(upbeat music) - This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - Okay, so this year, let's go Buddhist Center. We're exploring the theme of going for refuge throughout the year. So that's a very broad topic. So in some ways, you could just continue to do the kind of meditation and Dharma study we normally do. And it would all fit under the umbrella of going for refuge in some way. But we're gonna try to emphasize this theme along the way because it's a very, very important aspect of the Buddhist teaching and tradition. And the founder of our tradition, Sankarakshita, has especially emphasized the act of going for refuge or the teachings on going for refuge. And they're actually acknowledged by all of the main Buddhist traditions. So, you know, if you go to a Tibetan temple and you say something about going for refuge, they won't very much know what you mean. And if you go to a Mahayana temple, you know, like a Zen or Chinese Pure Land place, you know, they will very much know what you mean. And if you show up at a Caravada place, you know, maybe Thai Fars tradition. You talked about going for refuge day with know what you meant. Very much like how I said when we champed the refuge in precepts is something that all Buddhists would recognize. So tonight I'm gonna talk a little bit about what it is. And I especially wanted to go back to some things that Sankarakshita had to say about it because I think it is one of the areas in which he has contributed a lot to the Buddhist world by lifting up this teaching and saying, you know, it's actually quite important. In some ways it's considered just like a first basic thing in many of the traditions. And Sankarakshita said, you know, actually it's a teaching we should spend much more time with. And rather than thinking it's something we do at the beginning, actually to think of it as something that we do continuously if we're interested in deepening a Buddhist practice. And that would help us to think of in terms of something that we can deepen. So I was quite inspired to go back to some of his teachings and I'll let you know when there are his words 'cause I certainly don't want to take credit for them. Okay, so this act of going for refuge, I'll just say a little bit about what it is as we go along. But it goes back to the stories of the Buddha's life. So the Buddha is a founder of this tradition and he was a human being that experienced quite a lot of dissatisfaction as a young man, although he was raised in a very privileged environment. He had everything he could materially want was in a wealthy family. And he left home like many other spiritual seekers we're doing at the time. I think if you think about the 60s of the time where there's a really alternative movement, we can think about the time of the Buddha as someone has been going on. Like actually traditional culture wasn't a lot about evil. And there were a lot of people just hitting the road. I mean, it's kind of wild and imaginative. Just hitting the road, just being spiritual seekers, just setting out, looking for the truth of things, existential, big questions. And so he joined that kind of movement and was speaking and did eventually study with some very well-known teachers at the time and then felt, so there was something missing and then through his meditation practice and building on what he had been taught. Kind of broke through that last bit that he felt no one else had been able to kind of help him break through. And so that he felt he was at that point fully enlightened. I think they were fully, probably. And besides that last little bit, he felt like it was significant to break through. And then he continued to wander and teach. He did not really have much time and solitude. He was really constantly teaching and all sorts of people. So in stories from his life, what is now India and Nepal, some 2,500 years ago, after his enlightenment experience, he was described as having very particular kind of presence. You know, people kind of noticed him. He didn't look maybe like some of the downtrodden people that looked a little stressed out for a good job, kind of wandering around in the days. He had a slightly different quality than that. And the name Buddha that was given to him just means awake. He just looked like someone who was awake, alive, right? Present. That was the most striking quality. And there was a glow or kind of energy to him. And I think maybe we know some people that are relatively more awake than others that kind of have that quality, you know? So we can kind of imagine it, I think, someone that actually had something very intriguing going on there that you might want to know more about. So sometimes he had this long road come across someone else who had hit the road looking for truth, you know? Or maybe a merchant that was traveling from one town to the next. And they would be kind of struck by his presence and maybe there'd be a very short dialogue that would ensue. And in many cases, these people would spontaneously say, "I go for refuge, shoe." And there's very specific stories of this. Other times, you know, rather than just passing someone on the road, he might actually be sitting under a tree, you know, that's pretty hot India, sitting under a tree, having some kind of very detailed, debate with some of the more philosophical types. And debates that are recorded that, you know, I can't really understand which hairs are trying to split exactly. And after a long debate with someone who's a skeptic or maybe even a critic, well, sometimes they laughed and said, "Well, you know, you're full of whatever." And did not go for refuge to him. But other times, some people did feel that he was able to explain something, you know, those key existential questions they were seeking. And again, they would sometimes, to the point where they say, "You know, you've answered all my questions. I go for refuge to you." There's one story I like where there's 16 different brahmins. So these are very educated religious people all the time who one by one asks the Buddha all these very deep questions. And they're all recorded, these are the conversations that I find hard to follow. And what by one he answers them. They're at the rock temple in Magda. So they're sitting under these rocks, I guess, coral rocks and this dialogue's going on. And the way it's described afterwards by someone who is there, they say the Buddha answered the questions with the exactness of truth just as things are. The brahmins were pleased to hear the words of this wise man, and so filled with pleasure by the clear-sided vision of this kinsman of the sun, they settled down to a life of purity and goodness spent in the shelter of the precious wisdom of the Buddha. So again, this idea of the shelter of his wisdom. And this kind of act of going for refuge happened with wealthy kings and queens and merchants. It happened with the Dalits who were at the time incredibly badly discriminated against, still are, considered untouchables by the Hindu caste system. And also with these people, he talked to them about the nature of the human condition. And you can imagine for them how having someone's actually say to them that they, by following certain practices and by cultivating themselves, that they could become like him fully enlightened. You know, that must have had a huge impact on people that had been told they were quite literally spiritually garbage. So it's not that hard to imagine that situation how these people were very drawn to following his tradition. There's also a vicious murderer who went to refuge to the Buddha, but only after trying to kill him very, you know, very seriously. So it goes on and on, you throw it, right? So what is this? It seems I think not an idea that, you know, we don't really have the phrase going for refuge in our time. What is it, what is it these people are doing? So going for refuge to the Buddha, these individuals would be meeting something in his person. I think it takes some imagination to say what would it be like in these stories, these encounters? What would it be that they would be meeting? And he must have embodied it and realized a degree of development that upon meeting it, they felt they too wanted to be a Buddha, basically. You know, it's kind of like when someone has a really good haircut, you even think, "Hey, you know, who's your hair cracker?" (audience laughing) We're not doing that much more so, right? They're looking like pretty much free from suffering. I'm totally compassionate and aware, right? So, you know, maybe if they're like, "Hey, being fully awake, maybe I can be fully awake," or, you know, "Maybe I want to be fully awake." So I think that's kind of the heart of the matter. And part of the experience must have been seeing someone that was fully awake, that maybe I'm not fully awake, or I am partially asleep. You know, there must have been something comparatively quite striking about his presence and development as a person that made people feel he had something to teach too, because a lot of these very highly learned practitioners, you know, probably were pretty, pretty sure of themselves when they met him. And of course, a lot of them didn't decide to follow him, but those that did, you know, they must have felt there was something he could offer. So I think it's something like that that was going on. So meeting the bit, it was sort of like having a mirror held up. Then you could see both how far you had to go, but you could also sort of see that you could get there. I mean, there was something about it. People felt like they could, "Hey, I can do this," you know? So there was both sides, seeing there was more to go and also saying that this was something that could be real, could really happen. So I don't think really were that different than those people 2,500 years ago. You know, I think for many people, there is a sense that everything is not quite exactly right. It's a kind of nagging little sense. And it's deeper than feeling like, I think sometimes we experience it like, well, only I had this in place or that in place, that things would be all right. But I think it actually is deeper than any of those things. Like you could try to get a million things in place and this big link feeling would never quite be resolved. And so there's a sense of questioning. And it can start, even as very young children. I mean, I just had a nice story every dinner of someone saying about how, as a young child, they were questioning all sorts of things that people were saying. You know, like a lot of people would say, you know, kids tend to quite, well, does God really exist? I mean, you're all telling me God exists. Like, how do we know that he exists or she exists, right? Or, well, why? Why do we have to do it this way? So, I mean, the fresh mind, not yet completely indoctrinated. It's just challenging convention. Convention that, you know, is how eventually we can become so conditioned by convention that convention just becomes true. You know, just because people do it that way, that is the way it is. And, well, of course, there are all sorts, and once you start out, for example, just looking at something as sort of basic or present to us as cross-cultural awareness, you quickly see that people have very strong ideas about how something is, you know, like how you behave at a dinner table. And that is absolutely sacrosanct. That's the way it is. And then another culture, that is actually not the way it's going to be, and that is an absolutely way it is, too. And it goes back hundreds of years, you know? So, and actually, the wisdom teachings of Buddhism, that really question reality, talk, have a term called conventional reality. It's labeled as such. It is merely convention, yeah. And these are all the ideas that we kind of collectively, the time, for example, is a conventional reality, you know? Like, who says 9 a.m. is 9 a.m. It says, like, we just put that system on nature, and we call it 9 a.m., you know? Someone in different times, I don't call it 3 p.m. 9 a.m. is someone else's 3 p.m. And when you meditate, you know, a minute can seem like an eternity, or it can seem like an millisecond, right? So, what's time, by this time, really? It's a convention. It is useful, both of them are not absolutely, sort of, solidly real. So, I think some people experience quite a lot of this kind of doubt about conventions just being conventions and having to live a certain way. And also, along with that, is a feeling that, well, maybe a more fulfilled life could be found by not completely living by all these conventions, you know? Doesn't mean that you want to break every rule and rob every bank you see, but I mean that you feel that, you know, maybe there's a sort of freer or more creative way to live. Some of us recently saw The Matrix, as part of Buddhist film night. And I think some people are regretting it, some people are glad they saw it. But just referring back to that movie, if you'll indulge me, (laughs) are you ready to put character in the make? Who's seen the matrix in the right hand, please? Okay, so none of you. So, the main character who is, thank you, Mio, has this niggling feeling, right? He's like totally within the system, but he's kind of feeling like they might be something other than The Matrix, right? And I think there's a lot of other great subversive films, actually, so we do something in our culture, this kind of questioning. I particularly like films by David Lynch and one of my all-time favorite subversive films is the film Tabbiness. Everyone here has seen Habbiness? By Todd asks so long. I think he's what he did welcome to The Dollhouse here or something, very subversive. It's kind of like taking, you know, like very happy, suburban America, the whole veneer and saying, well, you know, what really is going on underneath that veneer. And some of what really goes on is quite unsavory, not everything that's going, not everything is unsavory, but I think it's their way to try to poke at convention, you know. So in some ways, these films could be seen as very darmic in that they are, I think, trying to get us to question the status quo in our conditioning. And, you know, to question that whole idea that we should, you know, spend our whole lives living our lives is very particularly in the way to be productive members of a somewhat questionable society. So, so yes, I mean, I think there's a very positive thing. I think Buddhism actually is counter-cultural, in that it causes us to question or it asks us to question conventional society. And it's, again, not the point of dis-serrat everything, it's just to actually wake up in the middle of living, like to wake up and be alive. So one way that conventional societies talked about is, you know, this endless blowing of the eight-worldly winds that characterize what's called the condition of existence. So the existence of lived very much within convention, unquestioningly, trying to make it work. And these winds are just opposite of each other, right? So, on one hand, there's praise, and then there's blame. So, you know, we like to get praise if we don't like when we get blamed. But, sort of inevitably, when you get praised, you just, you know, be ready 'cause there's gonna be blame as well. Good replication and bad replication. And gain and loss and pleasure and pain. So, these are seen as inevitable comings and goings of our lives. You know, sometimes there's pleasure, and then there's also pain. And sometimes we do gain things, but then there's also inevitably loss as well. So this is just what characterizes life. You know, and to the degree that we want praise and fame and gain and pleasure, we spend a lot of time struggling to secure these kinds of securities, things that make us feel okay. And, of course, we don't want blame or disrespect. We don't want to lose things, we don't want pain. So, to some extent, we live doing our utmost to keep these out of our lives. But the winds, you know, they just keep blowing. You can't really control everything in that way. And I was actually talking to a friend that she's a mom, and it was funny we were talking about how planned our lives are or are not planned. But you're saying it's kind of funny meeting some people that, you know, they say, well, by age, you know, 25, I will have mastered the violin, and by age 32, I will be a surgeon. By age 35, I will have a wife live in, you know, a two or three bedroom house and have one boy, and then when I'm 40, I have a girl. I was kind of like, I was very planned after them, and that's how they approached life. And we were just laughing, saying how much our own lives had not been like that at all. And certainly there's no reason not to plan anything. But also, you know, the best laid plans may not turn out the way you think. You know, like maybe you can't play the violin because you have a sort of strange pinky finger that won't actually hit the strings the right way, you know? So your dream will lose you or whatever it is. So, you know, being true wrapped up in trying to navigate all this is called, you know, the world of samsara, the world of self-made suffering. So it's like pain isn't the suffering. I mean, that's not self-made suffering. Pain is like the condition that might happen. You know, it hurts. But, you know, pain is natural as part of life, right? Whether it's emotional pain or knee pain, whatever it is. But what is self-made suffering is the inability or the intolerance to the existence of pain if you get the difference. Do you get the difference? So if we can't accept pain as being part of experience, then that will cause a suffering because it is. And it will barge in on us, you know, as well as pleasure, which we tend to like more. And so this is the world of samsara. And so it's like a certain way of looking for security. That is, it is constantly frustrating. And I think we're probably all a great life experiment. Some extended doing this, you know, so we can just, you know, you don't have to look very far to reflect on this. So what happens is part of life is this experience and of dissatisfaction because of this frustration. You know, because we can't get things to just, you know, if only everything would just line up perfectly, you know, how is it, is that moment? It never just totally does that. People don't totally do what you think they should do. You know, events don't totally do what you think they should do. You know, in my case, Bush got reelected. You know, that has been, you know, a source of dissatisfaction for me personally. Other people may feel differently. So dissatisfaction is part of our human experience to the extent that we are not yet enlightened. But I think what we do is when we feel dissatisfied, we try to get rid of it, you know. So when we get dissatisfied, one response is to try harder to make everything work, right? So we feel frustrated. So we spend more time, I don't know, making plans, you know, trying to make everything fit. And actually the option related to going for refuge is seeing dissatisfaction actually has a very beneficial moment, a very beneficial event. And actually to see it as a starting point at the spiritual path. And starting point not just once, but over and over and over again. And so I think that's one very important point I want to make is that dissatisfaction as the Buddha taught is a very universal experience because of this, you know, being caught up and trying to make life work in a certain way that it will never work. And some of us sort of have this little light bulb to go off as we're sort of getting that, you know, after, you know, again and again and again, we're sort of getting this questioning feeling like, OK, is this working for me? You know, maybe there's another way. So a question name begins, unplug us from the status quo. It's a counter-cultural, creative act. And, you know, to some extent, we maybe don't want to have to live so creatively. I mean, sometimes I think we would love it if we could just plug into a formula and it would all work because, you know, it's kind of sometimes quite challenging to try to be ethical, to be awake. It can feel quite challenging. But I think, for some, there really isn't a choice. The rabbit is out of the hat already. There's no going back. That sense of questioning has already happened enough. But you can't just kind of try to go stick your nose back down in your cubicle and never think about it again. No cure for the blue doll. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. Thank you. [LAUGHTER] You know, we can try to suppress or distract ourselves from that feeling of dissatisfaction. But I think, for some, the experience, that energy of questioning is too strong. And we become, as Jacob Trimpa said, a spiritual refugee. That's a great idea. We become a spiritual refugee. The old home is no longer home. The home of convention can no longer really be a home. But we're still cast a drift. We have not yet found where we're going to end up, or even not quite sure what the new home looks like. So in relation to going for refuge, Jacob Trimpa said, we are all spiritual refugees. Also, that questioning has seen something very, very valuable in the Zen tradition. It's said that the questioning actually comes from the enlightened bit of us that is covered over most of the time, but is trying to break through. So it's like our potential. So what is questioning is actually our Buddha nature, our enlightened nature, is trying to wake us up. So if we go back to the matrix, you know, it's kind of like, Neo gets these messages, right? So like Morpheus and Trinity are trying to contact him. They're telling him stuff like, follow the white rabbit, whispering things that are here at the club, like, you know, you've been wondering about the matrix, haven't you? Yes, well, we've come from outside the matrix and it's true. So this is kind of like this voice. So the recognition of dissatisfaction is to be able to simply be mindful of the experience of dissatisfaction, or what's called dukkah traditionally itself, and rather than seeing that experience as something to be gotten rid of, as seeing it as something very valuable. The questioning releases energy for the pursuit of a creative way of being the path towards enlightenment because it actually causes us to stop putting 110% into trying to make some sorrow work, you know. So also the liberating of the energy from taking 110% into trying to make some sorrow work is called also renunciation, yeah. The wish, or we could say renunciation, is the wish to be free. So there's a wish to be free, so some energy is released. And if we reflect that we're all in the same situation that others around us are the same, then that actually gives rise to compassion, and bodhicitta, or, you know, the compassionate heart. You all consider very precious. And it's not that we turn our back on the world when we have this mood of renunciation, this wish to be free, because we really can't. I mean, we're, you know, when we were reflecting in all the conditions that supported our life until now, you know, we can't just extract ourselves from everything. But we can wake up in the world. I mean, that is the difference. So renunciation is about waking up in the world. I think it's mostly about an attitude change. That's what I do. And at this point, I don't think we have very many answers. So the spiritual refuge, you may not have all the answers, but the questioning is well in progress. And we're questioning, you know, things like, well, what will really make us happy or your own versions of that? You know, what does really mean? Well, what would it be, you know, what will really fulfill me then? Right. Sign gratitude is said, desatisfaction, if it is not just disruntlement, but a genuine and creative mood of inner revolt is with positive and powerful impulse. Indeed, such a mood is the starting point. I love that phrase. A genuine and creative mood of inner revolt. That's fantastic. Can I have your belly more revolt? Yes, I like revolve. I know. I'm not going to do this anymore. Yeah, revolve. Like, I'm not going to do this anymore. And they also do talk about revolve. If you actually relate it, same thing, yeah. He says, you know, when he described me, this speaks about revolve, she says, you can be dissatisfied perhaps with the quality of relationships, with your work, with your leisure activities, and perhaps more often than not, you are pretty fed up with yourself as well. So then the process of going for refuge then is also part of it is in meeting something of meaning. So there's questioning. So we've moved away from something, but there's also implied that moving towards something. So, you know, somewhere in this adrift refugee status, what do we meet, you know? Something I hope is better than the idea that the streets are paved with gold somewhere. So sometimes, you know, well, I think I just went through a really long period of just being cynical. I think that's what happened. I got into questioning. I don't think there's anything positive to move towards at all. I just thought it all sucked. I don't know. So other people might have gone there. Some of you may not have gone to that place. So I actually spent quite a long time being cynical. And I really loved, you know, Star Trek Hell is Other People. That was kind of like a really, I found out it really somehow reassuring line. Hell is Other People from the play No Exit. But so somehow, whether you are either seeking it, you might be seeking it or it might just drop in your lap. Something of meaning enters your life, right? And, you know, for people that are Buddhist-centered, something about the Dharma. And those who are drawn to Buddhist practice can find refuge in its ideals, or its vision of, you know, what's possible, in its teachings, its methods, and its teachers, and its community. So these are known as the three precious things, or the most precious thing, the three jewels, the Buddha, or the ideal of human potential or enlightenment, as well as a historical person, a founder of the tradition who did it and got the tradition going. The Dharma, or the teachings and methods, that help us to realize that and the Sangha, which is particularly those who have realized that teaching to some degree, but also to a greater extent, all those who are also practicing who can support us. So why are these a refuge? What is a refuge? Well, a refuge is something truly reliable. It feels like a place where you can find your bearings, like in the midst of these worldly winds. Something that offers protection and something that we can head towards. I think all those things are implied in refuge. So it seems that even the Buddha wanted a sense of refuge after his enlightenment. It's kind of interesting. I was reading the story of his life as recorded in the Polycannon, and immediately after he was enlightened, apparently. So, you know, this might have been in a couple of weeks, following this enlightenment experience. He had his reflection. And he thought to himself, he lives unhappily, who has nothing to venerate and obey. But what monk or brahmana is there under whom I could live, honoring and respecting them? So this is him. He had gone past what he had picked out from anyone else. And I guess that thought me, kind of sad. So I think he thought, but there is the dhamma discovered by me. Supposing I lived under that, honoring and respecting that. That's really interesting. Even someone that's fully enlightened, wanting to have something that they could have as a compass of some sort, yeah? And respect. I think that's really an interesting idea. And so this is that sense of wanting to give refuge to something, even a fully enlightened being. You know, I think in some ways it further demonstrates his enlightenment because, you know, he didn't become some kind of egomaniac. He still finds himself in sort of within a large system of reality. So, you know, the dhamma, the dhamma he said he wants to, he can still look to is, you know, the natural lawfulness of how things are. This is one of the jewels, three jewels. Laws like that everything arises and falls on the basis of conditions. The observable law, the permanence that everything is changing and not solid in the way we think of things as solid conventionally. And that everything is interconnected and so on. So this is the dhamma, and that's what the Buddha taught. So maybe for us, a lot of us, I think the dhamma might be something easier to relate to than maybe looking for someone like the Buddha to venerate. You know, I think maybe for us, the teachings of the path is a little bit easier to really give ourselves over to. It's certainly for me that was my first sense of going for refuge. I think I was very wary of, you know, I don't know if something like a cult or something or, you know, like, I really actually was pretty, pretty much into carrying down authority at the time. So I probably wouldn't have been a very good student anyway if someone in that way. So to me it was the dhamma that was the door. So, I mean, the Buddhist teachings said, you know, with that experience of desatisfactoriness, yes, you're not crazy actually. That's a very important feeling, a very important sense. And you shouldn't be content with samsara. It is characterized by self-made suffering. And human beings can, through cultivation, be free of that desatisfaction by getting, cutting at the root of it. That's the satisfaction that characterized our unenlightened lives. And this is how to do it. So that's what the Buddha said. And, you know, we're still getting those teachings. That basic message is still what we're getting. You know, there's been many, many subsequently enlightened teachers. There are many other subsequently. I think pretty, pretty well-versed practitioners. You know, and this is what is coming down to us still. So going for refuge is an act. So not only is there what we're kind of loosening up from or moving away from, freeing ourselves up from, there's also what we want to move towards. And, you know, we can access that through the Dharma teachings to the extent that we go for refuge in the sense of the Buddhist tradition. He saw a couple of quotes from Sangha Rachada. He said that going for refuge represents your positive emotional reaction. In fact, your total reaction and your total response to the spiritual ideal. When that ideal is revealed to your spiritual vision. And such is its appeal that you cannot but give yourself. To it. And he also said, "A Buddhist is one who goes for refuge in response to the Buddha and his teaching. A Buddhist is one who commits themselves. They give themselves to the three jewels. This was a criterion in the Buddhist day and remains a criterion today. I think the feeling of that spiritual ideal being revealed to your spiritual vision, one of the people that met the Buddha and put it like this upon hearing his teachings. Magnificent, the Dhamma has been made clear in many ways by the Blessed One as though he were writing the overthrown, revealing the hidden, showing the way to one who is lost, holding up a lamp in the dark for those with eyes to see visible forms. I go to the Blessed One for refuge and to the Dhamma and to the Sangha of full-timers. Beginning from today, let the Blessed One receive me as his follower, who has gone to him for refuge for as long as breath lasts. It's a good description of someone really having this kind of aha moment. So that's what, you know, this kind of mood is what's behind when we chant the refugees and precepts that we looked at earlier. And this mood that, you know, what the Sangha actually said was that inner revolt, which was the whole start of the path. And this spark is really what we're trying to keep in mind and keep cultivating. And, you know, we need to keep, if we want to get fully enlightened, you know, we can feel the benefits of getting a little more and more awake, but really, there's an idea that, you know, we're still going to keep suffering if we don't get at the root of our investment in trying to make some sour work, which is based in a lot of our views, and especially the view in eco-protection, looking for security in certain ways. So going for refuge is something that, as people practice, can deepen. And Sangha actually taught that, it deepened from a kind of provisional level where we're generally interested in Buddhism. And we may try to observe the ethical precepts, sometimes meditate, study, but we're still trying to fit Buddhism into our conventional life. It's like we want to keep one foot in that conventional life and make it work and just sort of pat around it with Buddhism. And he talks about effective going for refuge as a deeper practice in which we're no longer trying to hold on to the conventional life, and only decorate it if you were, or sort of try to improve it with Buddhist practice. But they're actually willing to be changed through the practice that our life is transformed. So, you know, it's a little more challenging to actually change in those ways, but that is, you know, this kind of deeper level of practice. And then ultimately, you know, we would become the refuges. So it's not like you're always venerating something outside of us, but ultimately what it's saying is this is who we can become. We can become enlightened. It's not about, you know, worshiping other people who are enlightened, and just giving, you know, just being caught up in them being enlightened. It's really about our own transformation being inspired by the fact that others have done it. So, I'll just leave us with the teaching by Pavasambhava on the matter, who said, "The essential meaning of taking refuge is to accept the Buddha Dharma and Sangha as your teacher, path, and companions for practicing the path. And then, to pledge, they are the fruition you will attain." So not only are they the path, they are actually what you will become. It is called taking refuge because of accepting the Buddha Dharma and Sangha as a support, refuge, and protector or rescuer for being freed from the great fear of the suffering of obscurations or unenlightened life. So it is called taking refuge because of accepting the three jewels as a support or a refuge. It's a protection from unenlightened life. And then he goes on to say that going for refuge is inseparable from practice itself. It's really the spirit underlying true practice. We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [music fades out] [music fades out] [music fades out] [BLANK_AUDIO]
