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A Reader recently wrote:
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I’ve posed this question on another site.. wondered what your ‘take’ was.

Following a statement that a Buddhist is someone who takes refuge in the 3 jewels.

Question: What’s actually involved in ‘taking refuge in the 3 jewels’?

I understand its accepting/realising the way to overcome samsara is through the Buddha, dharma & sangha. The 3 jewels.

However, does this mean ‘joining the sangha’? (bit difficult round here! Buddhists are rarer than a rare thing with a reason to be rare)

Does it involve any ceremony, any ritual?

Or could it just be a personal declaration, in the absence of others?
I’m personally happy to be someone who incorporates what he understands of Buddhism into his life, as opposed to applying a label and proclaiming “I’m a Buddhist!”. Although lately I’m feeling the label possibly does apply.

Currently being a husband and father occupies the vast bulk of my time. I’ll practice mindfulness within my daily life with them, meditate, read my rapidly expanding library of Buddhist/meditation books – Whilst chatting about Buddhism with the new Sri Lankan student, the companys just contracted.

But the ‘taking refuge’ intrigues me. maybe because we think of taking refuge as a physical thing and this is mental/spiritual?

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My Response:
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No, it’s not been any trouble “keeping it fresh” yet- all the emails keep me going with plenty to discuss. And there are thousands of years of material to cover if those ever dry up.

Although the phrase, “I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha” is indeed used in rituals such as ordination, I can’t say that I ever really gave the phrase itself much in the way of deep thought. I have always taken it at face value:

The First Noble truth is “all life is suffering.” Generally speaking, out in the physical world, “taking refuge” is usually done in order to relieve or remove suffering. If I’m out in the pouring rain, I’m going to take refuge under the nearest roof. It’s the same with the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha; they help remove or alleviate suffering. They are metaphorical “shelters” from suffering. The Buddha is my role model; when I feel bad I read some dharma; I enjoy and learn a lot by interacting with (emailing mostly in my case) other Buddhists. These three sources help relieve my suffering. I’ve “taken refuge in them.”

As far as your sangha problems are concerned, you aren’t alone. I don’t know many Americans who aren’t thrilled with the selection of Buddhist groups in their area, and I’m one of them. I think the best we can do is look at the term “sangha” as a form of “community.” There ARE other Buddhists out there, and we do form a kind of community. You read Buddhist books, and that too is a loose form of community. If you listen to podcasts or watch documentaries on TV, you are still connecting with other Buddhists. You are learning something new regularly. I think that’s really about the best that can be done if there isn’t a “church” in your area.

A Sangha isn’t a building, it’s a community. There are many kinds of communities.

Who Was The Buddha?
By “Dr. Arcane”

Around 2500 years ago, King Shuddodana Gautama of the Shakya clan ruled in northern India. He built a great castle and ruled his people well. One night, his wife, Queen Maya, had a strange dream wherein she saw a white elephant enter her womb through the side of her chest. She soon found that she was indeed pregnant. The people of the kingdom were thrilled that there would soon be a royal heir.

Planning to have the child at her parent’s home, Maya traveled there before the birth. On April 8th, on the way to Queen Maya’s ancestral home, she stopped to rest in a garden. Reaching for a blossoming branch in the garden, she suddenly, painlessly, had the child. Unfortunately, a few days later, Queen Maya died.

The baby was named Siddhartha, meaning, ‚ÄúEvery wish fulfilled,‚Äù and was raised within his father’s grand castle. His father, of course, expected young Siddhartha to succeed him as King at some point in the future.

Fate, however, had other plans for Siddhartha. A wandering holy man came to the castle to see the King. He had a vision concerning the young Prince and had to tell the King. He foretold that the young boy had two possible futures; either as a great King who would rule the entire world, or as a great holy man. The King decided immediately that his son would not leave the castle and learn to be the great future King.

Young Siddhartha lived in the castle and grew up inside its protective walls, never seeing anything that would make him think of spiritual or religious things. His father was careful to remove all hints of the real suffering that accompany this world. The Prince lived a perfectly shielded life. His father arranged a marriage, and then Siddhartha had a son of his own. Not long after, on a parade through the city, he spotted three sights. First he saw a sick man. He asked his good friend and charioteer, “Will I become sick?” The charioteer answered truthfully, “Ees, eventually we all get sick.” They continued through the city, and the Prince spotted a very old man. He asked, “Will I grow old like that man?” to which the charioteer answered similarly. Lastly, he saw a dead man being carried away. “Will I die?” he asked, and did not like the answer.

Leaving his wife and son behind, Siddhartha abandoned the castle and went off to live in the wilderness as a wandering holy man. He met up with other ascetic mendicants, refusing to eat, spending all day in meditation and denying all pleasures. For years he studied with the ascetics, and nearly starved to death in the process. After six years studying in this manner, he finally decided that he would learn no more following this path. He decided that denying the world was wrong, but that enjoying life too much, as in his younger days, was ad as well. He decided to follow a “Middle Path.” His friends, the other five mendicants, abandoned him, since he no longer believed as they did.

He then sat beneath a Bodhi tree and meditated. During this meditation, he was tempted in many ways to abandon his search for truth and live a life of pleasure. He rejected every temptation and continued his struggle to know. At last, he succeeded, becoming enlightened under the Bodhi tree, and the world would never be the same for him. At 35 years old, he became a Buddha, one who is “awake.”

He met up with his five mendicant friends, and he quickly convinced them that his path was real, and they became his first followers. He traveled the countryside, teaching his ways, and word quickly spread about this man who taught the Path to Enlightenment. He soon had many thousands of followers. He was eventually reunited with his father, wife and son, and they too, became his followers.

He traveled around teaching for decades, and at around age 80, died from eating some spoiled food. He foresaw his death, but continued teaching as always until the very moment of death. He closed his eyes and in perfect peace, moved on to Nirvana. Stories about his life, his teachings, and his Path were written down and his followers continued to spread the message for the next 2500 years.

Since then, people have known him by many names; Siddhartha, Buddha, Gotama, Shakyamuni, Enlightened One, Tathagata, and many others. Not a god, just a man, but the greatest teacher of all time.

The Fourth Noble Truth

Just to summarize, we now know that all life is suffering. This suffering is caused by attachments and desire. Yet, there is a way to end this suffering. To continue our medical analogy, Doctor Buddha, saw the problem, identified the cause, and then prescribed a cure. Today we are going to discuss this cure.

The Fourth Noble Truth is the path (or “Way”) that ends suffering.

This prescription to end suffering is usually called The Eightfold Path, because it has eight steps or components. These eight components are:

1. Right Thought
2. Right Speech
3. Right Actions
4. Right Livelihood
5. Right Understanding
6. Right Effort
7. Right Mindfulness
8. Right Concentration

This path is also sometimes called “The Middle Way” because it goes directly between all opposite concepts. It is the middle way between asceticism and self-indulgence. By focusing on perfecting these eight components, you can attain enlightenment and be released from all suffering. This is what is called attaining Nirvana (or Enlightenment).

“I teach about suffering and the way to end it”
Shakyamuni Buddha

You can probably guess what we’ll be discussing for the next eight days, right? Some of the steps on the eightfold path are intuitively simple, yet hard to put into practice. Others are conceptually complex and take a lifetime of practice to master (if ever).

Now your homework for the weekend. Memorize the four Noble Truths. They’re the heart of Buddhism, and we’ll be discussing them repeatedly. If you have time, memorize the eightfold path as well, as that’s just as crucial. There really isn’t much to memorize in Buddhism, but these two lists are way up there in importance.

The Four Noble Truths

1. All of life is suffering
2. There is a cause to this suffering, desire and attachment
3. There is a path to end this suffering
4. The Eightfold Path is the way to end suffering

The Third Noble Truth

Now we know that all the world is suffering, and the cause of all is desire and attachment. These are important ideas to really understand and think through. You’ll have some extra time today to reflect on the First and Second Noble Truths, because the Third Noble Truth is really simple.

The Third Noble Truth is the idea that Suffering can be beaten.

We know from the first two Truths that everyone, everywhere is suffering in one way or another and that all this suffering is related to attachment and desire. “Doctor Buddha” first identified the problem (suffering), then he found the cause of the sickness (Desire), so the next step was to prescribe a cure.

Yes, there is a way to beat this depressing cycle of misery that we’ve been talking about. Most people haven’t attained this, and most won’t in this lifetime. Let’ s see if we can work it out on our own; as I said, it’s pretty easy. Since suffering is the problem we are trying to beat, and suffering is caused by attachment and desire, then it seems that the way to beat suffering is to control desire and limit attachments. Attachment and desire come from within; they are caused by our own minds. If we have control of our own minds, we should be able to just shut off the suffering. In fact, Buddhists go so far as to claim that reality is what you make of it. Simple, eh? Well, no, of course it isn’t, but this is idea that everything is in your mind and that you need to learn to control your mind is the heart of Buddhism.

But there is a way to do it, and Buddha went on to explain it in the Fourth Noble Truth, which we’ll cover tomorrow.

The Second Noble Truth

Yesterday I explained how “All of life is suffering.” I think we decided that this was a pretty depressing outlook on life, but remember I asked you to bear with me. The Buddha wanted to “cure” this condition, and he did. But just like any doctor, before he could cure the suffering, he had to diagnose the cause of the suffering.

The Second Noble Truth is the idea that “There is a single cause to suffering: Attachment.”

As I said yesterday, all things are impermanent. No matter how much you love your car, or your dog, or your family, someday you will lose them. Or you will die yourself, and thereby lose everything you have accumulated in life. Nothing is permanent. Nothing. I don’t like it, and you probably don’t like it either, but that’s tough. Attachment to things and the resultant loss of those things causes suffering. If you’ve ever lost a loved one, you know exactly what I mean. But you don’t actually have to lose someone to suffer, because you know deep down that someday you are going to lose them. That thought is always in the back of your mind; death is part of living, and we have accepted the idea.

This is a very logical idea, and if you think it through, I think you will agree. All suffering comes from attachment, or put in another way, desire. I desire a new Ferrari, but I can’t afford it. I suffer because I cannot have what I want. I’m hungry; all I have to do is go the kitchen and make a sandwich, but right now, I desire food, and that little bit of hunger is a mild form of suffering. Poor people around the world are hungry too, but they don’t have sandwiches handy; they suffer too, albeit more seriously than I do. I want to date a supermodel, but they won’t give the time of day. Maybe my sights aren’t so high and I have a crush on the girl next door (but she hates me!); there’s more suffering. Greed, Lust, Anger, Ignorance, and even emotions we think of as positive, such as Love are all forms of attachment or clinging. There’s no way around it; even Buddha himself got hungry and had physical needs.

What about physical pain? That’s attachment as well. You are attached to your own body, believing that this life is somehow real. Your body is not you, it’s just another temporary vessel. We’ll discuss this further another time, but your attachment to yourself is just as bad as aching with lust for a supermodel.

Think about it for yourself, don’t take my word for it. You will find that everything about essential Buddhism is completely logical when you dwell on it and analyze it a bit. Think about various forms of suffering, and see how they can be traced back to desire, attachment, or clinging of one form or another.

Yeah, it’s still depressing. But tomorrow we’ll discuss the cure for what ails us.