ACROSS THE SEA OF SUFFERING 
IN A BOAT OF VOWS

In the spring of 1977, Sramanera Heng Ch'au, then still a layperson, made vows before the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Venerable Master, and great assembly at Gold Mountain Monastery.

1. To repay the kindness of my parents, my teachers, and the Venerable Master, I vow to cut off attachments and marks of self, to constantly maintain a resolve for Bodhi, to study all Dharma-doors, and to transfer any merit and virtue to the entire family of living beings.

2. I vow to recite the Great Compassion Mantra 108 times daily.

3. I vow never to sleep while sitting in meditation.

4. I vow to memorize and recite the Surangama Mantra daily.

5. I further resolve to practice the following:

a) To attend more sutra lectures regularly so as to better understand and better speak the Buddhadharma.

b) To sleep no more than six hours a day.

c) To vigorously hold and maintain the five and the eight lay precepts and the ten major and forty-eight minor Bodhisattva precepts.

d) To recite and to study these precepts twice a month.

6. I further resolve to use whatever skills and strengths I have to maintain and to protect the Triple Jewel and to cultivate the Bodhisattva Way with body, mouth, and mind.

7. I vow to cut off all false thinking, outflows, and attachments, especially of self, and to bring forth a vajra body and mind.

8. I vow that all these vows will be fulfilled and that any merit and virtue will be transferred so that all living beings can end suffering and return to our original, awakened Buddha-nature.