The Four Great Vows of the Bodhisattva



A Bodhisattva is a human being whose life is dedicated to bringing enlightenment and liberation to all living beings from the endless cycle of births and deaths. These are the Four Great Vows of a Bodhisattva.

The many beings are numberless - I vow to save them.
Greed, hatred and folly rise endlessly - I vow to uproot them.
Dharma gates are countless - I vow to wake to them.
Buddha's way is unsurpassable - I vow to embody it fully.


In Chinese:

四弘誓願

眾生無邊誓願度
煩惱無盡誓願斷
法門無量誓願學
佛道無上誓願成

Sì hóng shì yuàn

Zhòng shēng wúbiān shì yuàn dù
Fánnăo wújìn shì yuàn duàn
Fă mén wúliàng shì yuàn xué
Fó dào wúshàng shì yuàn chéng

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Hear / download the Four Great Bodhisattva Vows chanted in Chinese here.

Here's a Japanese version of the Bodhisattva Vows:

Sogan-ge

shu jo mu hen sei gan do
bon no mu hen sei gan dan
ho mon mu jin sei gan chi
mu jo bo dai sei gan sho
ji ta ho kai do ri yaku
gu sho goku raku jo butsu do

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Hear / download the chant in Japanese here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great work.

KO said...

Hello there. I'm a Zen practitioner from America and I would just like to thank you for posting the Zen chants. I actually visit this page everyday to have the audio to back up my chanting of the Four Great Vows. A great resource you have here.

If you have any links to where I could download the Four Great Vows in Japanese, please send them my way if you can. The link you posted does not work.

Gassho,
Dharmakid

KO said...

Hello again.
Since I'm unable to find audio of the 4 Great Vows in Japanese, I settled with using the audio from the actual link you provided.

If you find downloadable audio online, please let me know if you can. Thanks.

Gassho.