Tara Brach - The Three Refuges - Gateways to Awakening (2021-01-06)

Episode Date: January 8, 2021

The Three Refuges - Gateways to Awakening (2021-01-06) - We all seek refuge, a sense of safety or homecoming amidst the uncertainties of life. Our way of finding refuge can either imprison or free us. This talk explores the false refuges that entrap us in feeling separate and endangered, and the refuges of Awareness (Buddha,) Truth (Dharma) and Love (Sangha) that reveal our true nature. This evening gathering includes a ceremony with candles, reflection and music.

Greetings. We offer these podcasts freely and your support really makes a difference. To make a donation, please visit tarabrock.com. Namaste and welcome friends. I will bow to you just so sweet to be with you for this first gathering, first live gathering of 2021 and I'm wishing you all blessings as you enter this year. As many of you know, I'm broadcasting from right outside of Washington, D.C. And just, it's hard to not speak out what's going on just a couple of hours ago. The Capitol was stormed by an angry crowd and a woman was killed. I think the area was cleared about an hour ago. But to name the anger and the pain, and the division. It's acute right here. It's all around the globe. And here we are suffering

the horror of really multiple pandemics. And I say all that in the spirit of how important it feels. I feel very accompanied by being able to be with Sangha, with community and with you right now. It just feels so important that we cultivate the wisdom and the caring that can help heal our world. And each year, the first class of the year, and I've been doing this, I feel like it's been about 18 years now, we reflect on what the Buddhists call the three refuges, and these are arctippal pathways to awakening our heart and mind. And we close with a live ceremony. It's very rich. This is the first time online, but I really have a lot of trust that will come together and bring it alive together.

So this last week, over the holidays, I spent a week with several other teachers leading a virtual retreat. and people came from around the globe. And I was just really touched and amazed yet again, and I feel it so often by what's possible when we gather in this way. At the retreat, so many opening of hearts and so many people shared their deep in trust. And this is the word that just trust in who they were,

trust in their lives, trust in their paths. It's so precious to feel trust. I say that at a time when we know how much suffering there is from distrust. So a story, this is a favorite story. I share a lot of stories with Mullah Nazardine as the primary character. He's a Sufi kind of fool saint and great character. And so in this one he's resting in the... shade under a tall and luscious walnut tree. And he's sitting there daydreaming and he notices that

these huge pumpkins are growing, are, you know, sneaking on these delicate little vines on the ground. And then he looks up and squins to see how these tiny walnuts are growing on this magnificent tree. And he says, how strange Mother Nature is to make plump pumpkins grow on these spindly vines while little walnuts have their own impressive tree. Just then, a walnut fell from above and landed with this tuck on Mueller-Nazardine's head. So he rubs his sore head and he picks up this little walnut and he looks high up towards the branches of the tree and then he looks over at those swollen pumpkins growing safely on the ground and he says, oh, Mother Nature, you are wise. I love the spirit of this, just this kind of trust that there's some intrinsic wisdom and

goodness in this world, in nature and in our nature. It doesn't mean there's not distortions and cruelty and horror, but there's some ground of goodness. And we trust that. when we're in real presence. In moments of presence is when we really reconnect with the love and the goodness that's here. And I think often, and I know a lot of us do, of the spiritual path as forgetting presence and then remembering that presence, that love, forgetting and remembering. and we know the forgetting.

You know, it's happening right now today, dramatically in our society. It happens in all the ways we are forgetting when we get caught in disrespecting and violating each other. When we get into violating other species and violating our earth, that's forgetting. But we're going to speak more to our individual forgetting, which is the moments, and I want to think of today as I speak this, the moments that we get really lost in obsessing, our worrying, our blaming, our judgment. We get lost for hours and for decades. And it's like being stuck inside a cloud and forgetting the sky.

We're in a very small world when we're forgetting. And of course, you wouldn't be here. I really believe you wouldn't be here right now. if you hadn't also really tasted the blessings of remembering. It's what draws us to practice. The moments that you really felt the quietness with the breath or that you tenderly connected with another being, that that's remembering.

Or when we were all looking for those planets and just to see the night sky, you know, the mystery of it, the beauty of right now here it's winter and just seeing the silhouette of the branches against the sky just so much beauty and goodness so we know remembering too I think of the Dalai Lama this is probably 15 years ago when he was at a conference he had just put out a book on happiness and the reporters were asking him, one of them asked him, you know, what was the happiest moment of your life? And he paused for a little bit and he gets this mischievous look and he said, I think now. And it's true. You know, it's the portal towards all we cherish.

So there's a reason that we forget and that we leave presence. regularly. And that's because now can feel painful and difficult and uncomfortable and feel restless and uncertain. And we actually want life different. So when now isn't pleasant and easy, the idea of presence, you know, it takes a lot more courage. And our habit, if we really investigate, and I feel like this is one of the most important teachings in Buddhism, our habit and our conditioning is to want life different. That most moments feel uneasy to us. And rather than presence, we are waiting for the next moment to contain what this moment does not, some form of relief. Because life is uneasy. It's always a little feeling off

balance and always uncertain. I mean, whether it's finances, our fears for our bodies, our fears and concerns for other people's bodies, or fear of failure, it's such a big one, or relational conflict, there's always stuff going on. So when we say, yeah, just remember presence, it's not so easy. I often think of William James, who says that the first word in every religion is the word help, that we feel our mortality and our uncertainty, and in the deepest way, we're looking for refuge, we're looking for help. And this is bringing us to our practice for the evening because we're all seeking refuge in the face of uncertainty. We all have that primal survival fear. And I,

Here's the important point. How we seek refuge either deepens forgetting, it thickens the trance, or it turns us towards presence, towards spirit, towards love. How we seek refuge. The given is fear, but how we seek refuge makes the difference between forgetting and remembering. Now, I think one of the most valuable parts of the path is getting very familiar with our strategies of forgetting because we all have them. And in fact, I'm going to just speak of them just a little bit right now. And if you want to on the chat to say, well, my false

refuge is, I encourage it because we all have false refuges. And what I mean by false refuge is It's not bad, but it's ways of exiting the present moment to try to keep us more secure and comfortable. And they all actually lock us into a small sense of prison and imprisoned self, but we all have them, different ways of numbing and getting away from the rawness of the moment. And it's like drinking salt water to quench thirst, but we do them. So, okay, so our most pervasive one, it's near universal, is getting lost in the trance of thinking where we're spending a lot of time obsessing or worrying or planning.

And the hook is, because the false refuges only work because they give us some temporary feeling of relief, the hook is, in the moment of worrying, it takes you away from the direct, raw, somatic experience of the fear. And it gives you a feeling that you're doing something. You're gaining control. You're taking care of things. It's an illusion, but it gives us a sense of that. And it cuts us off from huge swaths of our life. I'm John O'Donohue, one of my favorite poets, mystics writers. He says, we are so busy trying to to manage our life, we forget this great mystery we're involved in. I just think that's so powerful. So the false refuge of just being constantly in our brain, trying to figure

things out, you noticed how many moments on some level you're trying to problem solve when maybe you don't have to be? So managing our lives. Okay. The more obvious false refuges are the the addictive behaviors, and we all have addictive behaviors. Some of them are more condoned. Addictive behaviors like drugs, alcohol, overuse. There's the socially approved ones of overwork. I mean, people admire others that are busy, but it's actually quite an addiction. I know for myself that I'm more and more on to how much checking things off the list gives me a sense of relief for about three or four seconds until I start fixating on the next thing to get done. But it's still, it's an addiction.

A big one is our going down, you know, those cyber rabbit holes where we really get addicted online, addicted to gaming, addicted to our use of the internet. They say there's only two industries where they use the word users, drugs and the internet. So we have those false refuges and we have a lot of relational false refuges where we get dependent on others or control others or judge others, seeking approval. That's a huge one. You know, I'm okay if another person approves me. A big one is refuge in perfectionism.

Many of us, one of the groups I was with this last week, we're exploring this. so many of us are just hooked on trying like crazy to be more perfect, to get it right. We have this sense that, you know, if I don't make a mistake, I'm going to be protected. And we check all the boxes off of good behaviors, you know. Man writes, I recently picked a new primary care doctor. After two visits and exhaustive lab tests, he said I was doing fairly well for a man might, I just turned 60-something. So I was a little concerned at the comment, and I couldn't resist asking him,

do you think I'll live to be 80? So he asked me, do you smoke tobacco or drink beer, wine, or hard liquor? Oh, no, I replied, and I'm not into doing recreational drugs or psychedelics either. Then he asked, do you eat any desserts? I said, not much. My former doctor warned that most sweet foods aren't good for us. well do you spend a lot of time in the sun like boating, sailing, hiking or biking? No, I don't.

He said, do you drive fast cars or have a lot of sex? No, I said. Then they looked at me and said, then why do you even give a damn? And yet, you know, we know, we know how much we're trying to kind of refine and get just right, our lifestyle and so much more. So being right, being good, being perfect, false refuge. Okay, so I've kind of listed out some and I'm looking at so many you've put out that, oh, thank you, thank you.

Yeah, I can relate to so many of them. Self-righteous indignation, yes. So here we are, obsessing, judging, addiction, perfectionism and then of course it goes to the most horrific. societal ways that we seek false refuge, violating and oppressing other beings. And it's always an exit strategy from presence, from processing and being with the fears and the needs and the wants that want our attention. It's always an exit strategy. And what it does, when you're taking false refuge, it solidifies the prison of separate

itself. It solidifies the identity in those small limiting stories about who we are. 2600 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama faced the human predicament that are behind the false refuges. In other words, he faced impermanence. He really looked deeply into mortality, into aging, sickness, and death, and into all the fears that's surrounded. And his deep inquiry was, okay, in the face of all of this, what brings true freedom? And that's really our inquiry here. What is true refuge? When we're scared, when we're uncertain, when we're hurting, what helps us remember in a way that really is healing? And this feels like our inquiry tonight and it's really for us as a species,

And in the Buddhist teachings, there are three pathways of refuge. And I have found over time, as I looked around at other traditions, that there are very archetypal pathways. They're common to many mystical traditions. And the three pathways to freedom are bringing our attention to awareness, which in Buddhism is described as our Buddha nature or Buddha. That's the first, awareness. The second is truth, which in Buddhism is called the Dharma or the path.

And the third is love, which is Sangha. Okay? And just to speak personally, my own inquiry into true refuge and into these pathways became very alive and very poignant for me when I was facing a serious illness, about six to eight years of a kind of a real downhill and I'm much, much better now. But that's when my help, that word help, it was really just through all my cells. And so it was drawing on these three pathways of awareness, of truth, and of love,

that really became, I felt like it saved me. and that was really the grounds of writing my book True Refuge. So if this way of understanding is helpful to you, false refuges and true refuges, I invite you to check out the book, it'll give you a deeper dive. So for now, though, let's bring our attention to these three gateways. We're going to explore them in a different sequence than as traditionally done. In Buddhism, it's Buddha, Dharma, Sanga. In other words, awareness, truth, and love.

going to actually start with refuge in the Dharma because so many of our practices are really about practices of presence. So we will begin there. And with each of the refuges, I want to review the outer way that we take refuge and the inner way. You'll see what I mean as I go through them. And then we're going to do a ceremony based on these refuges, how you can bring them alive in your life. Okay. So, refuge in the Dharma, in truth, in the path. And this is really, in a broad way, means turning to whatever teachings and practices bring us into presence. Let us sense the truth of the moment. Okay. And the outer expressions of this are, the ways that you might build into your life going to retreats,

are doing just what we're doing now, gathering for online events, meditation classes. For you, taking refuge in truth might be through books you read that helped remind you of what's true and through podcasts. They may be through any sort of teaching or training that helps you connect more and more with the present moment. And the inner pathway to Dharma is the meditations of presence. It's paying attention right here and now to your experience.

It's the remembering that happens when we're bringing mindful, non-judging presence to what's right here. And you might pause right now and just sense in a very simple, and real way, that if you turn your attention inward, that you're taking refuge in truth in the Dharma by becoming intimate with this moment's experience and the questions that support it, what's happening inside me right now? And can I be with this? Can I meet this with care? You're taking refuge in truth any time you have that intimate contact with the the moment. And the challenge for taking refuge in truth is we are often really dissociated. We're caught in our strategies for staying away from the rawness that's here. So I find

one of my favorite questions is to ask myself, well, what am I unwilling to feel right now? And that seems to like directly draw my attention to where there's vulnerability. So the training in Dharma in this practice of sensing what's true right here is learning to stay. And it has to be gentle and non-judging. Charlotte Joko Beck says, that's this a Zen teacher, return to that which we have spent a lifetime hiding from, to rest in the bodily experience of the present moment, vulnerable, fear, failure, lonely, unfairness. So I often teach Rain as a way of purposefully taking refuge in Dharma or truth because it brings together the elements in the way we pay attention that

can really have us arrive right here. An example of refuge in truth in Dharma is that His one woman, her name was Brianna, she had a new job. She was super qualified, overqualified, if anything. But the CEO was really one of these harsh guys who cut people off and very intimidating. And whenever she was at their weekly executive meeting, she would go into brain freeze. He reminded her of whoever, whatever, but she just froze. And so she wanted, when she talked to me, she wanted to find a way. way, like, how do I, you know, get out of that?

How do I work with this fear? So, I asked her what she did right before the meetings. And she said, well, I'm pretty worried, I'm pretty obsessing. I try to get real busy. I try to organize my emails, you know, and so on. So basically, she shared her false refuges, right? It wasn't helping her. So I invite her to explore what it meant to take refuge in presence before the meeting with rain.

And the recognizing was of rain. This is the rain acronym. If you're not familiar, recognize, allow, investigate, and nurture. And that brings us into the presence we've been leaving. So for her, the recognizing was fear. and then she agreed to let it be there, allow it. And when she investigated, she could feel the squeeze in her body and she'd breathe with it and just let it be there

and just feel it as deeply as she could and then sense what it needed. And that's a really powerful question. What is this vulnerability need that then leads us to nurturing, the end of rain? And what she found, which was really really, powerful for her, is it needed that it be okay that it was there. In other words, it really needed that deep message of, this belongs. This wave of fear is okay. It's meant to be here. It's just here for this. It's right here. I'm going to let it be here. It's part of the experience.

And when she said, okay, it's okay, this belongs. Actually, more space opened up. And so that was the rain practice. Her way of nurturing was to say, it's okay, this belongs. The final part of rain, I call after the rain, people often skip over it and it really does not bring them the fruit of the practice, is recognizing the presence that's emerged through those steps. It's really when we remember our true nature, we come home. So for her, she found that even in the middle of the meetings, she could feel the fear and mentally whisper this belongs and have more space. It really made a shift for her. What you'll find is you practice deepening refuge in the Dharma is that the more it's your intention to stay, to breathe, the more you know how to nurture,

the more you'll feel that homecoming. You'll feel that sense of being more who you really are. And that is the sign of true refuge. A pathway of refuge is a true refuge if it lands you up feeling more presence, more at home in who you are, and more trust. So let's just take a moment to pause here and I'd like to invite you to practice a little more refuge in the Dharma and truth. Because this is really the centerpiece of a lot of our practice. And the way you might do it is we'll just do a light rain. And you might let your attention turn inward. Feel your body breathing.

Just let yourself collect a bit with the breath. And scan today, yesterday, for wherever there's a kind of pattern of reactivity where you know you're kind of in some way emotionally reacting. perhaps forgetting, forgetting truth, forgetting presence. Just remind yourself of a moment. Perhaps something that repeats itself. Maybe it's something in a relationship with another person or something when you take in the news or something to do with your work or your health.

Take a moment. are you getting reactive where you'd like to have an experience of finding refuge? When you find that situation, you might bring it close in by remembering whatever's going on that triggers you. The more you remember what triggers you and feel it, the deeper the practice goes. And as you're really in touch with being triggered, name the emotion that comes up. Maybe fear, anger, hate, jealousy, sadness, confusion, judgment, anxiety. The R of Rain is to recognize what it is allow it. See if you can just let it be there. You might mentally whisper, this belongs. And I do think of it like a wave in the ocean. It's going to change, but it belongs. It's here

right this moment. So let it be there. Then you can deepen by investigating the eye of rain. You might sense what you're believing. What's the core belief when this is, reaction's going? Do you believe that something bad's going to happen? You're in danger, that something's wrong with you, that something's wrong with another person, with our world, that you're failing in some way. Just see if you can notice if there's a belief. And mostly when you're believing this, just feel what's it like in your body? And this is the time to move into the body. Feel your throat, your chest, your belly.

You might put your hand on your heart and just breathe with wherever you feel most vulnerability. You can experiment and let your face take the expression of the feeling of the pain or vulnerability. and that'll get you more in touch, breathing with what's here, learning to stay, and sensing that you can meet this with some kindness and feel what this part most needs. What would most bring some healing? What message, what reminder? You might feel just as your hand is touching your heart, just that that itself is nurturing. And then offer and whisper some care, some message of care. It might be simply you're enough. Or if it's fear, thank you for trying to protect me, but I'm all okay. And to whatever degree there's a shift. In after the rain, you just notice

the presence that's here. What's the sense of your being right now when you're regarding your own heart with care. Can you sense being more enlarged, more tender, more trust in who you are? This is remembering. This is a path of refuge. This is refuge in the Dharma in truth. We turn now to our second refuge to take a few full breaths, open your eyes as you're ready. The second refuge is refuge in loving relationship. And in Buddhism, this is described as Sangha. It's the fellowship of the spiritual community, fellowship of the spiritual community. And the outer ways we take refuge in loving relationships is by turning to and engaging more fully in the relationships that help us feel connected,

the ones that help us open our hearts and so on. and then we widen the circles after that. But we make sure we have that support and nourishment, whether in whatever form in spiritual community and whatever faith community we're in, for some it's in meditation circles, some have healing communities, some have affinity sangas or groups,

people of color, whether it's LGBTQIA, the whole questioning. Some have re-partners. as their ways of loving relationships. Some have spiritual friends groups or what we call or Kaliana Mita groups. There are many ways of more formal groups that help us consciously, consciously wake up our loving in relationship. We need relationships. If we're going to trust our belonging to the world, we need relationships. We need relationships. We need to be.

to learn to let in love. I found that that's often harder for people than expressing love. And we need to express our love, to learn to just have places where we can give ourselves to serving each other. I remember hearing stories about Nelson Mandela, who when he was in solitary confinement, he went into a depression. And when he really reflected, it was because he had no one to love. He had no one to express his love to. And that's actually when he began to bring all his care to his jailers. And one by one, his jailers got replaced because they couldn't continue to treat him, violate him in the way that they were being asked to. It's a phenomenal story. We need to be able to express love. There's a story by Margaret Stevens. I'll read to you

a man who died and found himself in a beautiful place, surrounded by every conceivable comfort, a white-jacketed man came to him and said, you may have anything you choose, any food, any pleasure, any kind of entertainment. Of course, the man was delighted, and for days he sampled all the delicacies and experiences of which he had dreamed on earth. But one day he grew bored with all of it and calling the attendant to him, he said, I'm tired of all of this. I need something to do. what kind of work can you give me? I'd like to give of myself to help others. The attendant sadly shook his head and replied, I'm sorry, sir, that's the one thing we can't do for you.

There's no work for you here. There's no way for you to serve others. To which the man answered, that's a fine thing. I might as well be in hell. The attendant said softly, where do you think you are? it's such a deep suffering to feel separate and to feel there's no way to express our belonging through serving, through letting in love. The key to taking refuge in Sanga and in love is awakening our heart in all relationships. So we start where it's easier, closer in, but then widening out. And I say we start with close in because it's so easy to forget with those closest, so easy to go onto automatic pilot or play out our old patterns and not really stay present

with our hearts. One woman spent a lot of time with her father in his last months and through the decades he had been larger than life and it was a well-known, very driven, successful architect. And then during these months, they got much closer. And at one point, she asked him a question, something like, you know, what was the accomplishment you were most proud of in your life? And he looked at her and he said, why you, of course? And for so long, she had been struggling with feelings of not mattering, of not being special. So the moment was deeply sad, but it was also incredibly healing. Just to consider for yourself, you know, if you're at the end of your life looking back, what matters about today? What would matter about tomorrow?

And I think for most of us, it really would matter that we were awake in our hearts, loving with those we were with. We also need to widen the circle. There's interesting research that healing comes through when we have these really warm encounters of strangers, there's this burst of activity in our brain and that's very comforting and uplifting for our bodies. There's some really positive thing that happened. It deepens our sense of belonging. This is a poem from Naomi Shaiab Nyeh, one of my favorite poet.

She's a Palestinian poet. She says, Please forgive this interruption. I am forging a career, a delicate enterprise of eyes, yours included. We will meet at the corner, you with your sack lunch,

me with my guitar. We will be wearing our famous street faces, anonymous as trees. Suddenly you will see me, you will blink, hesitant, then realize I have not looked away. for one brave second we will stare openly from borderless skins. This is my salary.

There are no days off. Especially in these masked times, you know, what if we intentionally let our hearts and our eyes connect with those we don't know and find out they're really not strangers? So we're not free until the whole world is in our heart. And one of the powerful questions, if you want to deepen your refuge in Sanga, in love, is just to sense how am I creating separation to honestly look? I know many people feel as I do that one of the ways that I create separation is I'll fixate on those I feel are causing damage on a more societal level.

And I'll feel aversion in my body and blame in my mind knowing that I'm contributing to the violence if I get caught in that story of making them bad and hating them. So part of the process is to just keep waking up out of that. That for all of us, we're not free if we're participating in causing injury. and I also think of it as refuge and love means in all ways that we dedicate to waking up from the trance of othering. I mean, look what's happening today. It's the full toxicity of othering. So where are we doing it?

I mean, each of us, we're absolutely imprinted by the society wherein we can't escape othering as a habit of the mind, but we can wake up from it. So, for this society, it means waking up from our racial and caste systems, really deepening our attention on purpose. That is refuge in Sanga. For me, as a white woman, refuge in Sanga means this ongoing looking at the trance around race. Whether it's in the white awareness group I'm in, the last bunch of people. of months reading this book cast, which is amazing, Isabel Wilkerson. It means proximity, connecting,

engaging with those of difference. It means asking the question, what's it like being you? We need to do this. It's part of refuge in Sangha. St. Teresa of Avila says, only at the shrine where all are welcome. Will God sing loud enough to be heard? So this is the outer refuge in Sanga we're talking about the inner gateway to love. Any reflection, any way of paying attention that warms and opens your heart. Reflecting on the suffering of others and offering them your prayer of compassion, reflecting on the goodness in others and offering them your loving kindness. and most important, keeping the loving going towards your own inner being.

I've seen so many people try to forgive other people when they first have to bring compassion to their own wounds. It's premature forgiveness. It's not true forgiveness until we've really taken the time with the wounds inside. And then it's moving through the world and seeing others an on-purpose, remembering, we're friends. And that's one of my mantras, you know, we are friends. Okay, so let's do a brief reflection on refuge in Sanga, in loving awareness. Let the attention go inward and feel your body and feel your breath and bring to mind someone, it could be human,

could be another species that you feel love and belonging with, the relationship. somewhat uncomplicated. And let that being be close in right now. So you can visualize and see their eyes and sense what you're loving, sense their goodness, what makes them so lovable to you, whether it's their humor, their brightness, how they look at you with care, with affection. Just let your body and heart feel the warmth and whisper the being's name and just simply say, I love you. And if you'd prefer, you could say thank you. You can try them both. And then do it again and see if you can deepen the tenderness. I love you. Thank you. And once more. And as you do and as you feel that tender presence, just know that you're taking refuge right now in love, in Sanga.

sense the presence, the field of your own being, the deep in trust in homecoming. Thus far, we've explored taking refuge in truth, the Dharma, in love, the Sanga. The third refuge often arises out of those. It's Buddha nature, natural loving awareness. You can feel free to open your eyes. the outer ways that we take refuge in Buddha nature, we can bring to mind an embodiment of that love and that wisdom. It could be the historical Buddha, Christ, the Bodhisup of compassion, a wise, loving teacher. And by bringing them to mind, they remind us, they point us back home

to our own awakening heart mind. The inner practices of taking refuge in Buddha nature is turning the attention right back on the awareness that's right here. You know, much of our practice we're paying attention to what are called the changing stream of objects, like the sounds, the sensations, the breath.

But when we take refuge in awareness, we're sensing the background of awareness itself. Now, just to get a taste, I invite you to close your eyes or keep the eyes cast down a bit. And just for 10 seconds, try not to be aware. Starting now, try not to be aware. Try not to be aware. Try not to be aware.

And you might keep your attention inward. And now be, let yourself be aware of the awareness that's here. You might have noticed when you tried not to be aware that it's here. Let yourself notice the awareness that's here. Be aware of what is listening, the silence that's listening, of the stillness that's feeling, and of the openness that everything's happening in. It's all filled with the light of awareness.

Without doing thinking, just to let go into that openness, that stillness, that silence, this mystery from the Tibetan Book of the Dead, Remember the clear light, the pure, clear, white light from which everything in the universe comes, to which everything in the universe returns, the original nature of your own mind, the natural state of the universe unmanifest. Let go into the clear light. Trust it. Merge with it.

It is your own true nature. nature, it is home. You might imagine how your life would change if every day many times a day you paused and you really recognized and trusted this radiant awareness that's here now always, the very source of your being. Okay, if your eyes are closed again, you might open them. we're coming down the home stretch here. We've been talking about that we all go into the forgetting trance, all of us. And these are some archetypal ways of remembering, of homecoming to presence, through the truth of this moment, just really sensing what's here right now, through loving connection, and through turning attention back to the intrinsic,

of our nature. They're inseparable. If you really go down one pathway, you'll find the others. And for most of us, we have one that we lead with or do more regularly. The sign of true refuge, though, is this growing trust in who you really are and in life. Any moment of remembering presence will reconnect you. So we're going to be moving now into our refuge ceremony. And some of you may have a red string. And if you don't have a string and you have followed along the ceremony is night and then you want to do it again, you'll have the recording.

And you can do it with a string because this string is a nice material reminder. So the string represents a thread from the robe of a monk or none. And it's called a protection. cord, if you have it. And one student asked, well, what does it protect you from? And the response from one teacher was, well, ourselves, of course. And these protection cords are really to protect us against our forgetting, the self-conditioning to get reactive to fear and forget. And the idea is that if you wear the sacred thread through the day, it's a way of remembering your true nature and living from love. So I'm going to be leading you in reflecting on the three refuges, and you've already done a deeper dive,

so we'll be doing them more briefly. And with each reflection, with each refuge, you'll be tying a knot in the cord. So if you don't have a string or a cord with you, you'll be bringing your palms together as you reflect on each of the refuge. is and when you commit to the refuge, you'll use a bow of the head to dedicate to the pathway versus tying a knot in the cord. And then what we'll do is we'll put the strings around our necks. You can tie the final knot. And later for some, you may want to put it around your wrist, but you'll need someone else to help with that. Okay, so we begin now. And if you have a thread, hold both edges of your thread, or if you just have your hands and please bring your palms together.

So here's the inquiry. We begin with taking refuge in truth, in the Dharma. And the inquiry is, what are the outer ways of doing this as you enter this new year and on that you feel would deepen your practice? Would it be classes, retreats, books, podcast trainings, is there a way you want to take outer refuge that you feel will deepen your path? And just sense your intention towards that as you reflect on that. And the inner refuge in truth and Dharma to bring your attention to the changing flow of experience once again, the waves that are moving through right now, the breath, sounds, sensations, feelings, to sense that you can bring a presence and kindness to what's right here.

And as you feel your dedication to taking refuge in truth, refuge in reality, then please tie the first knot in your cord or please take this moment with your palms together to bow your head. And now we take refuge in love, refuge in the Sangha, And the outer is that inquiry of how might you deepen loving relationships in your life and how might you widen the circles of loving? And the inner refuge is to feel again in this moment that unconditional loving, that tenderness of heart that connects you with all hearts with the field of loving. and as you feel your dedication to deepening in this direction of loving connection,

to please tie the second knot into your cord, or to bow your head again. Refuge in the Sanger. And our third refuge is refuge in awareness in the Buddha. The outer is if there's a way that reflecting on a spiritual figure, a wise, loving teacher, healer or friend helps to connect you with the light within. And the inner is again to sense that light, that knowing, wakeful, pure space of awareness that's always already here. And as you feel your dedication to deepening homecoming to that awareness,

please tie the final knot, the third knot. for the third refuge, our bow, your head. And then if you have a string to put it around your neck so that the two loose ends are on your chest. And take the two ends and you'll be tying the final knot just to complete the circle, reflecting on the dedication to live from love, to live a path of loving awareness of compassion,

so that you can bring these refuges alive in a way that ripples out to serve all beings. So tying the knot that makes it a circle or bowing your head a final time to bring that sacred presence in a way that serves all beings. And we bring these refuges alive now in this next part of our evening first like to introduce beloved friend fellow teacher La Sarmiento, who is the president of the board of IMCW, a teacher here locally and around the country. And La will be leading us in singing and a chant and the candle ceremony that is the closing part of our evening. So La, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you, Tara.

Hello, precious beings of the planet. I'm honored and blessed to be with you all at the beginning of this new year. With all that is happening in our world right now, it is crucial to remember that the recognition and share of our own innate goodness, our own but in nature, through skillful speech and action and with the greater Sanga, will prevail over greed, hatred, and delusion, and true liberation. for all beings without exception. The candle ceremony

will be doing in a moment reminds us that by allowing our individual and collective inner lights to shine, we support each other to keep going, to do what needs to be done with deep wisdom and fierce compassion in the midst of it all.

So if you wish, please dim the lights around you and mindfully light and hold your candle, your virtual candle, your phone flashlight if you have it, and it's totally okay if you don't. And hold this light in front of you and also imagine a bright light shining inside of you, just like this little bear, reflecting your own innate goodness, your own Buddha nature. So as we hold our light individually and collectively,

I offer a song and a chant to invite you to bring your light into the world and to see the light emanating from all on this Zoom and from all beings around the planet to heal the suffering and pain of the world. So Leo will put the words to the chant into the chat, which is at the bottom center of your Zoom screen, so you can follow along. And the first part is a sweet tune many of you may already be familiar with. The second part is the same tune with the ancient chant, Omnama Shivaya, which means you, Universal consciousness is one. So everyone but me will be muted as singing together unmuted, sadly, does not work well on Zoom. So please join me if you wish.

This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm going to let it shine. This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. Heart, this little heart of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, this little heart of mine, I'm gonna let it shine, this little heart of mine, this little heart of mine, this little heart of mine, this little heart of mine, this little heart of mine, this little heart of this. I'm gonna let it shine. This little heart of mine, let it shine, let it shine. This little piece of mind, it's shine, this little piece of mine, I'm going to let it shine,

this little piece of mind, it shine, let it shine, Let it shine, let it shine. Love. This little love of mine. This little love of mine, this little love of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. This little love of mine

it shine, let it shine, let it shine, this little hope of mine. It shine. This little hope of mine. hope of mine I'm gonna let it shine this little hope of mine it shine let it shine let it shine let it shine omnimah shiva ya omna ma shivaia Shiva ya, Oh Namah Shiva, Oh, Namah, Shivaia.

Oh, Nama Shiva, Oh, Nama Shiva, Oh, Nama Shiva, oh my, Shiva, oh, Nama, Ommah, Shiva, oh, Nama, Shiva,ia. Last time. Omnamah, Shiva, Omna Meshivaia. Omna ma Shivaia. Omna ma Shivaia. Omna ma Shivaia.

Omna ma Shivaia. Omna ma Shivaia. Omna ma Shiva. Omna ma. Omna ma. Shivaya. Much love and many blessings on your new year. dear ones. Thank you, thank you, thank you, La. What a pleasure I had to look through and

scroll through and watch. It's just so beautiful to see your beautiful faces and to see the tenderness and the light that's shining through. I thought we just close in the simplest of ways of a closing meta or loving kindness practice. taking a moment first to let the attention go inward and sense the experience of your heart this moment, breathing in and out of the heart and feeling the shared heart space it's here, feeling our world with its suffering and its beauty, feeling our shared prayer that all beings everywhere might awaken, remember the loving kindness, the loving presence that's their very essence, that all beings everywhere might live from loving presence,

that all beings might touch a natural, deep peace, that there be justice and compassion for all, that all beings everywhere, all beings everywhere, awaken and be free. And so we'll end our evening if you're not already on just to invite you to go to gallery view and invite you those that are live streaming and listening in to just feel and imagine and sense the community that's gathered and to see each other. Yeah. to look and you might scroll a bit and you might just pause and let your attention go to one

particular person and just say we are friends may you be happy just send that message and see what happens we are friends may you be happy we are friends may you be happy we are friends may you be happy. We are friends. May you be happy. Then however you'd like, and perhaps if you want to unmute for these final moments to bow or say goodnight or offer your blessings, however you'd like, please feel free these last few minutes.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That's a great one. Thank you.

beautiful to share this. Thank you. For more talks and meditations, and to learn about my schedule or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com.