What Commitments do we have as Dharma Practitioners?

Part 1 of 2: Refuge,

Out of fear, humans usually go for refuge

to mountains, forests, gardens, shrines, and trees.

Those refuges are not the highest, those refuges are not supreme.

There is no freedom from all suffering by relying on those refuges.

At that time, if refuge is sought in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha

whose wisdom sees the four truths of āryas—

suffering, the source of suffering,

the true transcendence of suffering, the eightfold path of the āryas,

happiness, and the way to nirvana—

that is the highest refuge, that is the supreme refuge.

There will be liberation from suffering by relying on that refuge.

—Udānavarga, Section 29, the Collection on Seeing.

The Indo-Tibetan tradition has very legalistic notion of [Skt.] samvara or [Tib.] sdom pa, literally “restraint,” usually translated as “vow.” The term “vow” is not a perfect translation for term saṃvara, though is fine equivalent for Vajrayāna samaya or dam tshig, which are literally promises. I will not cover samaya in these two posts since they are a subset of bodhisattva restraints. Also, reader should understand that this presentation is grounded in common Mahāyāna.

There are two kinds of restraints: restraints connected with personal liberation (pratimokṣasamvara) and restraints connected with bodhicitta (cittotpādasaṃvara). In this post we will concentrate on pratimokṣasamvara, with a special focus on the restraints connected with going for refuge as well as the vows for upāsakas and upāsikās.

The fundamental difference between a Buddhist and a non-Buddhist is who and what are sought as a refuge, thus, it is important for us to understand who and what are suitable refuges.

Who is a suitable refuge and why? A suitable refuge is an awakened person and the teachings they give to assist others in waking up. This leads us to inquire, what is awakening (bodhi) and how is a person defined as awakened? Awakening itself is not complex, though it is described in many ways. Awakening is defined in Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakośabhaṣya simply as uncontaminated wisdom (anāsravaprajñā), or wisdom without effluents, outflows. A person who has attained uncontaminated wisdom is an awakened person. Uncontaminated wisdom is genuine insight (Skt. vipaśyanā, Tib. lhag mthong), defined as sight that is not obscured or afflicted. Two kinds of people possess this kind of wisdom: buddhas and those who have attained what is known as the path of seeing. The latter people are referred as the “Noble Sangha.” Thus, Buddhas and all those who have attained the path of seeing are suitable objects for one to seek a refuge. These are referred to as the Buddha Jewel and the Sangha Jewel. In Mahāyāna in particular, the Sangha Jewel is primarily considered to be the bodhisattvas on the ten bodhisattva stages.

The Sangha in which we should find refuge is only in the Noble Sangha, and never the mundane Sangha. What is this latter Sangha? It is sometimes called “the conventional Sangha.” Why is it not a proper refuge? It is made up of ordinary people who are on the path, but below the path of seeing. Since these fellow practitioners are not awakened, they cannot be considered a refuge.

Finally, we have the refuge in the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha and his awakened disciples, in particular, noble bodhisattvas on the stages.

The commitments connected with these three refuges are straight forward: the commitment of going for refuge to the Buddha is not to take other teachers, worldly teachers such as Śiva, Kṛīṣna, Jesus, Confucius, and so on, as one’s refuge. This does not mean one is forbidden to find value in the writings of other teachers, but one should not regard such teachers as a refuge. The commitment of going for refuge to Dharma is to avoid harming sentient beings. The commitment of going for refuge to the Sangha means not associating with harmful people, people of wrong view, and in particular, not associating with those who bear malice towards the Three Jewels.

Secondly, one should respect representations of the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha as if they were the actual Three Jewels,

Third, one should not renounce the Three Jewels, one should place one’s trust in the Three Jewels exclusively, make regular offerings to the Three Jewels, go for refuge keeping in mind the benefits of the Three Jewels, and pay homage and prostrate to the Three Jewels when one comes into the presence of their images.

Having taken refuge, one is considered an upāsaka (male) or an upāsikā (female). While there is really is no category of lay people in the Dharma, there is a distinction between those who remain in householder life and those who chosen to become renunciate practitioners. The vows and commitments of the latter are beyond the scope of this post.

The upāsaka (male) or an upāsikā (female) may adopt one, two, or more of the five basic restraints: not taking life, not lying, not taking what has not been given, not becoming intoxicated, and not engaging in sexual misconduct. These five restraints are designed to assist the practitioner avoid birth in lower realms and create a stable basis for the development of concentration and wisdom. Thus they are not a practice of “ethics” in the western philosophical sense of the term, rather, they are pragmatic conduct for the development of concentration and insight. This is the reason they are catechistic in nature, rather than analytical.

Overall, the personal commitments of a Dharma practitioner are not onerous, and are solely designed to be a vehicle for one to practice the Dharma. These commitments or restraints are connected only with one’s personal liberation (pratimokṣa) and do not directly benefit other sentient beings. The five precepts are not mental in nature, and only cover physical and verbal conduct. These five were selected by the Buddha because these five actions create the heaviest karma among the ten nonvirtues.

In the next post, we will take up a review the commitments of bodhicitta.