Going For Refuge

This talk was given at the Cambridge Buddhist Centre in 2017

If you reflect on life and on your own life you probably have some inkling of what you want to do with your life. You have some idea that if you have the chance – you would like to be able to sit back in old age – look back on your life and say, yes, I have lived life to the full. I have done my best and achieved what I could achieve. For some this kind of contemplation brings to mind things like travelling the world or being a millionaire or raising a family successfully.

For a spiritual aspirant and especially for a Buddhist it may bring to mind images of the Buddha or great Buddhists like Milarepa or Padmasambhava and their spiritual achievements. Whatever it brings to mind it’s an exercise worth doing – imagine yourself at the end of your life being able to say I have lived life fully and then reflect on what that would mean for you now. The answer can give shape and direction to your life. For the purposes of this talk living life to the full means doing all that is necessary to lead towards the Awakening that we call Buddhahood. In traditional terms this is spoken of as Saranam Gacchami – going for refuge. Buddham Saranam Gacchami , Dhammam Saranam Gacchami and Sangham Saranam Gacchami; going for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is what we are going to explore in depth in this talk.

Going for refuge to the Buddha

I’m going to look at going for refuge to the Buddha under five headings

affirmation

investigation

transformation

emulation

contemplation

The first thing that going for refuge to the Buddha means is being clear that the Buddha was an Enlightened human being – not a son of God, not the ninth avatar of Vishnu, not a great philosopher like Socrates, not a religious leader but an Awakened or Enlightened human being. What does that mean?

Here is a quote from Bhante Sangharakshita: “Enlightenment – we can say that it is a state of pure, clear, radiant awareness. And it is sometimes specified that in this state of awareness one no longer makes any emotional distinction between oneself and others. That sense we have of an inner world set against a world outside ourselves is entirely transcended. There is just one continuous, pure, and homogeneous awareness extending freely in all directions. It is, moreover, an awareness of things as they really are. This means an awareness of things not as objects, but as transcending the duality of subject and object. Hence this pure, clear awareness is also spoken of as an awareness of Reality. It is a state of knowledge – knowledge not in the ordinary sense of someone accumulating notions of things, but rather a seeing of things directly and truly, unmediated by any separate subject doing the seeing. It is a spiritual vision – even a transcendental vision – which is free from all delusion, or misconception, all wrong, crooked thinking, all vagueness, all obscurity, all mental conditioning, and all prejudice.

However this is not the end of it. Enlightenment can be described as full illumination, as transcendental awareness, as Wisdom. But it is also an overflowing of profound love and compassion for all that lives. It is described, too, as supreme bliss, or complete emancipation – the bliss of release from the subjective ills and limitations of conditioned existence. It is thus also characterised by inexhaustible energy continually bubbling forth, total spontaneity, uninterrupted creativity. At the same time none of these aspects of Enlightenment function separately from one another. Therefore the actual experience cannot be described at all. Only by reflection on the Dharma – reflecting on the Buddha’s teaching as well as his example – by deeper communication with friends, and above all by meditation, can we get some real intimation of what the Enlightenment of a Buddha consists in.” (Complete Works, Vol.3, p.31)

Having a sense of the Buddha as Enlightened, as symbolising the ideal of Enlightenment for all humanity – we can open our hearts in devotion and gratitude and aspiration. As Sangharakshita says “the image of the Buddha with which everyone is familiar seems a figure of unfathomable knowledge and compassion. Its message is not strident or defensive. It does not call for fear and guilt. Instead, it triggers off a subtle perplexity in ourselves, questioning of our deepest assumptions – about what is possible, about what can be known and what cannot be known, about what a human being can become. We may recognise in it something in ourselves that we have not perhaps taken into account; and the belief may stir in us that such knowledge and serenity might be available to ourselves.”

The first stage of going for refuge to the Buddha is affirming that the Buddha was an enlightened human being and therefore an ideal model for all humanity. Buddhism begins with the Buddha. We can use many metaphors – an ideal indicates where we want to go, Buddha nature indicates what we are potentially and nirvana indicates what we want to let go of our escape from.

The second stage is investigation – this refers to getting to know yourself. The Buddha is your ideal – but what or who are you? This aspect of going for refuge involves looking into your conditioning; family, school, society, class, religion, politics. It also involves becoming aware of your habits, your views, your behaviour and your speech. It involves getting to know yourself thoroughly through meditation, communication( includes things like life stories, friendships) and reflection. It’s not about passing judgement on yourself but about being honest with yourself, not hiding from yourself.

The third stage of going for refuge is transformation. Knowing yourself and having a direction to your life means that you can begin to transform yourself in that direction, especially through working on your behaviour and your speech. A key wrong view is not accepting the law of karma – without it practice is pointless. If we have right view and accept the law of karma then we can practice by using the law of karma and relying upon it. We don’t really have right view if we only accept the law of karma intellectually and don’t act upon it.

The fourth stage is emulation. The precepts are a description of the normal behaviour of a Buddha. We can use the idea of emulating the Buddha to encourage us to be ethical, to meditate and reflect and communicate well – that is what the Buddha did. We can read about the Buddha – in books like Gautama by Vishvapani, Life of the Buddha by Nanamoli and of course the Pali Canon. We can read about other great Buddhist teachers – in the Tibetan tradition the Guru is the Buddha for the disciple. We could read about the life of Sangharakshita we could look at the people around us, who do we admire? - who would we like to emulate?

The last stage according to my list is contemplation. The traditional practice is called Buddhanusati – recollection of the Buddha, contemplating the Buddha’s qualities – wisdom, compassion, energy. This could also mean knowing stories from the Buddha’s life. We can also contemplate qualities through reflecting on the symbolism of the archetypal Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. The symbolism of the five Buddhas is very rich – colours, gestures, animals, and much more. Visualising and contemplating these helps to open our hearts in devotion. Devotional practices are a kind of ritual contemplation of the Buddha and the qualities of Enlightenment. They are meant to move us emotionally so that we recognise that which is higher with receptivity, gratitude and reverence.

In order to go for refuge to the Buddha more deeply we could ask ourselves some questions: what does awakening mean to me? What steps could I take to know myself better? Do I really believe that I could change? What particular quality of the Buddha would I most like to emulate?

Going for refuge to the Dharma

The first thing is to know it. What is the teaching of the Buddha and what is Bhante Sangharakshita's elucidation of the Buddha’s teaching. In order to know the Dharma we need to study, discuss, explore. Especially we need to explore and try to understand pratitya samutpada, dependent arising and its implications. Then we need to apply the Dharma to our lives. Bhante always asked himself “what is the purpose of this teaching?” So for instance – we shouldn’t just think – all things are impermanent and tick the box – got that – okay next. No, we should ask what are the implications for me? Do I really really believe it? We should try to apply it to the things that we are attached to and the people we're attached to. All things – everything and everybody is impermanent – you are impermanent – your legs, your eyes, your ears, your heart – all of you. Your thoughts, your emotions, your resentments, your complaints, your desires – all impermanent. We can go into it deeper and deeper. Impermanence doesn’t just mean that things come to an end it also means that things come into being, it implies growth and we should reflect on that side of impermanence and its implications for ourselves too.

Going for refuge to the Dharma of course means practising the Dharma. That means practising ethics, meditation, going on retreat, friendship and spiritual community, reflection. Reflection is a crucial practice – asking yourself questions such as what do I really believe? What do I want to do with my life? Asking questions can take us deeper and deeper. Going for refuge to the Dharma can be summed up in the words – study, practice, realise. The last of these, realising, is not something that can be forced, it arises in dependence on conditions, on a particular intensity of practice. Realising is a matter of experience followed by embodying the truth of what was experienced in how we live our lives and relate to others.

Going for refuge to the Sangha

According to Bhante going for refuge to the Sangha means “looking for inspiration and guidance to those followers of the Buddha, both past and present, who are spiritually more advanced than oneself”. The Dharma is not an abstraction – it is embodied in flesh and blood people. And we need to be in contact with people who embody the Dharma to a greater degree than we do. There is a spiritual hierarchy, but how do we recognise that people are more spiritually advanced? In the Anguttara Nikaya the Buddha talks about the ways to know a person: “four facts about a person, O monks, can be known from four circumstances. By living together with a person his virtue can be known, by having dealings with a person his integrity can be known, in misfortune a person’s fortitude can be known, by conversation a person’s wisdom can be known”. (AN,IV,192)

We also know a person through seeing their faith and their ethical practice. We are connected to the ideal of Enlightenment via the Sangha, especially the people who embody the Dharma to a greater degree than we do. So going for refuge to the Sangha involves finding inspiration and guidance. What inspires us? Do we want or welcome guidance?

In relation to the Sangha of all those on the path with us we go for refuge by being in communication, creating friendships, confiding in confessing. Through all of this we transform ourselves. Sangha supports our practice. It makes possible lifestyles to support practice – you meet others and you can go on retreat with them, study with them, meditate with them, even in some cases live and work with them. Sangha also provides a context where we can give expression to our values and ideals – share with others.

A Buddhist Centre is a result of Sangha and a condition for Sangha to expand and flourish. It is something to be valued as part of our going for refuge to the Sangha. Going for refuge to the Sangha means being engaged in creating Sangha. It’s surprising how easy it is to take the Buddhist Centre and all its activities for granted but it’s worth reminding ourselves and remembering that it only exists because of the generosity of people; people giving their time, people giving their energy, people giving their money, it’s all supported by the generosity and efforts of people.

So that is something about going for refuge to the Buddha, to the Dharma and to the Sangha. I hope it’s taken us a little deeper into these topics.