What's a Dodgy Refuge?

This blog is also the material we are going to look at next in our Wednesday group.

I’m sure I must have written about refuge before because, at least for me, it’s probably the most important Buddhist teaching I have ever received, despite it also being the first. When we take refuge it’s a formal recognition that we are accepting the Buddha as our teacher, his teachings as our path and those that practice this path as our community - our sangha. However, as with all things Buddhist, this is just the ‘entry level’ and there are at least two or three more levels until we reach the ultimate refuge where we recognise that the Buddha - the awakened one - is in fact our own buddha-nature, our own awakened mind, that the teachings are the wisdom and compassion that continually emanate from this, and that our sangha is none other than the display of our own awakened nature …. and this last idea I’m going to pass on until later.

The thing with refuge is that it’s very easy to superficially take but extremely difficult to really do. To be honest I’m not sure if I have done it yet despite going through the lovely ceremony over fifty years ago. If we take it on the level of just kind of joining a group of people who we like and feel at home with, and trying to follow the guidance from a teacher we are attracted to, then it’s not such a big deal. However, if we really think about it - what do I actually take refuge in and how is that working out for me, then it becomes a different matter.

Taking refuge means finding a place that we feel safe in and using that safe space when things get bumpy. Bumpy is actually quite a good word because the Buddhist word for all the difficult stuff of being alive is samsara - which traces its roots to an ill-fitting axle in a carts wheel - hence a bumpy ride. And, as we know there are all types of bumpy …

But do we actually take it. When things get tough is it to the Dharma, the Buddha’s teaching, that we turn? Well, if I am going to be absolutely honest with myself, no. If something has gone really wrong, say a health scare or a falling out with a friend. Or yet another hideous right-wing party gaining power on a platform of fear and hate. Then I do turn to the teachings and try to use them the best I can. But there are a multitude of smaller things where observation confirms that I am also trying to take refuge in a lot of other stuff as well - sometimes quite dodgy stuff like Amazon. You know the feeling - spotting exactly what you want, pushing the buy button and the small and very fleeting feeling of pleasure that follows. Well, that cheered me up!

Of course, these small excursions into retail refuge are neither here nor there. But it does get more serious when we consider the things that we really have a driven craving for. Here we can each make our own list but it’s salutary to remember the Buddha taught on exactly this point. He had observed in himself that it was craving, the compulsive power of addiction, that was the cause of his suffering and the consequence of this was being on a bumpy ride for ever - and ever, and ever. This was what his teaching was all about - take refuge in something that is actually capable of giving refuge, not something that’s not.

So after all it’s not as easy as it sounds, nor that straight forward. Thankfully Buddhism is realistic when it comes to human nature and recognises that taking refuge is not so much an event as a process. Practicing the Dharma is to practice taking refuge in something that is a real refuge. Practicing implies not being very good at it but getting better. It also implies the need to keep conscious if this change is to happen. Not to say to ourselves, ‘Oh yes, I’ve taken refuge, now I’m next going to learn how to meditate.’ and kind of leave refuge on the done list. Really, meditation, calming the mind to arrive at insight into how things really are, is all about identifying what refuge really is. Meditation gives us the means to see what our choices are and maybe have a second think about them.

So this weeks question is obvious: what do I actually, really, take refuge in? Remember, there is no right or wrong. Whatever we find is a valuable insight and that’s all to the good.

NW. 23 September 2025