can sparkle and respond to the world." - Hongzhi

        Comment

        • Jundo
          Treeleaf Founder and Priest
          • Apr 2006
          • 41233

          #5
          By the way, if nobody objects to my quoting them, I may quote some folks' verses in an article for Tricycle.

          Gassho, J

          stlah
          ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

          Comment

          • Seiko
            Novice Priest-in-Training
            • Jul 2020
            • 1179

            #6
            To be a friend to the lonely.
            To be a map for the lost.
            To seek healing for the undiagnosed as well as the diagnosed.
            To react to other's pain, as if it were mine.

            Gasshō
            Sriko
            stlah
            Gandō Seiko
            頑道清光
            (Stubborn Way of Pure Light)

            My street name is 'Al'.

            Any words I write here are merely the thoughts of an apprentice priest, just my opinions, that's all.

            Comment

            • Naiko
              Member
              • Aug 2019
              • 847

              #7
              To connect with the lonely, though we are all both all alone and together.
              To console the inconsolable, though grief is without end.
              To speak for the Earth, though her roar is deafening.

              st

              Comment

              • Jundo
                Treeleaf Founder and Priest
                • Apr 2006
                • 41233

                #8
                Originally posted by Seiko
                To be a friend to the lonely.
                To be a map for the lost.
                To seek healing for the undiagnosed as well as the diagnosed.
                To react to other's pain, as if it were mine.

                Gasshō
                Sriko
                stlah
                These are lovely. But the Bodhisattva Vows typically emphasize our doing the non-doable. Might you rewrite them a bit?

                Gassho, Jundo

                stlah
                ALL OF LIFE IS OUR TEMPLE

                Comment

                • Meian
                  Member
                  • Apr 2015
                  • 1712

                  #9
                  My little attempt:

                  To heal all broken hearts, though hearts are not broken.

                  To create peace in conflicts, though conflicts are endless.

                  To fill hungry stomachs, though food is not always the answer.

                  To relieve poverty throughout the world, though money is a paper tiger.

                  To house all the homeless, though none are homeless.

                  Gassho2 meian stlh

                  Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk
                  鏡道 |​ Kyodo (Meian) | "Mirror of the Way"
                  visiting Unsui
                  Nothing I say is a teaching, it's just my own opinion.

                  Comment

                  • Veronica
                    Member
                    • Nov 2022
                    • 123

                    #10
                    To help others during panic attacks although panic attacks will arise.

                    To encourage calm in our children although we cannot always keep them safe.

                    Veronica
                    Stlah

                    Comment

                    • Seiko
                      Novice Priest-in-Training
                      • Jul 2020
                      • 1179

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Jundo
                      These are lovely. But the Bodhisattva Vows typically emphasize our doing the non-doable. Might you rewrite them a bit?

                      Gassho, Jundo

                      stlah
                      I'll try - second draft...

                      To end loneliness, though being alone is inescapable.

                      To give healing to all, though some are undiagnosed.

                      To end other's pain, though pain is inevitable.

                      Gasshō
                      Seiko
                      stlah
                      Last edited by Jundo; 02-07-2023, 12:28 AM.
                      Gandō Seiko
                      頑道清光
                      (Stubborn Way of Pure Light)

                      My street name is 'Al'.

                      Any words I write here are merely the thoughts of an apprentice priest, just my opinions, that's all.

                      Comment

                      • Risho
                        Member
                        • May 2010
                        • 3178

                        #12
                        To calm all crying babies , though tantrums are boundless
                        To relieve all doggys’ pain, though illness is inevitable
                        To keep an open heart, though differing opinions are inescapable
                        To exterminate all software defects, though bugs are endless

                        gassho

                        risho
                        -stlah
                        Email: risho.treeleaf@gmail.com

                        Comment

                        • Zenkon
                          Member
                          • May 2020
                          • 228

                          #13
                          Would you think up, and post below, some additional verses like these, to reflect your own difficulties or the battles of friends and loved ones in your life that you wish you could somehow improve, though it seems so hard right now
                          This question makes me think of the Parable of the Two Arrows: "Any time we suffer misfortune, two arrows fly our way. Being struck by an arrow is painful. Being struck by a second arrow is even more painful." The first arrow is misfortune and the send arrow is our reaction to the misfortune. Disease, disability, war, famine, climate change are all part of life. We can rail against the inequities, lobby our governments for change, provide aid generously, but basically there is little we can do to prevent the first arrows of misfortune. Perhaps, greedily wanting things to be different than they are, whether it is a cure for cancer, full employment or an end to depression, is a base cause of our suffering.

                          What we can do is change our reaction to the misfortune. To quote Helen Keller - "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet". With our understanding of impermanence and emptiness, we can blunt this second arrow.

                          Therefore, I might propose the following verse:

                          To engage life with Radical Acceptance, while yet working for positive change.

                          Gassho

                          Zenkon
                          sat/lah
                          Last edited by Jundo; 02-07-2023, 12:29 AM.

                          Comment

                          • Will001
                            Member
                            • Jan 2023
                            • 19

                            #14
                            To always try, though nothing ever seems to change.

                            Comment

                            • paulashby

                              #15
                              Let me offer two that reflect ongoing struggles:
                              To extend compassion to all people, through racism seems endless.

                              To celebrate the gift of our life-giving earth, even as pollution causes greater suffering.
                              Gassho, peace, Paul Ashby sat lah

                              Comment

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