REFUGE
Refuge
An Introduction to the
Buddha, Dhamma, & Sangha
by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
(Geoffrey DeGraff)
Copyright
Copyright 1996 Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu, (Fifth edition, revised, 2012)
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Unported. To see a copy of this license visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. “Commercial” shall mean any sale, whether for commercial or non-profit purposes or entities.
Questions about this book may be addressed to
Metta Forest Monastery
Valley Center, CA 92082-1409
U.S.A.
Additional resources
More Dhamma talks, books and translations by Thanissaro Bhikkhu are available to download in digital audio and various ebook formats at dhammatalks.org.
Printed copy
A paperback copy of this book is available free of charge. To request one, write to: Book Request, Metta Forest Monastery, PO Box 1409, Valley Center, CA 92082 USA.
Contents
- Copyright
- Quotation
- Preface
- I. Introduction
- II. Readings
- Buddha
- The Quest for Awakening
- The Buddha’s Passing Away
- Dhamma
- Basic Principles
- Generosity
- Virtue
- Heaven
- Drawbacks
- Renunciation
- The Four Noble Truths
- The First Truth
- The Second and Third Truths
- The Fourth Truth
- Right View
- Right Mindfulness and Concentration
- Liberation
- Sangha
- The Rewards of the Contemplative Life
- Aids to Awakening
- Sister Sona on Aging
- Ven. Punna on Death
- Sister Patacara on Awakening
- Buddha
- III. Essays
- Buddha
- The Meaning of the Buddha’s Awakening
- Dhamma
- Life Isn’t Just Suffering
- No-self or Not-self?
- Nibbana
- Sangha
- The Economy of Gifts
- Summary
- A Refuge in Skillful Action
- Background
- The Principle of Skillful Action
- The Teaching of Right View
- This/That Conditionality
- Dependent Co-arising
- The Four Noble Truths
- The Knowledge of Unbinding
- Faith in the Principle of Kamma
- A Refuge in Skillful Action
- Buddha
- Glossary
- Abbreviations
Quotation
They go to many a refuge,
to mountains, forests,
parks, trees, and shrines:
people threatened with danger.
That’s not the secure refuge,
that’s not the supreme refuge,
that’s not the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering and stress.
But when, having gone for refuge
to the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha,
you see with right discernment
the four noble truths—
stress,
the cause of stress,
the transcending of stress,
and the noble eightfold path,
the way to the stilling of stress:
That’s the secure refuge,
that, the supreme refuge,
that is the refuge,
having gone to which,
you gain release
from all suffering and stress.
Preface
This book is a short introduction to the basic principles of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dhamma (his teachings), and Sangha (the community of his noble disciples), also known as the Triple Gem or the Triple Refuge. The material is divided into three parts: (I) an introductory essay on the meaning of refuge and the act of going for refuge; (II) a series of readings drawn from the earliest Buddhist texts illustrating the essential qualities of the Triple Gem; and (III) a set of essays explaining aspects of the Triple Gem that often provoke questions in those who are new to the Buddha’s teachings. This last section concludes with an essay that summarizes, in a more systematic form, many of the points raised in the earlier parts of the book.
The readings on Dhamma form the core of the book, organized in a pattern—called a graduated discourse (anupubbi-katha)—that the Buddha himself often used when introducing his teachings to new listeners. After beginning with the joys of generosity, he would describe the joys of a virtuous life, followed by the rewards of generosity and virtue to be experienced here and, after death, in heaven; the drawbacks of sensual pleasures, even heavenly ones; and the rewards of renunciation. Then, when he sensed that his listeners were inclined to look favorably on renunciation as a way to true happiness, he would discuss the central message of his teaching: the four noble truths.
My hope is that this introduction will help answer many of the questions that newcomers bring to Buddhism, and will spark new questions in their minds as they contemplate the possibility of developing within their own lives the qualities of refuge exemplified by the Triple Gem.
Thanissaro Bhikkhu
Metta Forest Monastery
Valley Center, CA 92082-1409
U.S.A.
