..续本文上一页of the Dhamma keep us in the present, in the here-and-now, unbound by time. Taking refuge is an immediate immanent reflection in the mind, it is not just repeating “Dhammam Saranam gacchami” like a parrot, thinking, “Buddhists say this so I have to say it.” We turn towards the Dhamma, we are aware now, take refuge in Dhamma, now as an immediate action, an immediate reflection of being the Dhamma, being that very truth.
Because our conceiving mind tends always to delude us, it takes us into becoming. We think, “I”ll practise meditation so that I”ll become enlightened in the future. I will take the Three Refuges in order to become a Buddhist. I want to become wise. I want to get away from suffering and ignorance and become something else.” This is the conceiving mind, the desire mind, the mind that always deludes us. Rather than constantly thinking in terms of becoming something, we take refuge in being Dhamma in the present.
The impersonality of Dhamma bothers many people, because devotional religion tends to personify everything and people coming from such traditions don”t feel right if they can”t have some sort of personal relationship with it. I remember one time, a French Catholic missionary came to stay in our monastery and practise meditation. He felt at something of a loss with Buddhism because he said it was like “cold surgery”, there was no personal relationship with God. One cannot have a personal relationship with Dhamma, one cannot say “Love the Dhamma!” or “The Dhamma loves me!”; there is no need for that. We only need a personal relationship with something we are not, like our mother, father, husband or wife, something separate from us.
We don”t need to take refuge in mother or father again, someone to protect us and love us and say, “I love you no matter what you do. Everything is going to be all right,” and pat us on the head. The Buddha-Dhamma is a very maturing refuge, it is a religious practice that is a complete sanity or maturity, in which we are no longer seeking a mother or father, because we don”t need to become any” thing any more. We don”t need to be loved or protected by anyone any more, because we can love and protect others, and that is all that is important. We no longer have to ask or demand things from others, whether it is from other people or even some deity or force that we feel is separate from us and has to be prayed to and asked for guidance.
We give up all our attempts to conceive Dhamma as being this or that or anything at all, and let go of our desire to have a personal relationship with the truth. We have to be that truth, here and now. Being that truth, taking that refuge, calls for an immediate awakening, for being wise now, being Buddha, being Dhamma in the present.
The Third refuge is Sangha, which means a group. “Sangha” may be the Bhikkhu-Sangha [the order of monks] — or the Ariya-Sangha, the group of the Noble Beings, all those who live virtuously, doing good and refraining from evil with bodily action and speech. Here, taking refuge in the Sangha with “Sangham saranam gacchami” means we take refuge in virtue, in that which is good, virtuous, kind, compassionate and generous. We don”t take refuge in those things in our minds that are mean, nasty, cruel, selfish, jealous, hateful, angry — even though admittedly that is what we often tend to do out of heedlessness, out of not reflecting, not being awake, but just reacting to conditions. Taking refuge in the Sangha means, on the conventional level, doing good and refraining from evil with bodily action and speech.
All of us have both good thoughts and intentions and bad ones. Sankharas [conditioned phenomena] are that way, some are good and some aren”t, some are indifferent, some are wonderful and some are nasty. Conditions in the…
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