Refuge

We live by our actions, but as the Buddha said, most of us are bewildered. We do things hoping for happiness, and yet we end up causing pain. We don’t know why. This is why, when people listened to the Buddha and he explained the nature of action—which actions are skillful, which actions are not—they would tell him that it was as if someone had taken a lamp into the darkness so they could see what was out there, because the Buddha taught them about the power of their actions and how the power of the action really depended on the intention behind it—something happening right in their own minds.

The intention had to be not just good, but also skillful. You train that by watching your actions carefully, looking at the results, committing yourself to trying to do the best you can, both in doing the action and then reflecting on the results you actually get. When you learn this, then you discover that you have a refuge inside—you have that knowledge as to what’s going to give good results, what’s not going to give good results. Then you keep on trying to apply that knowledge as best you can.

This is called taking refuge. Often, people would take refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha. But the Buddha would say, you have to make yourself your own island, your own refuge. What this means is that you take the qualities of the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, and you develop them in your own mind, in your own heart—qualities like wisdom, compassion, discernment. These are the things that provide you with protection, because the big danger in life is this power that we have to choose our actions. The danger, of course, is that we can misuse that power, cause a lot of suffering for ourselves, for other people.

Yet it is possible to learn. That’s why the Buddha has you take delight in learning so that things clear up inside. This way, it’s not just a matter of listening to the Buddha, but you also see for yourself what gives good results, what doesn’t give good results—and particularly in training the mind.

Again, commit yourself to getting the mind as still as you can with the breath, and then reflect. Is it comfortable? Is it not comfortable? If it’s not comfortable, what can you do to make it more comfortable? Once it becomes comfortable, how do you maintain that sense of ease and well-being? Then how do you use it?—because we’re not here just to enjoy the breath. We’re here to get the mind to settle down with the breath so that it gets more clear to itself.

Use that sense of ease to fill the body, so that it’s not so hungry for other things. That way, it can look at itself clearly and see the areas where the Buddha taught and see that they’re true. As for areas where the Buddha didn’t teach, you can learn how to trust yourself to figure out what should be done. That’s how you become your own refuge.

So we start with the basic principles, and then we learn the details, fill them in by being observant ourselves. That way, the knowledge becomes not just the Buddha’s knowledge, it becomes our knowledge. It becomes our protection. We become our own refuge. That’s when we’re really safe because, as the Buddha said, if you try to rely on other people, how could you know who you can rely on if you can’t rely on yourself?

As he pointed out one time, only people of integrity can recognize who else has integrity and who doesn’t. So you develop these good qualities inside, and then you recognize goodness for what it is. That’s when you can depend on yourself in a way that’s really solid.