Taking refuge: the Three Jewels

Overview

Recall questions on the Three Refuges or Three Jewels, what taking refuge involves, the Buddha as refuge and not a god, dhamma as reality and as teaching, the monastic Sangha and lay Buddhists, Theravada and Mahayana understandings, and whether the Jewels are the heart of Buddhism.

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 are the Three Refuges, and why are they also called the Three Jewels?

   Model answer

   They are the Buddha, the dhamma or dharma, and the sangha or samgha. Buddhists call them jewels because they are held to be the most valuable things a person can rely on, and refuges because they are what one turns to for safety. Taking refuge in all three is what makes someone a Buddhist in most traditions, rather than holding a particular set of propositions.

2. 2

   What does taking refuge actually involve for a Buddhist?

   Model answer

   It involves reciting a short formula, usually three times, in which the person states that they go to the Buddha, the dhamma and the sangha for refuge. It is commonly done before a monastic or a shrine image, often together with undertaking the five precepts, and it is repeated regularly rather than performed once. Buddhists generally understand it as a renewed commitment and reorientation of one's life rather than a one-off conversion ceremony.

3. 3

   What is a Buddhist taking refuge from, and what for?

   Model answer

   Not from external danger or divine punishment, but from dukkha and from the repeated round of samsara driven by craving and ignorance. The refuge sought is not rescue by a protector but a reliable direction: an example that awakening is possible, a teaching that describes the way, and a community that supports the practice. Buddhists therefore say the Jewels do not do the work for the practitioner; they make the work possible.

4. 4

   Explain the different understandings of the Buddha as a refuge.

   Model answer

   At one level Buddhists take refuge in the historical person, Siddhartha, as proof that a human being can awaken. At another level they take refuge in buddhahood as an ideal or principle, the awakened state that all beings can in some sense realise. Mahayana traditions expand this further, treating the Buddha as having several aspects and recognising many buddhas. Theravada Buddhists usually keep the emphasis on the historical teacher and the quality of awakening he embodied.

5. 5

   Why do Buddhists say that taking refuge in the Buddha is not the same as worshipping a god?

   Model answer

   Because the Buddha is not held to have created the world, to answer prayers, or to forgive sins. Theravada Buddhists add that he passed beyond rebirth at his death and so is not available as a rescuer at all; Mahayana traditions read his passing differently and do treat celestial buddhas as sources of help, which is where the line with theistic worship becomes harder to draw. Bowing, offerings of flowers, light and incense are usually explained as expressions of gratitude and respect, and as reminders of impermanence. Critics note that in popular practice the line can look thin, and some Mahayana devotion to celestial buddhas is closer to theistic worship than Theravada practice is.

6. 6

   What does dhamma or dharma mean when it refers to ultimate reality?

   Model answer

   In this sense dhamma means the way things actually are: the underlying truth about conditioned existence that would hold whether or not anyone taught it. Buddhists say the Buddha discovered this rather than invented it, comparing him to a person who finds an overgrown road that already existed. Taking refuge in the dhamma in this sense means aligning oneself with reality rather than with wishful thinking.

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