Tibetan Buddhism: real meaning of 'refuge'

(Tsem Rinpoche) The real meaning of Buddhist "refuge"

The Buddhist Catechism (Amazon)

[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?

Saranam or "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

• Singalong: The Three Jewels of Buddhism: Mantra and Meaning
• Tsem Rinpoche (video); Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, The Buddhist Catechism (BPS.lk); Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Jewel Sutra (Ratana Sutta)

.

All beings gathered here

from earth and aether

may we all be happy at heart

to listen carefully to what is said.

All beings, heed:

Love human beings,

who day and night make offerings

and please protect them diligently.

There is no wealth here or beyond,

no sublime jewel found in heaven,

that equals the Enlightened One.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Cessation, dispassion, deathless, sublime

attained by the Scythian Sage in samādhi --

without equal is that Dharma.

This sublime jewel is the Dharma:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The purification praised by the Buddha Supreme

is said to be the “absorption with immediate fruit.”

No equal to that absorption is found.

This sublime jewel is the Dharma:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The eight individuals praised by the wise

are the four pairs of the Awakened One’s disciples,

worthy of offerings and all other courtesies.

For what is given to them is abundantly fruitful.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

I go for guidance to the Teacher, the Teaching, and the successfully Taught (tricycle.org)

.

Dedicated to the Buddha’s dispensation,

strong-minded, free of craving for sense,

they have attained the aim, plunged into deathless freedom

and enjoy a cooling they have thus gained.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

As a boundary-post set firmly in the ground

is unshaken by winds of the four directions,

I say a supreme person is just this way,

who knows-and-sees the enlightening truths.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Those who fathom the enlightening truths [sacca]

taught by the one of deepest wisdom

do not undergo more than seven rebirths

even if they are extremely negligent.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

When they attain the eye of wisdom,

they give up three things:

personality view, skeptical doubt, and

any clinging to rules or rituals.

They are freed from four miserable planes

and cannot do six heinous (karmic) actions.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

Even if they do some unskillful deed

through body, speech, or mind,

they are unable to conceal it,

which is said of those who have seen the Truth.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

As a tall forest tree springing flowers

in the first month of summer

he taught the supreme Dharma

leading to cessation, to ultimate freedom.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The knower, giver, and bringer of the sublime

taught the most sublime Dharma.

This sublime jewel is the Buddha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

The past is ended, nothing anew is produced:

Their minds hanker after no future rebirth.

Spent seeds desire no growth,

The ever-mindful become as still as this lamp.

This sublime jewel is the Noble Saṅgha:

By this truth, may all beings be well!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Buddha! May all be safe!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Dharma! May all be safe!

All beings gathered here

of earth and aether,

the Enlightened One is honored by devas and humans!

We honor the Noble Saṅgha! May all be safe!

• Dhr. Seven (trans.), Kalyani (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Ven. Bodhi: Enlightenment for Laypeople

ONLINE: four days, from Friday evening, Aug. 30, through Monday, aftertoon, Sept. 2, 2024

American Theravada scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi from New York is holding a retreat.

.

What did the Buddha teach laypeople?

During the Buddha’s time, tens of thousands of people left the household life to take up the monastic life of wandering ascetics.

The Buddha also had hundreds of thousands of lay disciples who continued to live at home.

To guide these lay disciples, the Buddha offered a rich body of teachings to enable them to live the best life — a truly noble life — while fulfilling their household duties.

Venerable Bodhi, scholar-monk

Over four days, from Friday evening, Aug. 30, through Monday mid-afternoon, Sept. 2, Bhante (Bhikkhu Bodhi, the most prolific English translator of early Buddhist texts in the world) will lead a retreat focused on the Buddha’s teachings for laypeople.

The retreat will be based primarily on the Maha Mangala Sutta ("Great Blessings Discourse"), but Bhante will gather a vast number of [Pali canon] sutras and other texts that show how a lay disciple can walk the path to liberation while dwelling amid “the dust of the world.”

The sprawling grounds of BAUS, New York

The retreat will include:

• Dhamma talks,
• discussion periods, and
• five sessions of meditation each day.

It will also provide the opportunity for those who haven’t yet “gone for guidance” (sarana) to go for guidance to the Three Jewels, the first decisive step to formally becoming a follower of the Buddha-Dharma, the Path taught by the Buddha.

This retreat will be in hybrid mode, onsite and online. The teachings will be in English only. Those who wish to join in person can come to BAUS.org (Chuang Yen Monastery, Carmel, NY) and stay from Friday until Monday afternoon.

Attend live, over Zoom, or on YouTube

Those who cannot attend in person can practice at home, participating online over Zoom or YouTube.

The monastery can accept only 50 onsite practitioners. If one applies after the 50 spaces have been filled, one will be put on a waiting list and accepted if prior applicants drop out.

If not joining in person, please join from home via Zoom or YouTube. Register to participate onsite only if making a commitment to stay for all of it until Monday afternoon. If participating only part time, please join through the online channels.

• The Buddhist Association of the U.S. (BAUS)
• 美國佛教會
• 2020 Route 301
• Carmel, New York 10512
• contact@baus.org

No person is an island... But be one (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Attadipa Sutra: "An Island to Oneself" (SN 22.43, PTS: S iii 42, CDB i 882), 2007, title based on the Pali Text Society (Feer) edition; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

Let the Dharma be your guide.

"Meditators, be lamps/islands unto yourselves [1], be your own guide/refuge, having no other; let the Dharma be an island and a guide to you, having no other.

"Those who are islands/lamps unto themselves... should investigate to the very heart of things [2]: 'What is the source of disappointment, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair? How do they arise?' [What is their cause and origin?]

"Here, meditators, the uninstructed ordinary worldling [continued as in SN 22.7]. Change occurs in this person's body, and it becomes different. On account of this change and difference, disappointment, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair arise.

• [The same is said with regard to "feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness."]

"But seeing [3] the body's impermanence, its changeability, its wasting away [4], its ceasing, one says, 'Formerly, as now, all bodies were impermanent, disappointing (unsatisfactory), and subject to change.'

"Thus, seeing this as it really is, with deep insight, one abandons all disappointment, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. One is not worried at their abandonment but, unworried, lives at ease. And thus living at ease one is said to be 'assuredly delivered' [5]."

• [The same is said with regard to "feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness."]

NOTES

1. Atta-dipa: Dipa in Pali means both "island" (Sanskrit dvipa) and "lamp" (Sanskrit dipa), but the meaning "island" is well established here. The "self" referred to is, of course, the unmetaphysical pronoun "oneself": cf. SN 3.8, n. 1.

2. It is necessary to withdraw, to be "an island unto oneself," at least for a time (as any meditator knows), not for "selfish" reasons but precisely in order to make this profound introspective investigation and breakthrough in insight. In another sense, Buddhism would of course agree with John Donne who said, "No man is an island."

3. As Woodward remarks in KS [The Book of the Kindred Sayings, translation of the Samyutta Nikaya, Vol. III, PTS 1924], one would expect to find here the words that he inserts in the text: "The well-taught Ariyan disciple," as in many passages. If one, in fact, sees these things and reflects as is said in the text, one will cease to be an ordinary "worldling." [Instead, there will be a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu), making one a "noble one," someone who has gained at least the first stage of enlightenment that culminates in full enlightenment or arhatship.]

4. Viraga is elsewhere translated as "dispassion" (SN 12.16, n. 2) and also has this meaning.

5. Tadanganibbuto means rather more than Woodward's "one who is rid of all that."

• See "The Last Days of the Buddha" sutra (DN 16)

Ajahn Chah: In Search of Refuge

Ajahn Chah (ajahnchah.org) via Ven. Sujato, Ellie Askew, Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

[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.

Buddhists go for GUIDANCE not "refuge"

Col. Henry Steel Olcott, Wijesinha Mudaliyar; Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly

Going for "Refuge"?

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):

1. I follow the Buddha as my Guide (Buddham saranam gacchami).
2. I follow the Dharma as my Guide (Dhammam saranam gacchami).
3. 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)

.

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 —

1. the first by his teaching
2. the second by its universal truth
3. 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?
 

A: Certainly not.

• The Buddhist Catechism, Pt. II (Qs 149-150), pp. 39-40
• "Going for Refuge in the Three Gems" (parami.org)
• The Threefold Refuge: Tisarana (accesstoinsight.org)

The problem with beauty (sutra)

Samuel Beal (trans.) Dhammapada Verses and Their Origin Stories, "33. Advantageous Service" (SuttaCentral.net) edited by Dhr. Seven, Sayalay, Wisdom Quarterly

Beauty? It's only skin deep. But that's pretty deep when you're beautiful (D.M.I.).

.

What's the big deal? So what if I'm pretty?

Formerly the Buddha, along with his followers, having gone to the kingdom of Kosambī, took up residence in the monastic compound (vihara) called Mi-yin ("lovely sound"). There he preached the Dharma for the sake of [unseen] "shining ones" (devas) and humans.

At that time the king of the country was Udayana (Yau-tien), whose queen was of remarkably pure character. Having heard that the Buddha had come to his kingdom, the king and the queen, with her attendants, went to visit him. Having paid him the usual  respectful salutations, they sat down and the Buddha, for their sake, began to teach to show the impermanence, disappointment, and vanity of things, from which all our misery comes.

Then he illustrated how heavenly rebirths were the reward of merit (virtue) and hellish ones the result of demerit (unwholesome actions). In consequence of this discourse (sutra) both the king and queen came to accept the Five Precepts of a lay-disciple then returned to the palace.

Now at this time there was a certain Brahmin [caste man] named Kih-sing ("lucky star"), who had a daughter incomparable for beauty, just 16 years old. On her account the Brahmin, for 90 days, exposed a heap of 1,000 gold masurans and challenged anyone to find a single fault in her so that whoever could do so would get the gold. No one was able to, so desiring to find someone fit for her to marry, the Brahmin again challenged anyone to bring a man equal to his daughter in grace. To him he would give his daughter as a wife.

Now, having heard that the family of the shaman Gautama, known as the Shakyians [Scythians], were remarkable for their beauty and therefore fit to possess his daughter, he came to the place where the Buddha was staying. Taking his daughter with him, after the usual salutations, he said:

"My daughter is extremely beautiful, unequalled in womanly grace. You also, Gautama, are remarkable for your beauty. You may, therefore, have my daughter and make her your companion (wife).”

The Buddha's beauty

The beauty of a buddha is incomparable.

The Buddha replied: “Your daughter's beauty, sir, is according to your own estimation, whereas my beauty is according to that of the buddhas. My beauty and a woman's beauty are wholly different. Your daughter's loveliness, sir, is like that of the picture on the jar (vessel), in the middle of which there is only filth and excrement. How can that be considered as 'beauty' that belongs only to the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the body? It is this 'beauty' of external (outside) form that causes disappointment, overturns families, destroys kinship, sacrifices relationships, kills children. All of these come from this [love of] womanly beauty. But I am a shaman. I stand by myself and would rather endure any calamity than comply with your request. Sir, you may go. I decline your offer.”

Reaction

Shhh, what the old king doesn't know won't...

At this the Brahmin, who was very irate, departed. Then, coming into the presence of the king, he expanded on his daughter's beauty and offered her to the king. The king, very pleased at the 16-year-old's appearance, accepted her and made her his second queen.

He weighed her down with presents and jewelry. Nevertheless, his mind began to fill with jealous thoughts on account of the young beauty, and discontentment and dislike grew for his first queen.

This at last persuaded him to send for her on a certain occasion to indulge her fancy (knowing that she would not come). When the king sent for her, the first queen declined to appear on the grounds that she was engaged in some spiritual exercise (fasting) and so for several occasions.

The king, enraged by that, sent a man with a rope to drag her into his presence. When she was brought in, he took his bow and arrow and shot her through the body. But the arrow he discharged returned again towards the king and did her no harm. And so it happened again and again.

At this the king, filled with astonishment (awe and fear), said to her: “By what magic power have you been able to bring this about?”

She replied: “I have but taken guidance (sarana) in the Three Gems and the whole day have been engaged in spiritual observances (fasts), and on this account the World-Honored One [the Buddha] has protected me.”

At this the king exclaimed, “Wonderful!” Dismissing the beautiful, young second queen, he sent her back to her parents and re-established the first queen in undisputed authority. Then, with the queen's attendants, he went to see the Buddha and, after due salutations, he explained to him what had happened, at which the Buddha (after a short sutra) repeated these lines:

“If heaven were to rain down the seven precious items, yet the covetous person would not be satisfied. That person's pleasure would be little but the sorrow much. The wise person, possessed of virtue, although possessing the pleasures of heaven, would wisely let them go and not covet them. One who finds happiness in removing thoughts of lustful enjoyment, this person is the [real] disciple of the Buddha.”

Then the Buddha explained to the king the inevitable result of an unwholesome life: it would redound 10,000 times more miserably on the guilty person, while the reward of spiritual exertions and self-improvement [unselfishness] would certainly be the enjoyment of heaven.

Having spoken, the king and queen and their attendants realized perfect release (enlightenment) and became partakers of the Paths.

To Be An Island Unto Yourself (sutra)

Maurice O'Connell Walshe (trans.), Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Attadipa Sutra, "An Island to Oneself" from the Pali Text Society's Feer edition (SN 22.43)

"Meditators, be islands unto yourselves (1); be your own guide (refuge), having no other.

• 1. Atta-dipa: dipa means both "island" and "lamp" (Sanskrit dvipa and dipa). The meaning "island" is well-established here. "Self" refers to the pronoun "oneself" (cf. SN 3.8, n. 1).

"Let the Dharma be an island and a guide to you, having no other.

"Those who are islands unto themselves...should investigate to the very heart of things (2):

• 2. It is necessary to withdraw, to be "an island to unto oneself," at least for a time (as any meditator knows), not because it is "selfish" but precisely to make a profound introspective investigation. Buddhists in another sense would, of course, agree with John Donne that "No man is an island."

"'What is the source of disappointment, lamenting (crying), pain, grief, and despair (hopelessness)? How do they arise?' [That is to say, What is their origin?]

 

"Here, meditators, the ordinary uninstructed worldling [continued as in SN 22.7].

"Change occurs in this person's body (form), and it becomes different. On account of this change and difference, disappointment, crying, pain, grief, and despair arise.

[The same is then said with regard to "feelings" (sensations), "perceptions," "mental formations," and "consciousness," which are the other Groups of Clinging].

 

"But seeing (3) the body's impermanence, its changeability, its waning (4), its ceasing, one says, 'Formerly, as now, all bodies were impermanent and unsatisfactory and subject to change.'

• 3. Woodward remarks (in the Book of the Kindred Sayings, the PTS translation of SN, Vol. III, 1924) that one would expect to find here the words he inserts in the text: "The well-taught [noble] disciple," as in many passages. For if one in fact directly sees these things and reflects on them as stated in the text, one will cease to be an ordinary uninstructed "worldling" and become a noble (enlightened) disciple.
• 4. Viraga, "dispassion" (SN 12.16, n. 2), is waning.

California's remote San Nicolas Island

"Thus, seeing this as it really is, with full insight, one abandons all disappointment, lamenting, pain, grief, and despair. 

"One is not worried at their abandonment, but unworried lives at ease, and thus living at ease one is said to be 'assuredly delivered'" (5). [The same is said with regard to "feelings," "perceptions," "mental formations," and "consciousness"].

• 5. Tadanganibbuto means rather more than Woodward's "one who is rid of all that."

Buddhism for drug, alcohol recovery (BLVD)

Seth Auberon and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BLVDcenters.com; AgainstTheStream.org

"I'm not an alcoholic. I'm a DRUNK. Alcoholics go to meetings."

New Refuge Recovery book

BLVD Treatment Centers now offers a "Refuge Recovery" Treatment Program at its outpatient centers in Los Angeles, California.

It was designed by Buddhist author Noah Levine (Dharma Punx Against the Stream Buddhist Meditation Center), son of Stephen Levine and student of renowned Theravada teacher Jack Kornfield.

 

BLVD will be offering an insurance-reimbursed program in San Francisco and New York next, dedicated to mindfulness and the "Refuge Recovery" path.

Ongoing meetings are open to anyone interested in Recovery and Buddhism. Now termed "Refuge Recovery" (an unfortunate name based on the common mistranslation of sarana, which means guidance, as "refuge"), this approach to recovery from pharmaceuticals, illegal drugs, and alcohol is a community (sangha) of people using Buddhist practices like

• mindfulness (sati, MBSR, MBCT)
• clear comprehension (sampajañña)
• compassion (karuṇā)
• forgiveness (khanti)
• generosity (unselfishness, dāna)

to heal the pain and suffering that addiction has caused in our lives and the lives of our loved ones.

 

Noah Levine, punk, author, Buddhist teacher

The path of practice Against the Stream follows is termed by Noah Levine the "Four Truths of Refuge Recovery."
 
It is a Buddhist-oriented path to recovery from addictions. It has proven successful with addicts (to legal and illegal substances) and alcoholics who have committed to the Buddhist path of meditation, generosity, kindness (metta), and renunciation (inner letting go).

This is an approach to recovery that understands: “All beings have the power and potential to free themselves from suffering.” Practitioners feel confident in the power of the Buddha’s teachings -- if applied in daily life -- to relieve suffering and disappointment of all kinds, including the suffering of addiction.

Meetings are appropriate for anyone in or interested in recovery. No meditation experience is necessary. By voluntary donation only. No preregistration. Just drop in.

• Buddhist addiction recovery center opens
• Noah Levine's dad is a Buddhist teacher

The Fifth Precept: to abstain from drugs (sutra)

Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly translation based on "The Five Precepts" (pañca-sila), AccessToInsight.org (AN 8.39)

The Buddhist Wheel of the Liberating Dharma (kadampa.org)

  

Buddha mudra, Thailand (Ponz666/flickr)

There are five basic training rules observed by all practicing lay Buddhists.

 

The precepts are often recollected after going for guidance to the Three Jewels: Buddha (the Enlightened), Dharma (Teachings that lead to enlightenment), and (noble community called the) Sangha (those who have successfully followed the Buddha and Dharma to the ultimate goal of enlightenment).  

Five Precepts

1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking what is not given.

3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false speech.

5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.

 

Five Faultless Gifts

I will enjoy peace of mind and freedom.

"There are five great gifts -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that are not to be faulted now, that are never to be faulted, that are upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests. What are they?
 
"A disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom to limitless numbers of beings, one gains a share of limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the first gift...
 
"Furthermore, abandoning taking what is not given (stealing), a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking what is not given....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning sexual misconduct, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from sexual misconduct....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning false speech, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from false speech....
 

Careless in Colarado (Brennan Linsley/AP)

"Furthermore, abandoning the use of intoxicants, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking intoxicants. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom one gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the fifth great gift -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that is not to be faulted now, that is never to be faulted, that is upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests."

Radical Therapy:

Buddhist Precepts in the Modern World

Prof. Lily de Silva (Buddhist Publication Society)

The Buddha rises above all obstalces (Buddhisam)

The Five Precepts are the basic Buddhist code of virtue, undertaken daily by lay Buddhists along with Going for Guidance to the Three Gems. Virtue is regarded as the indispensable foundation of a life in line with the Dharma.
 
The Five Precepts consist of five training rules of abstinence: (1) from killing, (2) from stealing, (3) from sexual misconduct, (4) from false speech, and (5) from intoxicants.
 
The Five Precepts are designed to [give freedom from remorse as they] discipline and purify the three avenues of human action -- body, speech, and mind.

The Buddha rediscovered the Path then taught it.

Abstaining from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct disciplines bodily action. Abstaining from false speech disciplines verbal action. ("False" speech is not a nice way of saying not lying; it refers to abstaining from perjury, slander, harsh/abusive speech, and frivolous talk).
 
The dual discipline of body and speech has a healthy effect on the purity of mind, although complete mental purity can only be brought about by "bringing it into being" (bhavana, mental culture, cultivation, self-development, or meditation).
 
The fifth precept -- abstaining from using intoxicants -- attempts to safeguard the mental faculty from degenerating through toxicity or a bad habit. A person under the influence has little control over oneself. So one is easily tempted to carelessly transgress the four other precepts as well. More

The ancient Five Precepts, Lumbini, Nepal (tripadvisor.com)