Refuge means taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The Buddha we refer to here is the Buddha who attained enlightenment in India over two thousand five hundred years ago. The Dharma is his teaching and advice. The Sangha is composed of those who receive the transmission of his teachings and blessings, and practice his instruction. We take refuge in Buddha as our ultimate destination. In doing so, we confirm our potential. If we did not possess the potential to become free and liberated from suffering, then it would be useless, impossible, and foolish to try to become liberated.
Since we are all Buddha by nature, however, every one of us possesses the potential for liberation, freedom, and enlightenment. That is quite clear. Nothing is good enough for sentient beings except ultimate limitless liberation. I am one hundred percent convinced that sentient beings will not stop in their search for happiness. They will wander in samsara forever until they finally become fully enlightened. After receiving refuge, we must be able to maintain this transmission, which we do by taking a vow to remind ourselves of our commitment to follow the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The vow we take for the Buddha is that we will always be intent upon liberating and enlightening our potential. The vow we take for the Dharma is that we will do our best to avoid anything that is harmful or negative to ourselves and to others. We must do our best to maintain these vows; however, we must also be realistic about what we are capable of doing.
While we cannot offer a full explanation of Refuge here, we can point out some of the resources for learning about Refuge. Refuge is, very simply put, formally making the commitment to transcend the suffering and happiness of daily existence and taking vows and committing to achieving liberation and enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings.
To begin to understand Refuge, really meditate and contemplate the Four Thoughts. The Four Thoughts are the skillful means that inspire us to wish to take Refuge in the first place. These you can begin to learn a little bit about here, and we would recommend finding teachings and written materials on this topic, studying as deeply as you can when you begin the path. Fully understanding and realizing the Four Thoughts will lend a great stability to your practice.
In brief, one takes Refuge after meditating upon the Four Thoughts and realizing that one wishes to make a commitment to obtaining liberation for oneself and all sentient beings. One takes Refuge in the Buddha as the teacher, the Dharma as the path and the Sangha as the companions and support on the way to enlightenment. Part of the act of taking Refuge is to renounce the temporary sufferings, pleasures and happiness found in daily life.
༄༅། སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ།
བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་དང་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི།
བདག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས།
འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག།
Until I am enlightened, I take refuge
In the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Through the merit I create by practicing giving and the other perfections
May I attain Buddhahood for the sake of all sentient beings.
Sanskrit version of the refuge prayer:
Namo Buddhaya
Namo Dharmaya
Namo Sanghaya
I go for refuge to the Buddha,
I go for refuge to the Dharma,
I go for refuge to the Sangha.
A great part of taking Refuge is the development of faith. This is not blind faith, but faith based on one's own observation of the truth of the teachings.
There are traditionally four stages described in developing Faith:
1. Attraction [Vivid Faith]
2. Emulation
3. Fully-Convinced Faith
4. Irreversible Faith
Attraction gives rise to Vivid Vaith, which is when the mind becomes attracted to the object. It may be a strong joy or a great appreciation of the qualities we observe. We may have visited a holy place with statues, stupas, and other representations of the Buddha's body, speech and mind. We could also have just met with a genuinely great Master, who has inspired us through his invisible Blessings or read about [his or her] life [story]. Ths is still changeable as our mind can turn to aversion as well as appreciation.
Emulation means that, going beyond the attraction, the desire to become like the object we are contemplating is arising within us. If we strive to become similar like supreme beings, like the ordinary woods left in the sandal grove acquire sweet fragrances of sandal, we too can attain their noble qualities.
Fully-Convinced Faith and Irreversible Faith are born out of our nascent knowledge of the qualities of the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and our Master. The Fully-Convinced Faith becomes irreversible, when, come what may, nothing will be able to alter our mind or our devotion. This is the faith we should constantly try to develop through examination of the Teachings, and the Teacher, especially as neither blessings nor accomplishment can ever occur in the secret Mantra Vehicle without Irreversible Faith in one's Master."
As mentioned by Patrul Rinpoche, taking Refuge is the foundation of all the practices. He says: "By simply taking Refuge, you plant the seed of liberation within yourself. You distance yourself from all the negative actions you have accumulated and develop more and more positive actions. Taking Refuge is the support for all vows, the source of all good qualities. Ultimately it will lead you to the state of Buddhahood.
