13. Taking Refuge in the Dhamma. The Dhamma taught by the Buddha shall serve as our Guide in Life.
The Buddhist practice of turning in the direction of the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha as sarana or Refuge meant no more than looking up to the living Buddha as one's Spiritual Guide. They are a Trinity of the one Single Greatness of the Buddha. The Dhamma as his teaching or the way he propounded for the attainment of the Buddhist goal of Nirvana would invariably have stepped in alongside the Master in an unquestionably functional way. The Buddhist teachings, with their unmistakable anthropocentric stress, declare that the Buddha only declares or makes known the way to salvation. The way is made known in the Dhamma. Among the many epithets for the Dhamma is the word opanayiko which means leading up to the desired goal. Every individual, man, woman and child has to make his or her own effort in that direction.
In his death-bed, the Buddha himself declared that the Dhamma he has taught and the Vinaya or the Code of Discipline he has promulgated for his monastic community shall serve as the Master after his demise. Therefore the Buddha, living or dead, is honoured as a great teacher who is capable of guiding worldlings to their desired goal of salvation in Nirvana. One never prays to the Buddha, nor does one ever make any requests to him, asking for health or wealth, power or position or competitive grants like victory in battle. These are completely alien to Buddhist ways of thinking. Both success here and hereafter are in the hands of humans. Rewards, both material and spiritual, are obtained only to the extent humans honestly apply themselves to the way of life specified in the Dhamma. No humans shall sin against humans on earth, i.e. do evil against mankind, individually or collectively, and expect to be forgiven elsewhere by divines. It is honest good living on earth, in accordance with the Dhamma, which brings happiness both in this life and in the life after [ Dhp. v.169 ].
This Dhamma shall also bear fruit in this very existence.
For this reason it is referred to as sanditthiko. In terms of its
fruition or producing results, no time limit is set, as this life or the
life after. Being thus unrestricted by time, it is therefore called
akâliko.
The Dhamma being the sole guide in the life of a disciple, monk or lay
person, one is required to live it to perfection, diligently and whole-heartedly.
Dhammam care sucaritam na nam duccaritam care = Live the Dhamma
pefectly well. Live it not in a degenerate way, says the Dhammapada Ch.13.
v. 169. The same verse adds further that such practice shall bring and
bestow happiness on the doer both in terms of this life as well as
the next : Dhammacâri sukham seti
asmim loke paramhi ca.
Dhamma's role as talisman or protective agency, wherever
it is looked upto, lies not in anything magical or mysterious within it.
Nor does it derive anything from any source outside itself, not even
from the Buddha as the propounder of the Dhamma. Living in accordance with
the Dhamma alone provides the necessary security in life : Dhammo have
rakkhati dhammacârim [Thag.v.303]. It is via the well-lived
Dhamma that one acquires happiness : Dhammo sucinno sukham âvahâti
[loc. cit.]
Thus when one takes refuge in the Dhamma, not only once but for a second
and a third time as well, saying dutiyam ' pi and tatiyam ' pi
saranam gacchâmi, one is invariably reminded of its self-generative
power, thus stimulating one to be inseperably an embodiment of the Dhamma,
living it in oneself, and not merely believing in it as a separate entity.
This is one of the ultimate aspirations in Buddhism, for one to be an embodiment
of the Dhamma itself : Dhamma-bhuto iti pi.
013. Let a wise man, with unfailing endeavour and diligence
and with restraint and self discipline, make for himself an island
which no flood will wash away. The unwise foolish persons wastefully indulge
in heedllessness. A wise person, on the other hand, safeguards
earnestness like a great treasure. [Dhammapada vv. 25 &
26 ]