The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
5 June 2023
Question: At what point does one call oneself a Buddhist?
Phra Ajahn: A Buddhist is someone who only follows the teachings of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha. If there are other teachings that contradict to the teachings of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha, you don’t follow them. Then, you become a Buddhist.
The teachings of the Buddha teach the law of kamma—you are good or bad determined by your own actions: body, speech and mind. If you want to be good, keep doing good actions of the body, speech and mind and you’ll be happy. If there are other teachings that contradict to the teachings, you don’t follow them; you only follow the teachings of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha—this is what it means by taking the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha as the refuge. ‘Refuge’ means to let someone lead you.
We are like blind people. We need people who have good vision to lead us to a place where it is safe. The Buddha, the Dhamma and the Saṅgha are people with good vision. They know a place where it’s safe for us. If you follow the teachings, then you will get to that safe place, eventually.
“Dhamma in English, Oct 31, 2018.”
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Question: Can Ajahn elaborate on what it means by taking refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha? I also read that one should be one's own refuge. What is the difference?
Phra Ajahn: Taking refuge in Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha means you take the Triple Gem as your teacher.
Before you can teach yourself, you need someone to guide you because in the beginning you don’t know what you should do. So you need a teacher to tell you what to do. You need the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha as your refuge, as your teacher.
Once you have learnt from the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha and know what you are supposed to do, then you have to be your own refuge. You have to apply what you have learnt yourself, because the Buddha cannot do it for you; the Sangha cannot do it for you; you have to do it yourself. So this is what it means by taking yourself as your own refuge: you have to do the practice yourself. So you need both: you need to take refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha as your teacher and you need to be your own refuge as a practitioner.
“Dhamma in English, May 5, 2017.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
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