Vows or aspirations from the Mahayana tradition
The general bodhisattva vows know in East Asian Buddhism may have come from these lines from the Avatamsaka Sutra.
May I purify an ocean of realms,
May I liberate an ocean of sentient beings,
May I see an ocean of truths,
And may I realize an ocean of wisdom.
May I perform an ocean of perfect deeds,
May I perfect an ocean of prayers,
May I revere an ocean of buddhas Avatamsaka Sutra, chapter 39 near the end.
One version of the vows, from around or before 800 CE, has five vows instead of the four known today.
Beings are countless. I vow to liberate them all.
Merit & wisdom are boundless. I vow to accumulate them.
The Dharma of the Buddha is boundless. I vow to master it.
The Tathagatas are infinite in number. I vow to serve them.
I vow to realize full Buddhahood.
The Bodhisattva Vow nowadays is generally some version of the following:
However innumerable sentient beings are, I vow to save them.
However inexhaustible the defilements are, I vow to extinguish them.
However immeasurable the dharmas are, I vow to master them.
However incomparable enlightenment is, I vow to attain it.
Two sets of Buddhist vows
There are mainly two specific sets of vows that Buddhists take in formal settings nowadays, although every Mahayana aspirant is encourged to make individual vows too.
One set is from the Brahma Net Sutra and followed in China, Japan & Korea & the rest of East Asia. http://www.purifymind.com/BrahmaNetSutra.htm
The other is used as an expanded set of rules for those aspiring to become Bodhisattvas, by the Tibetan & Mongolian Mahayanists of Central Asia: