Jonathan Skyheart

The Bodhisattva Vows Jonathan Skyheart

We all know the Bodhisattva Vows, or think we do. We have recited them numerous times throughout our Zen training and practice. It is an ideal that so many of us aspire to emulate and "achieve." The image of the Bodhisattva vowing to forgo their ultimate enlightenment on behalf of all living creatures until these "others" have obtained enlightenment is thrilling, ennobling and of the highest virtue. Like the statues of the Bodhisattvas themselves, they gleam in a pure white light of spiritual empowerment, flawless and adamantine, enflaming our consciousness and motivating us to strive ever harder to "achieve" realization. But an enlightening being has to ask one of the hardest questions they can ask upon the dharma eye's opening, "What if the Bodhisattva vows themselves actually contradict the rightful Dharma? What if instead of leading us to proper realization, they instead mislead us and delay, or even keep us, from the very realization that they promise? This book addresses these questions.