Core tenet of Mahāyāna
The bodhisattva stays until all beings are free.
The vow that defines the Great Vehicle: awakening deferred out of compassion.
Understanding it — context, not catechism: how this passage is held
Mahayana's reframing is total: the goal is not to end one's own suffering but to become a Buddha for the sake of all beings, which takes incalculable lifetimes and is undertaken willingly. The vow is mathematically impossible on purpose — beings are numberless, and you vow to free them all — because the tradition holds that adopting an unlimited aim is what dissolves the self-concern that the limited aim leaves intact.
The same ground, other faiths
claims that share this one's ideas
Ahimsa — do no harm.
Hinduism · precept
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Compassion extends to all sentient beings.
Buddhism
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Micchami dukkadam.
Jainism · rite
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Guard the tongue.
Judaism · precept
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Love of God and neighbor is the whole law.
Christianity
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Your parents have a claim on you.
Islam · precept
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