Going for Refuge in Secular Buddhism
To take or go for refuge in the three jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, is to make a formal commitment to actualize the Buddha’s teachings and path; a commitment to your own awakening. It’s to pledge to yourself and your teachers to uphold the basic tenets of Buddhism and the ten precepts of refuge. It’s to declare that from this day forward you are going to put the Buddha’s teachings into practice and fully embrace and embody the Buddhist path.
- To take refuge in the Buddha is to look to the teacher and the state of awakening itself for guidance, inspiration, protection, and support.
- To take refuge in the Dharma is to look to the teachings, training, and path for guidance, inspiration, protection, and support.
- To take refuge in the Sangha is to look to the awakened community for guidance, inspiration, protection, and support.
Practitioners take refuge and refuge vows in a refuge ceremony, thereby formally becoming Buddhist practitioners. Refuge vows must be received from a qualified teacher who will offer guidance pertaining to one’s new vows. Traditionally a new refuge name is given, signifying that one is being reborn into the Buddhist community. Taking refuge is not a requirement to study and practice Buddhism. However, traditionally, it is a foundational prerequisite in taking further vows pertaining to higher stages of practice. The term refuge can be understood as going for protection or safety, as if taking refuge in a shelter from a storm, or taking refuge in the advice of a doctor when sick.
Vows – A solemn pledge or promise.
Buddhism, founded on ethics, believes the holding of vows to be a profound spiritual practice, bringing great benefit to the practitioners who hold them. Taking vows is to promise to uphold certain precepts or rules of ethical and virtuous behavior that are deemed conducive to spiritual practice. Vows and the virtuous conduct they support also benefit us by creating a more harmonious community.
Vows are a commitment to oneself, one’s teachers, and the three jewels of practice and training. Vows can be seen as a logical extension of our ethical volition, in which we put our ideals into practice by establishing basic dos and don’ts in order to reach our goals swiftly and efficiently. For example, if we want to be healthy, we may voluntarily commit to new eating habits, an exercise program, and avoid activities that may weaken the body. Similarly, if we want to awaken, we voluntarily choose to commit to new habits and ideals that naturally lead to that goal, while avoiding actions that potentially cause ignorance and suffering to arise or increase.
Vows are always taken voluntarily with the practitioner deciding for themselves just how committed they wish to be. Upon deciding to take vows, a practitioner would ask their teacher for their advice, permission, and blessing. If the teacher feels the practitioner possesses a genuine motivation and is ready, the teacher gives their blessing and helps to facilitate the process.
“Vows are not forced on us by an external authority; they are trainings we voluntarily uphold because we want to fulfill our spiritual aims.” ~ The 14th Dalai Lama
Precepts – Guidelines of personal conduct intended to facilitate swift spiritual progress.
According to His Holiness, precepts are not absolute rules, but instead guidelines intended to stabilize and deepen our commitment to our spiritual path. The Buddha himself asserted that it is the spirit of the rules that matters most. Each precept outlines clear and precise parameters pertaining to our behavior. This creates a great level of clarity and stability in our lives by outlining predetermined behaviors that clearly dictate appropriate choices, actions, and reactions. By maintaining pure precepts, we protect and increase our mental, emotional, and spiritual development. For in moments of difficulty or indecision, in which we may be susceptible to making poor choices, our precepts remain clear. It is at these times that we can rely on our precepts to protect us and ensure that our choices, actions, and reactions are appropriate and coincide with the Buddha’s teachings.
The mind of refuge
The most important element when taking refuge is having the right intention, referred to as the mind of refuge. The intention behind the mind of refuge is explained as, when, through study, contemplation, and meditation, we have come to acknowledge the fundamentally unsatisfactory nature of unenlightened existence, and wishing for freedom from that suffering, we turn to the three jewels, believing them to be a viable path to liberation. This intention should be generated in our minds during the refuge ceremony. According to the Buddha, one should seek refuge with this thought in mind:
To see one’s ignorance and one’s physical, mental, and emotional pain as an illness,
To see the Buddha as the doctor who prescribes the proper medicine and dosage,
To see the Dharma as the medicine needed to heal,
To see the Sangha as a community who helps in nursing us back to health.