The refuge vow and the law of attraction/assumption
So let’s get the identity issue out of the way. There is nothing in the Buddhist doctrine that says there definitely is or is not a higher power outside of ourselves, and when asked directly, the Buddha refused to be drawn. It is essentially a very pragmatic practice and I think his attitude was that the question is an irrelevance. This is a method that can end suffering and make you happy, and you obtain this yourself without grace (nothing from the outside gives it to you). Now this is a little contrary to the concept of self and other-power of some Mahayana teachings, which I will cover later, but even then, pragmatism is the guiding light. What works works (in ending suffering and causing happiness) — so we can get on with it and worry about abstract philosophical questions later.
When I formally took the Buddhist precepts, it involved kneeling down before the abbot of the temple and answering ‘It Is’ to the question ‘Is it your wish to become a Buddhist?’. This is the way it was done in the particular Soto sect I joined, but it’s only a formality. What if that was all a person did, and otherwise had no idea what this is or how to practice; would they be a Buddhist?
None of this matters, because what works works, but if there is anything that unifies all the different schools and traditions and possible identities of Buddhism, then it is the refuge vow, which are essentially core beliefs. It’s my intention now to present this central part of Buddhism, and then branch off to what I have developed as effective practice over the years, in terms of material attainment and awakening.
The word Refuge means ‘safety’. It is the pure beliefs you hold as things that are definitely ‘safe’, unchanging, it’s just the way it is. You can have other refuges. Someone might say, ‘my life is about my children, as long as they are alive I will strive on my own path and always be there for them’. So this is an orientation in life, a resolution, meaning, vow, it’s unchanging and it’s good – -you should absolutely be there for your children if you have them. Of course, this vow exists within the law of impermanence. You might outlive your children, they might go through a rebellious teenage phrase where they don’t want anything to do with you. You could still hold this vow, of always being there for them, … if they are there. Yet as hard as it is to accept this, it is not an ultimate refuge. Remember, refuge means safety, and children are subject to impermanence, and if you outlive them, then there was no safety in this refuge. If this was the only refuge you took, the only safety in your life, you might be on shaky ground.
The three Buddhist Refuges are the ultimate safety, what you can rely on, in this world and the next, and you can reason this out and it doesn’t have to be about Buddhism, you can very much think this through and take the vow within another religion, or even with no religion as an atheist.
The first Refuge is the Buddha. It’s strange to say you can have this as an ultimate refuge and be in another religion, but it’s a broad principle of possibility. The word ‘Buddha’ means the awakened one. There are various legends about his birth, various miracles and supernatural events around the event, and also stories of his previous life, but nowhere in the scriptures does it suggest that he was anything other than a human being. You could actually say he was a divorcee as he left his wife to follow the spiritual path. The story of his life ends with his death, obviously, in Kushinagar, famously from accidentally eating poisonous pork (food poisoning in other words) and his severe diarrhea is mentioned in scripture. It’s all very human. Also, he never directly performs any miracles or supernatural feats. When a woman comes to him with a dead child and asks for their life to be restored, he gives a teaching of acceptance.
So, he was born a prince and lived a life of luxury, but was disillusioned with it and left to find the end of suffering. He tried Hinduism and Yogic type practice and when it didn’t work, he gave up and wandered into the forest, came back some time later fully awake and beyond suffering, and then gave the first teaching, known as the ‘setting the wheel in motion’ teaching.
The point is, this imperfect human being, who couldn’t perform miracles and died from food poisoning, found some practice that ended suffering. He reported this was the case, and when he taught that method to other people, some of them could also make it work and reported that they no longer suffered and were happy. Since then there are many masters and saints and ordinary people who report using the practice and being enlightened, of finding this ultimate state beyond suffering.
Now we could be cynical about it and say that they are all lying for some nefarious reason, but is it reasonable? There are healthy and unhealthy forms of cynicism. Imagine that you live in Greenland and someone booked you a holiday in Africa, but you’ve never been there. There is a huge body of evidence available that Africa exists, including people you know personally who have been there — although at this point you’ve never seen it yourself and it’s technically possible it does not, in fact, exist. If you get on the plane, it could fly off south, get past Italy, keep going over the open sea until it runs out of fuel and then crashes into the ocean.
So there are many, many people who seem rational who say they found an ultimate state of awakening. It is possible according to them. What is the alternative? Existentialism and absurdism, meaning that there is no meaning other than what we make up. There is no purpose, everything exists randomly. This is absolutely possible. Actually, it isn’t contrary to the Buddhist teaching about awakening. That there is a state beyond suffering, because the human mind creates this and gives it the meaning. We can’t say either way and it’s time to revert to pragmatism. It doesn’t matter.
The Buddha was an ordinary person and found this state of awakeness. So were the others who came after him. If they found it, so can you. This is what the vow is about. It is a vow of possibility. That possibility is here for you now, and it will be there in the life beyond, and if you die and reincarnate, it will still be there, thus it is a safe refuge.
The second refuge is Dharma, which can mean different things. Here, it means ‘law’. A law is something that is true in all places and circumstances and times. So to look at a legal law, if you live in a place with a prohibition on drinking while driving, you’ll be in trouble if you drink and drive, it doesn’t matter where or when you do it nor who you are. That legal law applies everywhere for everyone for all the time. Perhaps we can also look at a physical law, like gravity: large bodies in space attract smaller ones. If, standing on planet earth, you drop a rock, it will fall on the floor. It doesn’t matter who you are, where you are, when you do it — it’s just the way it is and it never changes.
Dharma means that spiritual laws are spiritual laws, they are the same everywhere for everyone. Whatever the Buddha did in his mind to awaken, also worked for all the other masters and it will also work for you because that’s how reality is. The Buddha’s method was a practice, some logical thing you do, a way to live, that has steps that leads to an outcome. Like the steps to anything, they will be the same when correctly applied, whether this is to do with awakening or making a cup of tea. Put water in a kettle, apply heat underneath until bubbling, drop tea in, wait four minutes, pour in cup. This is the law of tea, doesn’t matter who, when, where or why it’s being made. It’s the recipe, the map — and it exists and is the same for all.
The last refuge is Sangha, which means community. What that means is that, if you sincerely tread the spiritual path to awakening, without dogma or clinging to identity, but with a pure, unfettered heart — there will always be people like you around or available, and these are your true family.
These are the three refuges, the first two are required, as they are akin to being able to get on a plane to an Africa that might only exist as a vast conspiracy. If you’re well into it, you can formally take refuge. Hold an incense stick daily, at your navel, then chin, then forehead, with hands in a praying position, one vow for each location:
I take refuge in the Buddha
I take refuge in the Dharma
I take refuge in the Sangha
Or not, up to you.