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Taking Refuge
Hello All! It's been a while since I've checked in here. I am looking for people to tell me how to go about and what to expect when taking refuge in the Sangha? I've just made the decision to participate in a Sangha near my home instead of practicing alone and I'm loving it! Now I want to formally take refuge but am confused about the procees.
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All you have to do is to recite the triple gem three times, and that's it....
See the attached document.
It's that simple....
The very best thing is to talk to you Geshe, request refuge. He might tell you, "Well, let's wait a little while." If you are shy about asking, check with a member of your sangha who's been there a while - they'll know how to best approach it with your Geshe. Eventually, if you're sure you'd like to make your Buddhism "official" (kind of how we westerners see it, I think), you'll have a small ceremony, often with a few other refuge-takers. You might be asked to kneel, and the Geshe (maybe with a translator if he doesn't speak English) will lead you through some refuge vows.
It's a wonderful feeling; which may not be the right attitude, because as others have pointed out, refuge is really in your mind, and no ceremony is really necessary. But I think it's okay to appreciate the ceremony
If you do take refuge, and feel that in your heart you really choose the Buddhist path, it's good to then make that path for real - really commit to it and embrace it. But if you're more comfortable remaining Christian, or agnostic, or undecided, you can totally and in good conscience continue to participate in Buddhism, regardless. It's just that your practice will be deeper if, upon deciding Buddhism really and truly is for you, you invest in it.
There's no pressure to invest - it's simply that if you choose to go deeper, you will experience more depth. I feel that we westerners are sort of lost, a lot of the time, and hesitate to commit to anything, which is totally okay, and you can benefit hugely from Buddhism without committing to anything. But committing to a particular path has its own beauty, too.
OH...and I have no fears about committing to practicing the Path
Meaning, that when one realizes or glimpses the nature of the mind, one finds one has glimpsed something all-knowing and all-loving (if I may be so bold). I've heard it described as benevolent omniscience, etc. To me, that fits very well with the Christian concept of God, especially when one adds Christian concepts such as, "God is in everything" and so on.
Now, I don't' mean to say there is no difference between Christianity and Buddhism and that there isn't any benefit to choosing and deepening one path; just that, at least in my mind, Buddhism is so expansive that one can refer to "God" when speaking to Christians, as kind of a shortcut to communication.
If Thay says "God," the Christian/formerly-Christian student immediately knows he's referring to a benevolent, omniscient force; maybe it's just easier to say "God" to make the conversation easier? It would be a good question for Thay!
As far as "meeting again," something I've been wrestling a lot with lately, in Buddhist terms I think of it as "when we've all achieved enlightenment, there will be no separation ever again, so for all practical purposes, we will meet again."
Back to taking refuge, I have a book by the Dalai Lama and in the first chapter he speaks in quite some detail about this ceremony. I will try to quote some of it..
''Technically we become a buddhist when we decicde to take refuge in the three jewels, and when we generate bodhichitta (compassion)'' - I assume you know what the 3 jewels are.
''Unless we have a good foundational experience of the practice of taking refuge in the three jewels, we will not be able to have a high level of realization of bodhichitta. It is for this reason that the distinction between a practicing buddhist and a non-practicing buddhist is made on the basis of whether or not an individual has taken refuge.''
He goes on to say, ''However, when we talk about taking refuge in the three jewels, we should not imagine that it simply involves a ceremony in which we formally take refuge from a master, or that merely by virtue of participating in such a ceremony we have become a buddhist. There is a formal refuge ceremony in buddhism, but the ceremony is not the point. The point is that as a result of your own reflection, even without a master, you become fully convinced of the vadility of the buddha, dharma and sangha as the true ultimate objects of refuge, and that is when you actually become a buddhist. You entrust your spiritual well-being to the three jewels, and this is what is really meant by taking refuge. On the other hand, if there is any doubt or apprehension in your mind about the vadility of the buddha, dharma and sangha as being the ultimate objects of refuge, even though you may have taken part in a refuge ceremony, that very suspicion or doubt prevents you from being a practicing buddhist, at least for the time being.''
I hope this helps
I appreciate The Dalai Lama and what he has to say.