Principles
Primary importance of Going for Refuge
The fundamental aim of Buddhism is Enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Traditionally Buddhists express this aspiration by ‘going for Refuge’ to the Buddha, his teaching (Dharma) and the spiritual community (Sangha). The Buddha is a ‘Refuge’ not because he will help us to escape life and its difficulties, but because his example and teaching are reliable Refuges. They free us from attachment to ‘false refuges’ — those mundane things we look to for happiness and security, but which are incapable of providing them. In seeking to gain Enlightenment Buddhists follow the practices that make up the Buddha’s path, and try to understand the teachings that express the Buddha’s Wisdom. These are known as the Dharma, so Buddhists also ‘go for Refuge to the Dharma’.
If we are to practise the Dharma we need the example of others who have done so before us; the guidance of personal teachers who are wiser and more experienced than ourselves; and the friendship of fellow practitioners. Together these people (past and present) are known as the Sangha or spiritual community, and Buddhists also ‘go for Refuge to the Sangha’. So the central and defining act of a Buddhist is to go for Refuge to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, or the Three Jewels, as they are called. This is the act by which one becomes a Buddhist, and every day around the world millions of Buddhists chant the Three Refuges, committing themselves to living out these ideals.
Even though this is a common and vital teaching across the whole Buddhist tradition, it is not necessarily the case that all Buddhists really do make the Three Jewels the central element in their lives and practice. Around the path to Enlightenment taught by the Buddha have developed numerous religious forms, institutions, and cultural practices. While these may be means through which individuals can follow the Buddha’s path, Sangharakshita suggests that sometimes the forms have become ends in themselves. What matters is the inner commitment.
The task for Buddhists today is to discern what in the Buddhist tradition genuinely does support going for Refuge, and then to put it into practice in their lives. This is the task Sangharakshita has set himself in his own exploration of the Buddhist tradition. He believes going for Refuge is what unifies Buddhists of all schools. Indeed it is what makes one a Buddhist.