Dear Friends,

What would motivate you to make a promise that’s impossible to keep?

In the latest episode, I look at the Four Great Vows of the Bodhisattva — four commitments that can’t be completed, by definition, and yet have been recited daily in Zen communities for over a thousand years.

Most promises come with a reward. You do the work, you get the paycheck. You behave, you get the toy. There’s something at the other end. The Bodhisattva Vows don’t work that way. Saving all sentient beings, ending all delusions, entering every dharma gate, embodying the unsurpassable way — no one is checking those off a list. Not now, not ever.

So why commit?

I try to work through each of the vows in E5 with some personal honesty — including a look at what it means to call yourself a rageaholic, and my ongoing problem with being greedy about time. Not exactly flattering portraits, but I think that’s where these vows actually live: in the real stuff, the patterns we didn’t choose but carry around anyway.

The answer I landed on — at least for now — is that when a vow can’t be completed, it can’t be abandoned either. The direction is the point. The return, not the arrival.

Give it a listen. I’d love to know what you think.

Best,

Justin Tension