[Buddha-l] Shiguseiganmon - Bodhisattva Vows

[Franz Metcalf]

Dan, Bernhard, et al.,

Yes, the translation seems to want to follow the Chinese format of  
four lines of four characters, as in the the verses attributed to  
Bodhidharma:

A special transmission outside the scriptures (教外別傳)
Not depending on words and letters (不立文字)
Directly pointing to the human mind (直指人心)
Seeing the true nature and actualizing Buddha (見性成佛)

Of course the trouble is that there are actually four characters only  
in the first line. The others have seven. If one insisted on  
preserving this sort of false parallel, one might have translated the  
vows thus:

Beings: numberless. Save them.
Desires: without end. Vow to abandon them.
Dharma gates: boundless. Vow to enter them.
Buddha way: unsurpassable. Vow to embody it.

Cute, huh?

But what about the historical question? Years ago I looked briefly  
into this and was stymied in finding the presumed Chinese origin of  
the Japanese version of the vows. So I echo Bernhard's question about  
its usage. (I'm sure it's Chinese and not Sanskrit.) And remember that  
Chan is not separate from Pure Land in China, nor entirely from other  
schools if you go further back. So the practice of the Four Vows is  
likely to be common to various Chinese Mahayana schools. But again, I  
can't prove the vows were part of daily practice in other schools. I'd  
love to know if anyone has published on this subject.

Franz