Taking Refuge In The Truth

In this talk given to the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, DC, on December 17, 2023, we examine the meaning of 'taking refuge in the dharma,' or finding support and trust in the truth of life as it unfolds. We discuss 1) 'Outer' refuge--where we look to the Buddha's teaching, or the Buddha's 'dharma'--as guidance and support for how to realize freedom from suffering; and 2) 'Inner' refuge--as recognizing our own capacity to wake up, live freely, and untangle ourselves from confusion and suffering. Outer refuge can be looked at in terms of inspiration and inner refuge as transformation.

Transcript

The theme today is,

Overall a theme is true refuge,

Finding true refuge.

And the specific theme today is taking refuge in the Dharma.

And a good place to start,

I think,

Is to recognize what,

You know,

In a way goes without saying,

But might as well say it.

And life can be challenging,

Life can bring with it a lot of,

Even in the best of times,

Can bring with it a lot of challenges.

You know,

If we think of,

You know,

Just this being human,

Of all the things that happened to us,

You know,

You know,

Health,

Sickness,

You know,

Getting sick,

Loved ones getting sick.

You know,

Financial downturns and difficulties and,

You know,

All the things that,

You know,

Create insecurity in that realm.

Relationships coming to an end.

You know,

All sorts of things in life,

Getting sick,

Getting old,

Dying.

I mean,

All of these things,

It's not for the faint of heart,

You might say,

This being human.

I'm sure all of us in our own way have experienced,

You know,

Some,

The truth of that,

That life is,

You know,

Sometimes people think of Buddhism as life is suffering.

And the Buddha never said life is suffering.

You know,

The Buddha said,

You know,

There is suffering and suffering is a part of life.

But joy is also a part of life as well.

And there is an end to suffering.

That's the positive,

You know,

That's the message that,

You know,

We could find our way out of suffering.

That's the key.

And so,

You know,

This,

You know,

Challenges,

Difficulties,

Pain,

Discomfort,

All of these are part of life.

And so the question naturally comes up.

I mean,

Where do we find refuge?

Where do we find support?

What can we lean on?

What can we trust in,

In the face of this?

And then today,

Obviously,

In these times,

You know,

It's not the easiest time to be alive.

You can probably say that about any era.

You know,

It's,

You know,

There's,

Depending on where we are and all of that in life and economic circumstances and peace and war and all of that.

But right now,

There's lots for us to get entangled with,

To get really upset about,

To get sometimes even feel overwhelmed by.

You know,

Just saying climate change,

I mean,

That brings with it the whole,

You know,

Like,

What is this?

You know,

After being,

You know,

Million and million years of homo sapiens or however exactly that it is,

You know,

Where we've created the conditions for,

You know,

Potentially for calamity in terms of human existence and other species as well.

I don't want to,

You know,

Say it's a done deal,

But it's an extraordinarily serious situation that we need to,

You know,

Obviously need to respond to,

Etc.

But,

You know,

That's a challenge.

It's the conflicts going on.

I mean,

Many of us feel very,

You know,

Torn apart by what's going on right now in Israel and in Gaza and the loss of life and,

You know,

The need for,

You know,

Need for peace,

A long term peace and,

You know,

Everything going on in the country here,

You know,

The United States and,

You know,

Whether it's from gun violence to the divisions,

Etc.

In all of this,

Life right now isn't easy.

And in the midst of all of this,

Where do we turn?

What do we turn to?

Is there something,

Somewhere,

Something that can provide,

You know,

True refuge,

Genuine support for us?

What can we lean on,

You know,

And that what we tend to lean on is,

You know,

We kind of tend to do the best we can under the circumstances.

And,

You know,

We go for,

Oh,

This will take care of this.

I'll feel better if,

You know,

I was just thinking,

Like,

You know,

Many years ago,

When I,

You know,

My first marriage came to an end.

And I would say,

Actually my only wife,

No formal marriage.

Anyway,

And,

You know,

My then wife and my young daughter went from back from England to the U.

S.

And I was,

You know,

I was kind of bereft at that time.

And,

Yeah,

I didn't have any way of really dealing with that,

Except the classic way in the Irish and English tradition,

Which is,

You know,

With drowning your sorrows,

You know,

Covering,

You know,

Covering it over.

I don't have to feel it if,

You know,

If I can numb it.

You know,

That was,

You know,

A long,

Quite a few decades ago.

And things have moved on in a good way since then.

But we tend to go with a refuge to whatever can give us it.

And sometimes that's stuff that's really doesn't work for us.

You know,

Drink and drugs and,

You know,

Behaviors that just keep us kind of tangled.

You know,

Get us in worse trouble than we were in the first place.

You know,

So when we are faced with these challenges of being human,

Being alive,

Is there a genuine refuge?

Is there,

Where can we go to to find true support?

And I want to,

I shared this a couple of weeks ago,

But it's worth reading again.

And this goes back to the time of the Buddha.

It's not fake quotes of the Buddha on the Internet.

You know,

A lot of these kind of like what the Buddha didn't say.

Have you seen those?

What the Buddha didn't say,

You know,

Or Buddhist fake quotes,

Etc.

This is this is not one of those.

This goes back to the Dhammapada,

One of the central books of the Pali Canon,

The first written teachings of the Buddha,

Written down about 500 years after he died,

But pretty much understood to be the accurate,

Accurate teachings of the Buddha as close as we can get.

So this is what the Buddha shared there.

He says,

They go to many a refuge,

To mountains,

Forests,

Parks,

Trees and shrines.

People threatened with danger.

This is where they go to.

And the Buddha says that's not the secure refuge.

That's not the highest refuge.

That's not the refuge having gone to which you gain release from all suffering and stress.

So these aren't places we get true refuge,

Even though they might be quiet and calm mountains,

Forests,

Parks,

Trees,

Shrines.

He says,

But when having gone for refuge to the Buddha,

Dharma and Sangha,

You see with right discernment,

You see clearly the Four Noble Truths.

So you go to these three refuges,

Buddha,

Dharma,

Sangha,

You see the Four Noble Truths.

You see suffering.

You see the cause of suffering and clinging.

You see the end of suffering,

Freedom,

Nirvana.

And you see the path that leads to the end of suffering.

He says,

That's the secure refuge.

That's the highest refuge.

That's the refuge having gone to which you gain release from all stress,

All suffering and stress.

So basically,

The Buddha is saying,

Don't rely on these other things.

They may have good aspects to them,

You know,

Your loved ones,

Your friends,

Your family.

Those,

You know,

They're very important in our lives.

Obviously,

They're part of our community and relationships.

But they can't provide lasting satisfaction.

They can't provide true refuge because they'll end,

You know,

They'll come to an end.

You know,

Relationships come to an end.

Lives come to an end.

Everything comes to an end.

So we can't hold on to them.

But he said,

We can hold on to these true refuges because they're not things,

You know,

They're not things,

They're not states that we create that I want to keep this state going.

They're really,

If you like,

A kind of alignments of our consciousness,

Of our awareness.

So I spoke last time about a couple of things.

One,

I spoke last time about taking refuge in awakening in the Buddha.

I'll just say a few words about that to recap that just very briefly.

But I want to first say that there are different ways these refuges of Buddha,

Dharma,

Sangha can be understood,

You know,

When they're taught about,

You know,

They can be taught about in a very specific way or in much broader ways.

If you read Tara Brach's book,

True Refuge,

It's a wonderful book.

That's a really,

Really broad way of looking at these refuges.

She talks about refuge in Buddha being refuge in awakening,

Refuge in the Dharma,

Refuge in truth and refuge in Sangha,

Refuge in love.

So really in these very broad qualities,

If you like.

You know,

Historically,

The understanding of the refuges tends to have been a kind of more focused on the Buddha,

The historical Buddha,

The teachings,

Etc.

But what I want to point to and what others have pointed to is,

I think,

A very helpful way of looking at these refuges.

And that is to look at them as outer refuges and inner refuges.

So just to talk about outer refuges,

If we look at the outer refuge of Buddha,

Dalma Sangha,

Outer refuge in the Buddha would be to really look for inspiration to the historical person,

Siddhartha,

Who became the awakened one,

That became the Buddha,

The awakened,

The one who awakened.

And we kind of look to the Buddha as an inspiration that this is,

He showed the way he awakened.

And that indicates that I could follow that path.

You could follow that path.

And it would be fruitful and it would be beneficial to do that.

So we could think of that as an outer refuge,

As it really is an inspiration.

Refuge in the Dharma,

We could think of the Buddha's teachings of the Four Noble Truths,

Of the Eightfold Path,

The Heart Practices.

You know all of these lists.

I mean,

You don't know all of these lists.

Probably nobody knows except Bhikkhu Bodhi knows all of the lists.

Few others as well,

But there's so many,

You know,

There's so many.

And not everyone finds the lists helpful,

But that's just historically how they develop.

But all of this range of teachings,

Taking refuge in the Buddha can be seen as like taking refuge in these teachings.

This path of these teachings will help us to get,

To find greater freedom in our lives.

So that's kind of thinking,

Seeing the teachings as an inspiration,

Like seeing the Buddha as an inspiration,

See the teachings as an inspiration.

Taking refuge in the Sangha in this outer way would be to look to the Sangha or the community of awakened ones,

Of monastics and householders,

Lay people who over the years,

Over the centuries,

Have woken up,

Who have experienced freedom from suffering and can inspire us by showing us the way,

Similarly to the way,

Obviously,

The Buddha's awakening shows us.

So in that way,

All of these outer refuges,

I think of as really inspirations,

As kind of inspiring us to really pay attention,

To make wise effort,

To let go of,

You know,

Entanglements,

To let go of suffering,

To find freedom from suffering.

Saying,

It's really saying,

You know,

This is important.

This is an important way to live our lives so that we can live more freely.

It's a kind of an encouragement.

It's an inspiration.

But what the other way of looking at these refuges is not so much as inspiration.

And I'm not,

I don't mean,

I don't really mean to hierarchize,

Make hierarchies of,

You know,

The inner is better than the outer.

I'm more saying they're different.

They can be seen as different from each other rather than higher and lower.

But in a way,

The outer refuge is more external to us.

You know,

We follow something that's kind of more out there.

The inner,

Rather than being so much about inspiration,

Although that can be an important part of it,

It's more about the inner refuge is about transformation.

So inspiration and transformation.

I came up with that myself this morning,

Just the words that seem like a helpful one.

Inspiration kind of inspires us to move forward.

Transformation inspires us to change ourselves and to find freedom from suffering in our own lives.

So just a little bit of recapping what I spoke about last time.

So refuge in the Buddha I spoke about last time really means awakening,

Not just following the Buddha's example,

But recognizing that we,

Each of us,

Have what's sometimes called Buddha nature.

We,

Each of us,

Buddha nature really just means we have the potential,

The capacity in us to wake up.

And when we recognize that,

If we really take that on board,

That's a powerful thing.

It says that you,

Each one of us here,

You,

All of us here,

That we have the capacity to wake up in the way that the Buddha did.

It's not a prediction.

It's not a,

You know,

Giving us odds on whether it's going to happen in this lifetime.

But it's really saying that we're on that path and that we have this capacity.

And it's very much a question of our own actions and our own choices,

Whether we move forward on the path,

That we hold in our own hands,

In our own power,

The capacity to free ourselves from suffering.

You know,

I mean,

Obviously we don't do it alone.

We do it in community.

We're supported by the teachings,

But it's we ourselves that have to free ourselves.

Nobody can do it for us,

Right?

Even the Buddha can't free you from suffering or free me from suffering,

Right?

Does that make sense?

That the Buddha can only point the way.

You know,

In Zen they had these wonderful images,

You know,

Of the finger pointing at the moon,

You know,

And they say,

You know,

Don't focus on the finger,

Focus on the thing that's being pointed to.

And the Buddha is just pointing.

I mean,

Doing a wonderfully comprehensive way,

But he's still just pointing.

Any teacher,

Anyone is just pointing.

Even the person that presses your buttons and gets you angry about things,

You know,

Your favorite politician that you love to hate.

Even there,

They're just pointing to something that you need to pay attention to,

I need to pay attention to,

We need to pay attention to in ourselves.

That is something we haven't looked at here.

Anyone who's teaching us is always just pointing,

You know,

And we have to focus on what's being pointed at,

Not what's doing the pointing.

You know,

In other images of a menu,

You know,

We don't want to eat the menu,

You know,

That's not going to be very nutritious.

You know,

Menu only just points to what it would be like if we were actually to eat the food.

So the key to the first of the refuges is to really use the understanding that we can wake up ourselves.

Because when we take,

I said last time,

I said,

This for me,

I think is one of the most important understandings that we can come to in spiritual life,

In spiritual life,

In life generally,

Is to realize that we have some choice about our lives,

That we actually can free ourselves from suffering.

You know,

Whether we believe we can get completely free from suffering in this lifetime,

That we may not believe that,

We may think,

Oh,

You know,

If you believe in reincarnation,

That might come in a hundred lifetimes.

Or you might think,

Well,

That's,

I'm not even interested so much in that,

I just want a little bit more freedom.

But the main thing is that we recognize that the change is possible,

That letting go is possible,

That untangling ourselves from suffering is possible in this life.

Because a lot of people go through life and don't really think that,

And don't believe that,

Don't know that,

But think,

That's just either it's predetermined,

Or maybe I can affect a few things and get a little bit more happy if I make more money,

Or if I get a nice relationship,

Or a good job,

I'll get a bit more,

But it can't really,

Doesn't really change,

It doesn't make me more free necessarily,

It just,

You know,

Gives me a little bit more comfort.

For a lot of people,

I think,

There isn't necessarily that sense that,

Of possibility,

Of transformation.

And I think what everybody here,

I would guess,

Or I would assume almost everybody here,

There's some sense that we have this possibility.

Is that true?

Or am I,

Am I just,

Am I being over-optimistic?

It's certainly something,

Yeah,

Bob has his thumb up.

It's certainly,

It's something I strongly believe,

And,

You know,

From,

Since I found this path,

I was on this journey 30 or 35 years ago,

I think that's been a bedrock for me,

That,

That yes,

It's possible.

Not that I always will,

And I get caught up,

And all of these things that we do,

Get caught up in stuff,

Get tangled,

Find out,

Find it hard to get out of the,

You know,

The swamp,

As it were.

But on some level,

Believing that it's possible to,

To,

To be,

Be,

To free ourselves,

To,

To alleviate our suffering,

At least,

You know.

And once we have that recognition,

Then,

In a way,

I think the sky is the limit.

Because,

You know,

You let,

You know,

As Arjun Chah says,

You let go a little,

And it actually points to the potential for letting go a lot.

And that kind of points to at least the possibility of letting go completely,

You know,

That in a way that the little letting go is the microcosm of,

Of the big letting go,

Which is the macrocosm,

You know,

It's like the,

The Buddha's awakening,

But even just letting go a little bit,

You know,

Letting go of resentment to something,

Somebody,

Towards somebody,

Or letting go of self-judgment,

That we can let go.

So all this to say that,

That true refuge in,

In,

In awakening in the Buddha is,

Is recognizing our own capacity to wake up,

To live freely,

To untangle ourselves from confusion and from suffering.

This is what the Buddha said just a while before he died.

He said to Ananda,

His attendant,

He said,

Who asked him,

You know,

What,

Where can we find,

Find refuge?

Where can,

What can we trust in after you're gone?

And this is what he says,

Very,

Very famous statement of the Buddha.

He says,

Ananda,

Be a lamp unto yourself,

Be a lamp unto yourself,

Be a refuge to yourself,

Take yourself to no external refuge,

Hold fast to the truth as a lamp,

Hold fast to the truth as a refuge.

So in a way that's talking there about the first and second refuge,

That we're taking refuge with,

You know,

Being a lamp unto ourselves,

We're recognizing that we actually have that capacity.

You have the capacity,

I have the capacity,

We have the capacity to wake up and,

And experience freedom from suffering,

Realize freedom from suffering.

A little,

A lot,

Completely,

You know,

Wherever,

You know,

We,

We,

We set our sights,

We can kind of move in that,

Move in that direction.

So be a lamp unto yourself.

So,

So refuge in awakening,

This inner refuge is refuge,

Finding refuge in the potential for transforming our own hearts,

Transforming our own lives.

So I want to talk in the remaining time today about the second refuge,

Refuge in the Dharma,

Refuge in the truth,

Refuge in reality,

Refuge in the way we are,

The way things are.

And as I mentioned,

The outer refuge we could look at as the teachings,

You know,

This,

This trustworthy body of teachings that can help us wake up,

Can,

That lays out the path to the end of suffering,

The Four Noble Truths,

The Eightfold Path,

And the other central teachings.

That's the,

The kind of the,

The,

The outer refuge.

The inner refuge is taking refuge in the truth,

Taking refuge in reality,

Taking refuge in the present moment,

Taking refuge in experience as we're meeting it in this moment,

And then in this moment,

And in this moment.

So if we,

If I just invite you to,

You know,

Not just hear that as words,

You know,

Okay,

That's what,

This is what I'm trying to point to here,

But actually turn towards your experience right now in body,

Heart,

And mind,

Like we did in the meditation,

But just for a minute or so here,

Just turn inward and just notice what is true for you right now.

You know,

What are you experiencing if you want to close your eyes for a minute?

Just notice,

You probably notice some bodily experiences and,

And,

You know,

As we did in the meditation,

Just meet what's here with kindness,

Let it come,

Let it go.

You know,

There may be some kind of emotion that's running through you right now about something going on in your life.

You know,

Maybe it's something in the heart area,

Maybe it's around your eyes,

Just notice that.

And if there is,

So let's say there's sadness,

You know,

Can you meet that?

Just make space for,

For what's here right now,

For the sadness to come and to go,

You know,

Without pushing it away,

Without clinging to it.

You know,

Whatever's going on in the mind,

You know,

It could be something about this talk of,

Oh yeah,

This is interesting,

Or no,

This isn't,

You know,

Whatever might be going on,

Just notice that.

And again,

As we did earlier in the meditation,

Notice that there's,

There's the awareness and then there's whatever the content of the awareness is,

You know,

Whatever's the content of experiences,

Should I say.

So what we're doing in any moment when we're taking refuge in the Dharma is we're really taking refuge in the truth of our experience as it is right now.

So if you feel,

Whenever you feel ready,

You can open your eyes and anytime you can just turn the attention inward,

You know,

We easily get caught up in our minds,

We get swept off,

You know,

And just as we do in meditation,

We can just come back,

Say,

Okay,

What's here right now?

What's true right now?

So taking refuge in the Dharma is really taking,

Using the teachings,

Using this present moment awareness as a doorway to help us wake up,

A pathway or entry point to help us wake up,

You know,

Wake up by being present here,

By coming into alignment with life as it is in this moment.

The Buddha said this present moment awareness,

Mindfulness,

Is the direct path to liberation,

The direct path to liberation,

That through awareness of our experience in this moment,

In any moment,

That is a doorway,

Whether it's awareness of the body,

Awareness of feelings,

Of awareness of emotions,

Awareness of mind states,

Awareness of anything in this fathom-long body,

Anything in the world we can pay attention to in this aware,

Non-judging,

Kind way can be the doorway to the deepest freedom,

Because we see that everything comes and goes,

That it's all,

You know,

Not everyone likes this experience,

Including Rebecca,

Joseph Goldstein uses this sometimes,

Empty phenomena rolling on,

Empty phenomena rolling on,

And it's kind of like,

It can come across as a little bit cold,

You know,

We think of our lives and our relationship as empty phenomena rolling on,

But in a deeper sense,

You know,

It all is,

You know,

It's emotions,

It's thoughts,

It's mind states,

It's kind of coming and going.

Empty doesn't mean meaningless,

You know,

In the sense that we sometimes,

But empty in the sense of impermanent,

Insubstantial,

You know,

It's not,

It doesn't have a reality of its own,

It's a dependent arising of conditions in a moment,

And then passing to another moment like this.

So,

Empty phenomena rolling on,

If that resonates with you,

But it's all,

All coming and going,

And when we see this,

Then it leads to,

The Buddha says,

It leads to clarity,

It leads to insight,

It leads to dispassion.

We don't get so caught up in,

I want this,

I hate this,

I want to get rid of this.

We can see that coming and going,

But we can let it go,

Let it go,

See the clinging and just let it go,

Rather than acting on it.

Where does it go?

Where does the clinging go when we don't cling?

You know,

It goes to,

You know,

The place that clinging goes when we don't cling,

It just,

You know,

There's no substance to it,

It's like we haven't reified it,

We haven't made it real,

Of like,

I've got to have this thing,

I've got to have this person.

We kind of see that,

Gotting to,

To put it elegantly,

Gotting to,

Needing to have,

But rather than fueling it with our thinking,

We just,

Okay,

Let me just see that clinging,

Let me see that resistance and let it come,

Let it go,

Let it go.

And when we do this,

Kind of life can flow rather than,

You know,

We're trying to control everything and get the things we want,

Get rid of the things we don't want and suffering in the process.

So the Buddha said mindfulness is the direct path to liberation and there are many,

You know,

There are many different ways we point to this.

And,

You know,

I'll just mention some of these,

You've heard me saying this,

You've probably heard others saying it,

But,

You know,

Just welcoming our experience is one expression of that,

Of like,

Okay,

What is here may not be very what we wanted,

But can we welcome it?

Can we make space for it?

Can we let it come and go?

Can we welcome the guests in Rumi's prayer,

You know,

Rumi's poem,

Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,

Can we welcome them?

Can we let the guests come and do its dance and play its music?

And then when it's ready,

You know,

It can go.

So all coming and going,

Empty phenomena rolling on.

Can we say yes to what is,

You know,

That's another way of seeing this,

This taking refuge in the Dharma is yes to what is,

You know,

Maybe something we don't really feel like it's yes to,

You know,

Of like,

Oh,

I didn't get that job I wanted.

Yes.

Yes.

No,

I mean,

I'm not saying it has to be a celebratory yes.

I'm really happy that I didn't get the job I wanted.

No,

We don't have to be happy about it.

But we're just saying,

We're saying yes,

This is true.

You know,

This is,

I'm saying yes to this,

I'm accepting it.

This is life as it's unfolding.

So that's what we're saying.

It's not necessarily a celebration of everything,

Because not everything is celebratory.

So saying yes to our experience,

Welcoming the guests,

Radical acceptance,

As Tara Brach talks about it as deep rooted acceptance of this moment as it is.

The expression,

The saying,

Phrase that I've shared before is Anthony DeMello's,

The Jesuit teacher,

Philosopher,

Writer,

Speaks about enlightenment as absolute cooperation with the inevitable.

Absolute cooperation with the inevitable.

You know,

It's kind of like you have to kind of think about it for a bit.

But what we're doing is we're cooperating with life.

And the inevitable meaning,

It's here,

It's unavoidable.

As I was saying earlier,

You know,

If I happen to have a pain in my stomach right now,

Well,

That's what's here right now.

You know,

If I'm tired right now,

Well,

Tiredness is here right now.

Might want it to be different,

But good luck with that.

Right now it's like this.

You know,

Yes,

I might be able to do something about changing it,

But that's,

You know,

That's the future.

Right now this is what's here.

And so cooperating with the inevitable is not to fight with the inevitable,

Not to fight with what is.

It's not to struggle,

Not to cling,

Not to resist,

Not to avoid,

But just say,

OK,

This is how life is unfolding right now.

So non-clinging,

Non-resistance,

Non-judging,

Non-denial.

So being present for what is.

Now,

You know,

And I could give,

You know,

I could give some examples,

Maybe just do it very,

Very quickly.

But,

You know,

We could think of all of the times that we're suffering,

We're actually in a struggle with reality.

All of the time,

What time we're struggling,

There's some,

Sorry,

All the time we're suffering,

There's some struggle with the way things are.

We're not at peace with life as it is right now,

And we suffer.

So,

For example,

When we're wanting or craving something,

You know,

That clinging,

We're here,

The body is here,

The neediness is here,

But the mind is saying,

I got to be here,

There,

I've got to have that.

So there's a gap there between where I am and where I want to be.

There's a struggle there.

Similarly,

With aversion,

You know,

We hate that person,

They're terrible,

They're always doing these harmful things.

There's a me here,

Feeling this agitation,

And there's this person that I don't like,

That I feel really separate from.

So there's a here and there,

There's a gap,

And there's suffering in that gap.

You know,

We're not in alignment with how life is in that moment.

If we're caught up in fear,

We're here,

And the mind is in the future,

Like,

Ah,

This bad thing is going to happen,

Then that bad thing,

Etc.

,

Etc.

So,

You know,

Any of these things,

Any of these manifestations of suffering,

Stress,

Worry,

Again,

There's a separation.

We're in this place,

Right?

We're here,

Feeling really tight and tense,

And the mind is saying,

I need to be somewhere else.

I need to get all of this stuff done in order to be okay.

You know,

So again,

There's this tension,

There's this gap,

And there's a suffering in the gap.

Even when we're distracted,

We're here,

But the mind is somewhere else.

It's always that separation and that gap,

That struggle,

And there's suffering.

Now,

You might well say,

Might already be saying in your own mind,

Well,

What about the things that do need to change?

What about the things that do need to change?

What about action on climate change?

What about ending the killing in Gaza and Israel and building a lasting peace?

What about ending gun violence?

What about,

You know,

The many,

Many different forms of suffering,

The things going on in the world?

Do we have to just accept that those are always going to be as they are?

Well,

No.

The point is,

Acceptance means accepting this moment.

It's not passivity.

It's not saying,

This has got to,

You know,

I'm just accepting this will be like this forever.

We can take action to bring about change,

And it can be very wise and helpful to do that in the situation is appropriate.

But,

And this is the big but,

It needs to come from a place of acceptance.

It needs to come from acceptance of this moment as it is,

Or else what we bring into the world will only create more suffering.

So,

If I bring anger into wanting to change things,

Then I bring anger,

You know,

Into the mix,

And I bring anger to anger,

And then I create more division,

More suffering.

So,

Change must come from a place of acceptance of this moment as it is.

So,

A quote I like a lot from James Baldwin,

The great American playwright,

Poet,

Author,

Civil rights activist.

He said,

Not everything you face can be changed,

But nothing can be changed until it is faced.

Not everything that you face can be changed.

You can't change everything in the world,

But nothing can be changed until it's faced.

So,

Until we look reality in the eye,

Experience in the eye,

We can't really change anything.

We can't change anything in a helpful,

We can change things,

But we can't change things in a way that's going to be beneficial,

Lead to lasting,

You know,

Genuine happiness and peace.

It has to come from this place of acceptance.

So,

This is really refuge in the Dharma,

Refuge in this moment,

Refuge in experience,

Just as it is.

So,

As I said,

Mindfulness is,

The Buddha said,

Is the direct path to liberation.

With mindfulness,

Life reveals itself.

We see what's arising,

And we come into alignment with life itself.

As I said,

It gives rise to insight,

Gives rise to letting go.

And the doorway is always the present moment.

It's always here and now.

You know,

We can think about tomorrow and we can learn from yesterday,

But the work is always,

The action,

The transformation is always right here and right now.

And Eckhart Tolle has,

He says,

How did he put it?

He says,

Anything unconscious dissolves in the light of consciousness.

Anything unconscious dissolves in the light of consciousness.

When we shine the light on any confusion,

Any entanglement,

Any clinging,

It becomes clarified and is dissolved really,

Is untangled when we shine the light of awareness,

Shine the light of consciousness on our experience.

So,

I want to finish off in the next minute or two and I want to just come back to that sense that I was trying to invite in the meditation.

And that is being aware of the awareness,

The knowing of the mind that sees the entanglement,

Sees the joys,

Sees the sorrows,

But is not caught up in it.

So,

When we're aware of fear,

We're not actually caught up in fear.

The awareness is not afraid.

The awareness is not angry.

The awareness is not clinging.

The awareness isn't even happy or joyful,

You know,

In that sense.

The awareness is just aware.

And then there's what we're aware of.

And what we're aware of,

We can just,

It can come and go.

And this is what taking refuge in the Dharma is.

It's taking refuge in the truth in this moment.

And the present moment is the doorway to that authentic engagement with our present moment experience.

So,

Turning our awareness towards our experience is the pathway to awakening,

The pathway to freedom from suffering.

And in that way is a true refuge.

It's a true refuge because we can come back to it.

We can rely on it.

And we can realize the deepest peace through this present moment awareness of what is here right now.

That becomes the doorway in to letting go,

To insight,

And to the deepest freedom.

So,

I invite you to just kind of reflect on that in your own life.

Reviews

Wonderful! Thank you 🙏🏼

🙏🏾 2025.

Always insightful.

Thank you 🤗

5 stars is not enough to "rate" this talk. It is pure gold.

Hugh,
I love you.
Thanks once again for pouring so much of THE TRUTH in your talks! ✨🙏✨

Thang you for sharing there teachings and reflections 🙏

Always good & thoughtful🙏🏻.

Very helpful pointing!

So basic

Hi Hugh, thanks for this insightful talk. Do you have anything for going for refuge to the Buddha and Sangha too please?

Useful reminders of so many things. Thank you Hugh 🙏

Thank you, I have gained so much from your talk on truth and to ‘mind the gap’😏 to meet each moment is acceptance of what is – all comes good in the end!

Thank you 🙏

So much sacred ground is covered in this enlightening talk. I look forward to listening to it over & over again, and even then, I’ll just be absorbing the very outer edges. Thank you for this gift that truly holds the secrets to calming, & thereby freeing, the mind.

Thank you for recording this talk and sharing! Such wonderful reminders to reflect on. 🙏🏼❤️

Thank you Hugh 🫶!