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The Sanskrit term Bodhisattva is the name given to anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. What makes someone a Bodhisattva is her or his dedication to the ultimate welfare of other beings, as expressed in the prayer:

This is bodhicitta. With this motivation, if the Bodhisattva or trainee Bodhisattva promises to engage in the practice of the six or ten perfections (Pāramitā), this is the Bodhisattva vow.^[1]

Mahayana Buddhism[link]

In the various Bodhisattva vows (sometimes called the Bodhisattva Precepts) of Mahayana Buddhism, the bodhisattvas take a vow stating that they will strive for as long as samsara endures to liberate all sentient beings from samsara and lead them to enlightenment. The Bodhisattva does not seek bodhi (Awakening) solely for him/herself, but chiefly for the sake of freeing all other beings and aiding them into the bliss of Nirvana.

This can be done by venerating all Buddhas and by cultivating supreme moral and spiritual perfection, to be placed in the service of others. In particular, Bodhisattvas promise to practice the "six perfections" of giving, moral discipline, patience, effort, concentration and wisdom in order to fulfill their bodhicitta aim of attaining enlightenment for the sake of all beings.^[2]

Taking the Bodhisattva vow[link]

An example of a Bodhisattva vow is found at the very end of the Avatamsaka Sutra by Samantabhadra. In Shantideva's Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life, the Bodhisattva vow is taken with the following famous two verses from Sutra:

Berzin (1997: unpaginated) links the mindstream to the bodhisattva vows:

The promise to keep bodhisattva vows applies not only to this life, but to each subsequent lifetime until enlightenment. Thus these vows continue on our mind-stream into future lives.^[4]

Zen Tradition[link]

The following table of the fourfold vow is as practiced by the Chan and Zen tradition. Within Japan the bodhisattva precepts are recognised as being full ordination for all sects of Buddhism.

Brahma Net Sutra[link]

The Brahma Net Sutra translated by Kumarajiva (circa 400 AD) has a list of ten major and forty-eight minor Bodhisattva vows. The ten major vows are as follows:

1. A disciple of the Buddha shall not himself kill, encourage others to kill, kill by expedient means, praise killing, rejoice at witnessing killing, or kill through incantation or deviant mantras. He must not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of killing, and shall not intentionally kill any living creature. (24) As a Buddha's disciple, he ought to nurture a mind of compassion and filial piety, always devising expedient means to rescue and protect all beings. If instead, he fails to restrain himself and kills sentient beings without mercy, he commits a Parajika (major) offense. (25)
2. A disciple of the Buddha must not himself steal or encourage others to steal, steal by expedient means, steal by means of incantation or deviant mantras. He should not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of stealing. No valuables or possessions, even those belonging to ghosts and spirits or thieves and robbers, be they as small as a needle or blade of grass, may be stolen. As a Buddha's disciple, he ought to have a mind of mercy, compassion, and filial piety -- always helping people earn merits and achieve happiness. If instead, he steals the possessions of others, he commits a Parajika offense. (26)
3. A disciple of the Buddha must not engage in licentious acts or encourage others to do so. [As a monk] he should not have sexual relations with any female -- be she a human, animal, deity or spirit -- nor create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of such misconduct. Indeed, he must not engage in improper sexual conduct with anyone. (27) A Buddha's disciple ought to have a mind of filial piety -- rescuing all sentient beings and instructing them in the Dharma of purity and chastity. If instead, he lacks compassion and encourages others to engage in sexual relations promiscuously, including with animals and even their mothers, daughters, sisters, or other close relatives, he commits a Parajika offense. (28)
4. A disciple of the Buddha must not himself use false words and speech, or encourage others to lie or lie by expedient means. He should not involve himself in the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of lying, saying that he has seen what he has not seen or vice-versa, or lying implicitly through physical or mental means. (29) As a Buddha's disciple, he ought to maintain Right Speech and Right Views always, and lead all others to maintain them as well. If instead, he causes wrong speech, wrong views or evil karma in others, he commits a Parajika offense.
5. A disciple of the Buddha must not trade in alcoholic beverages or encourage others to do so. He should not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of selling any intoxicant whatsoever, for intoxicants are the causes and conditions of all kinds of offenses. As a Buddha's disciple, he ought to help all sentient beings achieve clear wisdom. If instead, he causes them to have upside-down, topsy-turvy thinking, he commits a Parajika offense. (30)
6. A disciple of the Buddha must not himself broadcast the misdeeds or infractions of Bodhisattva-clerics or Bodhisattva-laypersons, or of [ordinary] monks and nuns -- nor encourage others to do so. He must not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of discussing the offenses of the assembly. As a Buddha's disciple, whenever he hears evil persons, externalists or followers of the Two Vehicles speak of practices contrary to the Dharma or contrary to the precepts within the Buddhist community, he should instruct them with a compassionate mind and lead them to develop wholesome faith in the Mahayana. If instead, he discusses the faults and misdeeds that occur within the assembly, he commits a Parajika offense. (31)
7. A disciple of the Buddha shall not praise himself and speak ill of others, or encourage others to do so. He must not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of praising himself and disparaging others. As a disciple of the Buddha, he should be willing to stand in for all sentient beings and endure humiliation and slander -- accepting blame and letting sentient beings have all the glory. If instead, he displays his own virtues and conceals the good points of others, thus causing them to suffer slander, he commits a Parajika offense. (32)
8. A disciple of the Buddha must not be stingy or encourage others to be stingy. He should not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of stinginess. As a Bodhisattva, whenever a destitute person comes for help, he should give that person what he needs. If instead, out of anger and resentment, (33) he denies all assistance -- refusing to help with even a penny, a needle, a blade of grass, even a single sentence or verse or a phrase of Dharma, but instead scolds and abuses that person -- he commits a Parajika offense.
9. A disciple of the Buddha shall not harbor anger or encourage others to be angry. He should not create the causes, conditions, methods, or karma of anger. As a disciple of the Buddha, he ought to be compassionate and filial, helping all sentient beings develop the good roots of non-contention. If instead, he insults and abuses sentient beings, or even transformation beings [such as deities and spirits], with harsh words, hitting them with his fists or feet, or attacking them with a knife or club -- or harbors grudges even when the victim confesses his mistakes and humbly seeks forgiveness in a soft, conciliatory voice -- the disciple commits a Parajika offense. (34)
10. A Buddha's disciple shall not himself speak ill of the Triple Jewel or encourage others to do so. He must not create the causes, conditions, methods or karma of slander. If a disciple hears but a single word of slander against the Buddha from externalists or evil beings, he experiences a pain similar to that of three hundred spears piercing his heart. How then could he possibly slander the Triple Jewel himself? Hence, if a disciple lacks faith and filial piety towards the Triple Jewel, and even assists evil persons or those of aberrant views to slander the Triple Jewel, he commits a Parajika offense. (35)

Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi[link]

Asanga (circa 300 AD) delineated 18 major vows and forty-six minor vows.^[5] These Bodhisattva vows are still used in all four major traditions of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism. The eighteen major vows (as actions to be abandoned) are as follows:

1. Praising oneself or belittling others due to attachment to receiving material offerings, praise and respect.
2. Not giving material aid or (due to miserliness) not teaching the Dharma to those who are suffering and without a protector.
3. Not listening to others' apologies or striking others
4. Abandoning the Mahayana by saying that Mahayana texts are not the words of Buddha or teaching what appears to be the Dharma but is not.
5. Taking things belonging to Buddha, Dharma or Sangha.
6. Abandoning the holy Dharma by saying that texts which teach the three vehicles are not the Buddha's word.
7. With anger depriving ordained ones of their robes, beating and imprisoning them or causing them to lose their ordination even if they have impure morality, for example, by saying that being ordained is useless.
8. Committing any of the five extremely negative actions: (1) killing one's mother, (2) killing one's father, (3) killing an arhat, (4) intentionally drawing blood from a Buddha or (5) causing schism in the Sangha community by supporting and spreading sectarian views.
9. Holding distorted views (which are contrary to the teaching of Buddha, such as denying the existence of the Three Jewels or the law of cause and effect etc.)
10. Destroying towns, villages, cities or large areas by means such as fire, bombs, pollution or black magic.
11. Teaching emptiness to those whose minds are unprepared.
12. Causing those who have entered the Mahayana to turn away from working for the full enlightenment of Buddhahood and encouraging them to work merely for their own liberation from suffering.
13. Causing others to abandon their Pratimoksha vows.
14. Belittling the Śrāvaka or Pratyekabuddha vehicle (by holding and causing others to hold the view that these vehicles do not abandon attachment and other delusions).
15. Falsely stating that oneself has realised profound emptiness and that if others meditate as one has, they will realize emptiness and become as great and as highly realized as oneself.
16. Taking gifts from others who were encouraged to give you things originally intended as offerings to the Three Jewels. Not giving things to the Three Jewels that others have given you to give to them, or accepting property stolen from the Three Jewels.
17. Causing those engaged in calm-abiding meditation to give it up by giving their belongings to those who are merely reciting texts or making bad disciplinary rules which cause a spiritual community not to be harmonious.
18. Abandoning either of the two types of Bodhicitta (aspiring and engaging).

According to Atisha the Pratimoksha vows are the basis for the Bodhisattva vows. Without keeping one of the different sets of Pratimoksha vows (in one of existing Vinaya schools), there is no Bodhisattva vow.^[6]

See also[link]

• Parinamana
• The 22 Vows of Ambedkar and his followers

Classical Commentaries in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism[link]

• Asanga's Chapter on Ethics With the Commentary of Tsong-Kha-Pa: The Basic Path to Awakening, the Complete Bodhisattva, translated by Mark Tatz, ISBN 0-88946-054-X
• Complete Explanation of the Pratimoksha, Bodhisattva and Vajrayana Vows: "Buddhist Ethics" (Treasury of Knowledge: Book Five), Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Taye, ISBN 1-55939-191-X
• Ngari Panchen: Perfect Conduct: Ascertaining the Three Vows, ISBN 0-86171-083-5; commentary by Dudjom Rinpoche
• The Bodhisattva Vow, by Geshe Sonam Rinchen, ISBN 1-55939-150-2
• The Bodhisattva Vow: A Practical Guide to Helping Others, by Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, Tharpa Publications (2nd. ed., 1995) ISBN 978-0-948006-50-0
• Taking the Bodhisattva Vow, by Bokar Rinpoche, ISBN 0-9630371-8-8 (10), ISBN 978-0-9630371-8-3 (13)

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• Brahma Net Sutra
• The eight Pledges of aspiring Bodhichitta, the eighteen root vows and the forty-six secondary Bodhisattva vows according to Tibetan Gelug Tradition (including commentary) by Alexander Berzin
• Twenty Verses on the Bodhisattva Vow by Chandragomin
• Nine Considerations and Criteria for Benefiting Beings
• Keeping the Bodhisattva Vow An extract.
• different versions of the Bodhisattva vows, at katinkahesselink.net

Sakya Trizin (Tibetan: ས་སྐྱ་ཁྲི་འཛིན།, ZYPY: Sa'gya Chizin, literally "Sakya Throne Holder"; Chinese: 萨迦法王 or 萨迦崔津) or Sa'gya Gongma Rinboqê (གོང་མ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ།) is the traditional title of the head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.^[1]

The Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism was founded in 1073, when Khon Konchog Gyalpo (a.k.a. Kön Gönqog Gyäbo), a member of Tibet’s noble Khön (Koin) family, established a monastery in the region of Sakya, Tibet, which became the headquarters of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.^[2] Since that time, the leadership of the Sakya Order has descended within the Khön family.

Current Sakya Trizin[link]

The current Sakya Trizin is the 41st Sakya Trizin. His legal name is "Sakya Trizin" and he is referred to as His Holiness Sakya Trizin. His religious name is Ngawang Kunga Tegchen Palbar Trinley Samphel Wangyi Gyalpo. H.H. Sakya Trizin is considered second only to His Holiness the Dalai Lama in the spiritual hierarchy of Tibetan Buddhism.^[3]

Sakya Trizin was born on September 7, 1945 in Tsedong, near Shigatse, Tibet. From his father, Vajradhara Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, he received important initiations and teachings in the Sakya lineage. He began intensive religious study at the age of five. In 1952, he was officially designated as the next Sakya Trizin by His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.^[4] He continued intensive training from his main teacher Ngawang Lodroe Shenpen Nyingpo and many other famous Tibetan scholars, studying extensively in both the esoteric and exoteric Buddhist traditions. In 1959, at the age of fourteen, he was formally enthroned as head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism. In the same year, due to the political situation in Tibet, the Sakya Trizin, his family, and many lamas and monks from the Sakya Monastery relocated to India.^[4]

To maintain the unbroken lineage of the Khon family, in 1974 Sakya Trizin consented to requests that he accept Tashi Lhakee, daughter of a noble family from Dege in Kham as his consort. In the same year his first son, H.E.Khondung Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, was born. In 1979, a second son, H.E.Khondung Gyana Vajra Rinpoche was born.

After leaving Tibet, in 1963, the Sakya Trizin re-established the seat of the Sakya Order in Rajpur, India, building a monastery known as Sakya Centre. Since that time, he has worked tirelessly to preserve the thousand-year-old religious heritage of the Sakya Order and to transmit its teachings to succeeding generations. He founded and directly guides a number of institutions, including Sakya Monastery in Rajpur, Sakya Institute, Sakya College, Sakya Nunnery, Sakya College for Nuns, Sakya Tibetan Settlement, Sakya Hospital, dozens of other monasteries in Tibet, Nepal, and India, and numerous Dharma Centers in many countries.^[5]

Sakya Trizin is a highly accomplished Buddhist master respected by all four schools of Tibetan Buddhism and teaches widely throughout the world. He has bestowed the extensive Lam Dre teaching cycle, which is the most important teaching of the Sakya Order over 18 times on various continents, and also transmitted major initiation cycles such as Collection of All the Tantras, and the Collection of all the Sadhanas, which contain almost all of the empowerments for the esoteric practices of the various schools of Tibetan Buddhism to hundreds of lineage holders in the next generation of Buddhist teachers. He has trained both of his sons, Khonrig Ratna Vajra Sakya and Khonrig Gyana Vajra Sakya as highly accomplished Buddhist masters, and they both travel widely, teaching Buddhism throughout the world.

The year 2009 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Sakya Trizin’s headship of the Sakya Order. The occasion was celebrated as a Golden Jubilee with extensive celebrations and tributes to his success in preserving and maintaining the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.

Sakya Trizin lineage[link]

Lharig, the divine generation

According to legend Ciring descended from the Rupadhatu (Realm of Clear Light) to earth.^[6]

• Ciring
• Yuse
• Yuring
• Masang Cije
• Togsa Pawo Tag
• Tagpo Ochen
• Yapang Kye

Khön family, the royal generation

Because the previous generations subjugated the rakshas (demons), the family became the Family of Conquerors (Khon gyi dung shortened to Khön)^[7] and therefore a royal family.

• Khön Bar Kye
• Khön Jekundag, minister of Trisong Detsen, student of Padmasambhava
• Khön Lu'i Wangpo Srungwa
• Khön Dorje Rinchen
• Khön Sherab Yontan
• Khön Yontan Jungne
• Khön Tsugtor Sherab
• Khön Gekyab
• Khön Getong
• Khön Balpo
• Khön Shakya Lodro
• Sherab Tsultrim

Sakya lineage, generations as Buddhist teachers.^[8]

Khon Konchog Gyalpo founded the monastery in Sakya in 1073, and therefore the lineage was renamed Sakya.^[6]

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Penny-Dimri, Sandra. (1995). "The Lineage of His Holiness Sakya Trizin Ngawang Kunga." The Tibet Journal. Vol. XX, No. 4 Winter 1995, pp. 64–92. ISBN 0970-5368.
• Trizin, Sakya. Parting from the Four Attachments. Shang Shung Publications, 1999.

External links[link]

• Sakya Dolma Phodrang's official website
• Biography of Sakya Trizin
• Hungarian website of His Holiness Sakya Trizin including some information about Her Eminence Jetsun Kushok Chimey Luding see last section
• The Kalyanamitra Fund
• Parting from the Four Attachments by His Holiness Sakya Trizin