[The Pali/Sanskrit word sarana actually means "Going for GUIDANCE," NOT "going for refuge," which is a bad English translation. Early Buddhist reformer Col. Henry Steel Olcott tried to straighten out this misunderstanding more than a century ago in The Buddhist Catechism (sacred-texts.com).
But people still misunderstand and scholar mindlessly repeat the mistake without ever taking a closer look at the word and the potential confusion they are causing.
There is only one real "refuge" in the phenomenal universe, and the historical Buddha called that nirvana. Nirvana is the further shore, the real place of safety beyond rebirth. Everything in samsara is beset by disappointments and dangers on all sides.
Aside from nirvana, the Buddha, the Dharma, and the [Enlightened] Sangha are precious jewels we can resort to for GUIDANCE on the path, for encouragement, inspiration, and clarification.
We ourselves must make the effort. No one saves us but ourselves. No one can, and no one may. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha merely POINT the way.]
Going for Guidance?
Saranamor "guidance," Col. Olcott explains: "This word has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered 'refuge' by European Pali scholars and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pali scholars," Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes to him to point out.
Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhist philosophy justifies the translation. "Refuge," in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every person working out one's own emancipation [liberation, salvation, enlightenment].
The root Sṛ in Sanskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go, so that saranam would denote a moving, or one or that which goes before or with another—a Guide or Helper.
I construe the passage thus: Gacchāmi, "I go," Buddham, "to the Buddha," Sâranam, "as my Guide."
The translation of the Ti-saraṇa as the "Three Refuges" has given rise to much misapprehension and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities.
The term "refuge" is more applicable to Nirvaṇa, of which saranam is a synonym.
The [Abbot] Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys.
Buddham saranam gacchami [Dhammam saranam gacchami, Sangham saranam gacchami] might thus be rendered "I go to the Buddha, the Doctrine, and the [Noble] Order as the destroyers of my fears—the first by his teaching, the second by its axiomatic truth, the third by their various [enlightened] examples and precepts." Source
The Land of the Gods: The Long-Hidden Story of Visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambhala
(Sacred Wisdom Revived Book 1) This book by the co-founder of Theosophy, Madame Helena P. Blavatsky (with 4.5 stars out of 5 with 574 ratings), is Book 1 of 7: Sacred Wisdom Revived. It was a #1 best seller among New Age books.
Question: Elvis Presley and Oprah Winfrey, Mahatma Gandhi and the 14th Dalai Lama, Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, Harry Potter and Star Wars,
what do they have in common?
Answer: They have all been directly or indirectly influenced by psychic Madame Blavatsky — the trailblazing woman who indelibly shaped our world and changed the course of history, “being as much talked about as an emperor” (The Sun).
Now, Ukrainian-born Russian mystic Madame Helena Blavatsky returns with a long-hidden book.
She took a vow of silence not to reveal during her lifetime the name of the place she had visited.
She cleverly hid her secret in plain sight by giving the story to another writer to claim as his own.
American Col. Olcott vowed to uphold Buddhism's Five Precepts and wrote A Buddhist Catechism, as he revived Theravada Buddhist practices in Sri Lanka in the late 1800s.
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What long-lost, timeless wisdom did she conceal in her wonderful narrative?
Immersive and engaging, this profound book provides readers with a unique outlook on the deeper side of life, exposing our true nature, interior powers, and ultimate destiny.
American Buddhist revivalist in Sri Lanka (Ceylon) with Theravada Buddhist monks, 1883
American Buddhist Col. Olcott, Madame Blavatsky, co-founders of Theosophy, Bombay, 1881
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It explains grand, spiritual ideas more thoroughly and swiftly than any book previously read.
Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit
Theosophy is not Buddhism. It is a newer Western religion based on ancient Eastern philosophies that include Buddhism, a belief system given to Russian writer, clairvoyant, and mystic Madame Blavatsky (1831-1891) by a consortium of unseen beings.
American BuddhistCol. Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907) was an officer, lawyer, journalist, and co-founder of the Theosophical Society and its first president. He was the first well-known American of European ancestry to make a formal conversion to Buddhism.
Col. Olcott drawn by Blavatsky
His subsequent actions helped create a renaissance in the study of Buddhism. He is considered a Buddhist modernist for his efforts at interpreting Buddhism through a Western lens and was a major revivalist of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, where he is still honored for his efforts.
He was important to the new movement; he is famous for reviving indigenous Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Moreover, Theosophy helped revitalize the West's interest in spirituality. One interesting aspect of Theosophical study we now take for granted is "color mysticism" in the aura or astral body of a person.
Pat Macpherson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wikipedia edit
The Buddha as envisioned and presented by Theosophist Florence Fuller (wiki).
Theosophical art is profound. This is "The Path" in Machell's influential style, 1895.
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Theosophical color mysticism [15][16]
"Vision of the New Day" by Machell
The Theosophical teaching on the human aura was elaborated by Charles W. Leadbeater and Rudolf Steiner in early 1900s [20][Note 4].
Both Leadbeater and Steiner stated that clairvoyants (clear-seers) are gifted with the ability to see so-called "thought-forms" [23] and "human auras."
They wrote the "impressions" received by such people from the "higher worlds" are similar to the "color phenomena observed in the physical world" [24][25][Note 5].
Theosophist Charles W. Leadbeater
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Frontispiece of Thought-Forms
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke pointed out that Leadbeater (in collaboration with Irish-English Annie Besant) published an "influential book" entitled Thought-Forms [28], a record of clairvoyant investigation [29].
The frontispieces of both Thought-Forms and Man Visible and Invisible [30] contain a table for "the meanings of colors" of thought-forms and human aura associated with feelings and emotions.
The meaning of aura colors
It begins with "high spirituality" (light blue, in the upper left corner) and ends with "malice" (black, in the lower right corner), with 25 colors in all [31][Note 6].
According to Besant and Leadbeater, feelings and thoughts shape specific forms. For example, "lightning-like shapes" emerge in connection with "anger" [33] and "malice" [34], zig-zag lines show fear, and so on [35].
The average human astral body aura
Thanks to Leadbeater and Steiner, "Theosophical color mysticism," as Finnish Professor of Art Sixten Ringbom has formulated [36], became a subject in which modern artists have been particularly interested [Note 7].
In addition, they were attracted by the Theosophical concept of a "universal harmony underlying the apparent chaos" of the physical world [3].More
[The Buddha spoke of a "refuge" (sarana). For there is only one real refuge. That's nirvana. But it has come to be thought of as threefold, Three "Refuges" as the path to the real refuge: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, the Three Jewels, Triple Gem, or Three Treasures. That's how the enlightened Thai Meditation Master Ajahn Chah is assuming it is understood here as he explains that the heart is at the core of nirvana:]
The Buddha said to find our refuge. That means to find our real heart. This heart is very important. People don't usually look at important things. Instead, we spend most of our time looking at unimportant things.
For example, when we clean house, we may be bent on washing the dishes and so on. But we fail to notice our own hearts. Our hearts may be rotten, we may be feeling angry, washing the dishes with a sour expression on our face.
That our own hearts are not very clean, we fail to see. This is what I call "taking a temporary shelter for a refuge."
We beautify house and home, but we don't think of beautifying our own hearts. We don't examine suffering (disappointment, woe, dukkha*).
The heart is the important thing. The Buddha taught us to find refuge within our own heart: Attahi attano natho: "Make yourself a refuge unto yourself/Be your own refuge." For who else can be our refuge? The true refuge is the heart, nothing else.
We may try to depend on other things, but they aren't a sure thing. We can only really depend on other things if we already have a refuge within ourselves. We must have our own refuge first before we can depend on anything else -- be it a [savior,] teacher, family, or friends.
*DUKKHA: not getting what we want; getting things we don't want; separation (loss) of the loved; connection with the unloved; old age, sickness, death; pain, misery, boredom, suffering.
The Leshan Giant Buddha (Chinese Da Fo, 乐山大佛) is a 233 feet (71 meter) tall stone statue cut out of a mountain next to the river, built between 713 and 803 (Tang Dynasty), depicting Maitreya.
The Hidden History of Humanity is a full-length feature documentary. Based on the Buddhistic Theosophy (the Secret Doctrine of Russian psychic Madame Helena Blavatsky, American Col. Henry Steel Olcott, Annie Besant, and others) this documentary focuses on the evolution of consciousness over millions of years while revealing the secret chronology of human history from ancient Lemuria and Atlantis to our current root race, while following the natural cyclic deluges between races.
*The American Southwest, including all of Alta and Baja California, were part of Mexico before the USA occupied and stole these lands to expand and form an empire -- which immediately continued overseas to engulf the Philippines, Hawaii, and many smaller lands and islands in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific -- using the pretext-doctrine of "Manifest Destiny."
This is certainly a “narrative history” of Buddhism. This is almost exclusively about Buddhism in America rather than the West in general, although the earlier chapters cover the work of the Europeans in India, Tibet, and Sri Lanka rather than China.
The early years of the transmission of Buddhism from East to West is marked by the work of well-meaning scholars, civil servants, and religious ideologues. These 19th century translators and interpreters often had a great misunderstanding about Buddhist doctrines because much of their information came from India's Brahmin class, who really didn't have much sympathy for Buddhism.
However, gradually the exclusively-Buddhist language Pali (the language of Magadha, where the Buddha lived and taught because there was no "India" yet) was learned over the Brahiminical language Sanskrit, and original canonical Buddhist texts were translated.
These very early works became known in America and Europe, among elites and the well-educated, over later, apocryphal Chinese Mahayana works based on Brahminical Indian teachings.
What is surprising in these early modern days was the role of the Theosophical Society in the late 19th century. The society, created in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky, a mysterious Russian psychic and American Colonel Henry Steel Olcott.
This was the era of Spiritualism, a time when mysterious rappings, knockings, and levitations were the rage in séance groups meeting in parlors around in America and England, under the guidance of mediums.
The Theosophical Society was set up to “collect and diffuse knowledge of the laws which govern the universe” (p.89) but, as Blavatsky later claimed, “The society was founded at the direct suggestion of Indian and Tibetan adepts” (p.90). These so-called adepts were referred to as The Masters, mysterious spiritual entities who were guiding humankind to a better and brighter future.
Only Blavatsky spoke regularly to The Masters, and Col. Olcott had but one from a Master, who left his turban behind on Olcott's desk. One could call these people the first New Agers.
Their search for spiritual sustenance and knowledge drove the two of them to India in 1875 and then to Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where they took Buddhist vows in front of a huge crowd. The American Olcott set about reviving Buddhism among the Sri Lankans, writing The Buddhist Catechism, designing a colorful Buddhist flag, as well as raising money for Buddhist schools and petitioning the British government to ease the restrictions on Buddhists in Sri Lanka.
Fields' book gives the impression that Col. Olcott singlehandedly revived Buddhism in Sri Lanka. In 1888 he was invited to lecture on Buddhism in Japan and spoke to an estimated 187,000 people over three months (p.108).
Col. Olcott went on to Burma, and in 1890 called a meeting of Asian Buddhists in Adyar in an attempt to unite all the various Buddhist schools. History has shown that he largely failed in this noble attempt.
Olcott was undoubtedly sincere in his Buddhist beliefs and did much to proselytize Buddhism in the East and West, but there were many others in the late 19th century who took it upon themselves to promote Buddhism.
One of the most significant turning points was the World Parliament of Religions, held on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago in 1873 as part of the Columbian Exposition. Although the majority of delegates were Christian, it was here that for many Americans and Europeans the exotic East met with the staid West for the first time.
Hindu Swami Vivekananda was one of the most memorable Indians at the conference, which led to an interest in yoga among Westerners. Chinese and Japanese delegates “arrayed in costly silk vestments of all the colors of the rainbow” (p. 121) impressed everyone. Buddhist Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) gave the concluding speech at the opening ceremony, which for many was the first time they had heard the preaching of Buddhism.
Dharmapala was instrumental in promoting Buddhism and reviving Bodh Gaya, India ("Enlightenment Grove," where Siddhartha awakened and became the Buddha, the "Awakened One"), as a center of Buddhist learning. A large bust of him was installed at the Maha Bodhi Rest House in 1991 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Dharmapala (Singh, 2003:90).
On the third day of the World Parliament of Religions, Zen Master Soyen Shaku (Rinzai), one of D. T. Suzuki's teachers, was introduced to the audience as the first Zen master to come to America.
Zen in the USA after WW II
Twelve years after the conference, Soyen Shaku returned to America as a Buddhist missionary, intent on bringing Zen to America. A year later, in 1906, Sokatsu Shaku, one of Soyen Shaku's disciples arrived. Included in this group was the young artist and Zen student Sokei-an, who went on to become the first Zen master to settle permanently in America, going on to found the Buddhist Society of America in New York (which later became the First Zen Institute of America) and marrying Alan Watts' mother-in-law, Ruth Fuller Everett, in 1944.
Ruth Fuller Sasaki went to Japan after Sokei-an's death in 1945 and established a branch of the institute on the grounds of Daitoku-ji, where much translation work was done and many Westerners passed through, including Gary Snyder in 1956.
And so the flow of Westerners to Japan turned from a trickle to flood, and these Westerners -- along with the Japanese teachers -- brought the swans to the lake.
Rick Fields' book remains the first attempt to document the Buddhist movement in America. By my very rough count, there are approximately 800 people and places named in the book, from Shakyamuni (Prince Siddhartha, the historical Buddha), who started it all, through to the Tibetans, the Koreans, the Vietnamese, the Japanese, the Sri Lankans/Sinhalese, the Chinese, and a plethora of Westerners.
It's a fascinating story full of eccentric characters, good intentions, and great effort. Although Fields' book is well written, with a light touch that makes it easy, entertaining reading, it is only a beginning.
We now have an opportunity to leave an accurate legacy for the future about Buddhism's migration to new lands, and it would be a shame if this too was left for decades or centuries after the event. A new Rick Fields is needed (even though this is the new third edition with a little more about Thich Nhat Hanh and the post-Vietnam War Vietnamese-American contribution to Buddhism in the USA).
Modern technology and a highly literate public means that much is already recorded, and baring any cataclysmic event it should be available to future generations of scholars to sift through. One danger, however, is an overabundance of Dharma materials.
Fields has covered a vast amount of material in a single volume, beginning with Shakyamuni 2,500 years ago. Left for a relatively brief mention in the final chapter is a discussion of scandals that have hit American centers in the latter part of the century. These, too, are part of the history of Buddhism in the West and should be included, if only to prevent the history from slipping into myth and hagiography.
How the Swans Came to the Lake is not the last word on the early years of Buddhism in the West, but it is the first comprehensive history of it. As such it deserves a place on the bookshelves of Buddhists throughout the English-speaking world.
QUESTION: What are the "Three Guides" a Buddhist goes to?
ANSWER: They are disclosed in a formula called Ti-saraṇa* (the "Three Guides"), which is, in fact, "Buddhism" (the Buddha's Dharma):
I follow the Buddha as my Guide (Buddham saranam gacchami).
I follow the Dharma as my Guide (Dhammam saranam gacchami).
I follow the Sangha as my Guide (Sangham saranam gacchami).
Guidance not "refuge" Sâranam: Mr. Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes Col. Olcott: This word [sarana] has hitherto been very inappropriately and erroneously rendered "refuge" by European Pali language scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Asian Pali scholars.
Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies this translation. 'Refuge,' in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true [original] Buddhism, which insists on all people working out their own emancipation.
The root sṛ in Sanskrit (sara in Pali) means to move, to go, so that saranam would denote a moving, or one or that which goes, before or with another — a Guide or Helper.
I construe the passage thus:
Gacchāmi: I go
Buddham: to the Buddha
Sâranam: as my guide.
The Awakened One (Buddha), the Path to Awakening (Dharma), the Awakened (Sangha)
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The translation of the Ti-saraṇa as the "Three Refuges" has given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking "refuge" in non-entities and believing in un-realities.
The term refuge is more applicable to nirvaṇa, of which sâranam is a synonym.
Ven. Sumangala [a senior Buddhist monk of long standing] also calls my attention to the fact that the Pali root sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys.
Buddham sâranam gacchâmi might thus be rendered:
"I go to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha, as the destroyers [allayers] of my fears —
the first by his teaching
the second by its universal truth
the third [the monastic order and, more importantly the noble community of enlightened individuals, many of whom are not monastics] by their various examples and precepts."
Q: What does [a Buddhist] mean when repeating this formula?
A: Buddhists mean that they regard the Buddha as an all-wise teacher, spiritual friend, and exemplar.
The Dharma, or "Doctrine," is the Teaching that contains the essential and immutable principles of justice and truth and the Path that leads to the realization of perfect peace of mind in this very life.
The Sangha, or Community, are living examples and teachers of the excellent Dharma taught by Buddha.
Q: But are not some of the members of this "Monastic Order" intellectually and morally inferior men?
A: Yes. But we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently attend to the precepts, discipline their hearts/minds, and strive to attain or have attained one of the eight stages of enlightenment and perfection constitute the Buddhist "community."
[The Four Stages of Enlightenment are divided into four paths and four fruits. This is explained in The Path of Purification commentarial system as only a thought-moment apart from one another. Alternatively, there is sutra evidence that the eight stages refer to those on the path (to stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship) and those who have consummated each of these paths.]
It is expressly stated that the Order [Sangha] referred to in the "Tisaraṇa" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala" — the Eight Noble Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of enlightenment.
The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even monastic ordination, does not of itself make a person pure, wise, or entitled to reverence.
Q: Then it is not such unworthy [Buddhist monastics, ascetics, recluses] as they, whom the true Buddhist, would take as their guides?
The Awakened One (Buddha), Path to Awakening (Dharma), the Awakened (Sangha)
"Going for Refuge?"
Henry Steel Olcott
QUESTION: What are the "Three Guides" (Note) a Buddhist goes to?
ANSWER: They are disclosed in a formula called Ti-saraṇa* (the "Three Guides"), which is, in fact, "Buddhism" (the Buddha-Dharma):
I follow the Buddha as my Guide (Buddham saranam gacchami).
I follow the Dharma as my Guide (Dhammam saranam gacchami).
I follow the Sangha as my Guide (Sangham saranam gacchami).
*Sâranam. Wijesinha Mudaliyar writes me: "This word [sarana] has been hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered Refuge, by European Pâlî scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native Pâlî scholars.
Neither Pâlî etymology nor Buddhistic philosophy justifies the translation. Refuge, in the sense of a fleeing back or a place of shelter, is quite foreign to true Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation. The root Sṛ in Sanskrit (Sara in Pâlî) means to move, to go; so that Saranam would denote a moving, or he or that which goes, before or with another — a Guide or Helper.
I construe the passage thus:
Gacchāmi, I go,
Buddham, to Buddha,
Sâranam, as my Guide.
The translation of the Tisaraṇa as the "Three Refuges," has given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking refuge in nonentities and believing in unrealities.
The term Refuge is more applicable to Nirvâṇa, of which Sâranam is a synonym.
The [Elder] Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the Pâlî root Sara has the secondary meaning of killing, or that which destroys. Buddham sâranam gacchâmi might thus be rendered:
"I go to Buddha, the [Dharma], and the Order, as the destroyers of my fears —
the first by his preaching
the second by its axiomatic truth
the third by their various examples and precepts."
Q: What does [a Buddhist] mean when repeating this formula?
A: He means that he regards the Buddha as his all-wise Teacher, Friend, and Exemplar; the [Dharma], or Doctrine, as containing the essential and immutable principles of Justice and Truth and the path that leads to the realization of perfect peace of mind on earth; and the Order [Sangha] as the teachers and exemplars of that excellent [Dharma] taught by Buddha.
Q: But are not some of the members of this "Order" men intellectually and morally inferior?
A: Yes; but we are taught by the Buddha that only those who diligently attend to the Precepts, discipline their minds, and strive to attain or have attained one of the eight stages of holiness and perfection [Four Stages of Enlightenment divided into paths and fruits, which is explained in the Path of Purification commentarial system as only a thought-moment apart from one another; alternatively, there is sutra evidence that the eight refers to those on the path (to stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship) and those who have consummated their meditative attainment)], constitute his "Order."
It is expressly stated that the Order [Sangha] referred to in the "Tisaraṇa" refers to the "Attha Ariya Puggala" — the Noble Ones who have attained one of the eight stages of perfection. The mere wearing of yellow robes, or even ordination, does not of itself make a man pure, wise, or entitled to reverence.
Q: Then it is not such unworthy bhikkhus (Buddhist monks, ascetics, recluses) as they, whom the true Buddhist would take as his guides?
The Buddhist flag is a modern creation. It was designed in 1889 by the SriLankan J.R. de Silva and the American Colonel Henry S. Olcott to mark the revival of Buddhism in SriLanka. It was accepted as the "International Buddhist Flag" by the 1952 World Buddhist Congress.
The flag later came to symbolize the unity of all Buddhists. Thereafter, it has been used worldwide in nearly 60 countries during Buddhist festive events, particularly during Vesak celebrations commemorating the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and nirvana. Col. Olcott was one of the greatest American Buddhists who dedicated his later life entirely to the people of Asia.
He is known as the father of the Buddhist education movement since he initiated the establishment of close to 400 Buddhist schools and colleges in SriLanka.
Col. Olcott designed a flag from the six colors of the Buddha's aura, which is commonly believed to have shone around the head of the Buddha after his great enlightenment (maha bodhi). The vertical stripes of the flag are of five colors with the following symbolism:
Blue: universal compassion
Yellow: the Middle Path
Red: blessings
White: purity and liberation
Orange: wisdom
Combination: truth
The colors represent these bio-luminescent radiances for the following reasons:
BLUE light radiated from the Buddha's hair symbolizes the spirit of universal compassion for all beings.
YELLOW (or golden) light radiated from the Buddha's skin and symbolizes the Middle Way which avoids extremes and brings balance and liberation
RED light radiated from the Buddha's flesh and symbolizes the blessings that the practice of the Buddha's teaching (Dharma) brings.
WHITE light radiated from the Buddha's bones and teeth and symbolizes the purity of the Dharma and the liberation it brings.
ORANGE light radiated from the Buddha's palms, heels, and lips symbolizes the unshakable wisdom of the Dharma.
COMBINED the colors symbolize the universality of the Dharma's truth.
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The sentiment of other "Buddhist flags" is less universal. Read more
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