From: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_3L_rJB_CFc

Context: Throughout this transcript, Bhante Vimalaramsi is the speaker unless otherwise indicated.

do you have any questions yeah over a

period of time things kept changing and

then they took up a bodhisattva vow

because nobody was becoming our hearts

so they've tried to make the Bodhisattva

vow the main thing and put down any

other teaching that said no let's get

off the wheel now oh but you're selfish

if you don't take the Bodhisattva vow

and that's what they're really teaching

there's a lot of books on the

Bodhisattva vow how important it is and

the Tibetans have gone a step further

and they say well the Bodhisattva vow

means that I am NOT going to attain

nirvana until all beings can attain me

bhana well the Buddha couldn't do it if

he could we wouldn't be here so that's

not a realistic vow but it does stop

people from attaining navona a

bodhisattva vow is a vow to become a

future Buddha and when you start seeing

how really difficult it is after five

thousand ten thousand a hundred thousand

lifetimes and you start going and I have

to do this for for my coppice no I don't

want to do that anymore now they can be

reborn when there is no Buddha era and

they're lost

that means they just

going round and round on the wheel of

samsara birth death birth death birth

death and immeasurable amounts of

suffering and pain you know I really do

believe the statement that the Buddha

made if if you put all of the tears from

all of your lifetimes together they

would be bigger than any oceans because

we've all suffered in so many lifetimes

let's get off the wheel now and help

other people get off the wheel that's

the one but I tell people that if

they've taken a bodhisattva vow I'm not

gonna judge them whether they want to

keep it or not but if they want to let

go of the Bodhisattva vow I tell them

how they can do that then it's their

choice I don't care anymore

it doesn't be sickly that doesn't they

they take a vow that they're going to

become a future Buddha and they try to

have compassionately some lifetimes

they're good at it some lifetimes are

bad at it see there's these ten things

they're called perfections that the

Buddha developed and there's there's

three levels of development and to be a

future Buddha you have to go through to

the end of the development of each one

of those good qualities and it takes a

long time to perfect it

I mean Gautama Buddha was called an

intelligent Buddha it took him four mana

tapas and a hundred thousand lifetimes

to become a Buddha

that's for expansions of the universe

and contractions of the universe four of

those that's a huge long period of time

there are some Bodhisattvas that are

called energetic Bodhisattvas and it

takes them eight Maha coppice in a

hundred thousand lifetimes and then

there is a moral Buddha in a moral

Buddha it takes 16 coppers and a hundred

thousand lifetimes so you're talking

about huge expanses of time where there

is big amounts of suffering that's

happening some lifetimes you learn from

something you don't it's not always

perfecting one of these highly good

qualities and in some of the earlier

texts this there's 32 qualities or 32

things that have to happen in order to

become a real Bodhisattva and one of

those things is making the vow in front

of a Buddha and he looks into the future

and sees that you have the determination

to do it and they'll say yes but a lot

of people that take that vow now it

stops them from going deeper in

meditation and experiencing Nevada

that's the nature of the vowel and they

will renounce that vow at some point

because they haven't got the assurance

that the Buddha said or a Buddhist said

yes you will become a future Buddha they

don't happen all that often and in this

Buddha era we have six Buddha's that

appear no no we're talking long periods

of time and there are some Buddha eras

that there's none there's some Buddha is

that there's only one so we're very very

lucky to be born in a time when there

are have been a lot of Buddhas and we're

in the cotton the dispensation of the

Buddha right no I mean the merit that we

have to make to be that close to Buddha

is stunning it's really remarkable

so take advantage of it your choice

there's nothing that can be more

precious than being around when we still

have the suitors and in reasonably good

shape and we can still decipher what the

Buddha was talking about probably in

another seven hundred to a thousand

years all of these books will be lost

and then there's just some small suitors

that people will use and the

understanding of Vidya for monks the

rules of the monks they won't even be

able to recite one rule of being a monk

and that's at the end of the this Buddha

era ladies I had I used to call this

this time being so close to the time as

a Buddha he said this is the age of

saints and we're in the age of saidit's

every time somebody experiences Nibbana

they become a saint which is a whole lot

different than a lot of other traditions

hold

you

do you have any questions yeah over a

period of time things kept changing and

then they took up a bodhisattva vow

because nobody was becoming our hearts

so they've tried to make the Bodhisattva

vow the main thing and put down any

other teaching that said no let's get

off the wheel now oh but you're selfish

if you don't take the Bodhisattva vow

and that's what they're really teaching

there's a lot of books on the

Bodhisattva vow how important it is and

the Tibetans have gone a step further

and they say well the Bodhisattva vow

means that I am NOT going to attain

nirvana until all beings can attain me

bhana well the Buddha couldn't do it if

he could we wouldn't be here so that's

not a realistic vow but it does stop

people from attaining navona a

bodhisattva vow is a vow to become a

future Buddha and when you start seeing

how really difficult it is after five

thousand ten thousand a hundred thousand

lifetimes and you start going and I have

to do this for for my coppice no I don't

want to do that anymore now they can be

reborn when there is no Buddha era and

they're lost

that means they just

going round and round on the wheel of

samsara birth death birth death birth

death and immeasurable amounts of

suffering and pain you know I really do

believe the statement that the Buddha

made if if you put all of the tears from

all of your lifetimes together they

would be bigger than any oceans because

we've all suffered in so many lifetimes

let's get off the wheel now and help

other people get off the wheel that's

the one but I tell people that if

they've taken a bodhisattva vow I'm not

gonna judge them whether they want to

keep it or not but if they want to let

go of the Bodhisattva vow I tell them

how they can do that then it's their

choice I don't care anymore

it doesn't be sickly that doesn't they

they take a vow that they're going to

become a future Buddha and they try to

have compassionately some lifetimes

they're good at it some lifetimes are

bad at it see there's these ten things

they're called perfections that the

Buddha developed and there's there's

three levels of development and to be a

future Buddha you have to go through to

the end of the development of each one

of those good qualities and it takes a

long time to perfect it

I mean Gautama Buddha was called an

intelligent Buddha it took him four mana

tapas and a hundred thousand lifetimes

to become a Buddha

that's for expansions of the universe

and contractions of the universe four of

those that's a huge long period of time

there are some Bodhisattvas that are

called energetic Bodhisattvas and it

takes them eight Maha coppice in a

hundred thousand lifetimes and then

there is a moral Buddha in a moral

Buddha it takes 16 coppers and a hundred

thousand lifetimes so you're talking

about huge expanses of time where there

is big amounts of suffering that's

happening some lifetimes you learn from

something you don't it's not always

perfecting one of these highly good

qualities and in some of the earlier

texts this there's 32 qualities or 32

things that have to happen in order to

become a real Bodhisattva and one of

those things is making the vow in front

of a Buddha and he looks into the future

and sees that you have the determination

to do it and they'll say yes but a lot

of people that take that vow now it

stops them from going deeper in

meditation and experiencing Nevada

that's the nature of the vowel and they

will renounce that vow at some point

because they haven't got the assurance

that the Buddha said or a Buddhist said

yes you will become a future Buddha they

don't happen all that often and in this

Buddha era we have six Buddha's that

appear no no we're talking long periods

of time and there are some Buddha eras

that there's none there's some Buddha is

that there's only one so we're very very

lucky to be born in a time when there

are have been a lot of Buddhas and we're

in the cotton the dispensation of the

Buddha right no I mean the merit that we

have to make to be that close to Buddha

is stunning it's really remarkable

so take advantage of it your choice

there's nothing that can be more

precious than being around when we still

have the suitors and in reasonably good

shape and we can still decipher what the

Buddha was talking about probably in

another seven hundred to a thousand

years all of these books will be lost

and then there's just some small suitors

that people will use and the

understanding of Vidya for monks the

rules of the monks they won't even be

able to recite one rule of being a monk

and that's at the end of the this Buddha

era ladies I had I used to call this

this time being so close to the time as

a Buddha he said this is the age of

saints and we're in the age of saidit's

every time somebody experiences Nibbana

they become a saint which is a whole lot

different than a lot of other traditions

hold

you