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Guided Meditation: Meditate like a Living Mountain; Dharmette: Savoring the Flavors of Refuge (3 of 5) Refuge in the Buddha - Ying Chen, 陈颖

The following talk was given by Ying Chen, 陈颖 at Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, CA on August 28, 2024. Please visit the website www.audiodharma.org for more information.

Introduction

So here we are, gathering together again. This week, as I was indicating in the last couple of days, we're building upon a metaphor I used: sitting like a mountain. The first day, we were just using this metaphor as a way for us to let the Earth element, the earthy body, rest on the Earth and to allow ourselves to feel a sense of grounding and collectedness. Then yesterday, I expanded a little bit of this metaphor to include the breath. This mountain within, the Earthly body within, has a liveliness to it, has a life breath that enlivens us. I used the metaphor of the breathing mountain.

Today, we'll expand to include even more dimensions of our being. This alive being has the physicality of the body, our emotions, and our minds—kind of like an entire living ecosystem. Like the mountain, the forest, the animals, it's a whole system. And that's the nature within, too. So that's what we'll be meditating with today. I'll begin with the sound of a bell.

Guided Meditation: Meditate like a Living Mountain

Let the sound of the bell fade. Arriving. Arriving at the here and now. Maybe a sense of coming home to this body, mind, and heart. Maybe it's a kind of a familiar feeling for you to come home here in this body, just as it is, not demanding for it to be otherwise. Just receiving kindly.

If it's helpful, you can do a global scan of the body, inviting any slight relaxation and ease that's available to you, from the bottom of the feet all the way to the top of the head. Relaxing and softening, if that's available to us. One moment of mindfulness at a time. Moment by moment, you can begin to feel a sense of presence, more steady. The weight of the body settling down naturally, and the torso naturally uplifts, allowing this earthy body to rest on Earth, sitting like a mountain. Grounded, quiet, still, to whatever degree that's available to you.

The movement of the breath naturally gets highlighted. A breathing mountain, a life mountain within. Feeling sensations dancing in the body, vibrating, tingling. You may also notice other elements in the body: the water, moisture, feeling like the mists in the mountain. There may be emotions, waves of emotions, like a weather system in the mountain.

Open to receive, feel, and sense this entire ecosystem within. Releasing the demands, the reactivities. Being curious about the ecosystem within. What do you notice as you immerse yourself into this inner ecosystem? A live mountain. Moisture, coolness, sound, weather systems.

Is there a kind of a wakefulness here, now, in this nature within? In the Dharma of your own being? There may be natural heart responses to this kind of tenderness, a kind of care, wonder, gratitude. Is there a possibility of simply being here, aware, wakeful, and alive? May it be enough.

Dharmette: Savoring the Flavors of Refuge (3 of 5) Refuge in the Buddha

I feel quite quiet within and am feeling a kind of quiet from all of you also. In these last few days, we've been exploring the different aspects of refuge. We started with refuge in Sangha¹ and refuge in Dharma, and today we'll explore incorporating the refuge in the Buddha. As some of you would know, these three form the Triple Gem², which is often referred to in the reverse order: the Triple Gem of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

Refuge in the Buddha has an ancient root. In the Pali Canon³ texts, we often find the words, "I go to the Buddha for refuge." It feels like it may make sense for those who lived in the times of the Buddha; there was a person, the Buddha, an awakened being, to go to and to follow around and maybe to hang out with. But what does it mean for us, 2,600 years later? There is not a Buddha to hang out with. So, what does taking refuge in the Buddha mean?

For some people, the Buddha represented a possibility to be free from suffering, from dukkha⁴. He is a human being who realized the Four Noble Truths and became an awakened human being. That possibility itself, and the fact that there is Gautama the Buddha⁵ who did it, may be inspiring and uplifting for people. That may be sufficient for people to feel drawn towards this possibility and to feel the potency of taking refuge in the Buddha. That's one possibility, and it gives a sense of, "Oh, I'm uplifted by this possibility from this historical figure, the Buddha."

But for others, the sense of refuge for someone who lived in such a distant time can feel somewhat elusive and distant. Given that we just don't know who this person is and how we relate to them is not completely clear, it's sometimes hard to translate the inspiration or the aspiration into something immediate or deeper inside of us.

How might the refuge in the Buddha come alive in us and touch us in ways that feel meaningful? There may be many ways; some of you may have experienced your own ways of relating to this refuge. I'd like to share one aspect of this, one way to relate. The word "Buddha" means "awake" or "awakeness," the one who knows or "knowing." This is a kind of knowing that's different from reading a book and getting some kind of information. Rather, this is a knowing that is from deep within ourselves. Gautama the Buddha became awake through this kind of deep knowing, observing the nature of this body, mind, and heart.

This refuge in the Buddha points to the possibility of being awake, aware, and clear-seeing. In a way, this refuge is not asking us to try to become the Buddha, but rather we can cultivate this wakefulness and clear awareness within us. In this way, the cultivation itself is much more immediate and direct, and the possibility is here and now. It's not in some distant past or the future.

I want to read this quote from Ajahn Sumedho's⁶ book, Intuitive Awareness. This is what he described about taking refuge in the Buddha: "We're asked to take refuge in our own ability to be awake, to pay attention to life no matter what the conditions might be in the present moment. The simple willingness to acknowledge things for what they are as changing conditions liberates us from being caught in the power of attachments, in struggling with emotions or thoughts that we're experiencing."

Might this be a kind of refuge in the Buddha? To take refuge in our own ability to be awake, to pay attention to life no matter what the conditions might be in the present moment. To me, that really brought the refuge in Buddha close to my life. It's here and now, this moment, in the midst of the happenings, the challenges, the difficulties, and the comfort. It's tangible and it's practical, and it's aligned with the teaching, with the Dharma. It's something that we can turn to again and again whenever we remember.

Right here, I can choose to be present, aware, to pay attention as best as we're able. We're not demanding for it to be somehow like a big light bulb with some high wattage or something. But it's just, "Oh, this moment, what is here?" Maybe if I'm frustrated or fearful, I can begin to tune into it and really get to know it. In Ajahn Sumedho's words, this is a "simple willingness to acknowledge things for what they are." In our meditation, I use this phrase: "not demanding for things to be otherwise." There is a kindness and compassion right there, while allowing this clear knowing to come forth, little by little.

There's a phrase that Ajahn Chah⁷ would often repeat again and again: "It is the way it is." Oh, it is the way it is right now. Maybe I'm a little agitated. It is the way it is. When we know it clearly, we can begin to feel and sense a shift and change. In the meditation, I used this nature metaphor. When we're really letting ourselves soak in the mountain, the various ecosystems, softening into this, we can begin to feel the changes in the micro-system.

I was doing a hike this last weekend and I began to notice very vividly as I was walking how the forest just changed, how the terrain changed. It was not a long hike, but I began to notice, "Oh, wow, the trees have just changed." There was a whole oak tree forest, and as I walked more and more, the oak trees began to change to something different. I don't even know the names of the trees, but they were no longer oaks. We can begin to feel the change of the nature within instead of getting caught up in our habitual reactivities: "Oh, it shouldn't be like this. I must have done something wrong."

When we get clear about the patterns, we begin to notice these extra layers of reactivity are compounding dukkha. They are added; they're created extra. This is what Ajahn Sumedho is pointing out. When we begin to see this, it's very natural that we would release it because it makes no sense to be reactive like this. It's possible then, in the moment, by seeing things clearly, it liberates us from being caught in the power of attachment. We're learning to, little by little, live with lesser and lesser degrees of this compounding dukkha based on our judgments and our habitual tendencies.

In this way, I'd like to summarize by pointing out that all three refuges, the Triple Gem, are not totally separate. They have separate dimensions or aspects, but together they form a kind of structure for us to point to a kind of cultivation within. Maybe we're uplifted by the possibility of wakefulness like the Buddha, and we are practicing aligned with the Buddha Dharma, and we're affected by the Sangha, so that each of us can continue to deepen this possibility of living in a way that is wakeful, aware, compassionate, and caring. That's the possibility.

May this refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha offer a kind of orientation for each of us as we navigate our lives. And may it come alive in each of us. Thank you for your attention, everyone. Be well, and may the goodness within be shared with all beings everywhere.