6. Refuge

[WFGS pp. 199–27]

GOING FOR REFUGE 

The topic of refuge is a most profound subject since it includes all the knowledge of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This topic requires deep understanding obtained through practice, which, when attained, can purify all obscurations.

When we recognize a problem incorrectly, it leads to the wrong solution. Thinking that any problem is the result of external circumstances is a wrong assumption, and trying to solve it by material means ultimately fails. Problems must be seen as arising from within and must be solved by inner means. For example, a person dying of starvation thinks that lack of food is the main problem. But from the Dharma point of view, this is not the case. Even if the starving person were to receive food, their problems would continue; the negative actions that caused their suffering have not ceased and there is still ignorance in their mind. Food is only a temporary relief.

In order to eliminate suffering in future lives, we need to stop creating negative karma. Even though we have been eating food since beginningless time, we still feel hungry. We’ve eaten a greater amount than we could ever imagine—the earth is the size of an atom by comparison—and it isn’t helping now. Eating food is not the principal cause of freedom from hunger.

Why are the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha called the Three Rare Sublime Ones?¹ Because each of these three has the power and wisdom to release us from suffering and lead us to enlightenment. These three refuges have the greatest knowledge, greater than that of any worldly existence or of any samsaric being. Therefore, they are the Three Rare Sublime Ones—precious, rare and the best. They lead us to enlightenment, in conjunction with the practice of observing our karma.

As Milarepa says,

Be afraid of samsara, remember impermanence and death, rely completely on the perfect guides, the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and be careful in the creation of karma.

If we are afraid of being born into one of the realms where there is no freedom, if we are afraid of samsaric suffering and the suffering of the three lower realms, if we are frightened of all of these things and don’t want to experience them, we must rely on the Three Rare Sublime Ones and be careful in our creation of karma.

Our principal aim should not be the experience of worldly pleasures but liberation from samsara and the attainment of enlightenment. In order to achieve these aims we should rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, with full confidence in their knowledge. For example, in order for Tibetans to regain independence and return to their country, their beloved motherland, they need to depend on the help of another free country, just as a blind person needs the help of a sighted person or a person with limited mobility needs the help of someone who can walk. In the same way, we are blind without wisdom; we do not see the evolution of karma, nor the difference between cause and effect. Neither do we understand the Dharma, the graduated path that leads from the beginning until enlightenment. In that way, we are also limited and can’t tread the path alone. We must rely completely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha with full confidence, being guided by their wisdom.

However, having faith alone is not enough to lead us to escape from suffering; we must also place our actions of body, speech and mind in the Dharma. We must continuously place our mind in our Dharma practice. And then, we will be able to reach the beautiful land of enlightenment.

We are like a person trapped down a deep well. Merely having faith that the person above us with a rope can pull us out is not enough. We must also grasp tightly to the rope in order to escape from the well. If we have no faith in the rope or we fail to hold it tightly, we will never escape the well. The rope is like the path that we must take. The essential Dharma practice that leads to enlightenment is the practice of observing our karma with full confidence in the Buddha’s explanations.

An enlightened being is defined as one whose realizations of mind are fully developed. The Buddha can take many forms. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha wasn’t necessarily born only in India; sometimes his name was “Christ.”

Shakyamuni Buddha is a perfect guide. He has eliminated both of the two types of obscurations. Nyön drib means affliction obscurations, what are called disturbing-thought obscurations. These are the obscuration that prevent the lower realization of nirvana. She drib means obscurations to knowledge, which are the obscurations to full enlightenment. These are profound subjects requiring a great deal of study in order to be understood.

Shakyamuni Buddha also possesses extensive skill. He has completed his own work and also the work of others. If a being is enlightened, there is never any question about whether they will guide somebody without belief. Their lack of belief only affects them. Enlightened beings are utterly impartial; they help all beings regardless of whether or not those beings have faith in them or not, or like or dislike them. Any being with a partial mind is not enlightened. Even a very new bodhisattva who has just attained bodhicitta, because they are free from the partial mind, they have great compassion for all beings equally. The partial mind and bodhicitta are dichotomies. These two minds can’t exist together.

Many people think that if you don’t have faith, you can’t be helped; you won’t receive the blessings of the holy mind or help from God. This is not the case. Even the noble bodhisattvas who have attained the full realization of emptiness perceive the person who cuts them with knives and the person who lovingly caresses them with equal loving kindness and compassion.

There are five bodhisattva paths: the paths of merit, preparation, right-seeing, meditation and no more learning. To attain enlightenment, it’s necessary to complete all five. Bodhisattvas are on their way to attaining enlightenment; they are on these paths.

The sole wish of the buddhas is that we are released from the cause of suffering, the negative mind. Therefore, eliminating negative minds and attaining realizations is the best offering we can make to the enlightened beings. Guru Shakyamuni Buddha released himself from every single defect of the negative mind. This is the meaning of “enlightened being;” the perfect guide who can lead other beings out of suffering. The Buddha attained enlightenment for each of us—only to help sentient beings. Therefore, it’s impossible that he has a partial mind.

In The Foundation of All Good Qualities, Lama Tsongkhapa says,

When I have discovered that the precious freedom of this rebirth is found only once, 
Is extremely difficult to find again, and is greatly meaningful, 
Please bless me to unceasingly generate the mind 
Taking its essence, day and night.²

As the teachings instruct us, the essential method to take the essence of Dharma practice is to turn every action from negative to positive.

When we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, we think of the Buddha as the doctor who discovers the medicine, the Dharma as the medicine itself and the Sangha as the nurse who helps us—the patients—on the path. The Dharma causes mental suffering to cease, but in order for this to occur it must be explained by the enlightened being, the Buddha.

Taking refuge in the Buddha means correctly following the founder of the Dharma and the guide, who is the guru who imparts the teachings, with understanding and devotion. Taking refuge in the Dharma means correctly following the teachings as they are explained, trying to avoid creating negative karma as much as possible and making effort to create positive karma and merit as much as possible with understanding, faith and respect for karma.

Accepting the good influence of the objects of refuge will help us to be released from suffering, to become free from samsara and to achieve enlightenment. We rely on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to show us how to bring this about.

According to the instructions of the enlightened being, in order for refuge to be present in our mind, there must be two causes. The two causes are likened to the presence of a bridge over a river—one side, ours, is not fixed, while the other side, the Buddha’s, is always there. It’s first necessary to fix our side, and then it’s possible to get to the other side. Enlightenment is attained on the basis of refuge, but first we must have the fundamental connection with the Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and ourselves, as well as the two causes.

The two causes are fear—of samsara and suffering—and faith, or full confidence in the wisdom of the enlightened beings, in their fully realized omniscient mind, their great compassion, and their great power to guide all sentient beings from suffering by whichever method is most appropriate for them. This confidence or faith arises from the fear of the suffering of samsara. Without that fear, there is no reason to seek out the enlightened beings or to take refuge, no reason to try to understand their wisdom, no reason to develop devotion for them and no reason to develop confidence in their abilities. Without fear, we cannot escape from samsara.

The topic of refuge is very powerful. If we talk too much about refuge when the mind is not ready or receptive, it can cause difficulties. To completely understand refuge, we need the basis of the understanding of the complete path to enlightenment. To completely understand the Dharma, we need the realization of karma—the realization of each and every single, subtle karma, each cause and each result, and each result of each cause. Only fully enlightened beings see karma at this level of subtlety. Therefore, refuge is not an easy subject. It takes a lifetime to fully understand it, for doing so depends on attaining the entire path of the Dharma up to enlightenment. It also depends upon attaining the knowledge of the Sangha, which depends on the realization of karma and the recognition of the three lower realms of samsara, which in turn depends on the understanding that mind is beginningless. Without this understanding, our mind will remain closed.

Refuge is a topic that we can discuss for our entire lifetime and study without stopping until we reach enlightenment, because it contains so many things. The teachings of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and the commentaries by the highly realized Indian pandits are all related to one another and are rooted in the topic of refuge. Even though it is presented here as a simple subject, actually it is neither simple nor easy. In the monasteries there are so many texts. If we talk about the root, refuge, all those other subjects will be included.

This is just the seed of knowledge, on the basis of which we can grow wisdom through our study of the bigger subjects with details, because they are related to one another. If we study for so many years without living in the practice of the meditations, our actions will not become Dharma and will not become positive or virtuous. Perfect peace does not depend on a large collection of Dharma words in the head; it’s not enough to acquire a huge intellectual understanding without any feeling; we must practice.

THE QUALITIES OF THE BUDDHA 

There are three or four bodies of the Buddha depending on how they are counted. The three are: the dharmakaya or the truth body (chö ku), the mind of the Buddha which can emanate as the nirmanakaya or enjoyment body (long ku) or the sambhogakaya or emanation body (tul ku). The fourth body is the nature body or svabhavakakaya (ngo wo nyi ku), which is the essential purity of the holy mind that is the dharmakaya. It is completely purified of obscurations and delusions, and of the imprints of delusions that make up the subtle obscurations. The nature body is the clear light nature that exists in our mind even at present. The truth body, the dharmakaya, however, is not present in our mind at the moment. The truth body will be attained after the purification of the mind is complete. The function of the mind at enlightenment is the truth body, while its nature is the nature body.

The mind we have now has the potential to become the omniscient mind of the Buddha through our Dharma practice. Purifying the mind doesn’t mean we eliminate the mind. A fully purified mind doesn’t mean that there is no mind left. If that were the case, when we reach enlightenment, we would cease to exist and there would be no truth body or enjoyment or emanation body.

When we become enlightened, this becomes our own enlightened truth body. Every living being who possesses mind also possesses the continuity of mind. If there were no continuity of mind, there would be no chance to work toward future enlightenment. When the mind is completely purified, enlightened, there is no cause to be a sentient being again, to experience suffering again, because the creator of suffering, the ignorant, deluded mind, has ceased. Without a cause, the result can’t happen. If the negative mind were to continue even after enlightenment, there would be no end to Dharma practice and purification and no reason to put effort into practicing the Dharma. But since it will end, we should make an effort.

When we try for samsaric happiness, the work we must do to acquire it never ends. When the action ends, the samsaric happiness ends as well, and more effort is always required. But when Dharma work ends, its happiness is endless; it brings greater and greater happiness until we reach the state of perfection. Therefore, it’s much more meaningful to do Dharma work than samsaric work. Dharma work and samsaric work are in complete opposition—like earth and space. Any happiness that samsaric work brings will end. It can’t last and it keeps us forever busy. We have been working like this for all our lives so far, and what has the result been?

The mind has the power to end ignorance; that is its nature. Many people think that when we cut off the negative minds of greed, hatred and ignorance, the mind ceases completely, but this is wrong. The state of full enlightenment is not the cessation of the mind. When a dirty bowl is completely cleaned, if it were then to become nonexistent, how could there ever be a “clean bowl?” It’s the same when we clean our mind of negativity; it’s the nature of the mind to become omniscient. When we achieve this state, we can help other sentient beings and lead them from suffering. This is the purpose of completely purifying the mind. If there were no omniscient mind, there would be no reason to practice Dharma.

Just as we clean the bowl so the food won’t be tainted and dirty—something we don’t want—we clean our mind to eliminate suffering, which means we must overcome the causes of suffering that exist within our mindstream. The way we clean the mind is not with water or by hand, not by external means, but mainly by mental effort. Both the gross and subtle obscurations need to be cleaned. Just like the dirty bowl, we begin by removing all the rotten food. Once this is gone, still a subtle smell remains, so we use other methods to clean it even more. In the end, the completely clean bowl is left—or the pure mind, which is endless. If the bowl or the mind ceased to exist after it was cleaned, the action of cleaning would be pointless.

We clean the mind by using the mind itself, by understanding and developing our wisdom, by seeing the evolution of the mind and karma, and by achieving the different realizations, the realizations of the graduated path and of bodhicitta and wisdom.

The wisdom that realizes emptiness is vital. If we were to see a coiled rope on a dark road at night, we would be very afraid, thinking it was a snake. This fear arises as a result of the time, the conditions, and our lack of understanding. When we recognize that the rope is a rope after all, and not a snake, there is no longer any fear or suffering. This kind of mistaken recognition between subject and object arises dues to the circumstances but also due to the mind that is obscured from seeing the truth. When we fully understand the wisdom of emptiness—how things actually exist—suffering and the causes of suffering are naturally eliminated. To attain this wisdom, we must purify our mind through practice.

The emptiness of the mind is its absolute nature; the mind itself is its relative nature. Everything that exists is included in these two truths: absolute and relative truth. The object perceived by the mind engaged in the meditation on emptiness is an absolute truth, and the object that is true to the ordinary relative mind is a relative truth. Absolute nature and true nature are the same. The absolute mind is so designated because it sees the absolute true nature of existence.

This is a very deep and profound subject, and it takes a long time to understand. In Tibet, the monks in the colleges spend forty years studying this subject and still they may not have completed their examination of the two truths, which subsume all existence. To gain a deeper understanding of this subject matter they spend many years studying the commentaries written by highly realized Tibetan yogis and Indian pandits.

Every existent thing exists because of its absolute nature. Without absolute nature, things can’t exist, in the same way that you can’t have the existence of the second and third floors of a building without the existence of the first. The absolute nature of the mind is the opposite of what our ordinary wrong concept sees with our limited mind. According to our ordinary limited view, the absolute mind doesn’t exist, whereas we think what doesn’t exist—inherent existence—does exist. This belief in truly existing objects, especially in the truly existing I, is the reason we cycle in samsara. It’s where all suffering arises from.

The great yogi Padmasambhava was invited by the Dharma kings to Tibet to tame the negative forces and evil spirits and to establish the Buddhadharma there. He said,

The meditator who does not realize that his mind is a liar takes the wrong path at the time of death.³

The principal cause of the negative mind is not recognizing the absolute truth, which means not realizing emptiness. Unless we recognize how nothing has self-existence, we believe the opposite, that things have self-existence. Without this recognition, there is no way to escape from ignorance and no other way to stop fear. Any actions that are created as a result of following the deluded mind that sees self-existence—the opposite of how things exist—only create more problems.

The subtle mind is the consciousness that carries all the positive and negative imprints of the actions we have created. No matter what form of rebirth we take, the subtle mind exists. The aggregates also have continuity; if they did not there would be no continuity of a person. The subtle mind can be categorized into two: the pure and impure subtle mind. The impure subtle mind is that which is unable to use the state of the clear light on the path to enlightenment. The gross mind is the deluded mind, and at the time of death, when it’s absorbed, the gross superstitions also dissolve.

The ordinary mind is accompanied by an impure subtle mind at the time of death and is usually completely out of control. In order to gain control at death, we need to purify our gross mind through practice in this lifetime.

THE SAMBHOGAKAYA

The present mind has a relationship with the future sambhogakaya, just as a seed has a relationship with the future flower it produces.

The Buddha’s emanation body or sambhogakaya is the body seen by highly realized beings. It’s ornamented by thirty-two perfect qualities. His feet and hands are like those of a young person, without wrinkles, as result of his practice of charity of food and so forth while he was following the path. The length of his body is seven times the length of his forearm and his body is straight, not curved, due to the karma of avoiding killing other beings. His hairs stand up straight due to the karma of avoiding killing other beings, and also due to creating many merits and helping many people create good karma. His hands reach down to his knees when he stands; they are long and beautiful as a result of giving to other beings when asked. His skin is clear and very pure and golden as a result of the karma from serving other beings well, such as bringing them cushions, arranging their beds and so forth. Each hair on his head is curled and untangled as a result of his avoidance of mental distraction and samsaric enjoyment. Between his eyes is a curl which, if rolled out, would be three times the length of his forearm. This curl is the karmic result of respecting the holy beings and gurus. His double crown protrusion and right-turning blue hairs are the karmic result of the offerings he made at temples, palaces and to other beings.

The eighty minor marks of the Buddha are an indication to other holy beings of his holy body and serve as an example. His nails are the color of copper as a result of his complete avoidance of greed. His holy body is free from surface veins due to his avoidance of the ten nonvirtues. He has no channel knots because he is completely released from all the delusions. He has a perfectly proportioned body as a karmic result of having given teachings that perfectly suited every different living being’s mind. As he walks, each step is equal, meaning that he has equal compassion for each and every sentient being. His lips are cherry red in color, like a piece of shiny fruit, meaning that he fully realizes living and nonliving existence as a reflection.

THE NIRMANAKAYA

Since the different levels of the sambhogakaya do not appear to ordinary beings, the Buddha manifests to them in the nirmanakaya or emanation body form. Many beings, however, do not even have the karma to see the Buddha as a human being. As he says, “In such degenerate times I shall appear only in the form of letters.”

The function of the nirmanakaya is to guide sentient beings from suffering, but the form the many millions of different emanation bodies take is indefinite. He won’t always appear as a monk in robes. The different forms he takes suits the minds of those he benefits, fitting in with the country and customs of those beings.

Lama Tsongkhapa made prostrations while visualizing the thirty-five aspects of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, and as a result he saw the Buddha on the walls of his cave. This occurred in the same cave in which Khedrub-je saw the manifestation of Tsongkhapa. In that cave, which still exists in Tibet, there are also letters such as the seed syllable of Manjushri that appeared spontaneously due to the power of the purification of Lama Tsongkhapa. If our minds are purified and we have devotion, it’s certain that we will be able to see the different aspects of the Buddha. We can also see them in dreams and in meditation.

The way that the Buddha shows himself depends on the karma of the observer and it varies accordingly. When we have never even heard of the Buddha, we might see a statue and become interested because of the positive feeling it gives us. Many families are helped through the income received from making statues.

THE QUALITIES OF THE BUDDHA’S HOLY BODY, SPEECH AND MIND

[WFGS p. 122]

At present our own body, speech and mind are not oneness, they are three separate aspects of what we are, but the Buddha’s holy body, speech and mind can work together. His holy mind can appear as many trillions of different aspects. The holy mind is not even an object of the mind of the highest bodhisattva who has attained the ten grounds; it’s only an object of the mind of a fully enlightened one. It’s something incomprehensible to us. In Tibet, there are many people who are incarnations of the holy body, speech and mind, who take different forms and take birth in different places.

It is said in a sutra teaching that the appearance of the Buddha doesn’t depend on our recognition. Each form has as its purpose the benefit of sentient beings. The enlightened beings see the way to bring this about; it’s very difficult to be the object of our attention. For example, Maitreya appeared before Asanga as a dog with wounds in order to purify Asanga’s obscurations and allow Asanga to develop bodhicitta. As Asanga realized bodhicitta, his obscurations were purified. The form of the Buddha is extremely difficult for us to recognize and doesn’t depend on a name. It’s stressed in the teachings that we must be careful how we create karma with other people. Our limited mind can’t tell who a holy being is or what level of realization they have. Getting angry with a holy being for even a second creates the cause to suffer in the lowest hell for an eon. Depending on how realized the other being is, the number of seconds we have that anger determines the length of time we have to experience the suffering result in the lower realms.

Therefore, because we never know who a holy being is, we have to be very cautious in how we treat other sentient beings; we should never mistreat or criticize anybody. When we learn to avoid anger, the result is to develop patience. In order to not create negative karma, we should think, “Perhaps this person is an enlightened being and I’m too ignorant to see it. It could be Guru Shakyamuni Buddha manifesting as an angry person so I can develop bodhicitta.” Thinking like this is incredibly useful because it stops the negative mind from arising and stops us creating negative actions of body and speech.

For example, when Atisha was in Tibet, he usually kept a servant who was very bad-tempered and always caused other people to get angry. Asked why he kept him, Atisha explained that he did so in order to practice patience, for without patience it’s impossible to be a yogi. It’s very useful to think like this. Because we can never be sure that this being in front of us isn’t Guru Shakyamuni Buddha manifesting to guide us, we should always be careful and always avoid creating negative karma.

If other people cause trouble, instead of reacting we should think, “This is extremely helpful. Even those highly realized yogis do it like this; so why not me?” Remembering that Guru Shakyamuni Buddha can manifest in any form always helps us avoid the negative mind. We stop it from arising by recalling the incredibly heavy negative karma we would create if it really were the Buddha. It also helps us keep the Buddha in mind, making us more and more aware and protecting us from creating the cause of suffering.

It’s also especially helpful during the critical time of death to remember Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. The more familiar we become with him, the easier that recognition will come at the time of death and the less suffering we will experience. This is the power of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s realizations.

In Tibet, when a person dies, if they are lucky, a monk does a puja and says the name of that person’s guru or of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha as the breath stops. The monk probably has to shout it loudly, and if the person is fortunate enough to hear it, they will remember to pray as the gross mind absorbs. It’s usually very difficult to remember because we go into a kind of blank state, as we do in life when we get a sudden shock. At death, it’s far more difficult; there is much less control. Therefore, we have to be very fortunate for all this to happen correctly. But such is the power of the Buddha’s name.

In life, it’s also good to frequently remember Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. If we are about to create negative karma, it can help protect us because it stops the negative mind from arising. This is also due to the power of his holy mind and his realizations.

Reciting a mantra is also extremely powerful because a mantra contains an enlightened being’s holy name. Just reciting it helps to purify all past negative karmas that we have created up until now. Mantras are like the flame that can destroy the negative karmas that have been created. By reciting mantras, we can be reborn in a pure land and released from samsara. Mantras can cease different sicknesses, including those that can’t be cured by medicine. All that is the power of the Buddha’s enlightened mind; just his name protects us that much from suffering.

Reciting mantras also helps a great deal to protect us from outside interference and to extend our life. Cataracts can be cleared through mantra recitation. In Tibet, a person with cataracts would recite a mantra early in the morning before speaking at all and then wipe their eyes with a soft cloth. Little by little the cataracts would clear. Mantra can also control epidemics, and boils and sores can sometimes be cured. Mantras can also protect us from fearful dreams. This is all through the power of the great compassion of the enlightened beings.

The benefits of reciting mantras are vast. Mantra recitation causes stronger and stronger devotion to arise through the frequent recollection of the Buddha’s name, and devotion is the real protection from our suffering. We can change how others think through meditation on a mantra, helping them change their wrong ideas and making them joyful and happy.

There was a meditator in a cave with few possessions, but one day a thief put his arms through a crack in the wall, trying to steal his coat. So, the meditator grabbed the thief and tied him to a post and then went outside and beat him. With each stroke, he made the thief repeat the refuge prayer. When the thief was released, because it was late and he couldn’t make it back to the village before nightfall, he had to sleep under a bridge where spirits held meetings. By reciting the refuge prayer, he was protected. There are a lot of lay people in Tibet who can cure illness by using mantras; this doesn’t necessarily have to be done by a monk. The stronger the devotion, the quicker the purification.

Shantideva says, 

[1:9] The moment an awakening mind arises 
In those fettered and weak in the jail of cyclic existence, 
They will be named a “child of the sugatas,” 
And will be revered by both humans and gods of the world.

Even if we are still trapped in the prison of samsara, when we develop bodhicitta we become an object of offering and prostration for humans and gods. We receive the title child of the sugatas. Sugata means enlightened being. This is because of the holy mind of bodhicitta. Why “child?” Because we developed bodhicitta in dependence upon the enlightened beings, just as a child receives their body in dependence upon their parents.

The attainment of bodhicitta is not caused by any external thing, but only through developing its causes. As we have received a perfect human rebirth, we too have the opportunity to develop bodhicitta and become the child of the enlightened beings, attaining enlightenment and being able to lead others to bodhicitta. In this way, we become the object of universal beings’ offerings and prostrations. Becoming a holy being doesn’t happen instantly; it depends on the accumulation of merit and training the mind in bodhicitta. Each time we think about bodhicitta, our mind becomes more and more trained.

Therefore, if we can listen to the Dharma with this kind of beneficial, positive mind, it will bring countless benefits. We should think, “I am responsible for releasing all sentient beings from suffering, for enlightening every sentient being. They are the source of all my past, present and future happiness, and of all my needs up to enlightenment. In order to repay them for their kindness, I must first attain enlightenment in order to be able to understand and guide them properly. Unless I do, I can’t help them. Therefore, I will listen to the explanation of the graduated path.”

THE QUALITIES OF THE DHARMA

If merely saying the Buddha’s name or reciting his mantra has so much power, how much more has practicing his teachings. The practice has great power to release us from problems, so much power that it’s not the object of our limited mind. It’s impossible to conceive of the infinite power and wisdom of his holy body, speech and mind. Even the benefits of saying his mantra are endless. The incredible knowledge-wisdom is not something that is causeless, that exists by itself. It is attained by following the path laid out in his teachings, the teachings that he himself practiced in gradual stages. Therefore, we must all create the cause ourselves, also following the graduated path as shown by our gurus and other holy beings. In the same way that he examined and transformed his mind without relying on another person’s mind, we must do the same. If we do so, it’s certain that we will attain the same level.

Attaining realizations is impossible unless we practice his teachings and follow the path. It’s much more powerful than just reciting his mantra, which alone can never bring this about. But the mantra does help due to the power of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha’s teachings.

Guru Shakyamuni Buddha depended on the Dharma to attain enlightenment by receiving teachings from other enlightened beings. That is why we take refuge in the Dharma. Without refuge it’s impossible to have higher realizations, and impossible to become enlightened. As we discover the knowledge of the Dharma, our devotion deepens, and our sense of refuge in the Buddha and Dharma strengthens. The enlightened beings see the mind and actions of every sentient being at every moment. This is the power of the Dharma, for without the Dharma there would be no enlightened beings, bodhisattvas or arhats.

All past, present and future happiness is due to the Dharma. Although the Dharma is the original refuge, it must be shown to us by holy beings. We experience so much benefit from practicing the Dharma; we will quickly escape from suffering and attain infinite powers. Actually, the Dharma is our best possession; it’s something we should care for more than anything else. However, due to ignorance we take more care of the material possessions we take pleasure in rather than the Dharma, the good karma, that makes these things possible. All the benefits and power of mantras come from the power of the Dharma. If we renounce the Dharma in order to take care of our body and possessions, we do so due to ignorance, not understanding that the Dharma is the source of all happiness.

The essence of the Dharma that leads to all the realizations is watching our karma, being careful to only create positive karma and always avoid negative karma. This is the principal Dharma practice. Therefore, the actual Dharma is the practice of virtuous actions. If we fail to pay attention to this, no matter how long we struggle with difficulties—even if we spend our whole lives meditating and fasting in a cave—we will not succeed in our practice; we will never gain mental peace or control over our negativities.

If we want to attain the realizations and powers of the enlightened beings, the most important thing of all is to take care of our karma. When this is done properly, it becomes a powerful cause to quickly purify obscurations and quickly gain realizations. How quickly this happens depends on how strongly we purify by creating positive karma. We can make great progress in this way, even if we don’t practice tantra.

How does the Dharma cause the past, present and future happiness of each and every sentient being? The answer is very logical. The principal cause of all of the suffering we experience, big or small, in this lifetime is internal; it is mental. It was created in this life and in previous lives. This is also true of every happiness we have ever experienced. Each experience of happiness or suffering arises from a principal cause and cooperative conditions created previously and stored in our mindstream as karmic imprints.

What is the principal cause of happiness? Positive actions, done without attachment, the concern for the comfort of this life, without ignorance and without anger. With our ordinary limited mind, however, we usually confuse the cooperative condition that causes the karma to ripen with the actual principal cause. That is not so. Because the principal cause of happiness is creating positive karma, creating positive karma is the essential Dharma, the heart of the Dharma. This is how each person’s happiness arises from the Dharma.

For instance, in hot weather some people are happy and others are unhappy. In this situation the heat is the cooperative condition and the mind of the person is the principal cause. If the external circumstance were the main cause, everyone in a hot place would feel the same. This shows that there’s some other reason for likes and dislikes, a reason we can come to fully understand by studying the Dharma and getting to know about karma. There are countless examples of this. One type of food, such as a curry, is enjoyed by some people whereas others find it disgusting, and the same with types of clothing and certain people. Some tourists like one country and others dislike it. There is some reason other than the external situation that causes the difference in feeling. Although this is difficult to understand because it relates to a mental state, it can be understood through knowing the evolution of karma which always comes back to the beginningless mind. Without understanding this, there is no way to discover the fundamental reasons why we suffer or are happy. We should research these important points.

Some people may ascribe the differences between people just to having different personalities, caused by physical conditions created by the parents and the grandparents and so on. We can take our ancestry back and back and end up with no clear idea of why we are like we are. We fail to understand that our mind is beginningless and that each time we experience something another layer of habituation is added to our mindstream.

Each part of the Buddha’s holy body is the result of his karma, as is ours. There is not one tiny shape of our body that does not depend on karma. Each shade of color of the peacock’s feathers is also the result of karma.

THE QUALITIES OF THE BUDDHA’S HOLY SPEECH 

When beings hear the Buddha’s holy speech, they feel great peace with every word. Their negative minds, however strong, become automatically subdued. When he teaches a great number of followers, each word is understood by the beings according to their level of mind. If he mentions impermanence, some hear it as a profound teaching on emptiness and others as one of suffering and so forth. Each word of the Buddha’s holy speech perfectly suits the intelligence of the listener; it is perfectly fitted to the level that their mind is ready for. Each word also prepares them for the more profound subjects. This is the power of the Buddha’s holy speech.

If all sentient beings asked questions simultaneously, one word of his would give the answer that each one needed. This also is the quality of the Buddha’s holy speech. For instance, those whose minds are ready to understand that the mind is beginningless will hear him say that, whereas those who think that the mind has its beginning with this body will only hear that answer. Judging the level of mind of the listeners, the Buddha can see whether or not they are ready to receive higher teachings.

Besides having the power to really guide others, he has such incredible compassion and uses his understanding to help all sentient beings with methods suitable for their mind. With his great compassion, because his only wish is that all sentient beings attain enlightenment, he teaches according to their level of mind. Nothing he says is superfluous. Each word is only to lead all beings gradually to enlightenment by following the Dharma.

There are texts in Tibetan that explain the creation of machines and things like ships and so forth, but these were not acted upon because they were not seen as beneficial for enlightenment. There are many other things not even made in the West explained in these texts. Actually, there is not one single kind of existence that isn’t talked about in the Dharma. 

TAKING REFUGE

Giving up the Dharma in order to take care of our worldly life means creating negative karma. It’s the practice of samsara, the opposite of creating positive karma. When we have little understanding of the Dharma or the nature of suffering, we value worldly pleasures over the Dharma. On the other hand, as we come to understand samsaric life more deeply, as we come to understand the nature of suffering and the result of nonvirtuous actions, we come to realize the nature of the Dharma more and more. We see that the Dharma is the source of all our past, present and future happiness and for every sentient being, and it is the source of enlightenment. As we realize the value of the Dharma more deeply, we can see that the Dharma is more important and more beneficial than anything else. Therefore, we will be able to give up worldly life for the practice of Dharma, to practice the teachings of the Buddha and strive for enlightenment by creating positive karma, accumulating merit and purifying our negativities.

There are countless beings following the worldly life, living in ignorance, working for samsaric happiness and possessions, while those who renounce the worldly life to take care of the development of their Dharma practice are so few.

The benefits of the Dharma are inexpressible; we can never finish explaining them. There are infinite enlightened beings who all attained great realizations and then enlightenment through their Dharma practice. Every living being, from the tiniest insect visible only through a microscope up to an enlightened being, receives all their happiness from the Dharma. This is too much to explain fully, but generally we can say that the source of all happiness arises from creating positive karma.

The actual way to take refuge is mental. It’s a frame of mind that comes from understanding what refuge means. Taking refuge in the Buddha doesn’t just mean saying the prayer. It depends on understanding and fearing samsaric suffering—the cycle of death and rebirth, the three lower realms of suffering, ignorance and the negative mind. From this recognition of suffering and understanding of samsara, having full confidence in the noble beings arises. The noble beings are those who have achieved the true cessation of suffering and the true path, power, compassion and the omniscient mind, and who put it all into practice. We must trust the omniscient mind of the Buddha.

With the foundation of these two causes, fear and faith, we should rely completely on Buddha, just as children depend completely on their parents and follow their orders with full confidence. This is the true way to take refuge. When we come to fully rely on the Buddha, we have taken refuge even without saying a mantra or a prayer.

This is the foundation of our refuge: fear of the suffering of samsara and faith in the ability of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha to lead us out of suffering. This is likened to the confidence a patient has in their doctor, fearing sickness and death but confident of the doctor’s help, willing to follow their instructions, taking the medicine and changing their diet. As their health improves, their confidence grows. The actual cure depends on following the instructions given by the doctor. This is the main thing. A doctor needs to know the methods to cure the patient, and then it is up to the patient to follow the instructions.

Relying on a doctor is not enough to cure us, we must follow the instructions we were given. When we take refuge in the Buddha, we shouldn’t follow prohibited practices or practices that present wrong views, such as those which say there is no absolute truth, no karma or no existence. If we do, our realizations of the Dharma will collapse. Following practices that encourage wrong views pushes us further and further into samsara, as does believing wrong concepts, such as believing that samsara is not suffering (which is like sitting in the middle of a fire and denying we are burning) or that greed is good and necessary.

In the Dharma there are many types of discipline. Taking refuge is something to be done with feeling and not with words alone; it must come from the heart. No matter how much we might repeat Jesus’ name, if we live our life creating negative karma but then pray to God for forgiveness, we can never escape suffering. This is like continuously taking poison and asking for help to get better all the time. We must help ourselves. Taking refuge depends on us, and the best and most correct way to take refuge is in accordance with karma. We must create refuge ourselves, in our own mind. The method was shown by the Buddha. This practice will guide us; it will take us away from suffering. Because we fail to understand the correct method, most of us create the cause of suffering instead of the cause of perfect peace and happiness. So, it’s important to follow the correct path.

When we have taken refuge, we should not harm other beings with a negative mind. This should really be avoided as much as possible, because the Dharma is the method to bring happiness to each and every sentient being and harming others is its complete opposite. The Buddha showed us the Dharma to stop sentient beings’ suffering and to stop the creation of negative karma.

Because Dharma methods help to free us from greed, hatred and ignorance, our motivation is so important. If we are aware of the evolution of karma, we are careful to only do actions with a pure motivation and ensure all our actions bring happiness to other beings.

To fully know Dharma, we must see each and every subtle karma. Once an old man nobody liked or wanted, Jinpa Pelgye, tried to become a monk. Shariputra, the Buddha’s attendant checked up using his clairvoyance and could find no evidence of even the tiniest previous merit. But Guru Shakyamuni Buddha checked up and found a very subtle merit in the old man’s mind that was hidden from the arhat. In a previous life, countless lifetimes before, he had been a fly who alighted on a pile of kaka that was taken around a stupa on a stream of pipi. That alone was the tiny merit that he had accumulated that allowed him to become a monk. Every color on a butterfly or on a peacock’s feather is the result of subtle karma, beyond the view of the arhat. Fully knowing karma does not happen until we attain enlightenment.

The Dharma object of refuge includes every realization of the enlightened and noble beings, as well as the belief that the Dharma is the true cessation of suffering and the true path. True path means the wisdom that sees the absolute truth. True cessation of suffering and its cause, ignorance, comes about when we have achieved the true path, the realization of the absolute truth. Following the Dharma stops us from following the negative mind. We cannot follow both things at the same time. Doing so would be like wanting the milk and the meat from the same cow.

The noble bodhisattvas who have attained the pure realization of the absolute truth are the Sangha. The more we realize the qualities of the Sangha, the more our devotion will arise.

INSTRUCTIONS IN THE PRACTICE OF REFUGE

[WFGS p. 126]

Instructions relating to refuge in the Buddha say that we should respect all holy objects. All statues, no matter the quality—even if they are made of kaka—should always be respectfully kept in a clean, high place since they are the essence of Buddha. We should remember the wisdom-knowledge that the Buddha attained and treat these things as if they were Guru Shakyamuni Buddha himself. We should not think of them merely as statues.

Each statue or thangka symbolizes so much wisdom. Each tiny hair of the holy body of Buddha contains incredible knowledge, infinitely greater than all samsaric knowledge put together. Even a single hair of Buddha is the result of many eons of purification and so many merits. Even the lowest realization of the bodhisattva path, the realization of bodhicitta, would be incredibly difficult for us to realize and maintain, even for an hour. All the knowledge in the world cannot compare to even a single atom of Buddha’s body. Therefore, because a statue or a thangka represents this great wisdom, we must respect it, although our respect will vary according to our level of understanding.

We can also visualize a statue as a real, living person. Practitioners in India and Tibet make offerings to the statues or to the holy texts. Depending on the level of practice and the level of realization of the practitioner, the value of the offering is determined. The serious offering to the statue is the offering that is made by the mind without depending on the material substance that is offered. The best offering is one that is made with the mind free of the eight worldly dharmas, or at least with the mind free of gross attachment to worldly life. Unless we have this latter motivation at the very least, the offering doesn’t make sense.

Even if we don’t have material substances to offer, we can still make offerings. The size of the offering depends on the motivation behind making the offering. We must make offerings with as pure a mind as possible. The more certain that we are making the offering free from negativity, the more powerful the offering will be. If we have yet to completely renounce attachment, our offering is that much smaller. Clean offering, dirty offering—these things are determined by the mind.

Once there was a Tibetan meditator, an ascetic geshe called Ben Gungyal, who lived in a hermit’s cave. One day, when he heard his benefactor was coming with food, he jumped up to offer clean water in the offering bowls on his altar. As he did this, he realized that he was doing it with a negative mind that wished for a good reputation, wanting the benefactor to respect and think highly of him. He recognized his enemy, the negative mind of the eight worldly dharmas. Offering clean water was negative karma because his mind was so attached to reputation. So, he scattered ash from the fire over everything and, whereas the offerings were now dirtied, they were clean in that they represented the renunciation of the comfort of this life, the mind opposed to attachment, the real Dharma. When other yogis heard about this, they admired and respected him very much, because of his success in recognizing the actual Dharma and opposing the negative mind.

The purpose of making offerings to the enlightened beings is to purify our negativity. Prostrations to the enlightened beings also help with this. How do these actions have this power? The power is not only dependent on the action performed, but also on the qualities of the objects we are offering. These qualities include pure, limitless compassion. When we remember this holy quality as we make offerings, it increases our faith. Every tiny Buddha figure symbolizes this quality.

Offerings and prostrations are not done merely as customs, but in order to purify negativity. If they are done with full understanding, we can quickly purify our negativities.

Another action that can bring this result is cleaning holy places. We can also purify by meditating on the figure of the Buddha and on his infinite qualities. It’s helpful to do this at the time of death.

The holy statue and the holy text do not depend on the quality of the material. We should not place gold statues up high and clay statues down low. It creates great negative karma to pay more respect to an expensive statue than to a cheap one. This applies in the same way to thangkas.

It is definitely possible to contact the enlightened beings through the form of statues. They do exist; this is not just some theory. Many statues in India, Nepal and Tibet have given teachings in the past to realized beings. If we have great devotion and our minds are purified, no matter what the quality of the statue, it’s possible to receive teachings, prophecies and so forth. I have no idea if this is still the case in Tibet or not.

Instructions relating to refuge in the Dharma say that we should respect all holy texts. Dharma books can contain many pictures and words of enlightened beings. Sometimes we use these holy texts as cushions, sitting on them to keep our clothes clean, and sometimes we put them on the floor. Such actions show an extreme ignorance of karma. If we disrespect the texts, it becomes very difficult to meditate or to even comprehend the subject. Even simple Dharma explanations become hard to understand. In meditation the mind will be distracted and difficult to control; it will be hard to visualize the object of meditation and difficult to achieve realizations no matter how much we meditate. Nor respecting the holy texts, statues and figures can bring these results.

Why are these things holy? Because of the realizations of the enlightened beings, which are an example for us to follow. These texts represent the Buddha’s holy mind and so they themselves are holy; it has nothing to do with the quality of the material. Each statue or Dharma book makes it possible for us to attain the holy mind of the Buddha. His mind is holy because it is free from every single defect. He sees each and every sentient being’s thoughts every second, simultaneously—all past, present and future existence; he has great compassion for all sentient beings with no discrimination.

Unless we pay respect to the statues and teachings of the holy beings, we will never be able to attain realizations. We should pay much more attention to holy objects than we do to money, which we recognize as important. Disrespect creates so much negative karma. Using books as a pillow or a cushion is disrespectful. Books are holy because they explain the Dharma, and by meditating on this we can attain realizations that make us holy. Just as the Buddha is holy, having become enlightened through the practice of the Dharma, the Dharma texts are holy and have the power to help us to escape from suffering and make us holy, perfect.

Since many enlightened beings have attained their realizations from the holy texts, the texts are absolutely invaluable. All the realizations from the beginning of the path—the basic knowledge of karma and the continuity of mind—up until enlightenment come from the holy texts. The basic meditations such as bodhicitta and the other steps on the path depend upon receiving the explanations that are taught in the holy texts. We should think that each text is the transformation of the speech of the holy beings.

Disrespecting such texts causes us to lose wisdom and become forgetful. Holy books should be kept clean, and we should make offerings to them—not because the book wants respect, or claims it, but for ourselves, to create positive karma and purify our negativities. We shouldn’t step over books. In monasteries, Dharma books are kept in a high, clean place, and in lay people’s homes in Tibet they are as well.

Dharma books should never be placed on the floor or in dirty places. They are very precious, and in the same way that we respect the enlightened beings, we should also respect these books. They are holy and can bring wisdom to ignorant beings. Because we have been born as a human being, we have the responsibility to recognize the holiness of the teachings. We should not treat the texts in a way that will create any negativity, such as using them as cushions or as newspaper. When problems arise in the future due to the actions we do now, we won’t recognize the cause of suffering. In this way, the suffering situation becomes cyclic.

We make prostrations and offerings to figures of enlightened beings not merely as a custom, but also out of respect and with understanding of the great purpose.

THE BENEFITS OF TAKING REFUGE

[WFGS p. 127]

The benefits of refuge practice can never be counted. They are innumerable, beyond what our limited mind can perceive.

The first benefit of taking refuge is that we become a Buddhist. In Tibetan we say ngagpa, which means inner being—a person who completely relies on the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha with the support of the two causes of refuge in their mind. The two causes, again, are fear of the samsaric suffering realms and full confidence that we can be guided from this state of suffering by the Buddha.

Relating to the first cause, even if we don’t fear all of cyclic existence, at the very least we should fear the three lower realms. Relating to the second cause, in order for us to have full confidence in the Buddha, we should understand the qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha fully, completely comprehending and fearing samsaric suffering. This also depends on understanding and believing in karma, which in turn depends on understanding and believing in past and future lives. This doesn’t depend on robes, beads or prayer wheels, nor on saying prayers or playing cymbals. It doesn’t depend on our clothes or the way we act, only on what is in the mind. Refuge is in the mind. To become an inner being is not easy; it’s a question of great understanding and it takes time.

If we wonder what’s so special about becoming an inner being, we should know that without depending on refuge we can’t attain realizations or enlightenment. Achieving the higher Mahayana path depends on the achievement of the lower path, which depends on the fully renounced mind, which in turn depends on fully understanding the nature of samsaric suffering and so forth. The preparation for refuge comes at the very beginning, before we even attain the path. It’s the very beginning of the development of the positive mind, the foundation. There is no way to follow the Mahayana path without refuge, and the stronger the two causes for refuge, the quicker the realizations will come. With refuge, every action we do becomes an inner action, higher, more powerful, more beneficial, more positive, and purer than those of the person who doesn’t have refuge.

A MEDITATION ON REFUGE

To begin your meditation on refuge, you should try to remember what refuge means, and what the purpose of taking refuge is.

Next, you should check up—who is the perfect refuge? The Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

Then, you should think about the qualities of the Buddha’s body, speech and mind. Where does all that knowledge come from? It comes from the Dharma; it is the power of the Dharma knowledge.

Then, you should meditate that not only is this the case, it is also the power of the Dharma and Sangha.

Next, thinking that although the objects of refuge have so much power, ask yourself whether that is enough for you. What is missing? You also need the two causes from your own side. Check up to see whether you have the two causes in your mind or not. If you don’t, then think, “In order to have refuge, I must have fear and devotion. I must create these two causes in my mind.”

Think that fear should arise because you understand that mind is beginningless and that it has experienced past lives and will experience future lives, and that based on your understanding of the evolution of negative and positive karma, you have definitely created more negative karma in the past. Therefore, you will definitely suffer in the three lower realms if you don’t begin to overcome your ignorance. At the moment you have an upper rebirth but you are still suffering and still under the control of karma and delusions. Think, “Why am I still not released from all these problems?” It’s the fault of your own ignorance—you believe that samsaric pleasure is happiness, but it doesn’t continue; it’s trivial and is no different from any other suffering. The most important thing to realize is that all samsaric pleasure changes to suffering. Knowing this brings a useful fear that causes you to find a path.

Now, you should think that on this path it is necessary to rely on someone. Who you need to rely on are the objects of refuge: the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

TAKING REFUGE

[This talk was given to students taking refuge, November 1972]

Taking refuge is passing through the gate of the path leading to enlightenment. When we take refuge, we take a vow, we make a promise. This is not the same as attaining the realization of refuge. The vow is made with the understanding of the purpose of taking refuge. The essential meaning is twofold; one is the complete reliance on the Guru Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha with full confidence, knowing that they have the supreme power to guide us from the suffering of the three lower realms, samsaric suffering, and from every delusion in our mind. The other is the fear of suffering in the three lower realms and of all samsaric suffering.

The motivation for taking refuge should be at least to release ourselves from being reborn in the three lower realms. A higher motivation would be to release ourselves from the three sufferings of cyclic existence—the suffering of pain, the suffering of change and pervasive compounding suffering. The third motivation is the highest motivation, the motivation of a Mahayana practitioner of refuge. With this motivation, we think that in the same way that we are suffering, so too are all other sentient beings suffering in samsara, therefore we take refuge in order to attain enlightenment to rescue other sentient beings from the cause of suffering.

Before taking refuge, we should have pure motivation, especially, if possible, the great Mahayana motivation. It’s not enough to have the motivation to be free from the three suffering realms, nor is it enough to wish to be reborn in the upper realms. We have been born in both places countless times, and we are still trapped in samsara. Even now, born in the human realm, we have many problems, with confusion, suffering and dissatisfaction. We don’t recognize the causes of suffering and happiness or the results of these causes. We constantly make mistakes in our actions. No matter how much we try to be happy, we create the causes for suffering, bringing about the opposite result from what we expected. Most of our actions are done with a disturbed motivation, destroying the happiness we desire. We fail to understand the difference between positive and negative karma.

In the six samsaric realms, even in the three upper realms, wherever we are born is like escaping from one red-hot burning iron house to another, from one blaze to another, always bringing suffering. It is like jumping from one pit of thorns into another. Wherever we are born, everything is meaningless and is in the nature of suffering; nothing lasts forever. From beginningless samsaric lifetimes until the present, there is not one tiny suffering that we have not experienced, nor one tiny samsaric happiness. In the same way that we have experienced every great samsaric happiness, we have experienced every great suffering—and ordinary happiness and suffering, too. There is no single place in which we haven’t been born, no being that we haven’t become, no food that we haven’t eaten before.

No experience is new, our comfortable samsaric life and the enjoyment of material things we now have is old. Even though we believe it’s new, all this is beginningless.

If we think deeply about any samsaric happiness or pleasure and understand that it has no beginning, our mind will become tired and bored, understanding that we have done these things for such a long time. We will have no interest in samsara, as many of us in the West have lost interest.

Just as having old possessions is boring, we can feel tired of samsara very strongly, due to deeply understanding its suffering nature. No experience of happiness or suffering is new. Our spouse, our parents, materials, places—nothing is new. New fashions, new colors, new countries, when we think it’s all new, we become attached and must have all this. We mistakenly think that we’ve never enjoyed it before, not understanding that we have experienced these things countless times before in numberless lives. No samsaric experience is new. Nothing at all is new. All actions that seek samsaric experiences are beginningless.

By understanding the suffering nature of samsara deeply, we will lose any interest in samsaric experiences or activities, becoming increasingly cynical of what samsara offers. This view develops clearly through meditation; we see it through logic. We find no interest in the nonexistent “new” samsaric experiences of pleasure or suffering. We are tired of living in these realms, tired of being reborn in them, tired of chasing their enjoyments. We can attain the state of nirvana more quickly with this more realistic view of the suffering nature of samsara and samsaric existence.

There is nothing to trust, even samsaric existence itself. For example, we see beautiful clothes in a shop and buy them, or we see a motor car and buy it. As these things get older, we lose interest in them. Day by day, they lose their beauty like a dying flower. After a short time, our interest ceases completely. Then, attracted to a newer model, we buy this better, newer thing. And then the same thing happens again and again. We repeat this without end until death. At death the same thing occurs with the body. The samsaric actions that we have created with this body end, just as the actions we do with our belongings end. This is why existence is meaningless.

Usually, however, we don’t see our existence in the same way that we see our material belongings. But just as we see an attractive, beautiful object decaying and breaking each day, the body we have also decays and breaks. Then, the object appears completely opposite to the way we first perceived it. We feel the object has cheated and betrayed us and our trust. If we check up, we will find that when we first see a beautiful object, we believe in our heart that it will remain attractive forever. But this belief is betrayed. It’s the same thing with trust in the permanent deliciousness of a certain food. If we were to eat nothing but that one type of food all the time, sooner or later it would bore us. Therefore, all the great Indian pandits and the enlightened beings emphasize that we should never trust material possessions because we will always be betrayed. One of the purposes of taking refuge is to destroy this ignorance, the source of attachment, the wrong beliefs in permanence and samsaric existence.

That is the nature of samsaric existence. Things change from the way we think they are. Because we blindly believe that changeable objects will never change, we are constantly disappointed. It’s the same thing with friends. We fail to realize the relationship between our mind and external objects.

Therefore, another purpose of taking refuge is to cut off problems by helping us to recognize the negative mind and the nature of objects and people and so forth. Refuge helps us to understand how we take the object as a fact, as true, and see it with the wrong conception of the self-existent I. Attachment to these non-existent permanent, inherent things causes greed, anger and so forth. We think that because we see this object as beautiful and this enemy as ugly, it must be true. We take the view of material existence that is created by our own negative minds as true, and believe in our own ignorance, and in greed and hatred.

Another main problem is that ignorance doesn’t see past or future lives or the many other profound objects of inner knowledge. Believing our ignorance, which is unable to see these things, we conclude that they don’t exist. The Buddha explains everything logically, with his experiences, with his holy mind that sees and understands everything. We see things with ignorance, with the limited mind, insisting that there are no past or future lives, no karma and so forth, believing this to be true. Holding on to this ignorance creates negative karma and leads us to have no belief in the realizations that meditation can bring.

All samsaric experiences are in the nature of suffering; they are old, beginningless. When we take refuge, they no longer interest us. This includes the experience of making our worldly life comfortable by acquiring possessions at the cost of harming others and so forth. Once we are enlightened, we will stay enlightened. We won’t need to make any actions for happiness; there will be no further work to do to create perfect peace. Our only work will be to free all sentient beings from suffering.

There’s no reason for us to selfishly think of ourselves as more important than any other sentient being. All of our desires are exactly equal. We should think as follows. “Since every sentient being has been my friend, enemy and stranger, we are all related. All have been my mother. I must help them all, as they have all helped me countless times and will continue to do so until I reach enlightenment. However, the wisdom of most sentient beings is blind; through ignorance they usually make mistakes and their actions create an unhappy, suffering result. They have done this from beginningless lifetimes until now, and so have I.

“Therefore, I am responsible for leading them to enlightenment by leading them to attain the cause of enlightenment. Many of their sufferings are caused by me. I take rebirth from their bodies in the form that was created by my negative karma and ignorance. As my mother, they have created so much negative karma in order to look after me. These negative actions have left strong negative imprints on their minds which are causing them to suffer terribly now and will continue to cause them to suffer. I see my present sufferings as unbearable, but their sufferings are so much greater, which they also must experience without choice.

“Therefore, in order to lead sentient beings to enlightenment right away, by creating positive karmas and cutting the cause of suffering, I am going to take refuge in the presence of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha and countless other buddhas.” 

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Notes

¹ In 1973, Rinpoche generally called the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha the “Three Jewels” or less frequently the “Triple Gem.” Because he has more recently shown a strong preference to the Three Rare Sublime Ones as a more literal translation of kon chog sum I have used this term here. [Return to text]

² Taken from FPMT Essential Prayer Book, p. 111, which can be found in the FPMT Catalogue. [Return to text]

³ Taken from How to Practice Dharma, p. 82. [Return to text]