Once a year, Narayan offers a Refuges and Precepts Ceremony at CIMC. Paying homage to the Three Refuges of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in community is an inspiring ceremony. It can support our practice, developing qualities of confidence and energy. Retreats often start with the refuges as a reminder and support for the ups and downs of the retreat. But the refuges that are most useful are the ones we can go to daily, not just once, but many times. This becomes a true refuge for us. A refuge we go to once a year is a little like a wooden Buddha statue. To paraphrase a famous Zen Koan, “A wooden Buddha won’t go through fire. It will burn. A clay Buddha can’t go through water; it will dissolve. Where is the true Buddha?” The true refuge of the Buddha is not far away. It abides in the clear, unfettered Buddha mind: The intuitive, clear seeing awareness that we all have available here and now in the present moment.
The great Vietnamese teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, or Thay, as he is called, says, “True peace can only be found in the present moment, but we have to keep coming back. We have to practice ‘stopping’ because our habit energy for running and distraction is very strong. One mindful breath can bring you back so that you can touch the nourishing and healing elements of the present moment.” Little by little, as we keep coming back, we break the spell that our stories of the past, our fixed ideas, and our speculations and worries for the future weave.
What is a Buddha aware of in the present moment? The Buddha sees things as they are, “just like this”. Here and now. The Buddha sees the Dharma, which is the second refuge, seeing that things arise when conditions are right and fade away when the conditions change. The Buddha sees that trying to grasp things that are constantly changing is like trying to grasp the wind. This is stressful! The Buddha sees the deep interconnections in this world of cause and effect. These truths are simple to ‘know’ intellectually, but harder to live, because each of us brings with us a lifetime of conditioning for seeing things and beings as separate, distinct “things” or “selves”. The Buddha also understands that the most helpful and fruitful response to this flood of stress is kindness and compassion for ourselves and others.
We work this all out in the realm of the third refuge: Sangha. Our communities, whether it be a family, a practice group, colleagues, or friends, are the garden where we do our work. What conditions will grow patience in me, or generosity, when I certainly seem impatient and ungenerous a lot of the time? What weeds to pull? What seeds to plant? May we all find peace and refuge in these stressful times in the community garden of Sangha, one breath at a time, knowing the weeds and flowers just as they are.