Vow

vow
[誓願] (Skt pranidhana; Jpn seigan )

    In Buddhism, vows that Buddhas and bodhisattvas take to lead living beings to enlightenment. There are two kinds of vows: universal and individual. The bodhisattvas make four universal vows when they embark on Buddhist practice:

  (1) to save innumerable living beings,
  (2) to eradicate unlimited earthly desires,
  (3) to master inexhaustible doctrines, and
  (4) to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.

Among individual vows, the forty-eight vows of Amida Buddha and the twelve vows of Medicine Master Buddha are well known.

These Buddhas made their respective vows in a previous existence before at-taining Buddhahood. Such vows made by Buddhas while engaged in bodhisattva

Source

www.sgilibrary.org