The Dharma is the real refuge. What we need to do first is take refuge in the causal three refuges: the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha that are at the moment external to us. Only when we had realised the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha inside of us, then we would already be free. So we need to start by taking refuge in the external Dharma, the Sangha members, and the Buddha Jewel.

We are like a patient, somebody who is sick. Our disease is samsara. We go to the Buddha, who is like the doctor, and the Buddha gives us a diagnosis, and says, “You’re suffering from the first noble truth, dukkha, and the causes. The true origins causing all of these are rooted in the chief ‘spiritual virus’, which is ignorance. You need to take the medicine, which is the true path to gain the realisations of the path, specifically the wisdom realising emptiness, which will lead you to a state of health, which is true cessations, the cessations of all the dukkha and its causes.”

The Buddha diagnoses the illness and prescribes the Dharma as the medicine to take. Being limited beings, we get the prescription and we go to the pharmacy, we get the pills, but we forget how to take them. One blue in the morning, two pink in the afternoon, and half a tab of the green one in between. We need help. The Sangha is the help, the people who help us to take the medicine, who crush it up and mix it with the Abbey’s applesauce and put it in the spoon and go, “open wide.” This helps us to take the medicine.

“365 Gems of Wisdom” e-book is out now!