Refuge in Buddhism
In Buddhism, refuge or taking refuge refers to a religious practice which often includes a prayer or recitation performed at the beginning of the day or of a practice session. Its object is typically the Three Jewels, which are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Taking refuge is a form of aspiration to lead a life with the Triple Gem at its core. In early Buddhist scriptures, taking refuge is an expression of determination to follow the Buddha's path, but not a relinquishing of responsibility. Refuge is common to all major schools of Buddhism.
Since the period of Early Buddhism, all Theravada and mainstream Mahayana schools only take refuge in the Triple Gem. However, the Vajrayana school includes an expanded refuge formula known as the Three Jewels and Three Roots.
Overview
Since the period of Early Buddhism, devotees expressed their faith through the act of taking refuge, which is threefold. These are the three supports or jewels in which a Sutrayana Buddhist takes refuge:- The Buddha, the fully enlightened one
- The Dharma, the Buddhist teachings expounded by the Buddha
- The Sangha, the monastic order of Buddhism that practices and preserves the Dharma.
Early texts describe the saṅgha as a "field of merit", because early Buddhists regard offerings to them as particularly karmically fruitful. Lay devotees support and revere the saṅgha, of which they believe it will render them merit and bring them closer to enlightenment. At the same time, the Buddhist monk is given a significant role in promoting and upholding faith among laypeople. Although many examples in the canon are mentioned of well-behaved monks, there are also cases of monks misbehaving. In such cases, the texts describe that the Buddha responds with great sensitivity to the perceptions of the lay community. When the Buddha sets out new rules in the monastic code to deal with the wrongdoings of his monastics, he usually states that such behavior should be curbed, because it would not "persuade non-believers" and "believers will turn away". He expects monks, nuns and novices not only to lead the spiritual life for their own benefit, but also to uphold the faith of the people. On the other hand, they are not to take the task of inspiring faith to the extent of hypocrisy or inappropriateness, for example, by taking on other professions apart from being a monastic, or by courting favours by giving items to the laypeople.
Faith in the three jewels is an important teaching element in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. In contrast to perceived Western notions of faith, faith in Buddhism arises from accumulated experience and reasoning. In the Kalama Sutra, the Buddha explicitly argues against simply following authority or tradition, particularly those of religions contemporary to the Buddha's time. There remains value for a degree of trusting confidence and belief in Buddhism, primarily in the spiritual attainment and salvation or enlightenment. Faith in Buddhism centres on belief in the Three Jewels.
In Mahayana Buddhism
In Mahayana Buddhism, the three jewels are understood in a different sense than in Sravakayana or non-Mahayana forms of Buddhism. For example, the Buddha is usually explained through the Mahayana doctrine of the three bodies.According to the Mahayana treatise titled Ratnagotravibhāga, the true meaning of the triple gem is as follows:
- The Buddha is without beginning, middle and end. The Buddha is peace. The Buddha is uncompounded, and spontaneous Dharmakaya. The Buddha is self-enlightened and self arisen wisdom, compassion and power for the benefit of others.
- The Dharma is described as the reality which is cessation. This is described as neither existence nor non-existence. It is non-conceptual reality as well as the reality of the path which consists of luminous and stainless jñana that removes all defilement. It is also equated with the dharmakaya.
- The Sangha refers to those beings who realize the true luminous nature of the mind and the "full extent of what is" as well as the supreme qualities that make them a refuge.
According to the Mahayana approach, the buddha is the totality of the three kayas; the dharma encompasses scriptural transmission and the realization of one’s self-knowing timeless awareness ; and the sangha is made up of bodhisattvas, masters of awareness, and other spiritually advanced beings whose nature is such that they are on the paths of learning and no more learning.
Thus, for Mahayana Buddhism, the Buddha jewel includes innumerable Buddhas, not just Sakyamuni Buddha. Likewise, the Dharma jewel includes the Mahayana sutras and may also include the Buddhist tantras, not just the Tripitaka. Finally, the Sangha jewel includes numerous beings that are not part of the monastic sangha proper, including high level bodhisattvas like Avalokiteshvara, Vajrapani, Manjushri and so on.File:Gautama Buddha first sermon in Sarnath.jpg|thumb|Gautama Buddha delivering his first sermon in the deer park at Sarnath, Varanasi with his right hand turning the Dharmachakra, resting on the Triratna symbol flanked on either side by a deer. Statue on display at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai.
Ultimate and partial refuges
According to the Śrīmālā Sūtra, the Dharma and Sangha are "partial refuges," while the Buddha, possessed of limitless compassion and not being bound by time, is the supreme and ultimate refuge. The Dharma and Sangha are limited refuges in relation to the Buddha because the Dharma attains the Dharmakāya while the Sangha, being afraid, looks to the Tathāgata for refuge. Therefore, to go for refuge in the Dharma and Sangha is ultimately to go for refuge in the Tathāgata, who is thus the supreme truth of the three jewels. Furthermore, the Dharma and Sangha are not separate from the Tathāgata who is identical to the three refuges "because of the path of the One Vehicle". Additionally, according to the Śrīmālā Sūtra, of the Four Noble Truths, the noble truth of the extinction of suffering is the one refuge, as it is permanent and separate from the conditioned. It is therefore not false or deceptive in nature. Conversely, the other three noble truths are impermanent, conditioned, and are thus false and deceptive in nature.According to the Ratnagotravibhāga, the Buddha alone is considered to be a true and permanent refuge. This is because the Dharma is like a boat that is ultimately abandoned. Also, the Dharma is made up of the truth of the path and the truth of cessation, but the former is artificial and impermanent while the latter is, according to śrāvakas, a mere absence of defilement and suffering. An absence, or nonexistence, can be neither a refuge nor non-refuge. As for the Sangha, it is possessed of fear and has many things still to be done, having not yet attained perfect enlightenment. Being with fear, the Sangha goes for refuge in the Buddha. However, that which goes for refuge in others cannot be a refuge by itself. Therefore, the Ratnagotravibhāga considers the Dharma and Sangha to be temporary refuges, while the Buddha jewel is an eternal and lasting refuge. This is because the Buddha jewel possesses the Dharmakāya and neither arises nor disappears.
In Chan Buddhism, it is taught in the Platform Sūtra that, rather than take refuge in external buddhas, one should take refuge in the buddha within oneself. In the Platform Sūtra, Huineng urges his listeners to take refuge in the three jewels of their own essential nature. According to this explanation, "Buddha" refers to awareness, "Dharma" refers to truth, and "Sangha" to purity. The Platform Sūtra says:
Learned Audience, each of you should consider and examine this point for yourself, and let not your energy be misapplied. The sūtra distinctly says that we should take refuge in the Buddha within ourselves; it does not suggest that we should take refuge in other buddhas. , if we do not take refuge in the buddha within ourselves, there is no other place for us to retreat.
Three Jewels in one substance
sources may speak of the three refuges according to non-dual interpretations which do not regard them as three separate entities. For example, in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, one reads:Good man, now you should not distinguish among the Three Jewels as śrāvakas and ordinary people do. In the Mahāyāna, there is nothing that marks the three refuges as separate. Why do I say this? Because the dharma and the sangha exist within the buddha-nature itself. It was in order to ferry śrāvakas and ordinary people to the other shore that I separately expounded different marks for each of the three refuges.The Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra also emphasizes that since the Buddha "is permanently abiding and immutable," the Dharma and the Sangha are also permanent. Thus, the sutra affirms that "the Three Jewels all abide permanently." In Chan materials one also finds definitions according to which the three jewels are inseparable in and as mind, or heart, such as when the second patriarch Huike explains, "This Heart is Buddha, this Heart is Dharma; Dharma and Buddha are not two. The jewel of the Sangha is like this too." Likewise, the Tsung Ching Record of Dazhu Huihai states:
Mind is the Buddha and it is needless to use this Buddha to seek the Buddha. Mind is the Dharma and it is needless to use this Dharma to seek the Dharma. Buddha and Dharma are not separate entities and their togetherness forms the Sangha. Such is the meaning of Three Jewels in One Substance.