The Three Refuges: Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha

Overview

Recall questions on taking refuge in the Buddha, dhamma and sangha, how the three depend on one another, what sangha includes, the refuges in worship and daily life, Theravada and Mahayana understandings, and Bodhi and Thanissaro Bhikkhu on going for refuge.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What does a Buddhist do in taking refuge, and why is that the entry point?

   Model answer

   They declare that they take the Buddha, the dhamma and the sangha as what they rely on. Buddhists treat the act, repeated in ceremonies and daily practice, as what makes someone a Buddhist, since it is a commitment of direction rather than assent to a creed.

2. 2

   Why is the Buddha a refuge, given that he is not held to be a saviour?

   Model answer

   Because he is the proof that awakening is possible and the discoverer of the way to it. Refuge in the Buddha is confidence in an example and a teacher; Buddhists are clear that he cannot do the work for anyone, and Theravada texts stress that he pointed out the road rather than carrying travellers along it.

3. 3

   In what sense is the dhamma a refuge?

   Model answer

   Dhamma covers both the teaching and the truth it describes. Taking refuge in it means relying on that account of reality and on the path it prescribes, and Buddhists commonly say it is the dhamma, not the person of the Buddha, that actually protects, because it is what does the work when practised.

4. 4

   What does refuge in the sangha give a practitioner?

   Model answer

   Companionship, instruction, correction and a living demonstration that the path is walkable. Buddhists distinguish the ordinary community from the ariya-sangha, those who have reached the stages of awakening, and it is that inner community which is strictly the refuge, though the visible community is what a practitioner meets.

5. 5

   How do the three refuges depend on one another?

   Model answer

   The Buddha discovered and taught the dhamma; the dhamma produced the sangha; the sangha preserved and transmitted the dhamma after the Buddha's death and still supplies teachers. Remove any one and the other two become inaccessible, which is why they are taken together rather than ranked.

6. 6

   Assess the claim that the dhamma is the most important of the three.

   Model answer

   In its favour: the Buddha is valued for having found the dhamma, and the sangha for embodying it, so both point beyond themselves. Against it: without the Buddha the dhamma is undiscovered, and without the sangha it is untransmitted, and in practice most Buddhists encounter the teaching only through a community. Traditions weight the three differently, and devotional forms give the Buddha a much larger place.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.