The attitude behind the eight worldly dharmas, or phenomena, is a symptom of ignorance and ego and we have to recognize it as a negative motivation. For example, if you have the attitude that receiving a present is a source of pleasure and not receiving one is a cause of unhappiness, that’s not good. That attitude is a symptom of ego.

First of all, this attitude does not understand what is a gift and what is not. It functions at a very gross level. You don’t understand the broad view that the gift of other sentient beings is profound. If you think that giving chocolate is the only way to interpret giving—if you’re not giving chocolate, you’re not giving—your view is extremely narrow, and that’s a problem.

Another of the eight worldly dharmas is being attached to pleasant feelings and averse to unpleasant ones. That’s not good either. For a start, the way in which you interpret pleasant and unpleasant is completely relative; it depends. For example, one person considers meditating to be like going to a nightclub or the beach and finds it really enjoyable, while another considers it to be like being in prison and completely miserable. So, finding certain situations pleasant or unpleasant depends on your attitude.

Secondly, taking responsibility for your own liberation and enlightenment is not an easy job. It requires much effort. To demonstrate this, Shakyamuni himself spent six years in indestructible single-pointed meditation without food or other necessities in order to attain his goal. That’s not to say you should punish yourself in that way, but it’s a matter of putting right livelihood into the right channel, skillfully putting your body, speech and mind in the right direction, from peaceful environment to peaceful environment, which is, in fact, the path to enlightenment.

I say that following the path to enlightenment is not an easy job because our wrong conception mind, our grasping attitude, always overwhelms, interrupts and interferes with our efforts, and dealing with all this disruption can be difficult. So we should expect to encounter obstacles when trying to follow the path.

Nevertheless, the Buddhist interpretation of negotiating the path to enlightenment is not that it should be a miserable experience. We should not think, “I’m a religious person, therefore I should suffer; I’m a religious person, therefore I should not have plenty of bread and butter and should feel guilty if I do. Look at the people in Africa; they don’t even have water.” That sort of ridiculous thinking just makes you depressed. Also, it’s not right. You should not make yourself emotionally irritated, confused or guilty. That simply disturbs your tranquility and peace of mind.

The thing is that it’s important to avoid extreme attitudes. Also, without eliminating the symptoms of the eight worldly, ego-based dharmas, we can’t really help other people, even if our motivation is good. Good motivation is not enough when dealing with action. Without eliminating these eight symptoms of ego, the overambitious fantasy of “I want to help other people, that is best, Buddha said so” can be dangerous. We can destroy ourselves trying to act on just the idea of helping others.

This is similar to the supposed Communist ideal that everything should be done to benefit society. If that’s your position you’re just going to end up with a tremendous ego full of self- cherishing thoughts. The idea itself is good, but if you haven’t arrived at inner equality and just take that philosophy and try to impose it on others through force, instead of benefiting them you just finish up destroying yourself. It doesn’t make sense. That’s why the Buddhist point of view is that first you should practice as much as possible in order to learn about the reality of your own mind. In that way you benefit yourself, and then, when you share that benefit with others, it’s more effective.

Now, the root of the eight worldly dharmas is ignorance. This worldly attitude is a symptom of ignorance, of not seeing reality, and is the main human problem. Furthermore, it is not just our problem—it’s universal living beings’ problem, those who have not reached beyond ignorance. It’s not only Eastern people’s problem or Western people’s problem. It’s all universal sentient beings’ problem. In order to solve this problem, we have to gain wisdom and see things clean clear. That’s why we take refuge in the clean-clear wisdom of Dharma.

Remember how it works? Attitude, or motivation, arises from fundamental ignorance. Physical, verbal and mental actions then spring from this ignorant motivation and, as if it were some kind of manufacturing process, these actions leave negative imprints on our consciousness. Thus our ego, grasping mind, attachment and hatred all help produce the resulting symptoms. If we understand how our samsaric trip evolves in this way, the evolution of our very being, we’ll be able to generate the great energy and enthusiasm we need to take refuge in the Dharma in order to break down this beginningless cycle of existence.

In other words, if we’re aware, we’ll see that all the functions of our body, speech and mind have an energy force behind them. They don’t manifest instantly out of nowhere, as if they were not dependent phenomena. All the energy of our body, speech and mind is interdependent, linked with the energy force of our previous experiences. So every human being, each of us, is responsible for our own actions, and therefore for our own goodness or badness. We ourselves are responsible; we can’t say, “Buddha, you are responsible; Dharma, you are responsible for me.” From the Buddhist point of view, that’s a wrong attitude. I’m responsible for my own actions. My goodness and badness derive from my mind, my motivation. You people cannot make me good; you people cannot make me bad. My goodness and badness manifest from my own consciousness.

When somebody calls you a bad person and you feel it in your heart, it’s not something that came from nowhere. There’s a fundamental foundation, and that situation has arisen slowly, gradually, the way a cloud forms. The basis of a cloud forming is the energy of the sun, and when the other necessary elements are in place, a cloud is produced. The feeling is just like that; it does have an evolution. It’s the same with hatred and desire. Desire has a long history that goes back way beyond this life. It has evolved over many previous lives. If we understand that, we’ll have patience when trying to deal with it.

Frequently, the Western response to problems is impatience. That’s no good. We have to accept that problems evolve over a long period of time, and we need time and space to understand and work through them. Solving the problem of ego, for example, is a big job. We have to do it slowly, slowly, with patience. We have to understand this and not think that the problem can be solved by one quick meditation. Westerners would like things to be that way but that’s a misunderstanding. Some people might tell you that’s the way it works because that’s what you want to hear, but that’s a misconception too.

So now, the main point is to recognize that we’re not the only ones with problems. All other living beings have the same problems we do, so we should generate much compassion for them. Traditionally, when we meditate we should visualize our father to our right, our mother to our left, our worst enemy—the person who irritates us the most—in front, our dearest friend behind us, and all other universal sentient beings surrounding us on all sides. Psychologically, this is very important; it’s not just some kind of Tibetan custom. Most of the time we wouldn’t want to put our dear friend behind us where we can’t see them; we want our friend in front and our enemy in back, out of sight. So, in meditation, we put our enemy in front, our dear friend, the object that we grasp, behind us, all sentient beings around us and we generate a feeling of equilibrium, or equanimity, toward them all. In this way our mind becomes neutral and we avoid the extreme feelings that make us sick. That’s the Mahayana way of taking refuge. Instead of being concerned for only ourself, me, thinking my ego’s problems are the greatest of all and wanting to get rid of them—which is simply adding another problem to the ones we already have—we see all universal living beings’ need for refuge and take refuge for their sake.

It doesn’t matter what your situation is. You might be upper class, be the president of a country, have a great reputation, have a famous name, whatever—as long as you’re under the control of that symptom of ignorance, the eight worldly dharmas, you’re equal with everybody else: confused and suffering. It doesn’t matter if you’re beautiful or handsome, proud of your fantastic pleasures and the good time you always have, wealthy or poor, black or white, Dutch or Tibetan, your situation is the same as everybody else’s. It’s very important to recognize your equality with others because that knowledge allows you to eliminate your dualistic ambitions.

For example, Tibetan monks come to Amsterdam and survey the situation—nice cars, expensive shops, all the goodness of a modern Western city—and get very attracted to all that. They think, “I’m wasting my time in the mountains. Look at how incredibly these Dutch people enjoy their lives. They have everything. They’re the happiest people in the world!” It’s possible they can delude themselves like that. That’s what I mean by dualistic ambition. People confuse themselves like that.

But if we have a deeper understanding of the Dutch situation—that whether people are upper class or lower, enjoy nightclubs or whatever all these different people’s trips are, they’re all due to the functioning of the eight worldly dharmas that arise from ignorance and ego—our ambitions will be curtailed. Well, I hope so, but I’m not sure.

Anyway, Tibetan monks who come to Holland carrying a heavy load of eight worldly dharmas become prisoners of their ignorance and ego, even if they become Dutch citizens. Holland becomes their prison rather than the pleasurable paradise they expected. And it’s the same for native-born Dutch people. Holland is their prison, too.

Being human is both beautiful and precious. Humans have the ability to understand all universal living beings’ situations. That’s why our lives are precious. We might have problems, but we have many good qualities as well. We can understand our problems and thus eliminate them. As long as we engage in right livelihood, our lives are most worthwhile.

Now, getting back to our main topic, since refuge is a state of consciousness, some kind of realization, why do we need a ceremony in order to take it? Because if we understand our situation and feel taking refuge is worthwhile, we generate the strong determination to do so in front of all the supreme beings—the buddhas and bodhisattvas—of the ten directions. We decide, “Taking refuge in the light of Dharma wisdom is my path. This is the way to liberation; this is the way to enlightenment.” This strong motivation, which is based on the understanding that we are under the control of ignorance, ego and the eight worldly dharmas, makes our refuge strong. It has the power to develop continuously, which also helps us keep our refuge strong, even if we are later overwhelmed by the heavy blanket of ignorance. The force of the determination we generate in the ceremony protects us from uncertainty.