So I'm happy to be with you this morning and really appreciated that Lily brought to us this important topic of where we find refuge.
After our Tuesday talk I was just really inspired and I just sat down and kind of thought about this and wrote about this and traditionally in the Buddhist tradition there are what are known as three refuges that are taught and they speak about the specific commitment we have to seeing clearly and acting in ways that don't cause harm and and free the heart and these refuges are known as the triple gems.
They're these three gems so when you think of a gem you know you can see the facets of the gem and the first gem is the the gem of the Buddha and the second is like so that the Buddha representing the the awakened qualities within us okay and then the second gem is the Dharma which is really our practice the practice of mindfulness the practice of remembering the practice of showing up of being aware no matter what the situation trusting the practice of showing up and the third gem is all of you in the Sangha the community you know we are mirrors for each other or we can be you know we may see behavior in ourselves or behavior in others that prickles us but it's possible to see through the behavior and what people may be saying or seeing and get through to their beauty get through to their beauty their tenderness to actually see the struggle and how that struggle in other people is not unlike the struggle in our own heart and mind so the Sangha is an important mirror for us as we grow together so the triple gem the Buddha the Dharma and the Sangha and these are compass points in a way that we can put our trust in and refuge has a lot to do with our involvement in our Buddhist practice where we're putting our trust you know where are we wholeheartedly involved and many of you here have made this a regular practice coming together every week you know represents a shared intention to follow this path together and now you know we might do it differently but everyone is kind of headed in the same direction and the expression that is used for going for refuge in the Pali language the original language of the Buddha is Gacchami Gacchami and Gacchami literally means to walk to go so when we walk anywhere we bring our whole selves to the walking you know we don't just leave my feet behind or my hands behind like we bring our whole self to the practice right so the the phrase Buddha Saranam Gacchami this is the Pali phrase the ancient phrase that has been chanted for 2,
500 years okay Buddha Saranam Gacchami meaning I go to the Buddha for refuge that's what it means so there is an understanding it refers to understanding to go to for refuge means I'm going to something important it's an orientation it's an intention for one's life so when the Buddha started wandering around India shortly after his enlightenment he encountered several men who recognized him to be moving through the world in this extraordinary way that they questioned him like are you a god and he replied no and then so they asked again well are you an incarnation of a god no he replied and then so then they went on are you a wizard then no well are you a man no no so what are you then and he simply replied I am awake I am awake in taking refuge in the Buddha it doesn't mean that you become a Buddhist the Buddha wasn't a Buddhist he was awake he was a human being just like us through the power of his own inner discipline resolve his own intrinsic intelligence discovered the truths that he later taught and he never called them Buddhism that was a 19th century colonial creation the ism right and what he shared for 45 years after his awakening was the Buddha Dharma the teachings of awakening things that he realized and encouraged those who were interested to check out for themselves to see for themselves whether or not the teachings that he realized were true for them so right in the beginning he was saying you don't have to join a club or adopt a belief or become a follower but through your own direct experience see for yourself if this is true if you discover that what I'm saying is true and you discover it through your own experience and what you might find is that something is born within you it's not just a feeling that you have about it but something that brings about an unshakable confidence and peace so these refuges that we're exploring are really personal what they mean to you what they represent may be very different than what they mean to me and I was struck by the the teaching that Lily shared that we can you know that's in the suttas that we can go to the mountains or to the forest or to the ocean or to the trees or to a shrine and true refuge can't be found there so in my direct experience those places help me remember the unshakable confidence that I have in the potential to awaken to my own Buddha nature so sometimes it's refuge in the breath and sometimes it's refuge and just being still and sometimes it's refuge in the nature that's all around me whatever is in harmony for you that's where we can rest that's the shelter that's the refuge so the idea isn't that I'm going to give you refuge and you have something like you don't have to make any commitment it's just much more about giving voice and expressing something that already resides in you the Buddha means awakened one so when we are taking refuge in the Buddha we are taking refuge in that capacity to realize the Buddha within us the capacity to experience the fruits of being awake in this very life those noble qualities within us that our love that our compassion joy equanimity the capacity to move with what are known as the eight worldly winds to move with praise and blame as that happens in life and gain and loss and pleasure and pain and fame and shame to move with these winds that keep blowing with a certain balance and serenity when we take refuge in the Buddha we're taking refuge in our own capacity to the Buddha within what we're actually looking for is not out there it's in us and how we find ourselves how we find this Buddha is to stop going out and running after it and instead settle back and see what happens when we awaken when we pay attention to what's here let everything be the cause to awaken the Buddha within so we might take a few minutes to see where we ordinarily go for refuge sometimes it's food sleep television drugs alcohol sex busyness anywhere but right here we go to the past in some way the good old days or we go to the imagined future where everything will be better but very rarely do we stay right here it was Rumi who said the cure for pain is in the pain right here so I will stop and let you reflect on this out loud with the wish that the Buddha of Buddhism points you to the Buddha that is within you thank you
