Overview
A Bodhisattva is a Buddhist practitioner who has taken a commitment to delay their own liberation through enlightenment into Nirvana until every other living being has also been able to achieve this liberation. This generally involves taking a vow to demonstrate that one has cultivated bodhicitta, or the heart-mind of an enlightened being.
Mahayana and Zen Buddhism put forward four vows for Bodhisattvas to take:
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Beings are numberless. I vow to save them.
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Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.
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Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them.
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The Buddha’s way in unsurpassable. I vow to attain it.