Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche Refuge
[FIRST DRAFT ONLY]
VANDANA 3X– Homage (Bold typeface is in the Pali Language)
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO, ARAHATO, SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO, ARAHATO, SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASA
NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO, ARAHATO, SAMMA-SAMBUDDHASA
(Homage to Him, the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Fully Enlightened One).
TISARANA 3X. – The Three Refuges
Buddham saranam gacchãmi
Dhammam saranam gacchãmi
Sangham saranam gacchãmi
(I go for refuge in the Buddha
I go for refuge in the Dhamma
I go for refuge in the Sangha)
Dutiyampi, Buddham saranam gacchãmi
Dutyampi, Dhammam saranam gacchãmi
Dutyampi, Sangham saranam gacchãmi
(Dutyampi – For a second time I go for refuge…)
Tatiyampi, Buddham saranam gacchãmi
Tatiyampi, Dhammam saranam gacchãmi
Tatiyampi, Sangham saranam gacchãmi
(Tatiyampi – For a third time I go for refuge…)
One of the most important visible things during any Buddhist ceremony is the Taking of Refuge. You have the respect to the Buddha and then the naming, and then taking refuges, and then the precepts, for example, the other things like the Meditation on Loving Kindness. There are a few things which almost start every ceremony, every temple observance and one of them is the Refuges. So I thought today we would have a look at the work and the ideas behind that.
You have BUDDHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI, DHAMMAM SARANAM GACCHAMI, SANGHAM SARANAM GACCHAMI. And you have then, in addition to that, DUTIYAMPI and TATIYAMPI. Which, those are translated as twice and thrice, or as the second time and for the third time. If you’ll turn to your “Mirror of the Dhamma”. I’m also going to ask you ,after this, to do a bit of Pali verb endings and see if you can figure them out.
The GACCHAMI part, you can see a relationship to (???) AGA VA with “G” “A”. Also you see “G A’s” very frequently. But GACCHAMI is a verb “to go”. Sorry, the “MI” part “GACCHATI” is the verb, GA-C-CHATI, to go. And “MI” we’ve already possibly learned is the first person singular. I’m going to ask you to find out, see if you can find. Make a list of the endings of verbs.
So anyway, “I go” : GACCHAMI. “To go”: GACCHATI. So that’s first, a very simple translation. “BUDDHAM” : I think that by now you should be familiar with that. You can take many, many translations of that. And “DHAMMA” with the “M” as an ending, and so on
“I go to the Buddha” (??? Nodu Buddho) and so on. “BUDDHAM” it’s like in a sense the objects so that you have… You can also draw up a list of the endings; what they indicate: (???) ENA, ESA and so on. Work it out in (your) what’s called declensions. But you may decline to do your declensions. You know that at a very early age I was unfortunately affected by Stephen Leacock’s writings of which you get one of the atrocious examples is the story of a man, a young man who was running on a bank I think. You know, his name could have been Oliver. And Oliver was running on the bank and he caught a draft. But the bank refused the draft. He fell ill with a cold. So now you know where some of these atrocious puns that this Being engages in come from.
So we should do something also, about however the word SANGHAM. SANGHO. SANGHA… that sort of thing. And we will.
But SARANAM because it’s … (these are by the way called the Three Refuges) …(???) TI SARANAM. It probably should be (???) TI SARANA because that would make it then plural. But if you just say “The Three Refuge”, you could keep it I suppose… singular, which is the short “A”. The long “A” would be plural.
Basic is… at least you know you can count to three: (???) EKA, DUE, TI and in Sanskrit, TRI. DUTIYAMPI it’s almost DUE-TIYAMPI. DUE is (????)…. that’s coming from that. TATIYAMPI: TATI..right? DUTI and TATI are twice and thrice…DUE and TI. It’s a little change but in English so is the word ‘twice’ from ‘two’, ‘thrice’ from ‘three’. They’re not quite the same but they’re from the same root.
So…but SARANAM because it is the start usually, even in the Tibetan you do a different Refuge concept…‘PALDEN LAMA‘… and so on. You start with ‘PALDEN LAMA’. But the idea of Refuge is very important: taking Refuge.
The basic translation, basic translation is ‘house’ or ‘shelter’. So you could translate it ‘I take my shelter in the Buddha’. That’s I suppose the first ‘fort’ in a way. Fortress, you know, fortress. It’s a wall around. I delineate that out. And I take in that concept of a (?) built, not a vehicle but a place to stand in the world and to receive nourishment. You know (???) it’s associated with a house or a shelter. Of course you can use it as “I took shelter from wild animals” and that’s sort of behind, especially in this society with its madness of wars. It has its uh… it’s dangerous out there in many ways! And you think that ‘Oh well, that’s maybe just sort of standard paranoia’, but considering the nature of this society it’s quite a reasonable one, and so on with everything that is occurring.
Now, however, there are associated words. The ‘SARA’ part very frequently means movement. This is very strange because the long word ‘SARANA’ means house. The particles of it… you could almost… you could almost, just to give you an idea… a play, because the ancients liked to sort of juxtaposition ideas to indicate two things at once. And one is ‘movement’ and maybe the other is like ‘no wandering, no movement’, something very stable. ‘I take Refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha because that’s a very stable way of progression.’ To relate to. Not just… well, you know, sort of just turning it a bit saying ‘Oh well, I’ll just sort of wander.’ You know, not necessarily have a philosophy or an ideology or anything… and life become very bitty and purposeless and pointless and (???)… Confusion. So then an idea, an idea, such a strong idea is a kind of a shelter to… here I, rather like Luther ‘Here I Stand’. I take my stand in these ideas: Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha. So that’s there. Some of the related words.
But it also, in a way, indicates that by the Refuge, by taking this, this idea of firmness, as a protection, in the midst of a very mad world there will also be movement. There will be progression (SARA) to awakening. Because also ‘SARA’ sometimes also means ‘arrow’. The flight of an arrow…(???). Even though most arrows are aimed at the sky, I guess you could say there’s a come down, you know an idealism. But there is that idea. And the similes in the ancient texts are not ‘merely an arrow shot up into the air, where I landed I know not where, so I shot another one to see where it went’…that kind of thing…. but, an arrow hitting a bull’s eye. They use that simile for the transcendental very frequently. The change of lineage knowledge which is called BOTRIPENYANA (???), (difficult to translate)… and sort of Path, right? Path, it’s very sure (when it will…) when the consciousness transcends the ego that it will experience universitality or totality. There’s a totality, mystical (..?) totality experience and it’s very sure and so on. All we have to do is put down the clinging and really the work is finished or done. But only done through the direct experience of the Path or Stream. Again stream is a moving. Hmm? To experience the sure moving streams, no matter even how dammed up they are normally, flow to the ocean, the ocean of Dharmadhatu. And every individual life has the possibility, the potential of flowing to the ocean of full knowing. So, we have, with that word, many possibilities. I will just check the dictionaries and see if there’s any other small crumbs that could fall from the table.
One of the other meanings, apart from ‘fluid’, that come from some of the Sanskrit, we agree (???) to the things are in fact like a tree. You know, like (???) a tree that’s rooted in the Ground, in Reality, in Truth. And there’s always that idea… of course there’s aspiration… of course beings indulge in spiritual fantasy and they put on very nice blossoms and all that. You can be a tree and it’s very colourful, but basically every tree has it’s roots in Dharma. You see because ‘DHAR’ means ‘support’. Even your creation of fantasies and spiritual fantasies come out of Reality. I mean the reality that beings are destined to grow and of course whilst they’re growing they need to be in accordance with Reality. Being in accordance with Reality is in fact a Shelter. It’s a support for the being to be well grounded… well grounded. And so you should all have respect for Nature. Two things… (you may)… there’s an old saying
(is)… Head in the clouds (in Dharma), Head in the clouds, feet on the ground. By that the trees and the vegetation are wondrous clouds. They are beauties and you are founded in that. And a good foundation of that actually fulfills the deepest and most powerful realisations of the being. The head in the clouds. In fact a Guru, a Lama’s teaching is called the way of the white clouds. Pure clouds. It’s a saying because of the clouds at the top of the mountains.
So of course naturally, my picture, if you wish, of a very well balanced human being has much aspiration, if not total aspiration, (but you know) much idealism, but also a very good grounding that the idealism comes from a reality. It’s not merely a sort of wishy-washy fantasy number. It’s based on Truth. So we have that.
I’ll just check the Pali once more. And whilst I’m doing this, will you look at Sangha. (By the way, usually… may I give you the orientation? Always the Pali dictionary is not as rich as the Sanskrit. The Sanskrit has had much more work done on it. And of course the original language is the Sanskrit and the Pali, too, is a cruder form of Sanskrit. I don’t want to say degenerate because it was the language spoken, as I mentioned before, by the people.)
One of the meanings, if you rather push it a bit, is ‘envelopment’. ‘I will be enveloped’. That sort of thing. Now, that doesn’t sound at first, or seem at first looking at it or hearing it to be necessarily very profitable. But your first shelter was an envelope. You were in an envelope at one time. It’s called the embryo. And in that, growth took place.
So we have the idea, also, that taking Refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha is equivalent to a period of growth surrounded by this idea. It ‘envelopes’ you and so on. It’s an opportunity for growth. Your first envelope… that sort of thing. Now let’s not … ‘I envelope myself in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha’ unless you’re saying ‘I really immerse myself in that, in the embryonic fluid of that idea’. Alright? So that’s another possibility. So there’s a little more that you know, what is being said.
And now we will just pause and turn to the third important Refuge. You can easily see the refuge of… let’s make it very, very simple… the idea of a fully unfolded being. An aspiration. And possibly the whole universe desires you to aspire. Remember it’s very strong at this point…Growth. Organisms are sent to grow, to survive, to serve…vivre. A little Eyre(???) light to really expand and make it through. That’s the universe does that. So that’s why we take Refuge in Bodhicitta, because of Truth. It’s basic. It is the foundation of an organism. Right? ‘Set forth’… right? If there was a God there, He said ‘Go forth and multiply… Go forth and multiply’. In other words develop. Not merely procreate necessarily, but multiply in your being. Unfold. Expand. Understand and become safe. And the more knowledge there is by the way, the more protection in the midst of this world. You know how to dodge, at least, all of ‘the arrows of outrageous fortune’ at least artfully.
Question: Sir, I was thinking I was very disappointed in people and things around me and I thought that there’s nothing to rely on. Could I say that one could rely on the Dharma or on the Teaching?
Rinpoche: Yes you can give reliance because it was actually achieved and it’s achievable. It’s been done. And it’s not merely for the being saying, ‘Done is that which had to be done…’, this imperative, this universal imperative, but it has been achieved. By a human being. And human beings. It’s more than merely one. And it’s not one Buddha, in the human identity sense. There have been many buddhas. It’s not merely in Shakyamuni, per se, but (all), by the whole process that it is possible, in a human being, to fully awaken and understand. And that is a reality. That is far more of a reality than the war in Iraq which is based on all sorts of fantasies. Right? Or the government’s economic positions. Excuse me! Even the, a lot of the machinations of Parliament, you can get very much a sense! There was a poll taken recently and there’s a vast disillusionment with the parliamentary process. Etcetera. You think that your vote counts. In many ways it actually doesn’t. Hmm? There are promises and then broken promises. But the Buddha promise cannot be broken because it’s been done. It was in a sense not merely done for the being, but it was done for you. And the Dharma, the laws of the universe, don’t change. You may master them and skillfully use them, and so on. You may be granted more insights into the ‘law of gravity’ and you may come up with ‘gravitons’ as you’re Stephen Leacock watching it with great ‘gravity’! That sort of thing! Well it makes you hear what maybe the word ‘gravity’ means. Heavy attraction, pull on something… But those things are dependable.
What may be a little more controversial one is… I don’t think ultimately controversial… and that is the Sangha. You see… were they good or were they bad?… Or do they uphold? Are they of good conduct and pure conduct and etc. etc. etc.?
But the principle is, (that you), if you expand it out to what the Buddha said, what you need is Kaliyana Mitta. As you take Kaliyana Mitta, that is suitable friends, friends that support you in the enlightenment, there are innumerable beings. Actually all beings are in aspiration, but in distorted forms of The Aspiration. They have an aspiration. They become a bank manager or whatever it is. You know, this, that and success and so on. But the principle of Aspiration is in-built. And you depend on… like all sentient beings are your ‘mothers’; they are in a sense feeding you and there is transmission. And (but) the Buddha said, of course, naturally, not merely that everyone supports you in a way, is you want the support of those that have practised and awakened. You need support on the Path. You receive teaching for example. All of that is fairly clear, that there are innumerable beings joining you, (if not all sentient beings), desiring refuge. And you can also depend on that, certainly more than the various gripes and grievances you may have about this, that and the other. The principle of the, (it’s usually translated as the Order of the Sangha), the community, (Sangha is translated as community). Expand that out a bit: communion of beings that are practising.
(In a…) Going back to the person who’s aspiring to be a bank manager or a business success, they too are something in a sense of a refuge. I know it’s going to sound very funny. That is they’re trying, something. (Taking refuge in those…) I’m expanding it out to, ‘at least get involved with people who are working, who are doing.’ Not necessarily complaining and moaning and defeatist, but who have got something going as you would say. Whether they are doing say, arts or sciences. It may be an ultimately pale reflection of ‘the Grand March or the Grand Movement’ (SARA) to enlightenment, but it’s those beings you should be, (not to associate with fools: those that have dissipated the energy) those that are working. This is a very important point. And of course the symbol of those who are working in a very clear example, of those that are working directly on Enlightenment as particularly in the Ancient Order, but also in the modern ordained people, that’s a symbol of somebody working directly on the Path. And you should take refuge in beings who are working on the Path, not merely the achievers like Buddha, but in a sense the Sangha Bodhisattva. Someone who is doing, say, compassionate work in a hospital. You take that as Sangha. It’s allowed to do it. You see here I’m not saying people with Ordinations are necessarily better than other beings, but theoretically, are beings working directly on awakening, (to the exclusion, hopefully, of trying to become a business success or a bank manager or other paler reflections of what life is about.)
Have you now Sangha? (First) The word itself is, literally it’s ‘comprising’, but one of the meanings is multitude. ‘I take refuge in the mass’. ‘I take refuge in the multitude.’ That’s its primary… not with the assembly of the ordained.. Two ideas. First idea is in the mass movement of all creatures to awaken and their various manifestations of their awakening. If you really wanted to be ‘silly’, ‘crazy wisdom’, ‘I take refuge in the squirrels’, if the squirrel’s happy, and has collected quite a number of nuts. The multitude of all creatures, and so on, at work with the Enlightenment principle. Only later did it become, by the way, later, become the ordained (and actually, the ordained, erroneous symbol of the work, perhaps, that went on then). In the later reflection on the Order, you see it extended…idea… the Order that is spoken about. This Order of the disciples of ‘the Happy One’ or ‘the Blessed One’, Bhagavato, namely these four pairs of persons. YADIDAM CATTARI By the way CATTARI is the word that relates to four. (???) CATTA (???)
(???) PURISIYUGANI. ATTHAPURISAPUGGALA. (???) ATTHA (???) is the eight kinds of individuals. All of this, by the way, is worthy of offering, is worthy of hospitality, is worthy of gifts, is worthy of reverential salutation, an incomparable field of merit to the world. A field of strength. See? Again! Refuge- Strength. Take the word (???) PUNNAKHETTAM (???) as strength. (The book that I have, it’s page six). This is just a little dip into the meditation on Sangha. We have some ideas here that when it’s referring to four pairs of persons, (four times two is eight), that is Path and Fruition, Path and Fruition, Path and Fruition, Path and Fruition. These that have attained Path, these that have attained Fruition, of the Path at the four different levels. Now this is THE Refuge. That is ‘the attained Buddha’, on the way to the attainment, those beings who are firmly protected because they have entered the transcendental or Path realisation. They are dependable because that movement is dependable in them. Even if for example the being’s SOTAPANNA, a stream enterer, you can depend on them because of the inevitability within in at the most, of seven lifetimes, six incarnations, of them fulfilling Buddha, for complete purification. And with the SAKADAGAMIN, only once. I mean that movement in them is dependable. You can rely on that. That is fixed. The transcendental is quite immovable on that point. So they are bound to become fully awakened, fully pure being, fully a being of loving kindness, etc. And that’s the refuge that you’re taking. So in a way with the Sangha, you are taking refuge in Path or Stream because once that experience has occurred it is dependable. And shelter in that is like a boat traveling that river. It’s an unsinkable boat also! I’m trying to give you a kind of imagery to work with where you see the eight kinds of individuals, the eight kinds of manifestations if you wish. PURISA, ATTHAPURISAPUGGALA, refers to the higher, the real order. Less than the transcendental, they may be ‘disorderly’. Not dependable. But beings who have wherever and whatever means, they are a shelter, a field of strength for humanity. Whether there was only one or two or a thousand or more, whatever, wherever they are, they are the pillars, also the strength of the existence on this planet and throughout the universe. They are an actual energy field. We’re not talking symbolically. Just as I told you before. You can bring people to them, they would be healed. They would be healed and so on. If they allowed the healing that is, of course. Jesus said, “Thy faith has made thee whole.” Some of us don’t actually wish the healing, but if they wish healing, that is a field of merit, a field of strength. I want you to think, and that’s a protection for all beings, not merely for you who repeat the Refuge. But of course it is a stronger refuge for you when you know what is occurring. So we have Dharma realisation.
So here are ideas. But notice that first one, multitude. And you wouldn’t normally say, ‘Well I take refuge in all the people in Toronto!’. No, no, no! You’d never say that! No, but all the people in Toronto are trying, (through distorted means) to come through to realisation of happiness. They are desiring, however you may think that the mirror is… as you say Paul said ‘you see through glass darkly’. They’re trying. Some manifestation of the Path is occurring. Also in motherhood, by the way. Some of you may even say particularly, it’s there. Even the coming of children and the having of children and the whole process is a process of awakening. It does change things around in the value structure. And it’s erroneous for you to think ‘Oh, well I take refuge in the ordained monks’, because that’s not deep enough. I’ll guess even in some way or other they’re trying. But it’s also a symbol that the attempt should be made. I suppose if you went to the .. I was just discussing today by the way a visit that might take place in August of the Nepalese temples, in particular Nyingma and Kardu. (There are reasons for that). And you know, imagine you went to see Mount Everest and you went to the foot of Mount Everest and you saw a lot of mountain equipment around, you know. Here and there, and so on, scaling ropes and all the rest of it. At least you might think, (seeing the scriptures and so on is a bit like that), maybe there was a mountain climbing took place. And at least you saw someone geared up as a mountain climber! You might think that somebody or other, not just long ago, but recently has climbed the mountain. So it’s like that. So you’re taking refuge in the idea that mountains can be climbed, that there are people that have climbed them, and there are… right? But after you have climbed them, you know, you’ve done it. Maybe you throw the equipment away and you abandon it. ‘Done is that which had to be done…’. There are little remnants of things around. Alright? And so on. But don’t confuse the mountain equipment and you know, the clothing, for the climbing of the mountain. But it’s something. It’s the idea that you respect. (??? And by the way, when you respect them you (???) you come in, you have to respect the Buddha Rupa , you’re not just respecting so much the CETTYA (??) and the rupas and the robes, but the idea. The Refuge. You think, ‘I am taking refuge in Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.’ Which means also, ‘I can do it and it is occurring in me.’ You’re taking refuge in that too, by the way. You are one of the multitude. That’s why when you do the Refuge Tree you visualize ALL BEINGS taking refuge. You say, ‘oh, I don’t see them coming up to the Dharma Centre here! Pouring in!’ You just don’t see deep enough. And the tree (???SARA???) means the tree, the Tree of Life. Of Growth. You know that’s probably the strongest (?) centre (?) of growth. You take a little plant and you say, ‘oh yes, it’s growing’, but TREES REALLY GROW! What’s the biggest thing that grows? That you can see? A tree! Some of the ancient trees, hundreds of feet high. I mean you could say, ‘I take refuge in this little plant’. Oh yes, yes it’s very nice. But the others are impressive and it’s meant to be. And you can easily see the network of all the connection, unless of course, you develop a more microscopic eye to all growth. It’s the biggest growth. It’s even bigger than the elephants, bigger than the dinosaurs, were the trees.
And besides which, even, it even forces growth… Nature even forces (??) next to be (??) extended in aspiration. So I think that you should get aspiration going just like a giraffe extends through evolution, (its neck), to deal with that. Get some of the higher… you understand, hmm? Don’t so worry about overextending yourself. Your neck will grow to accommodate.
It’s marvelous what people live on, I always think. There’s a picture in my mind and I’d like to share it with you and that is (by the way, possibly next year, it will be repeated if you’re interested)…is camping and exploring by four wheeled vehicle, the Sahara. And in the Sahara there, of course, there are wonders. Occasionally you come across an oasis with running water. And instead of having palm trees around, you have reeds. Tall reeds that are about two or three times taller than you are. And birds and ducks in them. It’s incredible. But most of the vegetation is a sort of thorn tree. And one of the great miracles of life to me, and I mean it, I feel it, is to watch a camel eat a thorn tree. They put their tongue around it. You know, because when you walk, if you step on one of those, it will go right through your shoe and right through your foot. And they put their tongue right around them and just crunch them without any piercing of their mouth or tongue or anything. And you are forced to absolutely gape at it. And you sit down and you sort of scratch your head and you ponder, ‘How could they do it?’. So I don’t know whether camels could be said to be the most intelligent creature on earth, but they have an inordinate amount of power, of potential, to eat, to deal with thorns. And to me it also speaks about the resilience of the human being who goes through so much of what the society and families lay out and try to submerge them and pierce them with various thorns, and somehow, still, the struggle for enlightenment goes on. Somehow it’s dealt with, and you know, put in for digestion and you can even live on the thorns. And that is a great statement. It’s a great refuge, that. The ability of the evolutionary mind, if you wish, the putting on of intelligence to deal with more and more difficult situations. You know, to put up rocket ships to the moon and into the depth… you do hear me? There’s such a powerful drive of the growth of intelligence despite the thorns, despite the various crucifixions etc. The power towards the resurrection, how strong it is.
And so with that I’d like to conclude today’s talk because it’s pithy. “I go..”. I go, and of course we have the idea of movement. Not so much even, “I come…”. “I go…” “I go by … I make progress by Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha” is a movement. The Stream… SARA occurring. Stream of the Universe, sure it is. “Open are the doors to the immortal. Let those that hear repose trust.”
May you be well. (???) Hotu, (???) Hotu