In learning Buddhism, people have been especially drawn to the various technique meditation. But at the core are two of these practices: Vipassana (insight meditation) – the observation of the mind/body process with clear and focused awareness, leading to a deepening of wisdom and equanimity; and Metta (loving kindness) – the systematic exploration of the ability to love, leading to a deepening of concentration and connection. These practices are to ground in the foundation of Buddhism tradition which is to expand an ever-deepening awareness of the triple refuges ( or Triple Gem). The tradition is kept alive through the commitment to insight, moral integrity and compassion of all who practice it. By honestly making that commitment and sincerely practice the path of insight, we can all free our minds of habitual clinging, anger, and confusion. This is a journey of continuously mindful cultivation and practices.
The Triple Gem of Buddhism is The Buddha, The Dharma & The Sangha. If we look closely, the Triple Gems are actually one. The other two gems always exist in each gem. The Buddha is vision, the Dharma is embodying that vision, and the Sangha is sharing or expressing that vision. The Buddha is wise view, the Dharma is meditation and Sangha is wise action. The Buddha is faith or motivation, the Dharma is practice, and the Sangha is intimacy. The Buddha is enlightenment, the Dharma is actualizing of enlightenment, and the Sangha is manifesting enlightenment. The Buddha is wisdom, the Dharma is the truth, and the Sangha is harmonious action. The Buddha is the vision of awakening out of the conditioning of the mind, the Dharma is refuge in the truth of things, and the Sangha is refuge in the recognition that we have company. Each refuge is powerful and essential in and of itself; at the same time they are all connected in a full and integrated path. The Triple Gems are common to any spiritual search, and are ultimately found within our own heart when we are open to looking.
When the Buddha’s first group of disciples reached enlightenment, he said to them, “Go forth, go out, for the good of the many, for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, for the welfare, for the happiness of beings.” By saying this, the Buddha made it clear that freedom should be expressed and shared in the world – through the Sangha, the third of the Triple Gem. Taking refuge in the Sangha means embracing a seamless view of practice that integrates how we are meditating with how we are in the world and then expressing our understanding through wise action and speech. It is living our meditation, and allowing our lives to express the truth. Sangha reveals the gap between ideas and actuality.
In the Buddhist community one way to take refuge in the Sangha is to remember that we come out of an ancient tradition of awakening. The fact that for over two thousand five hundred years people just like us have been walking this path, can help to give us a sense of direction, protection, and confidence in our own capacity to awaken. It can be comforting to remember that everything that we think is so unique and personal to our own experience has been very well documented in the discourses (suttas) of the Buddha. when we read what was written down so very long ago and see that it is our own experience that is being written about, we may gain a sense of strength and unity.
There are many different ways to look at what Sangha as community means, however. Communities have many shapes and forms. Some communities may even seem formless and fluid. Taking refuge in community does not necessarily mean that we are taking refuge in a specific group of practitioners. One meaning of Sangha is the ordained community of monks and nuns. One meaning is the community of those who from beginningless time, have realized the truth. One meaning is the community of all who are dedicated to lives of truth and good-heartedness, who live with the benefit of all beings in their hearts and minds.
The Buddha’s teaching, as expressed in the lives of the Sangha, is never removed from a sense of humanity. The Buddha was a human being who talked abut what it ultimately means to be a human being and to be happy. When we explore Sangha, we explore what supports us, clears our vision, and inspires us, and what protects us in a life committed to wisdom and good-heartedness. To explore the meaning of community and the exhortation to go forth “for the good of the many,” is to explore a quality of compassion that isn’t lofty or abstract or removed from the concerns of people, but is very present and available.
When the Buddha was asked about he different experiences of life – about being a parent, a renunciate, a friend, being sick, being the one who gives, being the one who receives – he said, “Any life at all may be lived well or may be lived wrongly. If it is lived well, it will bring great results, but if it is lived wrongly, it will bring very poor results.” What ever the particular circumstance of our lives, our potential is great when we honor our own sense of purpose, when we bring wakefulness into the different aspects of our day, and when we remember a heartfelt commitment to the welfare of all beings.
In the time of the Buddha, practitioners had to work with the very same difficulties, hindrances, and obstacles that we meet in our minds today. There are descriptions in the suttas of yearning and longing and anger and agitation and restlessness and doubt and sleepiness and dullness and boredom. To remember this can be a place where we can nourish ourselves when we hit dry or difficult spots. Zen master Dogen said that if there is just one log on a fire, the fire will be weak, whereas many logs make a fire strong and powerful. People can help each other by combing their strengths as they practice. This is one reason why we get together in retreat centers. In terms of a lifetime of practice, most of us can benefits from the support of one another. We are dependent on ourselves to practice; no one can do it for us. But at the same time, most of us need support.
The practice of Vipassana (insight meditation) goes against the grain of the culture, we in the West especially need the strength that practicing together brings. The values of the culture in the world at large differ greatly from the values that we uncover and strengthen in our meditation practice. One examples is that in the culture we are generally encouraged to have strong opinions. having strong views is seen as making one more stable and productive, whereas if we don’t have firmly held dogmatic views, we are seen as wishy-washy. When we look deeply, however, we see that attachment to views and opinions narrows our world and limits creative possibilities. Opinions and views are very subjective and are not something to cling to too tightly.
In spiritual practice we begin to question what is defined as success. The dominant culture encourages us to be as busy and frantic as possible, telling us that if we are doing something, we are on the way to becoming someone. The more crowded one’s life is the more successful. The culture urges us to live for the future and values greed and accumulation. But our practice invites us to be aware and present, while letting go of our attachment to fantasy and preoccupation with external things. It is a radical act to do nothing and to sit in stillness. Doing nothing in a meditative sense means keeping the heart still and being completely present with whatever activity we are engaged in: it is an extremely vibrant creative activity. The art of doing nothing, however easy it may sound, requires a great deal of practice and training.
Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodies in others. Being contact with wise friends points to and strengthens our own latent wisdom, generosity, and compassion. When we are in contact with those who are wise or free, it touches that which we already know within ourselves but have forgotten. Some part of the heart remembers a little bit more through this contact. Our own Buddha-nature gets revealed. When we see that others have changed and have grown into deepening levels of freedom through practice, we see that this path of liberation is also available to us. When we begin to recognize and let go of our competitive conditioning, others can inspire us when they share themselves and the fruits of their practice.
The Buddha clearly valued the presence of wise friends on the path. In the suttras he taught that when a particular quality of hear such as generosity, patience, or concentration needs to be developed, one should try to have contact with others who have already developed that same wholesome quality. The Buddha emphasized the importance of “noble friendship and suitable conversation.” It makes sense. If we want to realize truth and freedom, it’s helpful to be in the presence of those who are manifesting and expressing truth and freedom. It is more than inspiration. On some level it is transmission: we are very much influenced by one another. Although wholesome qualities of heart are developed through our own effort, we can get a clear sense of what they look like and how wonderful they are by seeing them embodied in others.
The people that we choose to be with in intimate ways and as friends have strong influence on our lives. It is important to notice what we base our relationship choices on. Are we being drawn by blind desire or by wisdom? It is a true treasure in this life of attempting to awaken to find friends who will tell us the truth when we ask. It is very easy to find people who will talk behind our backs, but to receive the truth from friends in a kind way is a wonderful gift. We can take refuge in their discernment. We can check our our assumptions and conclusions. Discerning friend can help us examine ways that we habitually cause suffering from ourselves and others. The path of freedom is a difficult one, a path that requires great effort and earnestness. To be in the company of spiritual friends who can help us recognize and transform the inevitable obstacles that we encounter along the way is invaluable. It is hard to walk on this path of awareness without friend gently pointing out our blind spots.
Though wise friendship is an essential aspect of the spiritual path, this doesn’t mean to avoid or insulate ourselves from people who we think do not have the qualities that we aspire to. There is a great deal to be learned form interacting in situations that are not so protected or consciously supportive of our inner development. When we are being challenged in ways that are not necessarily of our own choosing or within our control, life can continue to teach us. We can develop patience and compassion in situations that provoke impatience and aversion, if we are willing to be mindful of our own reactivity and learn to take responsibility for our response. If we can bring these situations into our practice, then we do not have to relate to ourselves as victims, subjugated to the whims of others.
While being part of the Buddhist tradition that began with the enlightenment of the Buddha, we are also part of a much larger Sangha that includes not only Buddhists but also the greater community of those who are seeking freedom and truth. We are part of this greater community simply through our commitment to being awake and choosing not to engage in harmful actions toward ourselves and others.
We are immediately brought into this larger Sangha with our willingness to be openhearted and with our intention to grow in discernment. Taking refuge in the Sangha is not a matter of adhering to a particular belief system or of identifying oneself as a Buddhist. The Buddha didn’t want people to follow him blindly or to identify with what he taught; his teaching is an invitation to know freedom for ourselves.
When we come in contract with others, as we do everyday, we are bound to be hurt form time to time, and at certain times quite a bit. Our first reaction is to cling to our hurt feelings, to our sense of being separate from one another. instead we can bring mindfulness into our relationships with others rather than taking refuge in withdrawal or blame. Perhaps we can take refuge in risking something different from the old familiar unworkable and unsatisfying ways that we all know so well. We can be mindful in relationship and ask: Am I acting in a habitual or mechanical way? When we are up against that which seems unworkable, what does it mean to remain openhearted? To stay open may go against every bone in the body! So taking refuge in eh Sangha also means making a commitment to bringing mindfulness to this rich area of relationship in all its diverse forms.
Taking refuge in our interconnection means that when we hurt another person, we recognize that we hurt ourselves as well. Similarly, when we hurt ourselves, we also hurt others. We may think that we can hurt ourselves and that no one else will be hared. But because we are interconnected, this is never true. Unless we learn to take care of ourselves,we won’t really know how to care for others. If we haven’t learned how to be kind with ourselves, being kind to others is often merely an ideal to strive for. Taking care of oneself also means being willing to acknowledge one’s suffering and then investigate its source. this means to silently observe our suffering without judging or reacting. This process takes a great deal of patience and courage, and we gradually discover an inner refuge through cultivating these qualities. buy training the heart to be steady and equanimous, our confidence grows as well as our capacity to help others. when we remember to bring our mindfulness practice to the complex world of relationship, the gap between spiritual ideals and actuality dissolves.
While we try to be openhearted to everyone around us, we can practice being openhearted to all the emotions, inner voices, and thoughts in our inner environment. Taking refuge in the Sangha means being openhearted with this inner Sangha as well. If we can embrace and accept negative emotions and unpleasant states of mind when they arise, without identifying with them or acting on them, we can begin to trust ourselves and live with greater ease. The practice of meditation teaches us to face whatever is occurring, and this strength of heart and mind becomes a lasting refuge. In the words of the Buddha, “By wise effort and earnestness, find for yourself an island that no flood can overwhelm.” As we find an inner refuge that no flood can overwhelm, we quite naturally become a refuge for others.