Promises and Vows

Have you ever made a promise? Have you broken a promise? What does it take to follow through on a promise? A vow is like a promise made from the depths of our hearts. Do you keep your vows? Until I took refuge in the Buddhist path and then took the bodhicitta vows, I really did not understand promises or vows, with exception of my long marriage (but that is another story). Taking the bodhisattva’s vow to wake up for the sake of all beings threw me into another dimension of promise.

It seems there is nothing I can do to hide from that vow. It continuously throws me into the river and  either I struggle against the current, or relax and let the river take me where it will. This takes a lot of trust, something that eluded me in my younger life. Now I am compelled by choice to follow the currents of my life with intention to be awake to whatever arises, realizing I cannot hide from those reflections of my wisdom mind.

Making a vow to be aware without habitual reactions is a wondrous journey full of delightful missteps. Delightful, because they are always full of light the moment we remember our vow. Eventually, the vow becomes inseparable from moment to moment awareness, except for sometimes. Even then we experience a swift return to center, knowing we can never separate from the promise we made.

…and out of the silence
you can make a promise
it will kill you to break,

that way you’ll find
what is real and what is not…

excerpt from “All the True Vows” from The House of Belonging by David Whyte