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Estonian Institute of Buddhism
IntroductionEstonian Institute of Buddhism was created to advance Buddhist culture and to give Buddhist education in Estonia. The main principles of the Institute of Buddhism are openness and the interpretation of Buddha's teachings in the context of modern culture. The Institute of Buddhism follows the general principles of Buddhism laid down in the Sutras, giving no preference to particular schools, sects or lineages. The aim of the Institute of Buddhism is the preservation and promotion of universal ethics by combining ancient Teachings with modern scientific world view. In this respect the Institute of Buddhism follows the path set out by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and other Great Masters.
The founders of the Institute of Buddhism are Estonian men and women who have based their lives and their world outlook on Buddhism. They form the Council of the Institute. The Institute of Buddhism wishes to cooperate with all persons and organisations worldwide who share our views and objectives-to make the Path of Wisdom and Compassion, as shown in Buddha's Teachings, available to as many people as possible.
Contribution of the Institute of Buddhism to this objective follows for the most part through culture and education, by organising classes, culture events, conferences and seminars, publishing books and issuing other publications, inviting venerable Masters. A further goal is to establish a Buddhist Centre in Estonia. In our activities we are striving to go beyond being merely "consumers" of Buddhism: it is our aim to give our own creative contribution to the understanding and practice of Buddhism in the modern world.
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The Boddhisattva Vow
All that burden of pain I take upon myself, I assume, I endure. I do not avoid or run away, I fear not nor am afraid, I tremble not , I turn not back, I despair not. And why not?
Certainly the burden of all creatures must be borne by me; that is not my own pleasure; it is my resolution to save all creatures, I must set all free, I must save all the world, from the wilderness of birth, of old age, of disease, of being born again, of all sins, of all misfortunes, of all transmigrations, of all depths of heretical doctrine, of destruction of the good Law, of ignorance arisen, therefore by me all creatures must be set free from all the wilderness, caught as they are in the net of thirst, wrapt in the toils of ignorance, held fast in the desire for existence, whose end is destruction, enclosed in the cage of pain, attached to their prison; without knowledge, uncertain in promises, full of hesitation, ever in discord, finding unhappiness, without means of refuge, in the flood of existence, wordlings in the foaming gulf.
I walk so as to establish the kingdom of incomparable wisdom for all: I am not one tittle concerned with my own deliverance. All creatures I must draw out from the perils of transmigration with the lifeboat of all-wisdom, I must pull them back from the great precipice, I must set them free from all calamities, I must ferry them over the stream of transmigration.
By my own self all the mass of others' pain has been assumed: I have the courage in all misfortunes belonging to all worlds, to experience every abode of pain. I must not defraud the world of the roots of good. I resolve to abide in each single state of misfortune through numberless future ages: and as in one abode of misfortune, so in all such abodes belonging to the worlds, for the salvation of all creatures. And why so?
Because it is better indeed that I alone be in pain, than that all those creatures fall into the place of misfortune. There I must give myself in bondage, and all the world must be redeemed from the wilderness of hell, beast-birth, and Yama's world, and I for the good of all creatures would experience all the mass of pain and unhappiness in this my own body: and on account of all creatures I give surety for all creatures, speking truth, trustworthy, not breaking my word. I must not forsake others.
So must I apply my root of good that all creatures may gain exceeding great happiness, unheard-of happiness, the happiness of all-knowledge.Vajradhvaja Sūtra
Śiksā Samuccaya
A Compendium of Buddhist Doctrine
Compiled by Śāntideva
Translated from the Sanskrit by Cecil Bendall and
W.H.D. Rouse
Motilal Banarsidass Publishers
Private Limited, Delhi, 1990
First print 1922
Estonian Institute of Buddhism (MTÜ Budismi Instituut); registration code: 80157537
phone: +372 51 013 87; e-mail info@budismiinstituut.ee
Tallinn, Estonia; bank account no. EE982200221018598037 in Swedbank