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The 1, 2, 3 refugesor
or the revised 2 refuges
or no refuges The refuges as jewels or islands
Buddhist
scripture states that Gautama left home to resolve his problem (of
suffering). He had no Tathagata (i.e. Buddha, i.e. teacher), dhamma (i.e.
teaching, i.e. road map) or sangha (i.e. group support) to help him, i.e. in
whom he could take refuge. He found
refuge (i.e. support, absolute confidence, having been named Siddartha, i.e.
‘the one who achieves’) only in himself. Hence he started and finished the
trip with only 1 refuge. Having
succeeded (i.e. achieved), he invited others, specifically the skilled (but
according to the Tathagata, misguided) wanderers whom he had met earlier, to
take refuge in him (as teacher) and in his teaching (i.e. the dhamma). They
operated with two refuges; actually with 2 official and 1 unofficial refuge
(supporting island) since they no doubt had firm faith in their ability to
achieve. Once a
community of followers (i.e. of refugees) had been established, newcomers,
and who were for the most part not wanderers but householders (i.e. the
laity, i.e. lost and insecure), joined up by taking refuge in the Buddha, the
teaching, i.e. the dhamma, and in the community of followers, i.e. the
sangha, and who were soon to be distinguished by various states of
attainment. So now there were 3 refuges, and which were taken as follows: Buddham
saranam gakkhami Dhammam
saranam gakkhami Sangham
saranam gakkhami Within sight
of death (i.e. of his imminent extinction without trace (hence leaving no
means of personal support behind), and anticipating the dispersal and decay
of the sangha (i.e. into factions (later at least 5 major schools and
hundreds of sects emerged) professing different opinions as to what they
though he might have said, or implied, or what he should have said), the
Tathagata reduced the refuges (i.e. the supports) to 2 (see the
Mahaparinibbana sutta 2/33), to wit: “Therefore,
Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no
external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge,
seeking no other refuge. “And how, Ananda,
is a bhikkhu an island unto himself, a refuge unto himself, seeking no
external refuge; with the Dhamma as his island, the Dhamma as his refuge,
seeking no other refuge?” ….. In short, the dying Tathagata ordered that the
bhikkhu take refuge (note: a refuge is actually a home (or mindset). Accepting a home/refuge actually
disqualifies the bhikkhu as a homeless wanderer) only in himself and the
dhamma since he, the Tathagata, would be extinct (in/as parinibbana, in/as
the deathless). Note: If the bhikkhu accepts those two refuges,
the most he can attain is freedom in the dispensation ring-fenced by the
dhamma. But the true bhikkhu (i.e. the one who is homeless, meaning, the one
who retains an open mind), the one who decides to ‘go for it’, i.e. for the
supreme goal, must drop the dhamma as support/home and rely only on himself
(as Gautama had done and by which means he had attained samma-sambodhi). If
he succeeds without the support of dhamma (for dhamma read: ‘(Buddhist)
politically correct thinking’, and which results in ‘correct acting’) he
becomes a Tathagata in his own right. The latter view is finely suggested by the
Tathatagata’s final words, “Work out your salvation with diligence” (or words
to that effect). (Mahavagga 28/3)`I abolish, O bhikkhus, from this day the upasampadà
ordination by the threefold declaration of taking refuge (128), which I had prescribed. I prescribe, O
bhikkhus, that you confer the upasampadà ordination by a formal act of the
order in which the announcement (¤atti) is followed by three
questions (129).
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