2024-11-19 I Inquiry I A Bodhisattva’s Vow I Flint Sparks

Bodhisattva’s Vow
~ Torei Zenji
When I, a student of the Way,
look at the real form of the universe,
all is the never-failing manifestation
of the mysterious truth of the Awakened Life.
In any event, in any moment, and in any place,
none can be other than the marvelous revelation
of its glorious light.
This realization made our ancestors and teachers
extend tender care with respectful hearts
even to such beings as birds and beasts.
This realization teaches us
that our daily food, drink, clothes,
and protections of life, are the warm flesh and blood,
the merciful incarnation of the Awakened One.
Who can be ungrateful or not respectful
even to senseless things, not to speak of humans?
Even though they may be a fool,
be warm and compassionate toward them.
If by any chance they should turn against us,
become sworn enemies and persecute us,
we should sincerely bow down with humble language
in the reverent understanding
that they are the merciful messengers of the Awakened One,
who use devices to emancipate us from blind tendencies,
produced and accumulated upon ourselves
by our own egoistic delusion and attachment
through countless cycles of space and time.
Then on each moment’s flash of our thought
there will grow a lotus flower
and on each lotus flower will be revealed Perfection,
unceasingly manifest as our life,
just as it is,
right here and right now.
May we extend this mind to all beings
so that we and the world together
may attain maturity in the wisdom of the Awakened Life.