Awakening the Buddha Within _ Eight Steps to Enlightenment - Lama Surya Das [33]
In a larger sense, sangha refers to a great deal more than a particular group of people who wear yellow, orange, or red robes while they chant or meditate in the same room. Yes, the men and women with whom you meditate and pray are members of your sangha, but so are the people with whom you share office space, and the birds who sing outside your window in the morning. The Sangha signifies cooperation, collaboration, inclusiveness, and interbeing—being connected with others. This includes the entire community of all beings, seen and unseen, human and otherwise—the entire boundless circle. Taking refuge in the Sangha represents our commitment to living harmoniously with others and working to bring all sentient beings further along on the path to enlightenment.
The Sangha represents the positive energy and support we all need. Sangha friends can help you get through the hard patches of your path, when you feel discouraged and depleted. Sangha can teach you a lot, and group sangha practice can wear down many of your rough edges.
TAKING REFUGE IN
A MORE ESOTERIC SENSE
In Tibetan Buddhism, taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha is also reflected in other ways. For example, the teacher, or lama, is the human embodiment or manifestation of the Buddha; therefore we go for refuge and sanctuary in the spiritual experience and wisdom of our teacher. The representative of the Dharma is your own personal practice, and the internal energies and experience practice evokes. In Tibet, these energies are also personified as archetypical representations of mystical forces and energies including meditation deities, Dharma protectors and guardians who can lead you along the way. The energy you receive from spiritual experiences is an esoteric example of going for refuge to your inner, secret, internal sangha.
THE ULTIMATE REFUGE
Knowing truth is Buddha; expressing truth is Dharma; embodying truth and living truly is Sangha. In Buddhism, there is a rather unique word that translates as “suchness.” It means vital, living truth itself, here and now, right before our very eyes—the “isness” of things exactly as they are. Arrive at that place that is free of craving, a totally open luminous expanse where nothing is wanting, and there you will experience the meaning of the Dzogchen teaching that says, “Leave everything as it is and rest your weary mind.” The Buddha once said, “There is nirvanic peace in things left just as they are.” That is the innermost secret refuge. If you can reach this place within yourself, then you don’t have to do or undo anything. That’s the ultimate refuge, the ultimate practice of letting go—the art of allowing things to be as they are. That is coming home in a spiritual sense. My late teacher Khyentse Rinpoche taught:
Leave everything as it is in fundamental simplicity,
and clarity will arise by itself.
Only by doing nothing will you do all there is to be done …
The secret wisdom of Dzogchen teaches us that whatever we are looking for, it is always right here. We are usually elsewhere. That’s the problem.
REFUGE IS NOT FOR ONESELF ALONE
Throughout the ages there have been many Buddhas. Our Buddha, Shakyamuni, born in what is now western Nepal 2,500 years ago, is said to be the fourth of the thousand Buddhas of this Golden Aeon. In Tibet it is taught that all these Buddhas exist in blissful celestial Buddha Fields, which are created by emanations of Buddha-wisdom. What