Religious vows

In the monastic tradition of all schools of Buddhism, the Vinaya expounds the vows of the fully ordained Nuns and Monks.

The vows are regarded as the individual's free response to a call by God to follow Jesus Christ more closely under the action of the Holy Spirit in a particular form of religious living.

[2] Since the 6th century, monks and nuns following the Rule of Saint Benedict have been making the Benedictine vow at their public profession of obedience (placing oneself under the direction of the abbot/abbess or prior/prioress), stability (committing oneself to a particular monastery), and "conversion of manners" (which includes celibate chastity and forgoing private ownership).

[3] During the 12th and 13th centuries mendicant orders emerged, such as the Franciscans and Dominicans, whose vocation emphasizing mobility and flexibility required them to drop the concept of "stability".

They therefore profess chastity, poverty and obedience, like the members of many other orders and religious congregations founded subsequently.

[4] The "clerks regular" of the 16th century and after, such as the Jesuits and Redemptorists, followed this same general format, though some added a "fourth vow", indicating some special apostolate or attitude within the order.

The Missionaries of Charity, founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta centuries later (1940s) take a fourth vow of special service to "the poorest of the poor".

Consecrated virgins living in the world do not make religious vows, but express by a public so-called sanctum propositum ("holy purpose")[6] to follow Christ more closely.

Once one put on the monastic habit, it was understood that one had made a lifetime commitment to God and would remain steadfast in it to the end.

Following a period of instruction and testing as a novice, a monk or nun may be tonsured with the permission of the candidate's spiritual father.

[17] In this vow, there is voluntary and gradual reduction of food and liquid intake to end one's life by choice and with dispassion,[18][19] In Jainism this is believed to reduce negative karma that affects a soul's future rebirths.