Sermon 1: False and True Refuges

Many are they who seek a refuge
On the hills and in the woods.
To groves they go, to tree and shrines
Men, by fear tormented. 

Indeed that refuge is not secure,
That refuge is not supreme,
Not by coming to that refuge
Is one from all Dukkha free.

But who has gone for Refuge to the Buddha
To the Dhamma and Sangha too,
He sees with perfect wisdom
The (action of the) Fourfold Noble Truth:

Dukkha, dukkha's causal arising
And the overcoming of dukkha,
And the Noble Eightfold Path
Leading to dukkha's allaying.

This refuge is indeed secure,
This refuge is supreme,
By coming to this refuge
From all dukkha one is free.

(Dhp 188-192)

Today, the Dhamma-verses which will be expounded for the increase of awareness and wisdom, are upon the topic of the Three Refuges: The Lord Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha, or as we may explain them; the Teacher, the Teaching and those who have been taught.

One who follows the Buddhist Teaching and is called a Buddhist is by definition, one who has gone for refuge to the Three Gems, the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha. We shall return to this later.

First, let us examine the word sarana. Those of you who are Buddhists have just recited Buddham saranam gacchami and the same for the Dhamma and Sangha, meaning 'I go for refuge' to each of the Three Gems. But refuge, is not the only meaning to the word sarana, which can also be translated as 'protection', 'shelter' or even more positively as 'guide'. However, the most used translation is Refuge.

Now, a refuge is that place where one is secure. If we examine the verses here, we shall gain some idea of the meaning of 'sarana' for Buddhists.

The first verse explains the sort of places, which ordinary and one might say, ignorant people consider as refuges. Mountains, forests, sacred groves, trees and shrines are all mentioned as being thought holy and as refuges by the many.

Every religion knows of, even if not encouraging, such practices as resorting for pilgrimages to places sanctified by the life of great and saintly men and women. 'Shrines' would include all the temples, stupas, mosques, cathedrals and so forth. Such pilgrimages based upon the faith of the pilgrim, are sometimes profitable and sometimes not. They are profit when the hearts of those undertaking them are purified but they are an empty formality when done merely out of custom or tradition. But, in any case, one should not expect too much from refuges of this sort. At best they bring about a temporary improvement in the level of mental activity, while upon their completion habits reassert themselves in the great majority of people.

We should also note that the first verse speaks of why people go to such refuges: "by fear tormented". We learn elsewhere in the words of Lord Buddha that "Fear arises only for the fool, not for the wise man". The many folk who flee for refuge in this way are therefore fools. One should Understand here by the word 'fool', the opposite of being a wise person; that is, one who is ruled by ignorance and craving rather than by wisdom and compassion.

Now fleeing for refuge out of fear means a sort of blind impulse-to clutch at any straw, which looks as if it might carry one to salvation. Blind fear begets blind faith. One does not examine, one does not try to know and understand what one has faith in, one only has faith to follow. In the words of Lord Buddha: "It is like a string of blind men, neither does the first one see, nor the middle, nor the last one". This sort of faith, if one can call it that, is well seen in the crowded churches at the outbreak of war.

People, who had never thought of attending a service at other times, suddenly feel fear and seek the consolations of religion. A few people may have their ways of life altered for the better by such actions but generally most relapse after fleeing to some supposed refuge through fear.

The second verse recited here just emphasizes this: "Refuge such as this is not secure", nor is it supreme. "By going to a refuge such this, one is not released from every ill". Why is this so? All these refuges of ordinary people have one characteristic: they are all exterior. It is a feature of the ordinary, uninstructed person that he does not know what constitutes true religion, since he does not truly understand what is false religion. One of the marks of the latter is to set up and then to rely upon powers and forces exterior to oneself. This is not to say that some powers exterior to oneself do not exist, but then these are not man-made.

People generally hope to get something out of the holy places they visit. They do not understand that deriving benefit from visiting spots sacred to one's religion really entails oneself making an effort, the places being, so to speak, favorable supporting causes. Basically all such goings-for-refuge are motivated by the desire that feelings of happiness increase, while feelings of pain decrease.

People, in fact all beings, pursue pleasurable experience and try to avoid what is suffering and therefore unwelcome--and religion is one way in which they pursue this quest. But Lord Buddha says, "By going to a refuge such as this, one is not released from every ill". "Every ill" (sabbadukkha) means all unsatisfactory experience, which we know it is the goal of every person to avoid. But how can all this dukkha be avoided? It is obvious that by means of man-created shrines, man-created ill cannot be ended. It should be obvious that such refuges 'out there' cannot be considered secure or supreme.

So that of the Refuges of Buddhist religion? It might be said that surely Buddhist Refuges are 'out there' in space and time. In what follows, these Refuges and the ways of understanding them will be examined. First, we have Refuge in the Buddha. As we all aware, it is now the 2510th year of the Buddhist Era, an era that began upon the day of the Maha parinibbana, the 'Great Final Nibbana, (the death), of the Lord Buddha at Kusinara in India.

Some people take Refuge in thinking with reverence of the life of the Lord Buddha two and half millennia past. This is also an exterior refuge though better than none at all. But we should look a little more closely at the meaning of Buddha so that we may understand how it is possible to go for Refuge to him. Born as a human being but with great reserves of Punna (or merit) from the countless lives before when he had practiced the Perfection, as a young prince he aspired to understand why suffering was so rampant in the world and why happiness was so evanescent. This quest led him to renounce the luxuries of his palace and go forth to homelessness.

His quest took him to Brahmin teachers of that day as well as to the exploration of traditional methods for subduing the body. Not finding neither the true happiness nor the cause of multitudinous sorrows in the world, he forsook these methods and without a teacher, himself discovered the Ancient Way, which the Buddhas of the past in ages long before him had lighted upon. That Ancient Way is a path not to be seen outside the mind and heart, but rather, leading inward. The way uncovered by Lord Buddha leads one to know increasing happiness and to realize in the heart why one experiences sorrow.

Lord Buddha was the first man in the present age to tread this Way to the very end for which reason he is called by the title Buddha: the Enlightened or Awakened One. Though there are various formulations of this Enlightenment or Awakening, yet it remains beyond our abilities to understand fully since we have not experienced it for ourselves.

For instance, as Gotama the Buddha was a man, and as all the conditioned parts comprising a man are impermanent, we cannot grasp what it is that is "Buddha." If neither the conditioned parts separately, nor all of them as a whole, make up a Buddha, then what is the Buddha and how can one go for Refuge? The answer to this question lies in the fact that in the practice of Dhamma as the Buddha's Teaching is called faith alone is not sufficient. Faith must support Wisdom and Wisdom must guide Faith. If these two do not go together, one will never know what is the Buddha.

Faith is necessary in order to put one's foot upon the Way at all, but then so is Wisdom for one also needs to realize how necessary it is to put one's foot to Way in the first place and subsequently to guide it. We may know from this that while our understanding of the word Buddha stems from the events of two thousand five hundred years ago, this ripens into the knowledge that we must seek the Buddha here and now.

Temples, shrines and stupas have their part to play, which is to ripen people in the understanding that now is the only time really worth our attention, and if we are really to go for Refuge to the Buddha, it is now that we must do it, which really means ourselves becoming like the Buddha: Enlightened, Awakened. If we are able to accomplish this, even to some degree, then we shall have in our hearts some knowledge or wisdom of the Buddha, not only faith in the Buddha. There is thus very much depth in the little ceremony of Going-for-Refuge, much more just repeating: "Buddham saranam gacchami."

It is worth remembering that Gotama the Buddha is called "The Buddha of Present"--and from a practical point of view the present means now and not 2500 years ago. Among the teachings of Dhamma, which bring the out of the past and into the present, out of the books and into one's heart, is the method of mind-development called "Recollection of the Buddha" (Buddhanussati).

Before passing on to speak of the Dhamma or Teaching, it is good to stress the peculiarly Buddhist nature of Going-for-Refuge. At one time, Lord Buddha compared false refuge-taking with the man who stood upon this bank of a river and invoked the further bank to come to him: "O further bank, come here, do come here". Just as energy and determination are need if one is to cross from the hither to the further shore, so actively Going-for-Refuge is the mark of the true Buddhist who does not expect that by alone having faith, the Refuges will come of them-selves to him.

Sometimes in Western books we see the expression 'taking refuge' used in connection with Buddhism. But 'taking' is the wrong verb to use and conjures up the wrong set of ideals, while 'Going-for' Refuge which literally translates the Pali 'saranagamana' is proper to Buddhist conceptions of a Way to be trod.

Now this Way called the Dhamma is the second of the Refuges. People who understand only a little of Buddhist Teachings think that Dhamma means to collection of books in which are recorded all the Teachings of Lord Buddha. When they see all these books, some forty-five volumes in Thai edition, they are overawed at such abundance. But Dhamma, even more than Buddha, is a word of many subtle meanings. While the Three Collections of the Buddha-word remain upon the shelves, they are just forty-five volumes of white paper with black printing and nothing more--except they inspire some faith.

Immediately one of them is opened and read, however, one aspect of Dhamma is developed: the Dhamma of thorough learning. This has its advantages, for a learned Buddhist has better reason for Going-for Refuge than one ignorant of Buddhist teaching. But learning alone is insufficient, just as the idolizing of books is not correct. With learning alone, one's Going-for-Refuge remains an intellectual affair and even if one has read through all of the forty-five volumes, one still has not placed one's foot on the Path, which is called a practice-path.

To use another simile found in the Middle Discourses Collection, one is still running about upon this hither shore and has not yet put together a raft helping one over to the further shore of Nibbana. Contrasted with this bookishness there are the famous words of Lord Buddha:

"Better the single useful word
By hearing which one is at peace
Than floods of words a thousand fold
Profitless and meaningless.

Better the single Dhamma-word
By hearing which one is at peace
Than chanting a hundred verses
Profitless and meaningless."

(Dhp. 100,102)

Dhamma-words of meaning and profit are those, which enable a person having learnt as much as is necessary, to practice. One who practices the Dhamma, goes for Refuge to it to the same extent as he has practiced. With the knowledge of personal experience of Dhamma one goes for Refuge to the Dhamma. One of the Discourses of the Lord Buddha puts it like this:

"With faith arisen, he approaches and associates (with a teacher); thus associating, he gives ears, giving ears, he listens to the Dhamma; listening to the Dhamma, he bears it in mind; and then he examines the meaning of the Dhamma that he has born in mind; thus examining the meaning, he approved of it, and approving of it the desire to practice it arises; with this desire arisen, he exerts himself; having exerted himself, he considers it; having considered, he puts forth effort; putting forth effort, he himself experiences the highest truth and sees it, having penetrated it with his wisdom". Or, we have in other passage, following upon examination of the Buddha and his claims to Enlightenment, these words of the Lord himself: (Having realized that the Dhamma is worth listening to) "He realizes with his own higher knowledge some of those Dhammas (or teachings) and concludes that (they are true) and then reposes faith in the Teacher (Lord Buddha), believing then that the Exalted One is Enlightened, that the Exalted One's Dhamma is well-expounded, and that the Community is of good practice (or conduct)." It is thus that Buddhist faith might be better termed 'wise-faith' since it differs from the mere faith of accepting non-provable dogma. Dhamma, on the contrary, by way of practice, becomes that which one sees for oneself.

This is the third aspect of Dhamma, for after the Dhamma of learning and of practice, comes the Dhamma of penetrative wisdom whereby one sees that the nature of one's own mentality and materiality (or mind and body) is the Dhamma. The real nature of things is Dhamma, the natural of cosmic Law; it is the seeing into things as they really are. This is the Dhamma of Enlightenment or when one becomes One-who-knows, as Lord Buddha has known and seen Dhamma before us. A person like this, no longer an ignorant, uninstructed world, has, so to speak, made the Dhamma his own and being crossed over to the further shore of Nibbana even in this very life, has thoroughly verified it from his own experience. So great is the meaning in the simple phrase: "Dhammam saranam gacchami."

What for Going-for-Refuge to the Sangha, or Community? There are some people who when they hear the word 'Sangha' uttered, think immediately of Bhikkhus in the yellow robe and conclude that Going-for-Refuge to the Sangha means somehow pious belief in all Buddhist monks. But the meaning intended here otherwise. To understand this, we should take into account two points:

The first of these is that even in the days of the Lord Buddha there lived Bhikkhus such that He said: "From many a shoulder hangs the ochre robe, yet men are they of evil habits, unrestrained..."--and this, unfortunately, continues to be true of the present time. So a person who has little knowledge does not suppose that Going-for-Refuge to the Sangha refers here to all the two hundred and fifty thousand or so Bhikkhus in Thailand, for instance.

Having got some knowledge of Dhamma from a learned teacher who will usually be a Bhikkhu, another person wiser than the first, might think that this Refuge referred to those learned in the Three Collections of the Buddha-word. Wiser still are those who go for Refuge to a Teacher or Teachers who have themselves realized the truth of the Dhamma. The other point to be noted here is that penetration of the Dhamma is not something restricted to Bhikkhus, since lay people of both sexes, if they are diligent enough, may also see it for themselves.

All those who have penetrated to the truth of Dhamma, whether ordained or lay, all such are called collectively "the Noble Sangha" and as Teachers who have seen the Way for themselves, they do indeed constitute a secure Refuge. Some teachers explain Going-for-Refuge to the Sangha by a further step. That one has effectively gone for refuge to the Sangha when one has become as they have become, when one no longer has faith in Dhamma or in a Teacher but when one knows from one's own experience and has, like them, destroyed all the mental stains such as greed, aversion and delusion and come to inherit the treasures of penetrative wisdom. "He sees with perfect wisdom (in himself) the action of the fourfold Noble Truths"--as the verses above explain.

Having got some idea of the "noble person" (ariyapuggala), that is, a member of the Noble Sangha, we should investigate a little those aspects of the Dhamma is found in the Four Noble Truths of which only the briefest outline can be given here. However, we remember: "Better a single Dhamma-word hearing which one dwells at peace"--and the Four Noble Truths are the guide to peace and happiness. They are also called the special range of the Buddhas, meaning that only one who has penetrated to the depths of his own mental continuity, can possibly formulate in clear and unmistakable terms, the experience of the unsatisfactory, dukkha, and the Way to go beyond it.

Indeed, the Exalted One has declared: "Now as before, Bhikkhus, two things I teach: Dukkha and the cessation of Dukkha". All of what is called Buddhism is contained in this sentence! Yet how vast are its implications. Dukkha here means one's own personal experience of the unsatisfactory nature of this world and how every experience, if one is perceptive and not blinded by dullness, is somehow not quite right, leaves something to be desired, a nagging feeling of incompleteness, the unsatisfactory, the fly in the ointment.

Dukkha is everything from the slightest anxiety or fear to the most serious mental disease, or from the slightest of bodily discomforts to the most terrible physical agony. Dukkha, one might say, is a commonplace of existence, yet although so common and although everyone seeks to avoid it few understand the reason why they experience it.

The Buddha perceived in the second Noble Truth the underlying cause for our troubles. Dukkha arises dependent upon craving, that is, the craving for pleasures, for eternal life and for annihilation or the death wish. This cause of dukkha when learnt of by foolish people causes them sorrow, or they hasten to refuge it and to say why it cannot be so. But wise people are able to understand, even rejoice, when at last they perceive the cause of Dukkha.

We may notice that ordinarily as many of this world's troubles as possible are blamed upon exterior circumstances about which we can do little or nothing. But Lord Buddha lays the burden of our dukkha squarely before us and asks us to look into our own craving minds and see whether it is not there that dukkha arises. The foolish person is distressed at this since it means that he cannot blame those circumstances out there, but the wise rejoice since they know that unsatisfactory experience generally arises through the operation of their own minds which are 'inside' and so within one's power to control. This craving for pleasures, life and death, which grip everyone who is not yet Enlightened and the resulting dukkha which is experienced, are together called Samsara, literally the Wandering-on.

This is the state of ordinary people driven by cravings and blinded by unknowing from birth to death, from death to birth--and the cycle of repeated Births may be infinite, and as varied are the conditions of birth, which one may experience. One reaps as one has sown; evil giving rise to intensified dukkha while beneficial and pure conduct leads to the experience of greater happiness. The dukkha and its various forms are endless, the craving of experiences are limitless. This is called weaving the cloth of birth and death.

In the third and fourth Noble Truths, Lord Buddha has shown the Way out and the goal, which is beyond the Wandering-on, which is the overcoming of it and therefore the cessation of dukkha. This third Noble Truth is called just that: the Cessation of Dukkha and is defined by saying that it is the extinction of craving of every sort--it is Nibbana which literally means the blowing-out. No longer can the fires of greed, hatred and delusion rage in the heart of one attained to Nibbana. They are blown out in him; they are quenched and cannot be kindle again. One attained to Nibbana, to lasting peace and happiness, whether Bhikkhu or nun, man or woman, has found that happiness which everyone restlessly and halfheartedly, is really searching for.

If only the first three Noble Truths had been taught by Lord Buddha, his Dhamma would be only for the spiritually elect who might intuit the truth of it from their own purity of mind and heart. But the Dhamma is meant for anyone who wishes to practice, not only for those who are almost saints now. Hence Lord Buddha as a practical teacher has set forth the Eightfold Path with its three divisions of moral conduct, wisdom as the way whereby Nibbana may be won. The Eightfold Path which defines what is Right conduct (to become ultimately through practice and attainment, Perfect conduct) covers not only the whole range of training, but also can be applied to all the ways in which we express ourselves: mind, speech and body. It applies to the general purification of the heart, which proceeds from the grossest mental stains to the removal of the finest ones.

It becomes the day-to-day practice of the good Buddhist until his life becomes the Eightfold Path. When he has reached this, he is ennobled with the nobility of seeing into the truth at least to some degree, while his practice of the Path is no longer made with great effort but has become natural to him. It is then called the Eight-fold Path of the Nobles, or more commonly, the Noble Eightfold Path. From this explanation it is to be hoped that one may gain insight into what is meant by the Three Refuges and by Going-for-Refuge. The three Refuges are also called the Three Gems, or better the Triple Gem. This latter name emphasizes the inter-relationship, which exists between the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, and how one cannot go for Refuge to one or two of them without maiming Buddhist Teachings in a very harmful way. Going-for-Refuge must be from the heart if done at all. To be effective, it must involve strong faith of the kind called rooted, reasonable or wise-faith. An intellectual acceptance of the Refuges is not very satisfactory since the intellect itself is unstable and liable to upset from greater forces in the emotions. The sort of Refuge-going where one intellectualizes' I accept this but not that' is one which is defiled by the stains of skepticism (vicikiccha). It is true that one's Going-for-Refuge deepens as one's understanding becomes more profound, but it is still good to be aware of the dangers. It is thus not possible to be, for instance, both a Buddhist and say, a Christian. Each religion has its refuges, each its practices and each claims the heart's faith. One can be therefore a sincere Buddhist who avows, "Perfectly Enlightened is the Exalted One, Well-expounded is the Exalted One's Dhamma, Of good practice is the Community"; or else one may be a devoted Christian. Mixtures, however, are not successful. Similarly, upon the Indian scene, one may be either a Buddhist Going-for-Refuge wholeheartedly, or else a Hindu. The Hindu, who knows the word Buddha and believes the story that He is the ninth descent of Vishnu upon this world, while quite ignorant of Dhamma and probably having never seen a Bhikkhu in his life, cannot well be a Buddhist. Although Buddhists have ever chanted "There is no other Refuge for me, the Buddha is my true Refuge" (and the same for the Dhamma and for the Sangha), their faith has never led to fanaticism and no persecutions have ever resulted from Buddhist devotion to the Triple Gem. Such perversions of religion are due to blind faith in non-provable principles and cannot result from Buddhist practice where wise-faith increases side by side, or balanced by, Wisdom.

Thus it is that Buddhist have always averred that of course those following other religious paths may also gain the joys of heavenly existence as a result of their practice of skilful, beneficial deeds while yet human beings. It is possible that those of other religious can, if they develop Wisdom, also attain to Nibbana after having cut off the mental stains completely. However, as other religions generally emphasize faith, almost to the exclusion of Wisdom, a fact that is liable to lead to one-sided spiritual growth--to be seen in the peculiarities of many saints, it will be rare for a non-Buddhist to attain to the end of the round of birth-and-death, which is Nibbana.

This is not so important a consideration since all those who are ripe for the development of Wisdom will do so quite naturally. But what is important is that one's refuge in any religion, besides engaging the whole of one's heart, should also bring about great changes for the better in one's character. If it does not do so, either the refuge is a false refuge, or else one's Going-for-Refuge is halfhearted.

Now in this very life one has the wonderful opportunity not to be lost, of going to a true refuge. The wheel of birth-and-death revolving according to one's deeds may bring one to birth in states either too fearful or else too pleasurable for seeking of a secure refuge. Life as a man, in which are mixed a proportion of happiness with enough dukkha to make one think, provides the exact condition for sincere Going-for Refuge. The life of man is transitory, short indeed and it is unsure when it will be cut short. Only death indeed, is sure. One should therefore hasten to make for oneself and unshakable refuge.

"By energy and heedfulness,
By taming and by self-control,
The one who's wise should make an isle,
Such that no flood can overwhelm."

(Dhp. 25)

And Lord Buddha, the Refuge even of the greatest Gods, has exhorted his disciples thus before his final Nibbana:

"Be islands for your selves, be a refuge for yourselves!
Go to no other Refuge!
Let the Dhamma be your island, the Dhamma be your refuge!
Go to no other Refuge!"

As we, mind and body, are indeed truly the Dhamma, what other Refuge could we truly take? The finding of this true Refuge has been the occasion for deep devotion, such as the words of the cowherd Dhaniya:

"Surely our gain is great and to be praised,
Whose eyes upon the Blessed One have gazed!
O Seeing One we put our trust in thee!
O Might Sage, do thou our Teacher be!
Attentive, lo! We wait, my wife and I,
To live the Holy Life; the Pathway high
That leads beyond all birth and death to know,
And win the final end of every woe."

(Sn. 31-32)

Or we have the magnificent paean of praises sung by the rich Householder Upali who declared his sublime and wise-faith in these words:

"I follow Him, high Wisdom's faultless Lord,
Whose mind is stilled, triumphant o'er his foes,
Purged of besetting ill, steadfast in poise,
In virtue established, wisest of the wise,
Trampling down passion, Lord immaculate...
I follow Him of all-Enlightened mind,
From cravings cleansed, unclouded, clear, undimmed,
Of meet oblations worthy, chief of men,
The unequalled Lord of majesty supreme."

(M. Sutta 56)

Truly has it been said by the Conqueror:
"By coming to this refuge
From all dukkha one is free."

EVAM

Thus indeed it is