The Dhamma Jewel
by Jon Aaron and Upayadhi
The second refuge of the Triple Gem is the Dharma (in Sanskrit) or Dhamma (in Pali).
The word Dhamma has many meanings. When capitalized in Buddhist contexts it usually specifically refers to the teachings of the Buddha. It could also designate truth, the way things actually are, or the nature of reality (as the Buddha came to see directly, and then shared with us all). In a more general Indic context, where Jainism and Hinduism also speak of Dharma within their frameworks, Buddhists might refer to Buddhadharma (the Dharma according to the Buddha, or of the Buddha). Furthermore, when you see the world with a small “d,” dhamma, it usually means phenomena. And the Buddha had a lot to say about phenomena!
So how are the teachings of the Buddha a protective refuge? And a refuge from what?
How is it that the nature of reality, when reality can seem so harsh, can be a source of peace and shelter? Reality can be unforgiving and unlike the way we would like things to be! Or is it that our relationship to reality makes us suffer? Perhaps you have noticed this intuitively in meditation, at a somatic level – that moment where the mind and body surrender to “it’s like this right now.” And a moment later: “and now it’s like this.” Ever changing, ever arising and passing.
One might recall the teaching on the Three Marks of Existence: anicca (impermanence), anatta (insubstantiality or not-self) and dukkha (dis-satisfactoriness, or suffering). While these Three Marks of Existence may be sobering, it’s the very acknowledgement of their reality that can be liberating. Life reliably includes illness, old age, death and all kinds of suffering. We can count on that being true. It’s part of the package deal. But this is no cause of nihilism and despondency! Rather, this brings an enlivening clarity of purpose and a sense of urgency to the work of liberation. When we end the war with the way things are, we free up all kinds of life energy to tend creatively to the actual suffering within us and around us, and we can do this from a non-anxious and liberated state of consciousness.
Although the Buddha died as a person, he was free. His full Awakening to the Dharma meant the cessation of suffering and complete freedom from the Three Poisons – greed, hatred and delusion. He still experienced pain, he still had challenges to contend with during his life. But he was free. And he spent his life teaching us how we, too, could be free. All of us. Without exception.
When we Go for Refuge to the Dharma, we are practicing turning towards the teachings of the Buddha about the nature of reality. This means that we are finding protection simultaneously in what we understand and don’t understand, or only understand at a limited intellectual level, but have not yet experienced directly. Under the bodhi tree, the Buddha apparently saw all his past lives, as well as the way things actually are: contingent and co-conditioned. Nothing exists independently of anything else. This is the teaching of prattica samutpada, which Thich Nhat Hanh translated as Interbeing.
If we are willing to take Refuge in something we understand and don’t understand at the same time, we have probably had a taste or a glimpse of a glimpse of that freedom. As we chant the traditional verses of refuge, we might recall that glimpse, or simply try to imagine what a mind and heart totally free from greed, hatred and delusion might be like. Or perhaps, something about the BuddhaDharma just “rings true.” You can contemplate the particular teachings that you intuitively connected with the first time you heard them. Perhaps those were the teachings on karma (action) or the Four Noble Truths, or the Eightfold Path, or the Paramis, or something else.
Importantly, the Buddha never demanded us to accept his teachings; he encouraged investigation and consultation with wise elders. He invited us to put his teachings to the test of our direct experience, and to only keep what indeed could be verified through our own efforts. Whatever testing we have done up to this point is what we “know.” But of course the Dharma is also unknowable, wisdom and compassion beyond words, insight that eludes language. It is Mystery. Some of us will find it jarring to seek protection in the unknowable, while others will find it a huge relief. This depends on our conditioning and our sensibility.
Detail from an unknown thanka (painting) of the Buddha pointing his finger at the moon.
The Buddha and many, many Buddhist elders over the last 2600 years have had to remind us over and over of our tendency to confuse the teachings about the Dharma with the Dharma itself. When we harden around teachings, fundamentalism and literalism can arise. A common simile in the Buddhist tradition is one of the teachings as simply a finger pointing at the moon. The teachings (and the teacher!) pointing to the moon are not the moon itself. Anything expressed in language is always going to be inadequate, provisional, and not quite accurate. Direct unmediated experience of the moon is nothing like discourses about the moon.
One thing we have noticed with a fair amount of reliability over the decades is that practice bears fruit. Over time, practice offers a kind of freedom from torment and reactivity, and we start to see this play out in our lives. We can trust that. We can go for refuge to that. Every experience of fruition gives us more confidence in the Dhamma, and over time the Dharma Jewel becomes clearer as a source of protection. Some lineages talk about mindfulness as the Great Protector. No matter what is happening, and sometimes what is happening is pretty horrific, we can be mindful of it.
Some of us are “faith types” by temperament, while others connect with a more scientific and empiricist approach to the Dharma. No matter our doorway into this, we can all experience the blessings of the practice and the refuge of the Dharma.