There is a well-known Buddhist chant that is often used to open retreats or gatherings of the mindfulness community. It goes like this :
I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.
A second time, I go to the Buddha for refuge.
A second time, I go to the Dharma for refuge.
A second time, I go to the Sangha for refuge.
A third time, I go to the Buddha for refuge.
A third time, I go to the Dharma for refuge.
A third time, I go to the Sangha for refuge.
The Buddha here refers both to the historical Buddha but also to the Buddha within each of us.
The Buddha often said, the most important of these is the Sangha - the community of meditators, of like-minded people. The repetition of going for refuge a second and a third time serves to capture the essence of starting over contained in the practice. Every new moment is an opportunity to start over.
As our practice unfolds, it inevitably has ups and downs, moments of connecting, of insight, of tranquility and equanimity and moments of falling away into ignorance and suffering, into grasping and delusion. And then we come to the truth of suffering and cry out, there must be a better way.
Ajahn Chah, revered Thai Forest meditation master, taught there were two kinds of suffering - the suffering that leads to confusion, and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering. We all know both kinds. The power of the second kind - the suffering that leads to the end of suffering - is in the coming home to the first noble truth, there is suffering. Letting go of our grasping and striving to find a way out of our suffering, we settle back, rest back in our suffering, acknowledge that it is here. And here, we encounter the truth of the first noble truth, there is suffering. What makes the difference between the suffering that leads to confusion and the suffering that leads to the end of suffering is the faith or confidence that arises when suffering encounters the dharma, the teachings of the Buddha. By placing our feet on this path and taking just one step, we take refuge in the teachings.
Some teachers emphasize this faith in the teachings. Others point to a kernel of virtue which can be as slight as letting go of the striving for pleasant experiences as a deluded grasping for freedom and acknowledging the truth of suffering. That letting go and acknowledging places our feet on the ancient path that leads us onward.
What arises in the momentary encounter with the teachings, that faith, that tiny light of virtue, is mindfulness - the first factor of enlightenment - which is the condition for the arising of curiosity and investigation, energy, and, surprisingly, joy - a very subtle joy - we were striving for all along.
Saturday many of us went to the sangha, the community, for refuge and came away filled and moved and healed by the surging crowds, the waving sentiments, the honking horns, the vast, irrefutable truth that we are not alone, that our values of freedom, equality, justice, peace, inclusivity, compassion, and community are shared by hundreds of people around us, thousands close by, hundreds of thousands around the land, and certainly millions around the world.
And many of us who meditate felt the power of taking our practice off the cushion. There are many ways to serve and not everyone was called to or able to respond in this way. There are many ways. But there is no denying the energy that manifested in sharing our passion with others and in supporting each other in this virtuous journey. And it was a virtuous journey. For there came a time for many of us when the contraction of the small self eased, the suffering of aloneness dissipated and we felt a sense of belonging. At their same time, we also felt a sense of freedom, of lightness, of being free of something. Without necessarily recognizing it, that freedom we experienced might have been a sense of non-selfness. While we may have been proud of our signs, our presence in the community, much of that fell away. Ultimately, we weren’t there to lift up our own accomplishments, our identification of being a meditator or an activist or a good community member. We were there to be a part of something larger than ourselves, a communication and a communion that allowed us to be free of our concepts of self, to simply be - and enter into being - with others.
We took refuge once again in community, in the sangha.
I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.
For a second time,...
As the early Buddhist nun said in her enlightenment poem,
“Oh my heart.
You don’t have to go it alone.”