Key Terms/Bodhisattvasaṃvara
From Bodhicitta
बोधिसत्त्वसंवर bodhisattvasaṃvara
bodhisattva vow
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་
byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa
菩薩戒
púsà jiè
Sanskrit - Noun
1·Discover
Basic Meaning
The formalized vow to attain the fully-enlightened state of buddhahood for the welfare of all beings
In other languages
Tibetan
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་
byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa
changchub sempay dompa
Sanskrit
बोधिसत्त्वसंवर
bodhisattvasaṃvara
Chinese
菩薩戒
púsà jiè
Japanese
bosatsukai
Korean
bosalgye
How translators render it
bodhisattva vowBuddha-nature Standard
2·Explore
Has the sense of
The formal commitment taken through a ceremony to engage in the practices of the bodhisattva path, and to wish to attain enlightenment in order to lead all beings to that state
3·Study
Study details
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): The bodhisattva vow is the formalization of the commitment to the awakening mind (bodhicitta). It is fundamentally structured around the 'three-fold code of ethics' (trividha-śīla-skandha; T. tshul khrims kyi phung po gsum):
- The ethics of restraining from non-virtuous conduct (Skt. saṃvara-śīla; T. nyes spyod sdom pa'i tshul khrims): Avoiding actions that harm others or stem from selfish motivations.
- The ethics of gathering virtuous qualities (Skt. kuśala-dharma-saṃgrāhaka-śīla; T. dge ba chos sdud kyi tshul khrims): Proactively cultivating the perfections and amassing merit.
- The ethics of benefiting sentient beings (Skt. sattvārtha-kriyā-śīla; T. sems can don byed kyi tshul khrims): Directly acting to alleviate the suffering and facilitate the enlightenment of all beings.
- Lineages of Transmission: In the Tibetan tradition, two primary lineages for taking the vow are preserved. The 'Profound View' lineage typically enumerates eighteen root downfalls (rtsa ltung bco brgyad). The 'Vast Conduct' lineage details four root downfalls and forty-six secondary faults (nyes byas). While the specific counts vary, they share the central downfall of abandoning the altruistic aspiration of bodhicitta.
- Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): Within the context of Secret Mantra (Skt. Guhyamantra), the bodhisattva vow is an indispensable prerequisite for receiving tantric empowerments (Skt. abhiṣeka). It forms the common ethical basis upon which the specific tantric commitments (Skt. samaya; T. dam tshig) are established. In the higher tantras, the maintenance of the bodhisattva ethical code is seen as the necessary container for the advanced meditative realizations of the generation and completion stages.
- Dzogchen/Mahāmudrā (Indo-Tibetan): In these traditions, the bodhisattva vow is understood not merely as a set of rules but as the natural expression of the realized nature of mind. When the practitioner recognizes the luminous nature of the mind, compassion and the commitment to benefit others arise spontaneously without conceptual effort. Here, the essence of the vow is identified with remaining in the state of non-dual awareness while engaging in the welfare of beings.
In other languages
Tibetan
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་
byang chub sems dpa'i sdom pa
changchub sempay dompa
Sanskrit
बोधिसत्त्वसंवर
bodhisattvasaṃvara
Chinese
菩薩戒
púsà jiè
Japanese
bosatsukai
Korean
bosalgye
How translators render it
bodhisattva vowBuddha-nature Standard
In the dictionaries
Tshig mdzod chen mo
གཞན་ཕན་དོན་གཉེར་གྱི་བསམ་པས་ཀུན་ནས་བསླངས་ཏེ། གཞན་གནོད་གཞི་དང་བཅས་པ་སྤང་ཞིང་། གཞན་ཕན་གཞི་དང་བཅས་པ་སྒྲུབ་པའི་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སོ།
Term type
Noun
Source language
Sanskrit
Topic
bodhisattvasaṃvara
Alternate spellings
bodhisattva vow, byang sems sdom pa, code of the bodhisattva
