Pursuing the Impossible: The Four Great Vows of a Bodhisattva
When we keep going, despite the odds
Hi there,
Have you heard the vows below before?
Sentient beings are numberless. We vow to save them all.
Delusions are endless. We vow to cut through them all.
The teachings are infinite. We vow to learn them all.
The Buddha Way is inconceivable. We vow to attain it.
When I meditate at the Zen Buddhist Center, the Four Great Vows above are recited at the end of each practice.
Numberless! Endless! Infinite! Inconceivable! …anything else?
I love the way they are written: we want something we probably cannot achieve, but what the heck, we are going for it anyway.
It might sound stupid for some to pursue the impossible. It doesn't matter how much I would love to fly, I wouldn't keep trying to do it. We say doing the same thing over and over again is madness. We say it's better to cut our losses. Why would anyone tell themselves to chase the unreachable?
The starting point is that it's not about achieving something. The vows break our goal-oriented culture. These are not check-boxes waiting to be ticked. They ask us for more than a temporary commitment.
Ideals ask us to surrender to something bigger. To live based on values, and not based on outcomes. Principles guide us on how to make decisions in our lives. This requires alignment and courage.
More than that, they are an invitation to live from anything but fear. When we have such big pictures, dreams, and principles, we are surrendering to living from the heart, from ideals. That certifies we are not giving in to a life based on fear of something failing, of not having enough. We get rid of old excuses that would over-protect us and keep us playing safe. What we have here is inspiration and a non-reactive North in life.
Pursuing the “impossible” asks us to see the forest for the trees. In our lifetime we deal with many short-term projects. Expanding consciousness doesn't work like that. We need to evolve as a species, and evolvement doesn’t stop in my lifetime, or with me. Manifesting the vows is not a one-person job. I am a drop in the ocean. But because I have surrendered, I am the ocean, and I live accordingly. I release from the chain of individuality, and from egocentricity. I surrender to ongoing development.
Even better, the vows trigger our mental constructs of what we believe to be possible. We allow our self-image to set boundaries and limit what we can and cannot do. The vows aim at breaking these mental constructs. They invite us to embrace our inner power, and our ability to be free from ourselves.
To set for the impossible is effectively to claim the territory of the unexplored. To get out of comfort zones. That doesn't mean we need to be serious warriors. Exploration, openness, and shifting mental models are also invitations to playfulness and seeing things differently. I've never met a Zen master who wasn't funny. Sense of humor is divine.
The vows are a reminder of our reality, and the potential we have to shape it. They remind us we surely will not achieve anything that we tell ourselves to be impossible and that we don't even try. Hesitation and fear do not move mountains. Nothing happens without commitment and showing up for it. The right attitude is the first thing needed to change our reality.
What are you longing for in your life? Are you ready to write your own vows to yourself?
See you next week,
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