AJAAN LEE ON FINDING OUR REFUGE

AJAAN LEE ON FINDING OUR REFUGE

"Those of us who are training our hearts and minds in hopes of the paths and fruitions leading to nibbana, if we don't study to understand the fundamental principles of the world, are likely to wander off the path. Or else we'll keep circling around without ever reaching our goal. So if we really want to put an end to suffering, we should ask ourselves: what do we have within us that can act as a true refuge for ourselves? This is the sort of question we should keep reflecting on all the time. As we chant every day: "Svakkhato bhagavata dhammo, sanditthiko akaliko

— The Dhamma well -expounded by the Blessed One, to be seen here & now, is timeless."

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In other words, if we want to reach it, we'll be able to reach it. 

If we don't want to reach it, we won't. But whether or not we'll reach it depends on underlying causes, which come in two sorts: an enduring principle and supporting principles.

The enduring principle, called dhamma-thiti, is what stays unmoving by its nature.

The supporting principles are our training and education, which can be either good or bad.

This is why our practice sways back and forth, like a tree in the middle of an open field, swaying back and forth in the wind. If we don't discover the enduring principle within us, we won't be able to find anything to act as a true refuge — for our training and education are simply supporting factors.

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This is why we should keep asking ourselves: "Have we found any principle within ourselves that can act as our refuge?" As long as we're still depending on other people, other things, we don't have a true refuge. Our training and education are nothing more than supporting factors — like the fertilizer we give to plants.

When the fertilizer runs out, the plant will have to fall to the ground and decompose.

The same holds true for the Buddha: when his body ran out of strength, it turned into the four elements. The Dhamma, when it no longer has any power, turns into nothing but letters on paper or palm leaves, which then disintegrate. As for the Sangha, when they run out of strength, they die.

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So the refuge we take in these things is nothing more than a snack or finger food, but people, for the most part, misunderstand them to be our true refuge. They think that the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha will carry or drag them to heaven or nibbana.

From one angle this is right, but from another it's wrong.

It's right in the sense that the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha keep alive the tradition of goodness that we can hold onto and follow.

It's wrong, though, in the sense that they aren't the things that will make us reach the paths and fruitions leading to nibbana.

Reaching nibbana depends on our own actions: our practice…"

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Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo
ENDURING PRINCIPLES
from:
Starting Out Small:
A Collection of Talks for Beginning Meditators
Translated from the Thai by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
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http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/thai/lee/startsmall.html#enduring