Go for refuge: the Three Jewels, and the Three Roots of Vajrayāna

Turn the mind toward the Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha as your guides — the step Patrul Rinpoche calls the foundation of the path and the basis of all vows.

Por qué funciona

Patrul Rinpoche calls refuge the foundation of the path to liberation, the basis of all vows and the point that distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist. Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima defines its essence as placing great hope in the Three Jewels as one’s aids and protectors, an intention that colours every other mental state; it is called “going” for refuge because the mind is drawn toward them, as thirst draws you toward water. In the Mahāyāna it is taken until enlightenment, for the sake of all beings. Vajrayāna adds the Three Roots: Yukhok Chatralwa explains the lama as the root of blessings, the yidam deity as the source of accomplishments and the ḍākinīs as the source of clearing obstacles, all included within the Three Jewels. He also describes a “resultant” refuge in the nature of one’s own mind, so refuge points beyond dependence toward realising the Jewels oneself.

Cómo hacerlo

1. Learn what each Jewel is in this tradition: the Buddha as teacher, the Dharma of scripture and realisation as the path, and the Saṅgha of noble beings as companions on it.
2. Begin each practice session by reciting a refuge verse from the lineage you are drawn to, slowly, letting the mind actually turn toward what you name.
3. Add the bodhisattva wish that the refuge be for the benefit of all beings; the bodhicitta page covers the refuge-and-bodhicitta verse in detail.
4. Read the refuge precepts Patrul Rinpoche lists — such as not harming other beings and respecting images and texts of the Dharma — and choose one to keep this week.
5. Understand the Three Roots before relying on them: in the tradition your yidam is connected with an empowerment and your lama with a teacher you have actually received instruction from.
6. If you want to take refuge formally, ask a teacher of the lineage you are drawn to how they give it, rather than treating a book as the ceremony.

Evidencia

Patrul Rinpoche’s instruction sets out the objects, duration and practice of refuge and its precepts, and distinguishes the Mahāyāna way of taking it. Dodrupchen’s short text gives its objects, essence, literal meaning, divisions into causal and resultant refuge, and benefits. Yukhok Chatralwa’s Longchen Nyingtik commentary explains the Three Roots and how they are included in the Three Jewels, and Dudjom Lingpa’s four-line prayer names Three Jewels, Three Roots and Three Kāyas together, embodied in the guru. The Bön tradition has its own refuge prayer, translated on Lotsawa House. (anecdotal)

These are traditional explanations; refuge has not been studied as a practice. Verses, numbers of recitations and the visualisation used during refuge differ between lineages, and the elaborate refuge visualisations of ngöndro are taught by a teacher.

Fuentes

• Patrul Rinpoche. An Essential Instruction on Refuge and Bodhicitta. Lotsawa House.
• Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpe Nyima. Brief Explanation of Taking Refuge, trans. Adam Pearcey, 2022. Lotsawa House.
• Yukhok Chatralwa Chöying Rangdrol. Taking Refuge — from his compendium on the Longchen Nyingtik preliminaries (causal and resultant refuge; the Three Roots). Lotsawa House.
• Dudjom Lingpa. The Outer, Inner and Secret Refuge Prayer, trans. Abraham Ta-Quan, 2021. Lotsawa House.
• Lotsawa House. Bön series — including Dorje Lingpa’s Refuge Prayer for the Way of Bön.

Error común

Treating refuge as signing up to an identity or handing all responsibility to a lama. In the texts it is an intention you keep renewing, joined to precepts, and in its resultant form it aims at awakening the qualities of the Jewels in your own mind.