Refuge

Adam Mizner's Dhamma Talk on Refuge. Adam Mizner has dedicated many years to the in-depth study of Daoism, western Hermetics and the Buddha Dhamma, is initiated into and teaches methods from these traditions. He is a senior lay disciple of Ajahn Jumnien in the Thai Forest tradition of Theravada Buddhism. This deep spiritual background has a large influence on his approach to internal development teaching.

Please note: This track was recorded live and may contain background noise.

Transcript

Okay,

Tonight I'm going to talk about refuge.

So,

In the Buddhist practice we have the concept of taking refuge and it's how one is defined as a Buddhist or as a non-Buddhist.

So I'm going to talk to you about the principles of refuge and what it means.

And for those of you that are non-Buddhists,

You can still contemplate the meaning because they're universal.

The concept is actually in refuge more than what you take in refuge.

So,

In Pali we have refuge which is,

Buttang salanam gacchami,

Tamang salanam gacchami,

Sankang salanam gacchami,

Which most practicing Buddhists recite many times a day before formal practice and so of course empty words have no power.

So what does it mean to take refuge?

We take refuge in the Buddha,

The Dharma and the Sangha.

Taking refuge,

Not taking them as a conversation piece.

The key is in the word refuge.

When we're in trouble we seek refuge.

When we can't see clearly we seek refuge.

When we need guidance we seek refuge.

So the practice of refuge is actually in taking refuge,

Not simply in reciting a scripture from a dead language or even in your own language or bowing before the altar or anything else like that.

It's when things are tough or even when they're good that you go to the Buddha,

The Dharma and the Sangha for your support as your mainstay.

This is what it means.

So what is Sangha?

Sangha means the group or the community.

So on a mundane level,

On a locator level,

The worldly level that means your friends that practice,

Other people on the path,

Your meditation group,

Your yoga group,

The group of people that are sharing a similar path and a similar view.

It's very practical in this sense.

You are who you hang around with.

If you go down to the bar every night and hang around with people that are drunk and talking about football,

Well your habit is going to be getting drunk and talking about football.

So they are your Sangha,

Your group.

It's your friends,

It's your Sangha that you ask for advice when you need to talk about the practice,

The not-practice,

Whatever is happening and we need to talk to people,

The Sangha or them.

On a higher level the Sangha is any being that has attained awakening from stream-enterer to arahant.

So there are classically four levels of awakening in the Buddhist path.

Stream-enterer,

Once-returner,

Non-returner and arahant.

I'm not going to go into all the qualities of the awakened beings.

Basically from the first level to the fourth is somebody that has attained the goal.

Even a stream-enterer has attained the goal momentarily.

A fully awakened one or an arahant is constantly dwelling in the goal and the other levels are somewhere in between.

So our ultimate Sangha is the enlightened ones,

Whether they are present,

The inhuman flesh or whether they are dis-incarnated,

The support of the lineage,

The support of the Sangha.

Then we have refuge in the Dharma.

What is the Dharma?

Dharma is law in the same way that gravity is a law,

Natural law or universal law,

Also known as truth.

So instead of running away to find our refuge,

Our happiness,

Our stability,

Our safety in false things,

In delusions,

In lies,

We take our refuge in truth.

The Dharma is the aspect that creates the Sangha.

Without the truth to know,

To study,

To realize,

There is no noble Sangha.

Dharma and Sangha are essentially one.

The truth and beings that have realized that truth.

Wrong views and deluded mental states such as eating more chocolate will make me happy.

Well if we get stressed and life is falling to bits and we go,

Well,

I know what I'll do.

I'll eat more chocolate and I'll be happy momentarily.

I'll be deluded in this.

The Dharma is thinking that.

You take it as a truth that chocolate will make you happy.

The Sangha is the physical action.

Our companion is the chocolate or the person on the couch with us.

With the opposing practice to take refuge in somebody with something to share in the practice,

Some wisdom,

And then to contemplate and see the truth of our situation.

The truth sets us free.

When you see the natural way things are,

The way things are,

Everything arises,

Exists,

Falls away,

Nothing lasts,

There's no me to be upset,

There's no you to offend me,

It's all empty.

Well,

There's nothing to worry about.

So you take refuge in truth,

Not in the delusion.

It's a house of cards.

If you go for safety in something that's not even there,

It's not very safe.

And then we take refuge in the Buddha.

So what is the Buddha?

The Buddha is knowing itself,

The quality of knowing.

This quality is found directly through the practice.

It is the awakened state itself.

You're not taking refuge in the historical Buddha who lived over 2500 years ago.

He can't help you.

But the state that he attained of pure knowing.

What does the Buddha know?

The Buddha knows the Dharma,

The truth.

And upon knowing that truth,

He becomes the leader of the Sangha.

Buddha,

Dharma,

Sangha are one.

They are the universal law,

The knowing of the universal law,

Knowing of truth,

Seeing the way things are,

Not being deluded by the way we think things are.

When stress and suffering arise and we start to get mentally tilted and not see things clearly,

Emotions start blurring,

Become deranged and we're not taking refuge in knowing anymore.

We take refuge in feeling,

In anger,

In blaming,

In concept,

In everything else.

Everything except the quality of knowing,

The quality of knowing which sees the truth.

When that knowing quality knows directly the way things are,

That's how you become part of the Sangha.

Awakened,

Awakened to the way things are,

The truth through the knowing quality,

Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha.

So it's not taking the historical Buddha as our savior.

Only knowing will help you to see things clearly,

Vipassana,

Clear seeing,

See the natural state of things as empty as not-self.

If something is empty and not-self,

How can it be a problem?

It's really not a big issue.

We reify things and we make things which aren't concrete,

We make them concrete.

We give them power,

We give them weight,

We give them meaning because we don't see their true nature.

We only see outer effect.

Taking refuge in our desires,

Taking refuge in bad company for our desires,

Taking refuge in non-knowing,

In ignorance,

Getting lost in things,

Letting the knowing quality disappear into oblivion,

In trance state,

In dullness.

So it doesn't matter if you recite the Pali phrases each night,

It doesn't matter if you prostrate in front of the monks or the altars.

Where is the refuge?

Where do you go for refuge?

When you go for refuge,

And we all go for refuge,

We are not perfectly stoic.

We go to distraction for refuge,

Which is the opposite of knowing.

We go to wrong idea,

The opposite of Dharma,

Laws that don't make sense,

Laws created through greed and delusion.

Then we go to the company that lacks knowing and lacks understanding of the laws,

To ask them to use their knowing to explain the laws so I can feel better.

Well,

That doesn't work.

Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha,

A refuge in life,

Not a refuge in religion,

Not a refuge in idea,

Not a refuge in prayer.

Okay,

Any questions?

Yes,

In the sutras,

Ananda I believe,

Once said to some other monks,

Admirable friends are the whole of the path.

Admirable friends are the whole of the path.

Now,

Admirable friends is a term they use for referring to the Sangha,

Basically.

People that have seen the truth and therefore they can guide you.

If somebody has never seen,

If somebody has never been to 7-11,

He is not going to guide you there very well.

It is a big risk for both of you.

If somebody has been there and they understand how to get there,

They can take you there very easily.

You still need to ride your own bike,

But they can point the way in a very practical method.

So this is what an admirable friend is.

Ananda,

Actually Ananda was saying,

Half of this path is admirable friends,

But the Buddha said,

No Ananda,

Do not go after that.

The entire path is in admirable friends.

If you don't have Sangha,

The other two do not arise.

Without the admirable friends to talk,

To discuss,

You never hear the Dharma.

A teacher is part of the admirable friends,

Part of the Sangha.

The Dharma doesn't just self-arise,

You have to hear it.

You need guides.

So one of the biggest practical changes people make in the beginning in the practice is to be a little more mindful of who they spend their time with.

This is a normal law.

If you want to get good at tennis,

You hang out with people that are good at tennis,

You get good at it,

Even better.

Whatever skill you want,

You saturate yourself with that.

If you want to learn a language,

You go to the place where people speak that language.

Very normal,

Natural law that exists in all things.

Enviroble friends guide your conduct.

They are an example for good conduct.

They can clarify the Dharma and lead to your own Buddha,

Your own knowing.

Then the Dharma is clear and you become an admirable friend for others.

Can you talk a little bit about the role of the teacher?

How to rely on the teacher for the benefits are that you rely on the teacher?

Different traditions have different ideas about the teacher.

In Theravada we usually talk,

Mention them as a spiritual friend or a guide.

In Vajrayana,

For example,

They have the concept more of a guru.

Really it's the same thing with a bit more external practice on one side.

The most important thing with the teacher who is simply an admirable friend is to have faith in their Dharma.

If you don't,

Well,

That's fine but don't take them as your teacher.

It doesn't mean you have to have faith in anybody but if you don't believe your teacher's words,

You won't do the practice and if you don't do the practice,

You don't get the results.

Example,

You know,

If people come to me to learn Tai Chi and I say,

Okay,

Do this,

Do that,

Sink here,

Relax this.

If they know better,

Which you'd be surprised a lot of people do,

They know better inside.

Well,

Okay,

They can pay me and not learn.

They're not helping themselves.

If you don't have faith in the instruction,

You don't take it on board.

And if you don't take the instruction on board,

You never see the truth.

Spiritual work is known directly by people from experience.

It is not a matter of faith,

Belief,

Intellectualism,

Philosophy,

Logic or anything else.

Only via direct experience can you understand Dharma.

Only via direct experience.

The teacher has that direct experience and he's pointing you in the direction of how for you to achieve that direct experience yourself.

Now if you go internally,

No,

I'll do this way and then turn,

That's fine,

You'll get another kind of direct experience which is okay.

But you're going to end up at tops,

Not at 7-11.

So it really depends on where someone wants to go.

If you know what you want and you know a teacher that has that,

Well,

He's the right person to point you there.

There are deeper aspects with mind-to-mind transmission and in higher levels of meditation,

Recognizing emptiness and stuff like that,

Which you are 100% dependent upon a teacher.

I'm all for people working stuff out,

Believe me,

But there are some things that are simply beyond intellect.

It doesn't mean one person doesn't have enough intellect.

They're simply not a matter of the intellect,

So you can't use the intellect to work them out.

They can't be done.

Some things are not part of that equation.

They have to be experienced via transmission.

So traditionally this is part of the role of the teacher.

And because of that the teacher shows you directly your knowing how to see emptiness.

They show you directly Buddha.

They show you directly Dharma and they act as the Sangha.

So in some traditions the teacher is Buddha,

Dharma,

Sangha.

But that's what your body,

Your wisdom and your knowing is as well.

So there's really no difference.

Manifesting the path is manifesting the three jewels.

How do you know the qualities of the teacher?

How can you know what teacher to rely on?

Via a long time of being around somebody.

You can't judge somebody in a short time even if you think you're skilled at it.

Sometimes it simply takes time,

A long time.

Basically within the Buddhist view somebody that's achieved the goal,

That's who you hang around with.

Somebody who's entered the stream and above for a teacher.

Somebody who exhibits release.

Somebody who's detached and free.

Somebody who's got tranquility and insight.

Somebody that's doing it.

Not somebody necessarily with lineage,

Title,

Fancy clothes,

Big school or anything else.

Somebody that exhibits,

Portrays and lives release.

Because the goal is release.

Release from stress.

Release from pain.

Suffering arises.

Somebody with this skill can release the suffering,

Themselves from the suffering.

The suffering is going on but it's no big deal.

If your teacher is always caught up with suffering,

Well,

Yeah,

Maybe the talk's good.

Maybe the talk is good.

So you have to use your own judgement to look for the qualities of the practitioner.

And that can't be discerned in a night,

A day,

A week.

It takes a long time.

Unless you know a fully enlightened person to trust their opinion,

Only fully enlightened people can truly know others.

Other than that you can't really truly know somebody else.

You just have to do the best from long term observation.

Think of how difficult it is to truly know yourself.

You can surprise yourself and do things you never thought you would.

You don't know what your mood's going to be tomorrow.

If you can't know yourself,

Knowing somebody else,

That's a tough one.

Reviews

This is a really good talk, beautiful. 🙏thank you for sharing the wisdom.

Incredible ❤️🙏❤️🙏

Sleepless night. Good talk. 🙏🏽

This talk has helped me to understand the deeper levels of taking refuge in the Buddha, dharma and sangha even more. Enriching Q&A in the last few minutes. May this talk be of help to many. May your (spreading the) wisdom be shared for years to come.