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The Three Refuges
In daily life marked by insecurity, human beings seek a refuge, permanence, and an absolute identity, even though reality is impermanent. Taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is not about seeking a future or abstract security, but about touching the truth of inter-being and of no-birth and no-death in the present moment. A flower is made of non-flower elements like sunshine and clouds, just as the Buddha is made of non-Buddha elements; understanding this allows us to sail on the ocean of impermanence with peace.
Buddhism addresses fundamental truths to transform our view:
- Impermanence (Vô thường): it is not sad but essential for life, allowing children to grow and seeds to become plants.
- Nonself (Vô ngã) or Inter-being: the absence of a separate existence, summarized by the phrase “This being, that is.”
- Suffering (Khổ) or Nirvana (Niết bàn): seeking happiness in permanence leads to suffering, while basing it on the wisdom of impermanence leads to freedom.
Taking refuge is a concrete practice: the Buddha is the capacity for understanding and love that we touch within ourselves through conscious breathing. The Dharma is the living path of calm (śamatha) and looking deeply (vipaśyanā), manifested in everything, like a flower or a smile (Dharmakāya). The Sangha is the indispensable community for supporting the practice, for a practitioner alone is like a tiger who has left his mountain; it is crucial to build a Sangha with our loved ones or colleagues. This insight dissolves the fear of death, revealing that nothing is born and nothing dies, but only continues in other forms.