January 4, 2026 Live Talk On Taking Refuge In The Dharma

So we're beginning the new year,

Not in the most peaceful way we might have hoped.

But at this time I feel that,

I feel it's a very very good,

A very appropriate,

Auspicious time to reflect on the theme of today,

Which is taking refuge in the Dharma.

You know,

We could say the Dharma in the teachings.

And this is the theme I want to focus on today.

Just first to say that what I mean by,

You know,

What we mean by refuge in the Dharma.

Firstly,

Refuge in the Dharma is,

In the Buddhist teachings,

Is one of the three refuges.

In Buddhism,

And similarly in other,

You know,

Uses of the word,

A refuge is a place of safety,

Of security,

Of well-being that we can go to,

Particularly in times of difficulty or danger.

So,

You know,

We have a word obviously,

Refugee,

You know,

Somebody coming to a safe place from a place of war or oppression or,

You know,

Violence etc.

And when we use this term,

We're talking about in the spiritual sense,

We're talking about it as,

You know,

A state,

If you like,

Or a quality or something that we can look to for safety and refuge.

And the three refuges in Buddhism,

And I'll just name them,

The first and little description of them.

The first of the refuges,

As many of you will know,

Is refuge in the Buddha.

And this can be taken both in a kind of more external way of taking refuge,

Finding support in the historical Buddha,

The Siddhartha Gautama,

Who became the Awakened One.

We're taking refuge,

We're looking for safety in this individual who,

You know,

Woke up to the deepest possibilities of this human life and looking to that him as a really an example of support.

But on a more internal level,

On a more inner level,

Taking refuge in the Buddha is taking refuge in our own potential to wake up to the deepest freedom.

That,

You know,

This is our kind of inner,

You know,

Inner refuge in our own potential for awakening,

That we have the capacity to awaken.

So that's the first of the of the refuges.

The second that I'll be talking about emphasizing today is refuge in the Dharma,

Is refuge in the teachings as a reliable path to freedom,

That we could see that as kind of the external refuge.

And that we can embody these teachings and in through embodying these teachings,

We can realize the end of suffering.

So,

You know,

That would be more the inner refuge,

Internalizing this,

These teachings and taking refuge in that in the Dharma is more broadly taking refuge in life or taking refuge in the truth and the way things are.

And I'm going to talk much more about this.

So I leave that,

You know,

For now,

That that'll be enough.

If a refuge in the Dharma and the third refuge is refuge in the Sangha is finding refuge in the community of practitioners committed to to freedom to awakening to the teachings,

That would be more on the external level.

And on more of an internal level,

Taking refuge in the Sangha or community is recognizing really that we're connected with all beings and all of life.

You know,

The Buddha said all of spiritual life is community.

Dr.

Martin Luther King really spoke about this.

He didn't talk about it as refuge per se,

But he said he recognized that we are caught in a in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny.

He said,

Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

And he says,

I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.

And you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be.

This is the interrelated structure of reality.

He said this.

He said this in the letter from his letter from a bunch of clergy who were not very supportive in his letter from Birmingham jail.

So refuge in the so that's refuge in the Sangha or refuge in the community or refuge in as Tara Brach sometimes,

You know,

Talks about it as refuge in love and a love connection.

So focusing today on refuge in the Dharma,

I want to look at two questions really.

What do we mean by finding refuge in the Dharma?

And why is it important to take refuge in the Dharma?

So first taking refuge in the Dharma means to consciously recognize and internalize that the Dharma,

That is the teachings,

The Buddha's teachings of freedom and other wisdom teachings provide us with a pathway to freedom.

So refuge in in the Dharma is trusting that these teachings,

And I'm including the Buddha's teachings,

Kind of centrally the Buddha's teachings,

But I'm also including Rumi,

You know,

Welcoming the guests,

That's the Dharma teaching.

Rilke,

The poet Rilke,

When he says trust,

Always trust in the difficult,

That's a Dharma teaching.

Obviously Jesus,

When he says love your neighbor,

Turn the other cheek,

That's a Dharma teaching.

Mary Oliver,

You know,

In her poem,

Many of the poems,

But her poem,

The Journey,

Speaks about one day you finally knew what you had to do and began,

Though the voices kept shouting their bad advice,

Though the whole house began to tremble,

Etc.

You know,

That's a teaching,

And I've talked about this,

I have a couple of talks on Inside Timer about that poem as a,

You know,

It's really as a kind of a Dharma teaching.

You know,

When the great psychologist Jung,

You know,

When he says everything that isn't brought to consciousness comes to us as fate,

That's another Dharma teaching.

And life itself can teach us in so many ways.

So the essence there is that taking refuge in the Dharma means to recognize and internalize these,

That the Dharma,

That the teachings provide us with a pathway to freedom.

That's kind of what we're taking refuge in,

We're trusting that these are reliable teachings,

You know,

Pointers to how we can free ourselves from suffering.

So refuge in the Dharma means being intentional about putting the teachings at the center of our lives.

That's kind of what brought up the heart and what I'm going to be saying today is being intentional about putting the teachings and one's spiritual life,

One's spiritual practice at the center of our lives.

We will realize the benefits of the teachings only if we make them a priority,

And that's another thing I want to stress today.

You know,

The way I put it is,

The Dharma will support us if we support the Dharma.

That's a quote that I,

It's from me.

So just kind of that,

It came to me as that,

And what I mean by that is that the benefits of the teachings will be available to us insofar as we make them central in our lives.

You know,

They can't be just something we,

We kind of go to when we're in trouble,

For example,

You know,

And we're living our regular life and we're not,

You know,

We're doing other things particularly.

So for example,

It can't be something,

You know,

The teachings can't just be something we go to in times of trouble when we're,

While we're living our lives in a disconnected way,

We're not connecting with the teachings.

If we don't prioritize the teachings,

What will happen?

Well,

If we don't prioritize taking refuge in the Dharma,

What will happen is we will by default put other refuges at the center of our life.

And typically these refuges will be things that lead us to suffering,

Taking refuge in drink or drugs,

In fame,

In money,

In possessions,

In our beliefs.

Why won't it be enough to just kind of go to the teachings when we're in trouble and the rest of our life,

We're just kind of go doing whatever we want and,

You know,

Not acting ethically,

Etc,

Etc.

You know,

In the end,

The strength of our delusions will outweigh the strength of our practice.

That's how I formulate it.

It's the strength of our lack of clarity,

Lack of insight will outweigh the strength of our practice.

And so we'll,

We'll get caught up in suffering.

So,

So what I'm saying is we,

If we're going to benefit from the teachings,

We have to make them a priority in our lives.

It's said in Tibetan Buddhism that there are 84,

000 Dharma doors.

This isn't meant literally,

It's kind of more symbolically.

But the Dharma doors,

Meaning teachings that help us wake up,

There are 84,

000 of them,

Meaning there were just so many teachings that can help us wake up,

You know,

That,

You know,

The teaching,

You know,

The Zen teaching I've talked about fairly recently,

Make the obstacle the path or the obstacle is the path.

That's the teaching of like,

To see something that's difficult for us,

Not as a genuine obstacle,

But as something that has something that has something to teach us,

You know,

There's something we learn from the obstacle.

So the obstacle becomes the path becomes the place of awakening or the way of awakening.

So we have this these all these different teachings,

But one teaching,

And this is in all the Buddhist traditions,

One teaching is at the very center of all the teachings.

And this is the teaching on suffering and the end of suffering.

It's the four noble truths.

And the Buddha said about the this,

This particular teaching,

He said,

Friends,

Just as the footprint of any living being that walks can be placed within an elephant's footprint.

So too,

All wholesome states can be included in the four noble truths.

So all of these quote 84,

000 or however many we want to say,

Teachings really fit within the teaching of the four noble truths,

Because this is the quintessential teaching about how we can free ourselves from suffering,

How we cannot be caught up in,

In,

You know,

In,

In clinging and,

You know,

In in painful,

Painful situations.

The Buddha also said about this,

This teaching,

He said,

One who understands clinging and non clinging,

And this is the second and the third of the two four noble truths,

One who understands clinging and non clinging,

Understands all the Dharma,

Understands all the Dharma.

So,

You know,

This is these two statements from the Buddha couldn't,

He couldn't have said it more clearly that this teaching is,

Is essential,

It's essential for our,

For our,

You know,

For our waking up.

So really,

Really understanding and knowing the four noble truths means not just understanding them conceptually or cognitively,

You know,

Understanding cognitively or conceptually that we can find freedom in,

In our lives by letting go of clinging.

It's one thing to kind of know that up here in the coconut.

But it really means knowing through our own experience that when we cling,

We suffer.

It's really an embodied knowing,

Knowing through direct experience,

Really knowing in our bones.

It's a deep,

Deep knowing,

Deep insight.

And at the heart of the four noble truths is the recognition that when we cling to anything,

We suffer,

Whether it's clinging to possessions,

Or to views and opinions,

Or clinging to the people that we hate,

Which is just another form of clinging.

Whatever we cling to,

Or push away or identify with,

We suffer.

And the other side of that,

The other side of the coin is when we let go of clinging,

We experience freedom.

You know,

That can be a little freedom,

Or a lot of freedom,

Or complete freedom,

As Arjun Chah says.

And our task with each of the four noble truths is this deep knowing.

You know,

Our task with the first noble truth is to understand suffering completely.

The task with the second noble truth,

That is that the cause of suffering is clinging.

The task is we need to abandon clinging.

And the task for the third noble truth,

You know,

Which is that there's an end to suffering,

And the Buddha called it nirvana,

Or freedom.

What we need to do is realize the end of suffering.

That's the task.

And the fourth noble truth says that there's a path to the end of suffering,

The noble eightfold path.

And our task with this noble eightfold path is to follow it,

That this will,

You know,

This is the road we can follow,

Follow the eightfold path,

Follow the elaborate road.

There are many,

There are many other Dharma teachings that can help us wake up,

And I could say a lot about those.

But I want to just focus here on the four noble truth,

This central teaching about suffering,

And the end of suffering.

And I want to kind of finish by talking about some personal experience of mine with taking refuge in the Dharma.

And I want to share an experience that really taught me the importance of taking refuge in the Dharma.

And it really taught me through failure,

Through not being able to find refuge.

And the insights that came really came through a lot of pain and a lot of difficulty.

I had an experience a few years ago,

Where I found myself,

This was the kind of how,

How it arose,

I found myself overwhelmed by the amount of work that I'd taken on,

Particularly teaching work and and not knowing how I was going to be able to do it all.

I felt as though I didn't have the inner resources to be able to respond to all the demands that I felt were coming in.

And I felt a great deal of fear and anxiety.

And I think it was fear of failing was a big part of that,

You know,

Fear that people would see that,

You know,

I wasn't able to,

You know,

Be up for the job,

You know,

That kind of those kind of thoughts.

And my response to this sense of overwhelm,

Or burnout,

Or,

You know,

Just finding things too much,

Was to resist it,

To try to hold on for dear life and keep pushing through,

As though if I kept pushing forward,

I'd somehow come to the other end,

And everything would be okay,

That,

You know,

It was the illusion that I could push through this.

But the more I pushed,

The more tight and contracted and anxious and fearful I became.

I even had images,

You know,

This went on for a period of time,

I even had images of driving along on a freeway,

And seeing road signs that said,

Exit here.

But I still,

I never took the exit,

I just kept on pushing,

Kept on pushing.

And in the end,

I couldn't push anymore.

My body just said no.

And I,

You know,

Basically collapsed,

You know,

And had to give up.

But this wasn't,

The giving up wasn't the kind of spiritual surrender that we might often hear about,

Which is really a kind of,

I accept all this,

It wasn't coming from there.

It was coming,

You know,

Because there was nowhere else I could go.

And,

And it was actually accompanied by a lot of shame and depression and a sense of failure.

You know,

And I was in a very dark place.

I couldn't,

And what was one of the most painful things about being in this dark place,

Was that I couldn't access the Buddha,

The Dharma teachings,

The teachings of the Dharma,

Buddha's teachings,

Other wisdom teachings.

I knew them in my head,

But I couldn't embody them.

I couldn't,

I couldn't make them part of my practice in my life.

I couldn't access the practice of meditation,

Either,

Even though I'd been meditating pretty much daily for 30 years,

I couldn't really,

I could kind of go through the motions,

But I couldn't genuinely meditate.

I couldn't genuinely open to my experience because there was a kind of still a separation from,

From the experience.

It was like I could see the teachings and how helpful they could be.

There was a kind of cognitive knowing that the teachings could be helpful,

But I wasn't able to access them.

And that was really one of the most painful experiences that I've had in my life,

Of like,

It was,

It was feeling kind of really bereft,

You know,

Of like,

There are the teachings,

These wisdom teachings,

But it was like this huge body of water that prevented me to,

From,

From accessing them.

They weren't available to me.

They were kind of there,

But they weren't available.

Over time,

I came,

I gradually came to see how my resistance to stopping had been a false refuge.

And I found my way back to,

You know,

Some,

You know,

Psychological well-being,

As well as finding my way back to the Dharma.

And I learned a great deal through the suffering.

And one of the most important things I learned was that my suffering was avoidable if I had truly taken refuge in the Dharma,

In the teachings,

In what life was telling me.

Sometimes,

Perhaps a lot of the time,

We learn through suffering.

But when we take refuge in the Dharma,

Genuinely take refuge in the Dharma,

Really make it central in our lives,

Then we have the potential to avoid the suffering,

The kind of suffering that I experience.

What we can do is we can prevent it from arising.

We can see the guideposts,

You know,

The signs,

The freeway exits that say,

Exit here.

We can say,

Okay,

This is too much.

I'm stopping here.

And I'll take,

You know,

So for me,

You know,

As I look at it in a kind of psychological and spiritual way,

My fear of what would happen if I gave up,

If I stopped and just said,

Okay,

Stop,

Outweighed the fear of what would happen if I didn't stop.

I thought pushing my way through was a lesser fear in a way.

There's that beautiful quote from Anais Nin you might be familiar with.

She says,

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

So the risk it took to blossom was less painful.

And then,

So there was a willingness to open.

That wasn't where I was at that particular time.

I didn't,

I wasn't at that place.

And that's why I pushed on.

But as I,

In retrospect,

I'd somehow lost connection with the refuge of in the teachings.

And I took refuge in,

You know,

A sense of holding on to my belief in who I was,

That I thought I'd lose if I'd stop,

If I stopped and kind of said,

Okay,

Can't do it anymore.

As it turns out,

You know,

I did do that.

You know,

Everybody was completely kind and loving and compassionate and all of that.

But at the time I was caught up in that illusion.

And this for me is I wanted to share this personal story because,

You know,

Really to get across how important it is to put the teachings and our commitment to the teachings really at the center of our lives.

So what I want to finish with is just a reflection in this last two or three minutes,

You know,

I invite you to reflect,

What would it mean to you to take refuge in the Dharma?

We're living in very difficult,

Very challenging times,

And we need the refuge of wisdom teachings,

The teachings of those who walk the path before us,

People,

Those who can point out the potholes and the exits.

And we can take refuge in what life is telling us.

What would it,

What would you need to do,

If anything,

To put the teachings,

The wisdom teachings at the center of your life?

Is any change necessary to do that?

Let's just sit for a couple of minutes in meditation.

You might just sit with that question.

Would it mean for you to truly take refuge in the Dharma?

And I don't mean that in a sense of beliefs at all.

We don't have to believe anything,

But just to trust in the teachings.

And put them really at the center of your life and your practice.