Question asked by Jules
Enter Your Question HereWhy is it considered important for vows to be received from someone else who has the same vow? This seems like an Indian cultural assumption. I mean, we don’t necessarily have to receive marriage vows from someone who is married. Why couldn’t we just stand before an image of a deity and directly undertake to practice that deity, without any guru to initiate us?
Marriage vows do not take you to enlightenment, nor plant the seeds of enlightenment and it is not sworn to anyone but the one person in front of you. It is a promise.
Vows taken from a master, come from their master stemming back to the Buddha who originally gave the vow. Hence since it arises from the mind and speech of a Buddha, these vows come to be causal for the resultant enlightenment manifested in a Buddha.
Once you have taken the vow, it may be renewed during Daju for tantra or in front of an image.