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New Year's
If we practice together as a river rather than as isolated drops, we are sure to arrive at the ocean of peace and freedom. In the Sangha we learn to look with Sangha eyes, walk with Sangha feet, feel with Sangha heart—and to share our joy and our difficulties so our suffering is transformed. In this living community, each of us is both very young and very old, carrying within us generations of teachers and ancestors, and connecting us with future generations.
True refuge is not belief or story but a daily practice of taking refuge in what we can touch, the living Sangha, the Dharma that brings insight, and the Buddha nature within every cell. Instead of clinging to impermanent possessions or the cult of the self in a century of consumption and loneliness, we learn to build harmony in community and rely on collective energy to generate faith, mindfulness, concentration, and insight. The Sangha itself becomes our boat across the ocean of suffering, the embodiment of the Buddha for the twenty-first century.
The Three Refuges
- Take refuge in the Buddha — confidence in our capacity to awaken
- Take refuge in the Dharma — the practice that transforms suffering
- Take refuge in the Sangha — the community that carries the practice forward
