Chapter 9 - Seeking And Taking Refuge

I know many people in this world are seeking. Superficially it seems they all search for different things, but hidden deep in their minds, they are all looking for Truth. Some may deny it, but they are still looking for substitutions for Truth.

Many have sought and have taken refuge. This is like many rivers flowing into lakes flowing into oceans. One ocean contains up to tens of thousands of rivers.

What is Taking Refuge? The Three Refuges of Buddha Dharma are:

To the Buddha I take self refuge, vowing that all living beings understand the Great Way profoundly, and bring forth the bodhi mind.

To the Dharma I take self refuge, vowing that all living beings deeply enter the sutra treasury and have wisdom like the sea.

To the Sangha I take self refuge, vowing that all living beings form together a great assembly, one and all in harmony.

As I meditate by the lake, I grasp that the truth of Refuge resides in the word Self.

I know that Lake Sammamish is clear and perfect, as is the Dharma of Buddha Shakyamuni. If we learn to pay homage and revere all Buddhas, to praise the Thus Come Ones, to make offerings, to repent and reform all karmic faults, to compliantly rejoice in merit and virtue, to request the turning of the Dharma Wheel, to request that the Buddhas dwell in the world, always to follow the Buddhas in study, to accord forever with living beings,to dedicate all merit and virtue to every being, then each of us can arrive at the Truth.

This realm of human existence is fragmented, with causes and effects linked. In order to turn these causes and effects into the wholeness of an eternal chain, one has to focus on the word Self.

In this world, there is so much new knowledge to be forever acquired. But do we understand ourselves at all? Please take a look at our heads, shoulders, torsoes, legs, arms, and up to the fine lines on our skin. Let me reveal this: the body of each one of us, even the section of a finger, carries in itself Wisdom and emanates the Truth.

When I gaze at the limpid lake, with my face reflected on its surface, I know that every single strand of hair and every wrinkle of mine manifests Truth. My countenance, though with an unpeaceful, imperfect and impetuous expression, does radiate faintly the light of Truth. I realize that not just I myself, but every single person is an embodiment of Truth.

All of us secretly are an illumination of Truth.

Before we realize ourselves, we like to seek the light.

Before we realize ourselves, we like to seek the sages.

Before we realize ourselves, we like to seek refuge.

Many people go together on pilgrimages. They travel to India, Nepal, Tibet, and even the Himalayas. Many followers like to take refuge in the luminous Bodhisattvas of the sacred places, to listen to the preaching of the sages of highest excellence, to make prostrations solemnly; they feel very happy.

This kind of seeking and refuge is endless. It is born of curiosity as well as a desire to follow fashion. Let those people keep on searching! They think that finding the youth is finding the thing that is not good, not evil, not happy, not sad; they think that finding the peace is finding the youth.

When they listen to preachings given by Buddhist teachers, they feel that their mind is at peace.

When they are empowered by their gurus, they feel that all hindrances of their past karma are removed.

Is this the purpose of seeking and taking refuge? Can Truth be found among preachings and empowerments?

But there are people who understand that everything depends on actual cultivation, and does not depend on the guru's salvation. In order to liberate oneself, one must practice cultivation, study in depth one's own strength as well as the strength of Bodhisattvas, study the Causes and Effects, understand the suffering of birth, aging, illness, and death, and learn the Four Noble Truths¹ and Eightfold Paths².

Some people have already taken their first steps onto a path of right belief. They are always contemplative and they have become gentle, calm, quiet, peaceful, devoid of desire, flawless, perfect and serene. They have dispelled all worries. They have forgotten all worries.

A foreign cultivator from far far away came to find me.

"I come specially to listen to your precious teachings, master."

" Have you taken refuge yet?" I asked.

"I have. I have taken refuge in many Buddhist teachers. I want to take refuge again in the True-Buddha School."

" Now why do you come to see me?"

" Because I am on my journey to find the Tao."

I told him, "Don't forget, cultivator, that you have given up family, given up the fame and wealth that you deserved, and further given up the knowledge of this world. Now there is only you yourself left. Today you take refuge in the True-Buddha School, and tomorrow you will give up the True-Buddha School. You will always be on a journey to find Tao. Let me tell you this: the true refuge is 'to turn to and rely on Self. The key word is Self"

Light reflected from Lake Sammamish shines on me, and my face glows.

The key to taking refuge in one's own Self is in the Self. To find Tao, why not visit your own Self?

Truth cannot be sought. Truth is to understand one's own Self. When Self is realized, that is the true refuge.

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