Nicholas
Bodhicitta
We have heard that resolving the mind is foremost among the essential doors for entering the Path, and that making vows is first among the crucial matters in cultivation. By making vows, we can save living beings. By resolving our minds, we can realize the Buddhas’ Path. If we do not make our resolve great and our vows firm, we will remain on the turning wheel throughout as many kalpas as there are particles of dust. Any cultivation will be only bitter toil done in vain.
As the Flower Adornment Sutra says, “If you forget your resolve upon Bodhi, your cultivation of even wholesome practices becomes the karma of demons.” this it is clear that forgetting our resolve upon Bodhi is even worse than having never made the resolve.
Thus we know that anyone wishing to study the vehicle of the Thus Come Ones must first make the vows of a Bodhisattva without delay.
Great Master Shr Syan (d. 1734) Exhortation to Resolve Upon Bodhi.
As the Flower Adornment Sutra says, “If you forget your resolve upon Bodhi, your cultivation of even wholesome practices becomes the karma of demons.” this it is clear that forgetting our resolve upon Bodhi is even worse than having never made the resolve.
Thus we know that anyone wishing to study the vehicle of the Thus Come Ones must first make the vows of a Bodhisattva without delay.
Great Master Shr Syan (d. 1734) Exhortation to Resolve Upon Bodhi.