{"id":738,"date":"2019-11-27T19:35:53","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T00:35:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/encyclopediabuddhicaf19.andrewquintman.wescreates.wesleyan.edu\/blog\/?p=738"},"modified":"2019-11-30T10:18:59","modified_gmt":"2019-11-30T15:18:59","slug":"refuge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/encyclopediabuddhicaf19.andrewquintman.wescreates.wesleyan.edu\/blog\/uncategorized\/refuge\/","title":{"rendered":"Refuge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Also see entries: “Three Jewels,” “triratna,” “sarana”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

In addition to meaning “refuge,” the Sanskrit word, “sarana,” also translates to “haven” or “shelter” (Buswell & Lopez). \u00a0<\/p>\n

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Refuge Field (Buddhist) – Gelug Lineage – Primary Image<\/strong>: Refuge Fields, or Fields of Accumulation, were paintings that arranged all of the teachers, deities, and disciples in a configuration around the Buddha. This image is dated: 1800 – 1899<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

In the Mahayana and Vijrayana Buddhist traditions, when one commits to the Buddhist path, they go for \u201crefuge\u201d in the \u201cBuddha, Dharma, and Sangha,\u201d or the \u201cThree Jewels\u201d (\u201ctri-ratna\/ti-ratana\u201d in Sanskrit). These three sources of safety and spiritual richness, the Three Jewels, encapsulate all of the inner and outer ways one may find “refuge” and the Buddha’s essence. Refuge may be found in the teachings, their practice, their relationships with fellow practitioners, and more. Both laypeople and ordained monks and nuns partake in this \u201cformal recitation of a three fold formula, the Refuge Vow:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Buddha I go for refuge;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the Dharma I go for refuge;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

to the Sangha I go for refuge. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While English translations of the original Sanskrit vary slightly, the essential message remains uniform: a practitioner seeks refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma (religious texts and teachings, Vinayana, etc.), and the practice community, the Sangha. In doing so, they put full faith and trust in these Three Jewels. The Refuge Vow is recited verbally three times (Buswell & Lopez). Upon recitation, a person aligns their being with wakefulness (Rinpoche) and formally enters the Sangha community in the journey towards enlightenment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images Depicting the Practice of Seeking Refuge:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This image is of the earliest “Karma Kagyu Refuge Field painting – Field of Accumulation.” It can be dated to the life of the 15th Karmapa Kakyab Dorje<\/a> (1870\/71-1921\/22). According to HimalayanArt.Org, the vase seen in the teacher’s hand is often a signifier that a teacher is still alive when the painting is commissioned.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cItem: Refuge Field (Buddhist) – Kagyu Lineage.\u201d\u00a0Refuge Field (Buddhist) – Kagyu Lineage (Himalayan Art)<\/em>, Himalayan Art Resources Inc. , www.himalayanart.org\/items\/65861.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This diagram shows the groupings of figures in this traditional Refuge Field painting shown above. It exemplifies “Refuge” extends far into a cosmologically broad landscape.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Interpretations of “Seeking Refuge:” <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From American Buddhist Monk, Vipassana Teacher, and author Jack Kornfield:<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRefuge offers support for our journey as we move through joy and sorrow, gain and loss.\u00a0 In refuge, we reaffirm our sacred connection with the world. Refuge is not necessarily religious. Refuge can be as simple as making conscious our trust in a lineage of teachings.\u00a0 Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, dating from ancient Greece…Professional musicians proudly name their teachers and their teacher\u2019s teachers…”(Kornfield) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the word \u201cRefuge\u201d is not exclusively Buddhist, it carries weight in the Buddhist tradition as “I take refuge in…” is a signifier that a given text is Buddhist, similarly to the way in which “Thus I have heard…” <\/a>signifies relation to the Buddha\/ Tatagatha’s primary teachings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the Dhammapada<\/a> translation:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

188<\/strong>. Driven only by fear, do men go for refuge to many places \u2014 to hills, woods, groves, trees and shrines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

189<\/strong>. Such, indeed, is no safe refuge; such is not the refuge supreme. Not by resorting to such a refuge is one released from all suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

190-191.<\/strong>\u00a0He who has gone for refuge to the Buddha, the Teaching and his Order, penetrates with transcendental wisdom the Four Noble Truths \u2014 suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path leading to the cessation of suffering.\u00a0[16]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Shantideva, scholar from 8th C. and Indian Buddhist Monk,<\/span> in his revered and historically significant text, The Way of the Bodhisattva<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI bow down to the body of him\/ In whom the sacred precious mind is born.\/ <\/em>I seek refuge<\/em><\/strong> in that source of joy\/ Who brings to happiness even those who harm him.\u201d (24)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith bodies as numerous\/ As all the atoms within the universe,\/I prostrate to all Buddhas of the three times,\/ The Dharma and the supreme community.\u201d (25)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>I seek refuge<\/em><\/strong> in all Buddhas\/ Until I possess the essence of Awakening, Likewise <\/em>I seek refuge<\/em><\/strong> in Dharma\/ And in the assembly of Bodhisattvas.\u201d (27)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n