med'i-tat': Bodhisattva Vow

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Bodhisattva Vow

THE FOUR GREAT VOWS

Sentient beings are numberless;
I vow to save them.
Desires are inexhaustible;
I vow to put an end to them.
The Dharmas
are boundless;
I vow to master them.
The Buddha Way
is unattainable;
I vow to attain it.

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Spirituality Word Mementos

Madhiyamika (Sanskrit) - a Mahayana school, according to which all phenomena are empty of "substance" or "essence" (Sanskrit: svabhāva), meaning that they have no intrinsic, independent reality apart from the causes and conditions from which they arose.
Yogacara (Sanskrit) - a Mahayana Buddhist school primarily identifiable by the position that there is mind (consciousness) and only mind. Emptiness, dependent arising (pratītyasamutpāda) and the doctrine of two truths are also central Yogacarin tenets.
Sautantrika (Sanskrit) - name means 'those who reject the Abhidharma' - a Sarvāstivāda school holding a doctrine of "extreme momentariness" that held that only the present moment existed.
Vaibhashika (Sanskrit) - early branch of the Sarvāstivāda Buddhist school, asserts sensory nonconceptual cognition of an object through direct contact with it, without the medium of a mental aspect of the object. Because of that, when something made of parts is validly known, the cognition must simultaneously also take as its objects the parts on which the object depends.
Dhyana (Sanskrit) - meditative stabilisation (five factors)
Semshuk (Tibetan) - wisdom enabling strength of mind, strength of heart
Kleshas (Sanskrit) - poisonous mental afflictions
Nge jung (Tibetan) - spirit of emergence
Upaya (Sanskrit) - skilful means
Ghatika (Sanskrit) - short meditation of 24 minutes
Sukha (Sanskrit) - genuine happiness