..續本文上一頁But memory is inconstant and can”t provide us with a safe, dependable refuge. At best it can help us only on the worldly level because we are depending allegorically on inpiduals, on objects, as our refuge.

　　C. Sangha. There are two sorts of Sangha.

　　1. The conventional Sangha: ordinary people who have ordained and taken up the homeless life. This sort of Sangha is composed of four sorts of people.

　　a. Upajivika: those who have taken up the ordained life simply as a comfortable way of making a living. They can depend on others to provide for their needs and so they get complacent, satisfied with their ordained status, without looking for any form of goodness better than that.

　　b. Upadusika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, destroy the Buddha”s teachings through their behavior -- not abandoning the things they should abandon, not doing the things they should do, damaging their own capacity for good and that of others, being destructive, falling away from the Buddha”s teachings.

　　c. Upamuyhika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, make themselves blind and ignorant, who don”t look for tactics for bringing their behavior into line with the Buddha”s teachings. They don”t pull themselves out of their useless ways and stay continually deluded.

　　d. Upanisaranika: those who, on being ordained in Buddhism, are intent on studying and practicing in line with what they have learned, who try to find themselves a secure refuge, and who don”t let themselves become heedless or complacent. Whatever the Buddha says is good, they behave accordingly. Whether or not they attain that goodness, they keep on trying.

　　All four of these count as one type of Sangha on the level of inpiduals.

　　2. The Noble Sangha. This has four levels: those who have practiced the Buddha”s teachings until they have reached the attainments of Stream Entry, Once-returning, Non-returning, or Arahantship. All four of these are still on the level of inpiduals because they are inpidual people who have reached the transcendent attainments in their hearts. Suppose, for example, we say that Aññakondañña is a Streamwinner, Sariputta a Once-returner, Moggallana a Non-returner, and Ananda an Arahant. All four of them are still inpiduals in name and body. To take refuge in them is to take refuge on the level of inpiduals -- and as inpiduals they are inconstant and unstable. Their bodies, sense faculties, and mental phenomena by nature have to age, grow ill, and die. In other words, they are anicca, inconstant and changeable; dukkha, subject to stress and suffering; and anatta: They themselves can”t prevent the nature of conditioned phenomena from taking its course with them.

　　When this is the case, anyone who tries to take refuge in them is subject to change as well. We can depend on them only for a while, but they can”t provide us any true refuge. They can”t keep us from falling into the realms of deprivation. At best, taking refuge in them can give us results on the worldly level -- and the worldly level is changing all the time.

　　This ends the discussion of the Triple Refuge on the level of inpiduals.

　　II. On the level of inner qualities

　　Taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha on the level of inner qualities means reaching the Triple Gem with the heart through the practice.

　　To reach the Buddha on the level of inner qualities, you first have to know the virtues of the Buddha, which are of two sorts: causes and results. The causes of his Awakening are mindfulness and alertness. The result of his Awakening is the transcendent: the stilling of all defilements and mental fermentations.

　　So we have to develop these qualities within ourselves. Buddha-sati -- mindfulness like the Buddha”s -- is what wakes us up. Full a…

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