ACROSS THE SEA OF SUFFERING IN A BOAT OF VOWS

      On January 23rd, 1974, Bodhisattva Maitreya's birthday and the Chinese Lunar New Year, Bhiksuni Heng Hsien made the following vows in the Jeweled Hall of the Great Heroes at Gold Mountain Monastery before the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and the four-fold assembly of disciples:

I, Disciple Gwo Pu, before the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and the three periods of time make the following vows:

1. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall follow and serve the Master wherever he may manifest, vigorously and fearlessly, taking no other Master until the exhaustion of the Master's inexhaustible great vows which I take on as my own.

2. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall not achieve Anuttarasamyaksambodhi if there is a single living being or even so much as a blade of grass or a clod of earth that has not become a Buddha.

3. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall never retreat from the Bodhi mind but shall quickly become irreversible in the Buddha Vehicle.

4. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall quickly enter into the conduct and vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva: to worship and respect all Buddhas, to praise the Thus Come One's qualities, to vastly cultivate the giving of offerings, to repent and reform all karmic faults, to follow and rejoice in merit and virtue, to request the turning of the Dharma wheel to request that the Buddhas dwell in the world, to constantly follow the Buddhas in study, to forever accord with living beings, to universally transfer all merit and virtue.

5. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall penetrate and embody the Buddha's Vinaya, perfecting the awesome manner and the fine comportments, and causing living beings to delight in maintaining the precepts.

6. To the exhaustion of empty space and of the Dharma Realm I vow that I shall investigate, revere, propagate, and cultivate according to the Mahavaipulyabuddhaavatamsakasutra, and to be present in every Avatamsaka Assembly.

7. I vow that I shall leave home in every lifetime to study the Buddhadharma and cultivate the way.

8. I vow that I shall rigorously observe the Buddhist practice of eating only one meal a day.

9. I vow that this is my last life as a woman unless I take transformational birth to teach and transform living beings.

10. I vow that in every lifetime I shall maintain the five precepts of no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no false speech, and no intoxicants, even before having heard of them, and even as a child.

11. I vow that in every lifetime I shall quickly master the languages of the Buddhist Canon and teach them to sincere Buddhist disciples who wish to translate Sutras and speak Dharma.

12. I vow that I shall quickly obtain the five eyes, the six spiritual penetrations, unimpeded eloquence, and the miraculous functioning of the Great Compassion Dharmas.

13. I vow that I shall never abandon any living being who so much as sees my face or hears my name but shall quickly cross them over to Buddhahood.

14. I vow to be reborn in the Western Paradise, the Pure Land of the Buddha Amitabha, and to propagate the Pure Land Dharma Door.

15. I vow in every lifetime to aid in the preservation, translation, publication, and circulation of all Dharma spoken by the Master, and in particular that I shall translate the Great Means Expansion Buddha Flower Adornment Sutra.

16. I vow for all space, time, and worlds that I shall never be involved in the impurity of men-women affairs.

17. I vow that in my conduct as a Bodhisattva, that, where-ever there is a living being who sincerely wishes to hear the Buddhadharma, I shall speak the Dharma for that being in his own language, causing him to produce the Bodhi mind.

18.I vow that I shall always be delighted when living beings know and understand more than I do, and that I shall make what has come to seem difficult and obscure lit the Buddhadharma clear and interesting for living beings, enabling them to understand even what I myself have not yet understood and at the same time I vow that I shall quickly come to understand and practice all the limitless principles and doctrines within the Buddhadharma.

19. I vow that in this lifetime I shall especially cultivate samadhi, leave all demon affairs and break all outside ways.

20. I vow that I shall always make these vows and that these vows shall be fulfilled.

Living beings are countless,

I vow to save them all.

Afflictions are inexhaustible, 
            I vow to cut them off.

Dharma doors are infinite,

I vow to study them all.

The Buddha Way is unsurpassed,

I vow I shall accomplish it.

May the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and the three periods of time aid me in the fulfillment of these vows.