Taking Refuge

Taking refuge in the Buddha as an example, taking refuge in the dharma as the path, and taking refuge in the sangha as the companionship is very clean-cut, very definite, very precise, and very clear. People have done this for the past twenty-five hundred years of the Buddhist tradition. By taking refuge you receive that particular heritage into your own system; you join that particular wisdom that has existed for twenty-five hundred years without interruption and without corruption. It is very direct and very simple.

The Heart of the Buddha

Choyam Trungpa

 Taking on an Eastern philosophy can be hindered by the idea that to do so is to adopt an exotic and mysterious practice that boarders on occultism. But Buddhism can be easily translated into the homegrown practice of the Twelve Steps of AA. There really is nothing new in Buddhism that the Christian faith doesn’t teach or Western Philosophy and science can object to. It is important to choose a path and in doing so it is important that it is a path that leads somewhere… especially towards sanity. For some of us this path is best described by Twelve Step programs. When we say that we are taking refuge in the Buddha we don’t mean anything even loosely about the Buddha being a deity. We are taking refuge in being awakened. We are taking refuge in an awakening that is within. As in the First Step of Alcoholics Anonymous we are thus recognizing we are asleep. In recognizing we are asleep we are open to the idea that there is no power of our own that can relieve us of the insanity of believing in the dream state we are in. In the end, taking refuge in awakening translates to surrender to the power of that enlightenment.

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