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As one greatly benefits from the presence and guidance of a teacher, one can have many teachers, as did Sudhana, the son of a merchant whose story is told in ''The Stem Array Sūtra''. Instructed by Mañjuśrī, Sudhana travels from place to place seeking 110 teachers before he arrives in the presence of Maitreya. Like the case of Sudhana, the teachers guide the student on the spiritual path throughout the entire journey, and the student must follow the teacher with great devotion and trust. In ''The Stem Array Sūtra'', the young man Śrīsambhava and the girl Śrīmati give Sudhana a long discourse on the benefit of following a teacher and the manner in which one must follow a teacher. They advise Sudhana to see himself as a sick person, the teacher as a doctor, the teachings as medicine, and the adoption of the teachings into practice as the treatment leading to the cure.<ref>''Buddhāvataṃsakanāmamahāvaipulyasūtrāt gaṇḍavyūhasūtraḥ paṭalaḥ'' (''Shin tu rgyas pa chen po'i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las sdong pos brgyan pa'i le'u ste bzhi bcu rtsa''), in Derge Kangyur, D44, phal chen, vol. 38, a, fol. 287a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA0RK0044-45.</ref> This is one of the most powerful similes to illustrate one’s relationship with a teacher. | As one greatly benefits from the presence and guidance of a teacher, one can have many teachers, as did Sudhana, the son of a merchant whose story is told in ''The Stem Array Sūtra''. Instructed by Mañjuśrī, Sudhana travels from place to place seeking 110 teachers before he arrives in the presence of Maitreya. Like the case of Sudhana, the teachers guide the student on the spiritual path throughout the entire journey, and the student must follow the teacher with great devotion and trust. In ''The Stem Array Sūtra'', the young man Śrīsambhava and the girl Śrīmati give Sudhana a long discourse on the benefit of following a teacher and the manner in which one must follow a teacher. They advise Sudhana to see himself as a sick person, the teacher as a doctor, the teachings as medicine, and the adoption of the teachings into practice as the treatment leading to the cure.<ref>''Buddhāvataṃsakanāmamahāvaipulyasūtrāt gaṇḍavyūhasūtraḥ paṭalaḥ'' (''Shin tu rgyas pa chen po'i mdo sangs rgyas phal po che zhes bya ba las sdong pos brgyan pa'i le'u ste bzhi bcu rtsa''), in Derge Kangyur, D44, phal chen, vol. 38, a, fol. 287a, http://purl.bdrc.io/resource/WA0RK0044-45.</ref> This is one of the most powerful similes to illustrate one’s relationship with a teacher. | ||
<h4>The Procedure for Taking the Vow</h4> | |||
There are two different Mahāyāna traditions for the ritual of administering and taking the bodhisattva vow. One is the ritual adopted in the Profound View tradition coming down from Nāgārjuna and his followers, and the other is the ritual passed down in the Vast Praxis tradition from Maitreya, Asaṅga, and their followers. While the two traditions share the overall framework of the oath-taking ritual, the liturgies and fine points of procedures vary between them. Today, verses from the second and third chapter of Śāntideva's ''Way of the Bodhisattva'' are used commonly as the standard liturgy for the bodhisattva vow ritual in the Profound View tradition. This procedure is based on what was practiced in the old Kadam tradition and later promoted by Patrul Rinpoche. | |||
The Vast Praxis tradition uses a different set of recitations in prose to take the vow of aspiring bodhicitta and a set of questions and answers for the engaged bodhicitta vow as passed down from Atiśa. Kongtrul Lodoe Taye presents detailed liturgies and explanations for both traditions in the third volume of his ''Treasury of Precious Instructions''(''Gdams ngag rin po che'i mdzod'').<ref>(Provide links to Kongtruls's texts here and Engle and Jinpa's translation).</ref> | |||
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