The Whole Point of Taking Buddhist Vows

Pema Dragpa August 28, 2019

The Three Vows of Foundational, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism

by Ngari Panchen

with commentary by His Holiness Dudjom Rinpoche

by Ven. Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche

Year 1: Foundational Buddhism

Lay Vinaya Vows

The three sets of vows (Skt. trisaṃvara; Tib. སྡོམ་གསུམ་, dom sum; Wyl. sdom gsum) are:

1. vows of pratimoksha or of individual liberation (Tib. སོ་ཐར་གྱི་སྡོམ་པ་, sotar gyi dompa)

2. bodhisattva vows (Tib. བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་, changchub sempé dompa)

3. samayas of the secret mantrayana (Tib. གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་སྡོམ་པ་, sang ngag kyi dompa)