page_title: Bodhisattva vow
section_title: Tibet
hierarchical_section_title: Bodhisattva vow / Tibet
caption_attribution_description: English: Buddhist monk protecting rescuing injured sparrow. Likir Monastery, Ladakh, India
context_page_description: The Bodhisattva vow is the vow taken by Mahayana Buddhists to liberate all sentient beings. One who has taken the vow is nominally known as a Bodhisattva. 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. Whereas the Prātimokṣa vows cease at death, the Bodhisattva vow extends into future lives.
context_section_description: In Tibetan Buddhism there are two lineages of the bodhisattva vow. The first is associated with the Cittamatra movement of Indian Buddhism, and is said to have originated with the bodhisattva Maitreya, and to have been propagated by Asanga. The second is associated with the Madhyamaka movement, and is said to have originated with the bodhisattva Manjusri and to have been propagated by Nagarjuna, and later by Shantideva. The main difference between these two lineages of the bodhisattva vow is that in the Cittamatra lineage the vow cannot be received by one who has not previously received the pratimokṣa vows.
  According to Alexander Berzin, the bodhisattva vows transmitted by the 10th-century Indian master Atisha "derives from the Sutra of Akashagarbha (Nam-mkha'i snying-po mdo, Skt. Akashagarbhasutra), as cited in Compendium of Trainings (bSlabs-btus, Skt. Shikshasamuccaya), compiled in India by Shantideva in the 8th century" including 18 primary and 48 secondary downfalls.
  The 18 primary root downfalls of the bodhisattva vows are:
  Praising ourselves and/or belittling others
  Not sharing Dharma teachings or wealth
  Not listening to others' apologies or striking others
  Discarding the Mahayana teachings and propounding made-up ones
  Taking offerings intended for the Triple Gem
  Forsaking the holy Dharma
  Disrobing monastics or committing such acts as stealing their robes
  Committing any of the five heinous crimes: (a) killing our fathers, (b) mothers, or (c) an arhat (a liberated being), (d) with bad intentions drawing blood from a Buddha, or (e) causing a split in the monastic community.
  Holding a distorted, antagonistic outlook
  Destroying places such as towns
  Teaching voidness to those whose minds are untrained
  Turning others away from full enlightenment
  Turning others away from their pratimoksha vows
  Belittling the shravaka vehicle
  Proclaiming a false realization of voidness
  Accepting what has been stolen from the Triple Gem
  Establishing unfair policies
  Giving up bodhicitta
caption: Buddhist monk rescuing injured sparrow. Likir Monastery, Ladakh, India
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