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On Taking Refuge

One of my responses to a question talking about refuge. from the new buddhist stack exchange site:

Taking refuge is not about taking on a boss, far from it. The Buddha says many times in the Pali suttas that only you can put in the work to free yourself. Taking refuge can be seen in the same way as when someone may take refuge from a storm, looking for help and protection. The Triple Gem can be that refuge in the storm of life

As Andrei rightly pointed out in the other answer traditionally you take refuge by reciting the words “I go to the (buddha/dhamma/sangha) for refuge”. This is often put together with the precepts for the ceremony to “become” a Buddhist. There is much more to it though, as seen in this wonderful treatise on going for refuge by Bhikkhu Bodhi:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/wheel282.html

>But what is the going for refuge? At first glance it would seem to be the formal commitment to the Triple Gem expressed by reciting the formula of refuge, for it is this act which marks the embracing of the Buddha’s teaching. Such an understanding, however, would be superficial. The treatises make it clear that the true going for refuge involves much more than the reciting of a pre-established formula. They indicate that beneath the verbal profession of taking refuge there runs concurrently another process that is essentially inward and spiritual. This other process is the mental commitment to the taking of refuge.


I will say that in my own experience I took the ceremony of refuge a few years before I had advanced in my practice and confidence of the triple gem to really mentally take refuge. The Refuge of the Triple Gem becomes powerful when you understand the reality of things enough to see how important the practice is and how full of truth the dhamma is.I view the triple gem as follows:

The Buddha: The Buddha is the “awesome dude” whom I often call “Sid”. I take refuge in him because he was just a regular guy like myself who did an amazing thing, found a way out of samsara and endless suffering to show us how to make our lives better. He became awakened, and that is something I’d like to work on myself so I take refuge in him and all the awakened ones of past and future who are the embodiment of dhamma.

The Dhamma: Straight up truth, the reality of life, the way things actually are, not how we perceive or want them to be. Of all the triple gem, Dhamma is the most important, this is why the Buddha called what he taught “ dhamma-vinaya” and said the Dhamma should be our master. How can you not take refuge in truth?

The Sangha: Specifically the Aryan(awakened) Sangha and the to a lesser extent the rightly practicing monastic sangha. These men and women are the keepers of dhamma. They have been making sure the Dhamma found by Sid 2600+ years ago survives today for us to practice. Rightly practicing monastics are the heart of the teaching and in supporting them you not only get a refuge, but you ensure the triple gem itself survives to provide refuge to all beings.

With confidence in your own practice you have confidence in the triple gem, which leads to more confidence in your own practice as you begin to prove right what the Buddha taught. At first it is just something you say because “thats what buddhists do” but it becomes so much more then that. Then there is no real point to taking refuge in anything else, because anything else you can take refuge in cannot bring you lasting happiness, it is a shoddy refuge at best, prone to fall apart in the weakest of storms, but when protect the dhamma, and are protected by the dhamma, that is a refuge not even death can penetrate.

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