Prior to the empowerment, the sangha provided a taking refuge ceremony for those who, like myself, hadn't before. Taking refuge is the formal initiation of a person into the Buddhist path. So this day was extremely important to me because I felt that I had done my initial explorations and studies of Buddhism, that I appreciated the values behind the religion, and that I could see myself devotionally committing to Buddhism for the rest of my life in some capacity. I wanted to be a Buddhist. Or, rather... I felt that I had finally been called to Buddhism 9 months ago after feeling an avid interest for some years prior and I was now answering the call.

I could feel the energy change in the room as soon as the ceremony began. As the Venerated Lama chanted, and eventually played music, it very much felt like a large number of associated spirits entered the space. To me, it felt like his teachers as well as his teachers' teachers were present.

Taking refuge during my sangha's ceremony involved coming up to the Venerated Lama in a line and giving consent for him to take a snip of your hair. Traditionally, the Lama of my sangha said, that you would shave your head. He jokingly asked the congregation if anyone wanted to shave their head before saying that they didn't have the equipment... Honestly, if they had, I would have done it. Although my hair is finally growing back from testosterone-induced loss thanks to thrice weekly red light therapy, I have struggled with my attachment to it for a better part of the last year. The symbolic relinquishing of it would have been really meaningful for me.

After my hair was lightly snipped, I received a dharma name in Tibetan. I teared up as soon as I saw it because it translates to "Sun of Wisdom" (Karma Yeshe Nyima). If you know me, you may know that the Sun is one of my resonating symbols. My offline name is directly related to the sun, I was born on a sunny July day with a sun-filled traditional western natal chart, and feel kin to the creative, generative, bright leadership power of the Sun. Additionally, Lucifer in the beginning of my Buddhist explorations instructed me to follow Manjushri, bodhisattva of wisdom. Although I self-admittedly fall short often, I do try to pursue wisdom as I grow and change throughout my life.

Once all of us who needed to take refuge had completed taking our dharma names, we bowed at the right knee. He chanted over us three times. We then were instructed to bow three times, putting our hands together at our foreheads, our throats, and our hearts per the traditional Tibetan form before fully going the ground and touching our foreheads to the floor. Having recently started a bowing regimen at home in order to improve my ability and willingness to submit to my allied spirits, I felt my energy give itself over to the Lama and to the lineage.

Afterward, the Lama led us in an empowerment of Chenrezi. The meditation practice is quite open to people, hence why I was able to attend Chenrezi meditations at the sangha before taking refuge (and to note, I have not taken samaya, which is a deepening of vows that allows one to pursue otherwise closed practices). Still, I don't think I will share much. I felt like I experienced an energetic effect more at the introduction to the empowerment than the empowerment itself, which is interesting. When the sangha announced and sent reminders of the empowerments, they quoted the Dalai Lama about how he gives empowerments to even those who don't seriously have a Buddhist practice because there are instances where such people become more motivated to establish practice after receiving the empowerments. I am curious if my self or practice will change in any way now that I have received this empowerment.

When reading or hearing the teachings, we see the mountaintop so clearly, but when we bring our vision back to where we are, our two feet are still planted at the bottom of the mountain. We can see the peak, but we are not there yet. We still need to climb up the mountain by walking the path.

To do so, we need to nurture a heart of sincerity, purity, and great vows. As Buddhists, we take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. To touch the spirit of the Three Refuges, we will need to develop sincerity of heart, purity of heart, and greatness of vows

Sincerity of heart

The Buddha is our teacher. We take him as our teacher because he is someone who awoke to the truths and universal laws that govern life. This being so, we need to develop a very genuine and sincere desire to understand the truths he shared with us. This comes from first believing the Buddha to be enlightened, and then believing in the truth of what he said.

Firstly, we need to truly believe what he said about all of us having, deep within us, an enlightened nature—and that this is our true nature. We too are capable of attaining the same great awakening that he did.

We also need to truly believe what he tells us about the law of karma that governs this world, and the reality of collective karma. We need to understand that in our ignorance and wrong notions, we have acted in greed, anger, delusion, arrogance, and doubt, creating negative karma which accumulates into collective karma.

Still, we always think that we are right, never aware of how our actions may be wrong. That is why we need to turn inward and reflect, and then cleanse our hearts. Then we can be open to learning the Buddha’s teachings.

With that sincerity of heart and earnestness to learn, we will be able to come closer to understanding the truths that the Buddha shared with us. We can draw closer to that kind of enlightened understanding—touching it so that the Buddha’s heart becomes our own heart; our heart, the heart of a Buddha.

This all begins with faith in the Buddha’s awakening, from which a sincere desire to learn from him is born. Without such faith, how can we begin? Without such sincerity and earnestness to learn, how can we learn?

Purity of heart

While the universal truths that the Buddha tried to share with us are in fact very simple, because our hearts are not pure, we cannot access them. We cannot take them to heart and we continue in our habit patterns, still blind to many of life’s principles. That is why purifying our hearts is important.

How can we purify our hearts? By taming our afflictions and working on overcoming our unwholesome tendencies in daily living. Our personal habits and idiosyncrasies are based on these unwholesome tendencies, and when we exhibit them outwardly, they reflect the inner state of our mind. When our habits are very entrenched, it shows that our heart and mind are not very clean. The way to begin cleansing our hearts and minds is by repenting, working to eliminate our greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt, and by practicing the precepts.

We need a cleansed heart and mind in order to learn the true Buddhist teachings. When we try to learn them without this preparation, it is like pouring clean water into a dirty bucket: the water will get contaminated. Like the contaminated water, our understanding of the Buddha’s teachings will be distorted.

Learning the teachings with a clean heart and mind, we will be able to understand them correctly and touch the truth in them. This is what we should do when we study the sutras. Though many people recite sutras because they think it creates merit, focusing on the act of reciting, we should actually look to the sutras as sources of enlightened wisdom and strive to awaken to the principles they contain.

The sutras aren’t complicated; the teachings they contain are in fact very simple. When our heart and mind are clean, we can touch the essence of the teaching; our inner wisdom then can be brought forth and we can gain deep insight.

So, let us clean our heart and mind by eliminating our unwholesome habits, and with a pure heart strive to understand the essence of the teachings, enter deeply into the Dharma, and gain insight.

Greatness of vows

On the spiritual path, we must also harbor a deep desire and great vow to guide more people to join us on this path to awakening. In the world today, many people have lost sight of what life is about. Without a true sense of purpose, they go about life caught up in superficials.

We need to give rise to a sincere desire to help people come to understand and live out life’s true meaning. In our hearts, there needs to be such a great, selfless vow. If more people can come to understand the Buddha’s authentic teaching, they will gain wisdom and comprehend life’s true value.

Since many overseas volunteers are not Chinese and many are of different faith, instead of explaining the meaning of taking refuge from the traditional Buddhist perspective, Master provides a broader interpretation for the meaning of taking refuge.  The teaching below is paraphrased from her speech.

自皈依佛 當願眾生 體解大道 發無上心

I take refuge in the Buddha. May I and all living beings understand the great truths the Buddha shared with us and aspire to the same enlightenment that the Buddha attained.

Taking refuge in the Buddha is to attain a correct awakening.  Buddha is a term for enlightenment.  Awakening is about opening our heart to all living beings, not focusing only on ourselves.  Every person has an innate nature of awakening.  In taking refuge in the Buddha, we are also taking refuge in ourselves; we are to protect our heart and mind so that we don’t get spiritually lost.

In reciting the verse of taking refuge in the Buddha, we tell ourselves, “I’ve realized that I have the potential for awakening.  I have faith in my Buddha nature and in my ability to inspire people.  Thus, I aspire to walk the right path and also guide people to walk the right path.”

自皈依法 當願眾生 深入經藏 智慧如海

I take refuge in the Dharma. May I and all living beings deeply enter the treasury of the teachings and have wisdom vast as the sea.

Next is taking refuge in the Dharma.  Dharma is about doing things correctly.  For example, in giving people our love, we are to follow principles.  We do not give love blindly; our love must be based on correct faith.  Take family for example, we are to have a legitimate family, and our love for our family is based on loyalty.  This applies to both the husband and the wife.  One shouldn’t go astray.  This is familial love.  There are also principles involved when parents give love to their children, or when people give love to their neighbors or people in society.

Thus, in taking refuge in the Dharma, we are to learn principles and the Buddha’s teachings. When we have faith in the Dharma, we’ll gain wisdom.  We will not go astray and be deluded.  This is how the Dharma can guide us.  When we study the sutra treasury deeply, which are principles, we’ll gain wisdom as vast as the sea.

自皈依僧 當願眾生 統理大眾 一切無礙 和南聖眾

I take refuge in the Sangha. May I and all living beings join together as one in harmony and work to guide all living beings onto the right path without obstruction.

Next is taking refuge in the sangha.  This means that there’s a need for someone to guide people into Buddhism.  I’m a Buddhist monastic.  Hence, I expound the Dharma and guide people to join Buddhism and volunteer with Tzu Chi.  Walking on the path of Tzu Chi is to work with people of all religions and help people in the world to have correct faith and not be spiritually lost.  So, we are to guide people to give love and use their strength to help people in suffering.  By bringing people’s efforts together, we can help a lot of people in suffering.  Every person has his or her own affinities and can aspire to guide all living beings.  May we set a goal for ourselves to have the strength to call forth people’s power of love, guide people to walk this broad path, and pave a broad path of wisdom and blessings in this world.