Tara Brach - Three Gateways to Freedom

Episode Date: January 5, 2011

2011-01-05 - This talk invites a contemplation of three archetypal domains of spiritual awakening: Buddha-awareness, Dharma- truth (the way things are), and Sangha-loving relatedness. We explore our habit of turning toward false refuges, and the way we can find refuge in that which truely heals our hearts and frees our mind. The evening ends with a living ritual of dedicating ourselves to each of these three gateways to awakening. Please support this podcast by donating at www.tarabrach.com or www.imcw.org. Thank you!

So welcome here. Wishing each of you a happy New Year. It's a wonderful thing to be back with you again. I missed being here at the end of the year. And so I want to greet you. And I know that for many, New Year's is a time of aspiration of sensing, how am I going to really enter this next part of my life? And how many of you committed to Wednesday night class?

Can I see by hands? A few. All right. How many of you committed in some way to being kinder towards yourselves? Can I see by hands? Yeah, that's a big one. How many to being less judgmental in general? Yeah, a lot of us. Let's see. How many committed to in some way simplifying your life, a little slowing down some? How many committed to speeding up getting more down? So sometimes our aspiration, you know, is very deep and broad. Sometimes it's very specific, you know, start exercising or dieting or reorganize the office, you know, clean the gerbil cage more frequently, whatever it is. In the Buddhist traditions, what's called the Bodhisattva path,

which is the path of the awakening being, in some way the aspiration has to do with living more from love and from awareness. And there's so many different ways. And so tonight I want to speak a bit. One of my, one of the ways I think about the spiritual path that helps me is simply as forgetting and remembering. That we, daily we forget, we go into some sort of a trance where we're caught in our thoughts and often they're fear-driven thoughts

and judgmental thoughts are thoughts like we don't have enough time and we're kind of racing to get things done and so daily we get into this kind of a trance and we get preoccupied and we also remember sometimes for spots sometimes for longer stretches but there's some remembrance

of what matters we touch a moment of peace or gratitude or openness, get really a sense of wonder, at beauty. And so there's a kind of remembering. And everyone I know swings, and we all forget and we all remember. The big question, I think, for most of us, on some level, is what will help me remember more?

I mean, how can I spend more moments aligned with what I care about? And in Buddhism, there are three very clearly described and deep and beautiful pathways to remembering. And they're called three refuges. And you can find these kind of arctypal pathways in every path I've encountered. So it's, no, none of the great truths are specific to any religion. And tonight we'll be exploring these three refuges. And I'll use some of the Buddhist language. and sometimes not, we'll be exploring it,

and then at the end we'll be doing a ritual together based on that kind of contemplation. And this is a ritual that it doesn't matter if you're Buddhist. What matters is that there's some commitment to remembering and that you want to find a way to remember more. So the word refuge is one that I like a lot, and it's not refuge as in find a kind of false security like refuge like it's going to protect me from getting

old or sick or dying how many of you got the stomach flu recently can I just see by hands I'm just curious keep your hands up for a moment we just had a retreat a new year's retreat for five-day retreat and so many people went down it was two of our four teachers

and one of our managers right afterwards And I thought of as one of the heavenly messenger retreats, because in Buddhism, it's aging, sickness, and death, and it was all over the place in all of us, you know. But there was also a lot of laughter and opening and so on. So refuge doesn't protect us from any of the small or great afflictions. True refuge really allows us to find a sense of peace and a sense of love and a sense of of presence in the midst of whatever. That's the gift of a true refuge.

In Polly, the word Sida, which is the word for faith, what we can really, really trust. It says it's resting one's heart on what is true. And so in a way taking refuge is really learning to rest our heart on what is true. And the three refuges are described as Buddha, which is we rest our hearts on the on awareness,

really the awakening awareness that's here. And the second refuge is Dharma, our truth, our path. We rest our heart on the teachings and the practices that free us. And the third refuge is Sangha, which has to do with spiritual friends and loving relatedness. We rest our hearts in love. And there's something so beautiful and whole about sensing these three refuges of awareness, truth, and love. And that's what we're going to be

spending our evening on. What we'll do is I'll describe each one a bit more and with each one we'll do a reflection that invites you to sense what that refuge means for you. I like to begin the exploration by sensing how when we when we're in stress, when we're when we're when Life is challenging. Our conditioning is not to turn towards any one of those three refuges. Rather, we turn towards what I often describe as false refuge. When we're stressed, we're not that wise. I think you might have noticed.

And so my favorite description of false refuge is some way that we're leaving the moment. And I often describe it as we get on a bicycle and we pedal away from the president. moment and the more we're stressed in other words the more we're afraid and the more that we're angry and the more that we're feeling like life isn't there's something missing the faster we pedal away from the present moment and there's also just different kinds of bicycles we take off on so those are the different kinds of false refuges and I'll describe them a bit the timing is good for many of us to look at false refuges because the holidays, they trip off most everybody I know. I mean, really, they really rattle people.

And we might think practice is going well, and our mindfulness is pretty stable. And then we spend 48 hours with our family of origin. And we're just like out there, you know. We really revert. You know, whatever our preteen self's role was in the family, you know, it comes out. Somebody sent me this. A mother was preparing pancakes for her son, Kevin, five, and Ryan. three. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake, and the mother saw an opportunity

for a moral lesson. So she says, now, if Jesus was sitting here, he would say, let my brother have the first pancake. I can wait. Kevin turned to his younger brother and said, Ryan, you can have the first chance at being Jesus. So when we think of, you know, our role in the family, we were you the one manipulated out of the pancake, you know? Are we the domineering, controlling one? Are the one trying to keep harmony? Or maybe the holidays brought up something really different, which is for many shine a light on aloneness. Really, a very, it can be very painful time of feeling alone. And at these times, whatever your role is, whatever the reactivity, it's very hard to say, wait a minute, stay, just be here in the moment. We leave. We leave really quickly. So what are some

of our false refuges? And I'm going to name them briefly. And you just might sense what resonates for you, because part of taking refuge, true refuge, is a real honest, courageous recognition of, okay, how do I leave presence? Now, for a lot of us, it's staying busy. I mean, a lot of us, whether distracting ourselves with the kind of addiction of always being on cell phones or computers, you know, doing email or iPods or in some way the addiction of being productive. It's not just the creativity and generativity. It's this addiction to crossing things off the list. Lily Tomlin says, for fast acting relief, try slowing down, you know.

Isn't that make sense, though? But we don't. We speed up. So that's one, is this speed that really keeps us from making regular visits to ourselves, as Rumi says. We don't come home so much. Another is that we take refuge in holding on to pleasantness, into chasing after pleasantness. And if we feel deprived or anxious, the addictions even more so to consuming and numbing. I've shared how in the east they call sleep a poor man. Nervana, which I think is really apt. And then we know all the other addictions. I went to one conference and there was a poster that had, on addictions, had two homeless men on a park bench and one saying, I used to be a CEO of a multinational, had three homes, private jet, and then I switched to decaf, you know. But we get that, don't we? That in some way we're using something to speed us to keep us productive and then of course there's all the other addictions so many of us to food to different out to alcohol to marijuana whatever it is that we're holding on to

okay another false refuge others approval in some way we're addicted to shaping our behavior what we say and what we do to have a certain response from others we know that one and then we're we have a false refuge in obsessive thinking, how many of us are always trying to figure something out, are always planning ahead and are always worrying. We get addicted to that, which disconnects us from this body and this heart. And then we have false refuge in our beliefs. We really get caught in thinking we're right. And that leads into perhaps one of the most painful false refuges which is the blaming. And sometimes it's war on ourself.

We're blaming ourselves. Sometimes it's war on others. But we get very caught in some sense of somebody being wrong. And it's very painful. And it's personal, but this is the origins of war. Chris, I think Chris hedges. War is the force that gives life meaning. Well, in a way,

are blaming. When we have some sort of a personal enemy, we get organized around it. It kind of lets us know who we are. So we have this kind of sense of, I'm right. Just naming these, as I'm hoping you'll sense, well, where do you do it? When we get insecure, we tend to lash out. And we can see it politically and in the larger social arena. When there's insecurity, it's easy to blame the immigrants. It's their fault. They're taking our jobs. They're making us insecure. Are now the unions. Now it's the unions there that are really the, in some way that those that are causing trouble. When we're insecure, it's those people from that religion and we demonize a religion. It happens so quickly. Or a race. Are someone with a different

sexual orientation. Out of insecurity, we make the other wrong. So you might take a moment. We'll just reflect and just give you an invitation just to sense for yourself. What are the false refuges or maybe a key false refuge that you intuit takes you away from your heart, takes you away from presence? Is it being addicted to busyness? Is it overconsuming? Is it getting approval?

Is it obsessing? Judging? Making others into the enemy. And just to say, as you reflect, what's most important is your attitude that you're not judging, you're not adding yet another false refuge of self-judgment, that instead it's like an understanding, kind, older friend

that's just noticing, okay, how do I pedal away from presence? You might think of today or yesterday. You might sense, what is the false refuge you feel ready to really look at more closely or let go of? Maybe it's blame. Maybe you're getting that, wow, there's a lot of moments of in some way blaming that another's not holding up their end or not doing something right or, you know, Who would you be if you let go of that sum?

Or who would you be if you were less in that busy persona? Carlos Castagnata says we either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same. So there's a poignancy to just without judgment, just sensing, oh, that takes me away from myself. And with a kind of sincerity, as you would, just to a friend, that you just want to see yourself, your spirit's strong, not miserable, just sensing, what might I be ready to let go of? It will help me come home more.

And it's that sincerity, not judgment, that prepares the grounds. This is roomy. Sometimes you hear a voice through the door calling you as a fish out of water hears the serfs come back. this turn towards what you deeply love saves you okay so opening your eyes so the beginning of freedom is just to notice where we get hooked and this this willingness we can't will it but this willingness to explore letting go

and turning towards true refuge and the first true refuge will explore I mentioned the three we're not going to do them exactly in the order that it's done traditionally I'd like to begin with Dharma and taking refuge in the Dharma, there's a kind of outer expression and an inner expression. And the outer expression of Dharma is really taking refuge in the practices and the teachings. It means taking

refuge in perhaps reading what will inspire you or listening to the talks or getting together with others and practicing together. The inner expression of refuge in Dharma, in the most simple way that I understand it is refuge in this present moment's experience. You're taking refuge in the truth of what's right here, and it's entirely radical to do that. There is a profound liberation when you choose this moment. One of the great reflections that I've encountered is, what would it mean to really choose this moment? And by choose meaning say yes to this moment, not fight it at all. This is Zen Master Rio Kani.

He says, to find the Buddhist law, drift east and west, come and go, entrusting yourself to the waves. To take refuge in truth. And the Dharma is really entrusting yourself to reality, to the life that's here. Now the challenge, as I mentioned, in taking refuge in the present moment,

is that we have a really deep conditioning. We have all these styles of leaving. And so the practice is to notice we've left, to notice we're usually often thoughts of how to fix things, how to change things, what's wrong, what we need. And refuge in the Dharma, the most basic practice, recognize the thoughts and come right here into the moment.

Now I'll give you an example. My favorite examples usually are from like yesterday or the day before own life and they're a little bit humbling because I am always surprised by how quickly I paddle away but I'll share my most recent which is late yesterday we had some men that were working on our property and one inadvertently cut the water line to our will we we rely on well water for everything and the will is if when we don't have water we can't we don't have heat either or anything so so no

heated also part of the process was my computer going down and so I was for a chunk of yesterday a chunk of today didn't have a computer through that time my reactivity was enormous frustration and blame it's like you know how on earth this happened they're supposed to know where those water lines are and so on and feeling like a victim and I felt even more like a victim because Jonathan, my husband was away, and I was, you know, he missed last year's snowstorm. I'm still in recovery over that, you know. So he missed this one too, these two days. So, and then I know I'm about to do a talk on the refuges. So I said, okay, here I am and I'm being, you know, frustrated victim. So, okay, over and over again, I went from the storyline of

really don't like this really angry, really blaming to, okay, what's going on on my body? And what was going on my body was anxiety. And when I examined it, what was that anxious place believing and feeling? It was, there's not enough time I won't get everything done. Which happens to be something I feel even if everything is turned on and I've got my computer and everything's working. So I just stayed with that anxiety And it was really shine a light on it Because I realized, well, I'm always caught in this thing Of getting things done So stayed with it, felt my body, felt my breath

And just started saying, okay, entrust to these waves Just say yes to these waves of anxiety And if you're looking at me I'm touching my heart lightly Because I often will just sit and breathe And put my hand on my heart because it brings in also the added quality of kindness. And I needed some of that because part of the anxiety and discomfort

was that during that time, during that day and a half, not only I was the kind of frustrated victim, but the times I did email or get on the phone, I was brief and not so thoughtful. And so I felt like I had been inconsiderate with a few friends. And that felt. So I was kind of down on myself. okay, touching my heart, breathing, feeling, saying yes.

Gradually the blame dropped, the self-blame, the blame of others. And there was just a space and a feeling of a bit of a squeeze in my chest. Anxiety wasn't gone, but a lot more presence, a lot more homecoming to a larger sense of being. That's taking refuge in the Dharma. And it wasn't a one-shot. I would go back to doing different things and the squeeze would return and some of the blaming thoughts would return

so it's over and over again oh come back just this, just this there's a kind of identity shift that happens when we take refuge in the Dharma we go from the victim the oppressed one the reactive one to the space of awareness

and I watch this at this five-day retreat we just had. So many people with the whole array of peddling away from the present moment, the whole array of reactivity, choosing to come back and choosing the moment saying, okay, this, I'll be with this. And in those moments of saying yes, a kind of shift where they were no longer the small, separate self, back in mindfulness, back in a fullness of awareness. I'm emphasizing bringing this refuge in Dharma to when it's difficult. I'd like to read a poem because it's really refuge in the waves of whatever's going on and it has to do with an interest in the moment. To look at anything, writes John Moffat, to look at anything if you would know

that thing you must look at it long to look at this green and say I have seen spring in these woods will not do you must be the thing you see you must be the dark snakes of stems and ferny plumes of leaves you must enter in to the small silences between the leaves you must take your time and touch the very piece they issue from It's a beautiful practice taking refuge in the Dharma. Sometimes what we're taking refuge in feels difficult and sometimes it's beautiful,

but the very nature of presence is a kind of homecoming. That's exactly what Siddhartha under the Bodhi tree is kind of that was taking refuge in the Dharma. He sat there, this was on the night of his awakening, and committed to being with whatever came. and it was through that quality of presence that he came home to his Buddha nature to the awareness itself

taking the refuge in Dharma leads to the experience of Buddha nature so our first reflection we'll just invite you to perhaps close your eyes and let your attention go inward and you might sense what it means to you to take refuge in Dharma in path or truth.

And it might be first you sense in an outer way as you enter this new year, taking refuge in Dharma, taking refuge in these practices of awakening, whatever practices serve you. Taking refuge in whatever ways of living your life actually help to wake up and free your heart. So sense what it means to turn

towards your Dharma, the path that really is alive for you. And you might sense what it means to take refuge in the Dharma of this moment's experience, the truth of exactly what's happening here. This is the inner refuge. Just to let go of thoughts and let yourself belong to the waves, to the changing experience that's right here, perhaps more than ever in your life just to let go into the sensations of the breath, to let go into the sounds, let the sounds wash through you, and to truly say yes to whatever feelings are in your heart. To take refuge in the Dharma is the courage to turn towards

truth, to open to what is right here to this life just as it is. Taking refuge in the Sangha, Sangha originally was the community of monks and nuns, and a broader description really is really all our spiritual friends. The most quoted line in the Buddhist canon, the Polycanon, the scriptures, the most quoted passage about Sanga, our spiritual friends, was a back forth between the Buddha and anon to his, devoted follower and also Nanda was his cousin also and Ananda asks aren't good friends one half of this holy life and the Buddha says not so Ananda good friends are the whole of this holy life

I've been sharing that passage now probably for you know 20 years or whatever and I'm always struck by how big the how big the implications that good friends are the whole of this holy life. Now what does that mean? I mean, consider that. And the way I understand it, our whole life is relationship. I mean, everything that's going on, every moment's experience has an element of relating to the life that's inside us and relating to the life around us. and when there's a quality of friendliness, that expresses this wisdom that knows connection. What happens when we're friendly

is that it actually wakes up our sense of the profoundness of non-separateness. And the more we realize that, the more we really sense belonging, the more friendliness is just the natural expression of that. It just comes spontaneously. The challenge is we're very conditioned to feel separate. It's a deep conditioning.

It's in the structure of our brain. Now, our brains have neuroplasticity. We can wake up out of it. And yet we move around a lot through the day in a very basic sense of me and here and world out there, and I need to defend against something and get approval and grasp after this and protect against that,

it's very deep in us. And we very much restrict our friendship often to just a small group and others are real distant others. One person described this story on a holiday kind of story of a man who's leaving to visit his family in the Northeast

and he stops at one of those rest areas on the side of the road. He says, I go into the bathroom. The first stall is taken, so I go into the second stall. I just sat down when I hear a voice from the other stall. Hi there.

How's it going? Okay. Now, I'm not the type to strike up conversations with strangers and washrooms on the side of the road. I didn't know what to do. So finally I say, not bad. Then the voice says, So, what are you doing?

Well, I'm starting to find this a bit weird, but I say, well, I'm going to Boston. Then I hear the person. all flustered say, look, I'll call you back. Every time I ask you a question, this idiot in the next stall keeps answering me. So our hearts are not necessarily that inclusive to all those that are around us who are in the habit of just certain people. We do reflexively put others at a distance and one of my favorite wisdom quotes is Albert Einstein. He writes, a human being is part of the whole called by us universe,

a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest. A kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.

Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison, by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. I find that language so powerful, an optical delusion of consciousness, that we go around with a sense of this being separate, the world out there, our affections go to these people appropriately, but not to the rest. And yet this possibility, and this is the essence, I think, of taking refuge in Sanga, of widening the circle of compassion to include all beings. I mean, doesn't that resonate as the hope for our planet?

Yeah. Okay, so what are the ways that we take refuge in Sanga? How do we do that? And again, Sanga meaning this field of... of relatedness. Not just those we even call our spiritual friends that meditate with us. We're talking about the whole field of relatedness. And it's very, very appropriate and wise to strengthen the relationships that are right nearby. It just eventually we open and open and open. So we do it through loving connection with our family and with our friends and with those

closest by by just becoming more and more intentional about can I love. listen. Can I pay attention? Can I wake up out of my habitual thoughts of blame? And can I speak truth? So we begin to really pay attention to the flow of communication where we become willing to be vulnerable, real. We pay attention to our close-in relationships. And we use our meditation, the loving kindness practice and the compassion practice, to keep waking up our hearts in an inner way. And then we participate in a formal way often in groups that are consciously dedicated to waking up, freeing from addictions through the 12-step groups. In this community, the groups are called spiritual friends groups, are Kalianamita. That's the Polly name. Right in

Washington, we have 32, I think. 32 of these groups, and that's something you can find on the web if you're interested. The meet every other week and some of them have special focus. Some of them are just how do we bring these practices to the challenges and the good stuff in daily life. We also have affinity groups. We have people of color groups. We have a group for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning group, LGBT group.

Very, very beautiful sense of trust that grows to deepen the senses. in a safe environment of belonging, which then serves belonging to widening the circles. And that's so much what I'm finding in all the different, the Dharma communities around the country, at different stages of development, there is this commitment to widening the circles, so that we start understanding those that seem different.

So young people and old people, people of different races, people of different sexual orientations. There's this kind of a sense of waking up out of this idea of something's wrong, that there's a difference that can't be bridged. And how does it happen? Taking the time to get to know. If you get to know someone, you find the heart and the awareness that links us. share one story I shared on retreat.

It's one of my favorite stories of Sangha, of widening the circles. In this one, a schism, an African-American man had married a Caucasian woman, and they had a really, really powerful relationship that was getting destabilized because this woman's mother was hostile. And in her view, she saw, this is going to mean unhappiness for both of them. She thought she had a real, you know, she was caring about both of them, but the relationship was trouble. And they would visit and she'd be rude and angry and ignoring. It was really terrible for him, especially because it just tripped off childhood wounds of not being seen or valued.

He's a photojournalist. He kind of hidden behind his camera, you know, as kind of a stance. And anyway, so he committed to doing the inner work on the. He would get tripped off by the visits with her family. It would trip off the self-doubt and the hurt. And real fear that the relationship would be lost. And the more he realized how long he had been living with these same wounds and how painful it was what was going on,

the more he could really hold himself with a very real self-compassion, a real kindness and a real presence. And it was from that that he started looking at his mother-in-law. through those eyes and seeing a woman who was very afraid in all her life had moved from fear right into controlling without any, you know, midway stop, just reflexively. Thanksgiving came around. And when he went, he felt more aligned with himself. And he took some pictures kind of quietly.

And he caught a few pictures of her, the mother-in-law, one with her new grandchild, and one with her husband really pictures where she was very expressing her affection okay she's still treating him very arm's lent Christmas comes along they're exchanging presents so she gives him socks the wrong size and candy and he happens to be a

you know into health food and organic stuff he gives her two framed pictures the ones I just mentioned that really captured her good goodness. And when she opened the picture, she started weeping. And the weeping was in some way she had been seen. Okay? And it also shined a light on how much she had pushed him away. And that was the beginning of the thaw. That's what made essential what was most important, which was they began to get to know each other. On a one-on-one, when you get to know someone,

and you might get angry at them, you might have reactivity, but on some level they're still in your heart because you know, you see behind the veil, behind your stereotypes and your ideas. If we could get to know people in this world in a global way, we couldn't kill them, you know? They're a part of us. This is Sangha.

This is the movement of Sangha. In a way, I think of it as a practice of namaste. The word namaste means I see the, the divine in you, that we see the humanist, but we see behind the veil to the goodness and the heart and the sacred that lives through each being. There's a Sufi story, a master that's beloved by many, and he goes, and he goes regularly to this coffee house, and he's always surrounded by students, and they're attracted to his radiance and to his compassionate nature. And whenever they asked, well, how did you become so holy? His response is, I know what is in the Quran. Every time.

So finally, one time a newcomer comes, it's kind of an arrogant guy, comes into the coffee house. And when he hears that response, I know what is in the Quran. He goes, okay, tell us what's in the Quran. And this is the response. Two pressed flowers and a letter from my friend Abdullah. If our whole spiritual path came down to, may I be friendly, to this life within me and around me, we would experience in a very radical way non-separation, and we'd experience the heart that helps to heal this world. One more sharing before we do our reflection on Sanga,

which is that taking refuge in Sanga, it can be the outer refuges, I've described of participating in a formal group. It could be, you know, the ways of deliberately nourishing our relationships with our children, our parents, our friends. It can be serving. There's such a power to serving in serving each other and working together to serve the larger community.

We can see this with people that serve on our board and our committees and help with this class, but also those that are helping at hospice or The prison projects are in the countless ways that we try to bring peace or social justice or a consciousness to our environment. When it's coming from that sense of belonging, I'm serving because I belong to you, there's healing and freedom.

So some children were asked, what does love mean? When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love. I'm just going to read a few more. When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different, you know that your name is safe in their mouth.

Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen. When you tell someone something bad about yourself and you're scared they won't love you anymore, But then you get surprised because not only do they still love you, they love you even more. That's love. There's two more. You really shouldn't say I love you unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.

When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you. So refuge in Sanga, like Refuge in Dharma, is taking refuge in loving. presence. And there's outer ways of doing it. And there's an inner way of just having that intention to wake up our hearts. That intention does it. And when we pay attention to our hearts in this way, just like taking refuge in the waves, our identity shifts. In the moments that you're in some way serving another, are seeing past the veil, are revealing. who you are, being vulnerable, your identity shifts, and you come home to a larger sense of being.

So let's do this next reflection, okay, if you will. And this reflection on Sangha, as you see, will lead right into a reflection on Buddha nature. Because when we take refuge in the waves, the truth of right now, and when we take refuge in the heart, it actually reveals Buddha nature. So we begin with refuge in the Sangha.

And you might ask yourself what that means to you. In other words, how in the days and weeks to come you can deepen your intention, your commitment to refuge in relatedness. You might sense the outer ways, the ways with certain beings in your life. in your life or certain activities that can really serve in a very conscious way this awakening of heart. And then we can take refuge in the Sangha through our meditation. And you might in this moment reflect on someone you love. Just bring to mind someone that's easy for you to love,

where it's not complicated. Now all love has some mix or for most of us or some attachment. That's okay, but some love that's simple and real might include love for a pet. You might start there. Our partner, child, parent, someone who's no longer alive is fine.

But as you sense a person or a being, bring them right here into this room or into the space you're in right in this moment and sense what you love about this being. You might see the way this being's eyes express love for you. That might be the first thing you notice that you're feeling loved by this being. You might sense this being's goodness,

aliveness, humor, intelligence. As you do, just in a very visceral way, feel your care, sense the connection that's there. and feel your own heart. Just feel the space, tenderness, light of your own heart as you feel that belonging, that connection, invited to be as full as it is. And you might bring in another person or another being in your life.

In the same way, just to sense who's shining through, sense the love that that person has or that being has for you, what their eyes look like when they're appreciating you or connected with you. You just let the field of heart widened, just feel that edgelessness, inviting others in. And you might sense when you're feeling love, who are you? What's your sense of your own being? When your heart's tender and open. These are the words of Havis.

He says, I've learned so much from God. I can no longer call myself a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew. truth has shared so much of itself with me that I can no longer call myself a man, a woman, an angel, or even a pure soul. Love is befriended of you so completely. It has turned to ash and freed me of every concept and image my mind has ever known. So we take refuge in loving relatedness and we start sensing that when we fall in love, when we feel love, there's a belonging that wakes us up out of any sense of separation. We begin to sense just the pure awareness that's here, this awake beingness.

Taking refuge in the Buddha is taking refuge in this awareness, in this pure awakeness. Now, sometimes we begin by sensing an awakened being. like the Buddha or the Christ or the Bodhisattva of compassion, or any living or historic saint. And you might imagine, okay, right now, what is the awareness of the Buddha? Are the awareness of the Christ, a sense of awake, heart mind?

Imagine that's what's living through you. That's your source, that luminous present. just reflecting on that being's consciousness points us home to our own Buddha nature so we can take refuge in Buddha nature by bringing to mind and awakened being or we can just be right here

and this is the second part of a reflection in a way just pay attention to the waves that are right here simply notice the sound of these words and the spaces between sounds, space in the room. And notice the experience of aliveness and sensation in your body. Notice the feelings in your heart. And let that all be in the foreground and sense in the background,

this presence that's aware, this alert, inner stillness, this silence that's listening. This mystery of awareness is our, source. Rilke says that all this universe is your flesh, your fruit. Your vast shell reaches into endless space and there the rich thick fluids rise and flow illuminated in your infinite peace. A billion stars go spinning through the night, blazing high above your head. But in you is the presence that will be when all the stars are dead. So this is the final refuge, often in the

formal practice, the first refuge, this pure awareness, this luminous awakeness. The Tibetans say that it's closer than we can imagine. It's right here. It's more profound beyond any idea. It's easier. You can relax back into what you are and it's more wondrous than we can imagine. Everyone you meet, all beings here, all beings everywhere, the same radiance is looking through their eyes, the same mystery. Buddha nature is our essence. We move to the final part of the evening now where we take these reflections and we infuse their energy in into this protection cord, this red cord. And if you don't have one,

this is another opportunity to raise your hand, and they will magically appear. So as you're getting your protection cords, if you don't have a sheet, one of the chant sheets, then raise your other hands. So you've got both arms reaching to the heavens. Yeah, you can breathe, inhale, exhale. We'll do a little yoga while we're at it.

Good, okay, just keep your arms up. And I'm just gonna say a little more, little bit about this final ritual, which if you've done it recently, if you were at the retreat, it's a wonderful chance to do it again. I do this reflection every day, most days. So these are called protection cords, and in Buddhist Asia, these threads are considered a symbol of blessing. And the understanding is they're like threads from the monk's robes. Okay. So that's what you've got there is a thread from the robe of a monk. But it's almost like, in Mark, in the marketplace, you're a monk or none in drag.

Okay? So we're just going into the marketplace, but you can keep it, and you can have it either tied around your neck or around your wrist. It's your choice. And I'm going to ask you to select a partner, because after we meditate on our cords, a partner's going to help you to tie the knot so that your cord, because it's hard to do it ourselves.

And again, we need the sanga. So when Chogium Trunkpa, I like to relate this little story, the Tibetan teacher was asked, well, why do we need a protection cord? What are we protecting ourselves against? His response, you're protecting yourself against yourself, of course. And it's not meaning bad self, it's meaning we're protecting ourselves against this conditioning to feel separate and this conditioning to turn others into the energy. and this conditioning to judge and this conditioning to speed up

and this conditioning to pedal away from the present moment. It's a reminder, okay? We talked about forgetting and remembering the protection court's a reminder, so enjoy it in that spirit. And if you're one of those people that doesn't want to keep it on your body too long.

I mean, I have friends that have the same cordon for years, but if it doesn't match your sense of fashion, it's fine to take it off, but you might put it somewhere where you see it as a reminder. Maybe stand up and do this reflection standing up that might serve you the best. And for right now, you don't need your chant sheet. So you can put that down.

But what you do need is your cord. And if you'll take each end in the different hands, you're holding the ends of the cord. And now just allow yourself to close your eyes and go within because you're going to take some of the reflections you've already done. and infuse them, as I mentioned, into this chord. And the first reflection, we'll start where we ended, is the meditation, I take refuge in the Buddha, our Buddha nature, which is really saying,

I take refuge in my own awakened heart and mind. And you might imagine and feel and sense the truth of this awakened presence, the radiance, the tenderness, the vastness, as living through you, as animating you, that alert inner stillness that's aware. And as you feel your commitment to remember as well as you can again and again to take refuge in your own awakened nature, please tie the first knot into your protection cord. second reflection as I take refuge in the Dharma. And this is taking refuge in truth. This is your

dedication to staying and being here in the moment and entrusting yourself to the waves, opening to the life that's right here as it is. It's that courage to take refuge in truth. As you feel your commitment, both to take refuge in the outer Dharma, the practice. and teachings in the inner Dharma, this moment-to-moment reality, truth, please tie the second knot into your cord. In the third refuge, I take refuge in the Sangha. In this final reflection, we're sensing our dedication to taking refuge in loving presence, in loving relatedness, in the outer ways of participating consciously in relationships to

wake up, to serve, to know our connection, and the inner experience of taking refuge in love itself, feeling love itself and being that love, belonging to love, living from love. As you feel your commitment to widen the circles of compassion and take refuge in Sangha, please tie the final knot into your cord. And it's with this final knot sensing the three refuges, which are really inextricable from one another, your cord's now activated. So now if you want your cord tied around your neck,

the way to do it is to bring it behind your neck and have the two ends dangling in front of you. If you want it on your wrist, you're going to have it on your wrist. And then please turn to someone. Now, if you turn to someone nearby and find a partner, Just take turns in silence, tying each other's knots. And when you're done in silence, find a way to thank your partner.

Yeah. And then, if you will, to take your sheet, which you now should have. And we'll chant together. In fact, I'm going to invite you to sit down again, just so we can do this in a... You can take a moment to resettle yourself and pause. So coming into silence, letting the words of this chant as you chant it, just feeling the meaning again, because you're really again just chanting from the heart, your commitment to turning towards awareness, truth, and love. Namotasa,

Bhagawato, Arahatou, Samasam buddhasa. Namotasa, Bhagawato, arahto, ahraha, Samasamuāsa.

Budam, Seraanam Gautami, Damang Saran Gau Chami, Sangha, Sarnan Gau Ghaji Duthiampi, Bhuraan Sarenanghahahahami, Duttiampi Damaan Sarenanghahahahami, Duttiampi, Sanga, Sagananganianganiangani, Thottiam P, Sanga, Sadanonga, Gautiampi, Bhudam Settanong Gauchami.

Tatiyan pi Damang Sattanaoamai. Tatiampi Sangam Sattanam Gautamu Kajami. Namaste. So I want to honor each of you. Again, when I say namaste, to see the sacred in each other and to bow is perhaps the most beautiful way to widen the circles. So to invite you as you leave tonight in the spirit of Sangha to perhaps meet one person you've never spoken to and find out something about who they are, see the sacred in those eyes. I hope I get to see you next week.

Thank you for being here and bless you for your attention. Namaste. Thank you. The talk you just listened to has been freely offered. If you'd like to make a donation, learn more about my schedule, or about programs offered by the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, please visit either my website, which is tarabrock.com, our IMCW site, which is IMCW.org.

Thank you very much. Thank you.