While it can get somewhat complex in its philosophical application, in basic terms, existential refers to existence as we can experience it directly.  In other words, it is the practice of being empirical in our worldview.  It denies the theological expression faith, and the notion of predestination.  At it’s core, existential understanding rejects a metaphysical or mystical worldview.  It stresses the importance of responsibility for the consequences of our actions.  We know the world around us through our verifiable experiences.  You hear Wayne Sensei and I use the term ‘experiential verification’ a lot as being important to our Buddhist practice.  This is a nod toward the existential potential inherent in Buddhist philosophy.

Before we can fully explore what it means to step onto the Buddhist path, it is important that we clearly grasp the basic human drive that awakens the inner spiritual quest that motivates us to seek a path beyond our own narrow self-oriented perspective, or the ‘me’ opposed to ‘other’ thinking.  More precisely, we need to recognize those fundamental components of man’s nature that are themselves authenticated through our actions when taking refuge in the Three Jewels.   The practice of Buddhism is not concerned with the building of a superstructure based on a set of passive unchanging principles, but with the transformation of how we come to understand our life from a state of disorder into a condition of purposefulness, based on useful and productive outcomes.  When I say ‘transformation’ I am implying that something undergoes a process of change.  The clearer we can describe and understand this ’something’, the more firmly our understanding of Buddhist principles will be, and the firmer we stand on this path to awareness.  We will stop relying on unknowing doctrines and focus instead on what is apparent in this very moment when we learn to see through the minds-eye with transformed lenses.  Because this is an existential approach, we must attempt to temporarily suspend our habitual judgment patterns and allow ourselves to confront the world around us as it discloses itself to us in every moment.

So the question is, “What makes one a Buddhist?”  We talk about the first step of taking refuge.  Because it is the first step however, it is one taken without full knowledge of what we are really undertaking.  You can say it depends on our uninformed intentions, but good intentions they hopefully are.  For some it is an act of spontaneous desire or want, for others it is taken after months and sometimes years of discernment.  But for most of us it is somewhere in between.  Nevertheless, perhaps the important motivation for us is associated with the power of the word ‘refuge’.  I find it a comforting word really.  When considering the terms Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, it is generally more easy to understand the concept and principles behind the words Dharma and Sangha.  But the word Buddha, while at first seems rather straight forward, on reflection, can be quite problematic.  What are we really taking refuge in when we say the Buddha?  The answer to that fundamental question comes down to our awakening to what it means to be an expression of the Universe.  It is the taking refuge WITHOUT DISTINCTIONS.  It is not about Siddhartha Gotama, it is not about the iconic image, some Zen masters even say it is beyond words.  But to say it is beyond words suggests a mystical component that is misleading.  So let’s explore this idea of what I mean when I say “without distinction”.

Every teaching of Buddhism contains certain ontological presuppositions.  Ontological being the philosophical study of the nature of things, as in the knowing of what makes us human, for example.  Implicit within each element of the Four Ennobling Truths (Realities) is an underlying view of man in terms that he can discover his own human-being-ness.  When it is said that “the cause of suffering is craving,” for example, in addition to making an explicit assertion about a causal relationship between two evident features of man’s existence (craving causes suffering in this case), is a tacit understanding of the underlying structure of human reality that can be realized.  By comprehending the various components of Buddhism in this way a picture can be gradually created of the Buddhist view of man’s being, both his human-ness and his expressing the nature of the Universe.  With this analysis we are able to clarify the compatibility of the Buddhist teachings with the actual structures of human existence as we have come to experience them for ourselves.  And by doing so, we are able to awaken to the relationship between ourselves and the concept of Buddha that points to the deeper understanding of what Buddha implies beyond an abstract construct.

Siddhartha came to awakening by applying this process of reasoning after many years of anxious self awareness and honesty of thought.  It was this state of anxiety that drove him to renounce the life he knew, whose values were focused solely in the domain of particular cultural and religious absolutes, in order to accept his existence as it became known to him through his experiences and use of empirical logic, in order to penetrate to its inner meaning.    He must have spent a great deal of time contemplating the age-old questions who’s answers employed the minds of all the great philosophers.  In accepting what was revealed though his anxiety as existentially significant, Siddhartha must have experienced disillusionment with the security offered by his particular privileged life when he compared it with what was going on around him, and was then freshly confronted with the sheer fact of the reality of his existence as he experienced it.  He experienced transformation that transcended the ordinary to the Universal.

And like Siddhartha, we too are challenged to awaken to the reality of our own human journey and accept what is revealed by our own feelings of anxiety and unsatisfactoriness as existentially significant, so we too can find our own path of transformation.   We have no choice but to directly face this fact without succumbing to the temptation of covering it up under the preferences of self-created filters of our own delusion.   We need to grasp the nature of our condition that is disclosed to us when we focus the body-mind on our current state of being, rather than on continuing the same path in the weeds.  This being is not static or passive; it is a dynamic ground of becoming and opening to new possibilities.  It is realized in full when we awaken to the nature of our own impermanence.  You might be well to ask, “to what end?”  With this fundamental question of the purpose and meaning of our life staring us in the face, we are challenged to find an answer that offers us comparable depth of meaning, and even hope.   The flip-side to this question takes the form of, “What is the purpose of existence?” or, “What is the meaning of life?” which is a subsequent thought referring to the notion of our own state of being.  The danger here is that we tend to identify this “being question” with its conceptual idea that in turn drives us to seek an answer in conceptual terms as well.  In other words, beyond our own ability to experience and verify, and out of the realm of existential neatness.  This leads to our getting bogged down in metaphysical mumbo-jumbo that makes the study of Buddhism confusing for many without a guide.  The explicit question, “What is the meaning of life?,” will never be satisfactorily answered by the sentence, “The meaning of life is: fill-in-the-blank.”  I think this question has little significant purpose anyway.  It can only really be consider at all if we do so when we also consider “all of existence,” and that requires our ability to go beyond language, yet still remains in the existential structure.  But since the question is about the life of man, it is also human in structure, likewise the answer also must be given in human terms.

For a Buddhist the answer to these questions are found in the Buddha himself.  It is the very life of Siddhartha, in his awakening, his active participation in the life of others, that provides an existential answer.  Being a Buddhist is not merely determined by the acceptance of certain beliefs and the rejection of others.  The essence of Buddhist understanding places the focus on the human being component before all other principles.  For a Buddhist, understanding the importance of our causal Universe, and the principles of a non-permanent self is the key to unraveling the core teachings encompassed in the Four Ennobling Truths (Realities), and this existential question of the nature of mans being.  Our being as disclosed to us in the fulfillment and meaningfulness as manifested in the Buddha’s life, is the vary essence embedded in the act of taking refuge in Buddha.  We are taking refuge in our own potential as reflect in the life of Siddhartha, not in Siddhartha the Buddha.  The commitment in taking refuge in our own Buddhahood is a change that takes place deep within us and what Siddhartha awakened to; it is not merely a change-over from one set of beliefs to another.  It is when this level of deeper spiritual experience of the core of our being is ignored, and metaphysical speculation, creeds, and elaborate rituals assume primary importance, that the danger of falling prey to secular, self-oriented interests arises.  For Buddhism to remain fully alive and valid, its existential dimension needs to be constantly emphasized.

It is the two considerations of coming to grips with any anxiety we might have over our human condition and the hope that there is a path away from unsatisfactoriness that results in our seeking refuge.  Anxiety is the cause for seeking refuge, and hope is the motivation that drives our action in taking refuge if we are at all serious in our intentions.  But this causal experience does not provide us with a secure refuge alone.  Now we come to be awakened to the reality of what taking refuge in Buddha really implies.  The difference is very great.  Before coming to any real awareness of what taking refuge really meant we were yet unaware of our own true natures and what it means to ‘becoming Buddha’s’.   But arriving at a state of understanding and acceptance of the nature of the human being as clearly defined in the Four Ennobling Truths (Realities),  and by taking refuge in Buddha as reflected in each of us, we fully accept our being and hope to actualize all its potentialities in the optimum state as is being revealed in the nature of Buddha himself.  We are taking refuge in our own potential.  It is only through the radical acceptance of what we are, and the adoption of a path that takes into account the realities of the human condition, that any lingering anxiety can be transformed into actions that promote human flourishing.  These are realized actions fully undertaken as that of a  human being expressing the nature of this Universe.  This is one of the most critical features of Buddhism, which is that Buddha does not represent a trans-human absolute value, but stands for the optimum mode of being that man himself is capable of realizing and becoming.

It is important to recognize that refuge is not sought in Siddhartha, but in his Buddha-ness.  Buddha represents a way of being that was historically actualized by Siddhartha, and was then ascribed to the state of Buddhahood through the words and actions of Siddhartha and his followers down to this contemporary age.    Each significant development of the Buddhist community over the centuries emerged through continuing insight gained into the nature of the human being.  There has been a transition over time on how we have come to understand the deeper significance in the term ‘Buddha nature’.  In the early Buddhist interpretation, emphasis was laid upon the enlightenment and nirvanic freedom discovered by Siddhartha, whereas in the more contemporary understanding importance is given to his altruistic participation in the world and his awakening to its existential nature of an impermanent and ever changing reality.  In each case understanding was being gained in different facets of the essential characteristics of what it means to be Buddha as the community strove to understand the nature of the existential answers to the very nature of the act of taking refuge.

However, refuge is not sought in Buddha alone, but in the three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.  Although we place the primary importance of Buddha in both concept and imagery in the act of refuge, the nature of this refuge is reflected into three elements in order to cover the entire relationships between man in his present condition, and man’s optimum potential of awakening to what that something is when we open the body-mind to look more deeply at this principle of our being.  Here I am bringing center stage the characteristic of ‘refuge without distinction.’  Taking refuge in Buddha then pertains to the cause as well as the result of the process of authentication of what it means “to be” a Buddhist when we firmly acknowledge the intent behind our act of performing the vow of refuge.  In the principles and paradigm of the Four Ennobling Truths (Realities) Siddhartha provides us with a focal point for inspiration and guidance.  The causal aspect in the act of taking Buddha refuge is the guidance that reveals and initiates the process of authenticating our own thoughtful intentions when adopting a course of practice in discovering the self behind our self-imposed mask of attachments, cravings, and Ego-driven delusions.

The first stage of a spiritual journey has to do with becoming aware of the possibility that a spiritual search can be a significant force in our lives.  It is the time when we focus on the doubts plaguing us and working to clarify our true intentions.  What is it that we must accomplish during this life-time?  What is most important to us?  The search can not start until the question arises.  You see, that is the causal nature of awakening to our full potential.  If the aspiration for awakening has not manifested in your thoughts yet; if the doubts you are now experiencing are not a matter of urgent importance, then there is no question and no answer.  The question needs to come up if genuine practice is to begin.  You must understand that to seek or take refuge is the effect not the cause.  So if taking refuge is the answer, what is the question?  That question IS the cause.  Seeking the question is a noble endeavor that is of supreme value for what it means to be a Buddhist.

At that point, We are confronted with a driving force to come to grips with what it means to be human, and what it really means to be a human being.  Siddhartha pointed the way, his Buddha-state.  And when we have accomplished that, we have experienced for ourselves both the meaning of taking refuge without distinction, and what it means to step on the path with a mind that values the pragmatic lessons of contemporary Buddhism for the 21st century.

As Buddhists we take refuge in the Three treasures: The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha as an essential part of our practice. The sixteen bodhisattva precepts, which we take over and over again really are expressions of the precept: I take refuge in the Buddha. In a sense, everything we do as Buddhists is an expression of this simple vow. Taking refuge is more than a thought or a belief; it is expressing the Buddha’s Way with the whole of ourselves: body, speech, and mind.

Dogen, the founder of our lineage who repeatedly stressed the physical practice of zazen, didn’t sit continuously at the end of his life. Instead he took three pieces of paper on which he wrote a character for each of the treasures and posted them on the pillars of his room. He continuously circumambulated his room and chanted the three characters: “Buddha, Dharma, Sangham”.  In a sense, taking refuge must become our center of gravity, around which our external lives circumambulate.

In the original Pali, the word “sarana” means refuge, protection, or shelter. The English, “refuge” comes from the Latin re fugere, which means “fly back.”So, taking refuge in the three jewels means to fly back or return to—what? To our original nature, which is emptiness.  In the Surangama sutra, the word “return” is used as a technical term to mean the mind seeing through its projections, and resting in emptiness.

The Buddha refers not only to Shakyamnuni Buddha but also to our deepest self, which is beyond Buddha.  The historical Buddha also took refuge in the Buddha that went beyond Shakyamuni. But in actual practice this “self” that is beyond itself often remains elusive, so taking refuge is a never-ending process.  As Dogen said, “Buddhas keep on becoming Buddhas.”

A sitting Buddha on an altar represents not only a historical being but our ongoing practice of stepping back and looking inward. It represents our return to our original home, our original nature. As Weng Wei puts it in his poem, My cottage at South Mountain:

In my middle years I have grown fond of The Way

…When happy I go alone into the mountains.

Seeing only the sights that I can see.

I walk until the water ends, and sit…

No matter how old we are, we are each in the middle of our lives. Like Weng Wei we need to leave the place that we mistakenly called home and become refugees in search of our original home, where the water ends.

Bows,

,
Stephen