Take Refuge in Sangah
18 min. guided mindfulness meditation
Take Refuge in Sangha
18 min. guided meditation
Taking Refuge in Sangha is the third of the Three Refuges: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha; love, insight and community.
When we take refuge in Sangha we take refuge in faith, community, and humanity: in Buddhas and Boddhisatvas; in bhikkhus and householders, and that all beings will be free.
We contemplate the Buddhas and Boddhisattvas that have realized fruition, are off the wheel, that have done what needed to be done. We understand that they too were human, that fruition is possible.
We understand that we are part of a community of practitioners who are on the path. We are not alone. And we understand that all beings are destined for enlightenment, and we take the Boddhisattva vows:
All beings without number I vow to liberate
Endless blind passions I vow to uproot
Dharma gates beyond measure I vow to penetrate
The way of the Buddha I vow to achieve
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Listen don’t listen.
Stay with your breath.
Take refuge in faith.
Take refuge in the path.
Take refuge in the Buddhas and boddhisatvas that have found fruition; that are off the wheel; that have done what needed to be done.
Take refuge in community.
Understand that you are not alone.
Take refuge in the monks and nuns and householders who are on the path with you.
Take refuge in humanity.
Understand that all beings are bound for enlightenment.
Commit to the path.
All beings Without number I vow to liberate.
Endless blind passions I vow to uproot.
Dharma gates beyond measure I vow to penetrate.
The way of the Buddha I vow to achieve.
Abandon apathy.
Abandon doubt.
Impermanent, inconstant and unreliable doubt arises dependent on self - body, feeling, perception, formation and consciousness.
Empty of intrinsic nature self arises dependent on sensation — sight and sound and smell and taste and tactile sensation and thought.
Painful, stressful and unsatisfactory sensation arises dependent on contact — internal and external , material and mental.
Interdependent, interconnected and interrelated contact arises and passes away dependent on form — matter and phenomena.
Radiant, luminous and spontaneous form arises dependent on form.
Form is emptiness.
Emptiness is form.
Apathy is form.
Doubt is form.
Faith is form.
Community is form.
Humanity is form.
Choose humanity.
Choose community.
Choose faith.
Choose freedom.
May all beings be free.
May all beings be happy, peaceful safe and free.
All beings are heirs to their own actions.
May all Beings live with ease.
This guided meditation is intended to help deliver meditative peace, ease and openness while embedding basic mindfulness techniques and the fundamentals of Buddhist psychology and cosmology.
The first instruction is always breathe in and breathe out. The second is listen don't listen. When in doubt stay with your breath. Words are secondary.
Meditation is the beating heart of Buddhism.
Daily practice brings the dharma alive and frees it up to land in our body and permeate our householder life.