Calendar

Great Vows for All (first of four Teishos, August, 2005)

(Chanting:)
Creations are numberless, I vow to free them.
Delusions are inexhaustible; I vow to put an end to them.
Dharmas are boundless, I vow to perceive them.
The enlightened way is unsurpassable, I vow to embody it.

We chant the Great Vows for All after our zazen, but what are we are chanting, and why? What does it have to do with our life? For the next four weeks we'll take this important chant and study it together, line by line.

First of all we should be mindful when chanting - align our body, breathing and mind. We should have a good posture, attentive in our approach to what we are about to do. We should breath in rhythm with our chanting, and our mind should be free of distractions. We don't chant mindlessly from memory but with attention as if we are doing it for the first time. This vow we chant is not meant to be dogma or a prayer, although I suppose we could use it that way. I see it primarily as an instruction for practice of how to live our life.

The first line - "Creations are numberless, I vow to free them" - tells us about our intention. We are one body, and so our vow to free others means "I vow to free myself". That is a serious vow and not to be taken lightly, so let's be aware of the vow we are making. My intention is to be liberated from my own suffering. When I am free, all are free. "Creations are numberless" is you and me. This is directly related to how we conduct ourselves in our life with those around us daily. What we say and do affects other people. Working with this first line means, for example, working with our anger, or our impatience, and being aware of it around others in our life. We must see and learn how to work with our own issues. Working with our issues, we don't create pain and suffering in ourselves or others. When an issue comes up for us we breathe into it, embrace it - we don't splash others with it. This is how we practice being free. When we practice in this way we don't create suffering or cause others to suffer. Practicing with our own issues, others are free to be themselves. We don't create a boundary between ourselves and others.

In other words we don't identify with our anger, greed or whatever issue is preventing us from being free. We can't work with our suffering if we are identifying with it. Plus we free others when we work with our obstacles, rather than trying to change others. We should be careful about trying to be helpful to others; we change others by changing ourselves, just working with our own stuff. When I am liberated, you are already liberated. When we practice in this way, we embody the first line. This is our intention.