Zen Monk – Bodhisattva Vows – Honora Zen Monastery – Switzerland – Becoming a Monk
The zen monk vows are expression and reinforcement and motivate the daily practice of compassion and wisdom, for the practical implementation in everyday life for the benefit of all living beings. Zen Monks are seen as beings striving for the highest knowledge who strive for Wisdom on the path of enlightenment or who realize it in themselves in order to use it for the salvation of all living beings.
The core is the idea of not only attaining enlightenment for yourself, but instead to help all other beings beforehand to free themselves from the endless cycle of life and death.
- Living beings are innumerable. I vow to set them all free.
- Desires are inexhaustible. I vow to end them all.
- The teachings are limitless. I vow to master them all.
- The path to enlightenment is endless. I vow to complete it.
The Mind is Empty (Potential) not Nothing
When the mind moves, saying, doing, seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing are all movement of the mind and movement of functioning. Because this movement is moving of the mind; moving mind itself is functioning. Without moving and functioning, there is no mind; and without mind, there is no movement. Yes, what is moving is not mind; what the mind is does not move; because movement itself, does not have the mind; mind, itself does not have movement.
Zen Monk
Movement is not separate from mind; and mind is not separate from movement, but the mind is neither separation nor what is separated; the mind, also, is neither movement nor what is moved. This is the function of the mind and on what the mind functions; this is the movement of the mind and what the mind has moved. The mind is neither "movement" nor "function". The origin of functioning itself is empty; for no movement can be allowed in emptiness.
Both, movement and functioning are the mind. But no movement can be allowed in the essence of the mind. This is the reason the scriptures says, "It moves without moving."
All day and night it goes and comes, but it has never gone and never come; all day and night it sees, yet it has never seen; laughed, yet has never laughed; listened, yet has never listened; knows all the time, yet has no knowledge; happy, yet has never been happy; walking around, yet it has never walked around; and finally, abiding, yet it has never abided.
Zen Monk and Patriarch Bodhidharma