Living Vows, Living Karma : A Buddhist Hermeneutics of Practice in Monastic Ritual

Making vows is a fundamental yet often overlooked Buddhist monastic ritual. While seemingly monotonous and repetitive, these ritualized commitments form the foundation of monastic discipline and ethical training. Whether it is the recitation of the Three Refuges, the Four Boundless Vows, or the Ten Vows of Samantabhadra, the daily renewal of vows structures the rhythm of monastic life. Though to an outsider these repetitions may appear infinite and redundant, within monastic training, they cultivate deep concentration, heightened awareness, and a sustained commitment to the liberation of all beings. Rather than being mere affirmations, these vows function as an embodied practice through which monastics continually shape their ethical and spiritual trajectory.

This paper examines the essentiality of vow-making as a living ritual that intertwines Buddhist ethics, hermeneutics, and pedagogy. Drawing upon both textual analysis and lived monastic experience, it explores how the making and renewal of vows functions as both an internal discipline of self-cultivation and an external commitment to the welfare of all sentient beings, including the natural world. Rather than treating vows as fixed or static commitments, this study argues that they are best understood as a dynamic process in which monastics reaffirm, reinterpret, and adapt their vows in response to shifting historical and social conditions. By tracing vow-making as an interaction between text and practice, particularly as lived by monastics, this paper argues that vows are not mere words but an active ritual process that shapes both karma and ethical agency.

The vows in focus are the Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, found in Chapter 40 of the Flower Adornment Sutra. These vows, recited and sung daily at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, a Mahāyāna monastery in Northern California, serve as a central ritual framework for monastic practice. They include the commitment to venerate all Buddhas, make offerings, purify karma, support the Dharma, and universally dedicate merit. These ten vows function as an essential foundation for Bodhisattva training, structuring a monastic’s ethical development and their relationship to the broader Buddhist community. Investigating these vows through the Flower Adornment Sutra enables monastics, as aspiring Bodhisattvas, to test and renew their vows for contemporary application. The Flower Adornment Sutra itself presents a matrix-like vision of reality, in which all phenomena interpenetrate, mirroring the way in which vows are understood as dynamic and relational rather than fixed and static.

From a Buddhist hermeneutics of practice perspective, the framework of inquiry is guided by Qingliang’s Six Propositions, which offer a conceptual structure for understanding the fluid and interdependent nature of vows. These six propositions provide a lens for examining the authenticity, authority, and agency of ritualistic vow-making. The propositions include the idea that vows both exist and do not exist, function within the world while remaining beyond it, and ultimately transcend conceptual categorization. Through this framework, vows are shown to be simultaneously stable yet adaptive, offering a guiding structure for ethical conduct while allowing monastics to negotiate their commitments in response to contemporary social realities.

By applying this hermeneutical perspective, this paper argues that vow-making should not be viewed as a rigid or externally imposed monastic obligation but as an evolving practice that balances tradition and renewal. This study explores vow-making as an ongoing inquiry into how monastics understand their ethical responsibilities and navigate the interplay between personal agency and institutional authority. The vow-making process becomes a site where monastics both affirm their commitments and actively participate in shaping their ethical landscape. The repetition, renewal, and reinterpretation of vows allow monastics to engage in a democratic process of ethical self-governance, rather than passively inheriting a fixed tradition. This process is not limited to personal spiritual cultivation but extends to the collective, forming the foundation of a monastic community’s shared moral framework.

This paper highlights vow-making as both an individual discipline and a communal responsibility. As a personal practice, vows cultivate mindfulness, self-discipline, and ethical reflection. Through ritualized repetition, monastics refine their moral conduct and strengthen their commitment to the path of awakening. As a collective practice, vows create a shared ethical foundation that binds monastic communities together, ensuring continuity across generations while allowing for adaptation. The vow-making process thus emerges as an interactive ethical space where monastics actively engage, question, and reaffirm their commitments in dialogue with tradition and contemporary realities.

Vow-making also serves as a critical site for understanding the relationship between ritual and karma. Living vows and living karma are deeply intertwined, as the continual reaffirmation of vows is understood to shape karmic trajectories, both for the individual practitioner and for the broader community. Making vows  is a form of active ethical engagement that generates karmic momentum. In this sense, vows function as a ritualized mechanism for refining one’s moral and spiritual path while also fostering interconnected responsibility within the larger Buddhist world.

Through an ethnographic and textual study of monastic vow-making, this paper demonstrates that vows are not passive commitments but dynamic ethical and ritual processes. In contemporary Buddhist practice, where monastics navigate both traditional expectations and modern challenges, vow-making remains a powerful tool for ethical reflection, spiritual development, and engaged practice. By applying a Buddhist hermeneutics of practice, this study highlights the adaptability, flexibility, and renewal inherent in vow-making, reframing it as a democratic and liberative process rather than a rigid obligation.

This study raises broader questions about the evolving nature of monastic ritual in the contemporary Buddhist world. How is vow-making an essential practice in Buddhist monastic education? How do monastics conceptualize vows in relation to karma, ethical transformation, and their roles within the community? How does vow-making function as a site of Buddhist democracy, where tradition and adaptation continuously interact? How can Qingliang’s Six Propositions inform a contemporary practice of vow-making that balances ethical consistency with contemplative freedom? By engaging these questions, this paper reframes monastic vows as dynamic and evolving, deeply embedded in both individual cultivation and communal ethics. Ultimately, it argues that living vows and living karma are interwoven processes, continuously shaping the spiritual, ethical, and democratic dimensions of Buddhist monasticism.