Any idea I have about liberation, suffering, death, etc is just this. An idea. A concept in my head. To actually know what it’s like I need to let go of every such idea so that it doesn’t stand between me and the real thing. This isn’t taking refuge, it’s jumping into fire.
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Replying to @made_in_cosmos @Timber_22 and
I think this may be a connotation problem. Believing one's own ideas, concepts, etc is taking refuge in oneself, one's own habits. Taking refuge is precisely the act of turning away from those and toward reality.
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Replying to @Buddh_ish @made_in_cosmos and
Taking refuge **in awakening, or the three jewels, or whatever, is precisely the act of....
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Replying to @Buddh_ish @made_in_cosmos and
Like, in short, you're always going to SOMETHING for refuge, as where you "go" mentally to relate to the world. Most of the time this is just your own concepts. So deciding to go for refuge somewhere else is an act of opening up, not hiding.
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Replying to @Buddh_ish @made_in_cosmos and
And the joke is, in Buddhism, (it's also a great mercy) that "Buddha", "Dharma" and "Sangha" are also concepts. That you "go" to, mentally. It helps that they are (usually) more wholesome than other sources of refuge. And what happens is a kind of bait and switch...
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Replying to @Timber_22 @Buddh_ish and
initially you need the support of concepts of refuges [or maybe not; some people get there right away, or were already there] and those help you practice and actually cultivate the internal changes that come from practice at that point, you don't need the support of concepts...
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Replying to @Timber_22 @made_in_cosmos and
In some phrasings this is made explicit by making them a subtler and subtler concept until in the end it's something like: "Buddha" means reality "Dharma" means reality "Sangha" means reality
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Replying to @Buddh_ish @made_in_cosmos and
I once offered a version to a very straight-edged secular friend: To take refuge in.... "Buddha" = Awake - ness "Dharma" = Aligned - ness "Sangha" = Relating
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Replying to @Timber_22 @Buddh_ish and
So for that person, they were taking refuge in their human potential for Awake - ness; in being Aligned with how things are for humans; and in Relating to others from that basis, which gives rise to compassion and to kindness.
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Replying to @Timber_22 @Buddh_ish and
Okay but I still wonder: if the goal is to take a deep plunge into reality unguarded by any ideas or concepts, why put these concepts there in the first place? Why not just focus on dismantling what’s untrue until only truth remains?
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There are non-conceptual paths that do just that: mozhao, shikantaza, nirvikalpa samādhi, Dzogchen and other similarly foreign names. Usually, however, some conceptual background comes prior to these. After having been immersed in concepts, one is asked to "shatter" them to bits.
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