Every day, the world over, millions of people recite their dharma vows:
“I take refuge in the Buddha.
I take refuge in the dharma.
I take refuge in the sangha.”
According to Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, to take refuge in the Buddha is to have an example to look toward. It is not to have a savior in whom you place your faith, hope, and trust. Rather, taking refuge in the Buddha means that you, like the Buddha did over 2500 years ago, acknowledge and abandon the fundamental groundlessness of religious systems that promise you salvation if you look outside of yourself for answers. Second, to take refuge in the dharma is to place your trust in a system of teachings that are not "gospel" but will spark a process of refinement in you, guiding you on a journey deep within yourself that has no visible end. And finally, to take refuge in the sangha is to embrace the fact that there are others on the same path as you, to affirm that all of you are in this process as a community and can support one another, and to acknowledge that each of you is nonetheless fundamentally alone in your own journey.
To take refuge is not to cozy up in the lap of false hope; it is to become a spiritual warrior. It is not a relief; it is a challenge. It is not an invitation to become soft in our compassion, but to temper ourselves in its flames. Taking refuge is a deeply personal choice that one makes for the benefit of all beings, not from selfish motivations or a desire to be coddled by anyone. It is a path of learning to walk on a trail that many have walked before, that many are walking right now, and that many will walk in the future, and yet to still be completely on your own. Refuge is about learning that you are both your own agent of inner solace, and your own strict teacher driving yourself along that path. It is not to pray for ease, but to acknowledge that ease, like struggle, is temporary, conditional, and illusory. Once you have taken refuge, you can no longer lie to yourself about the fantasy of spiritual practice. Instead, you must become aware of the reality of spiritual practice, and surrender to the mystery that it unlocks in your life.
From the article:
"If we adopt a prefabricated religion that tells us exactly the best way to do everything, it is as though that religion provides a complete home with wall-to-wall carpeting. We get completely spoiled. We don’t have to put out any effort or energy, so our dedication and devotion have no fiber. We wind up complaining because we didn’t get the deluxe toilet tissue that we used to get. So at this point, rather than walking into a nicely prepared hotel or luxurious house, we are starting from the primitive level. We have to figure out how we are going to build our city and how we are going to relate with our comrades who are doing the same thing."
Right now, at a very difficult moment in American history, so many hopes are dashed. So many people are feeling a loss of faith in government, in other people, in their own religions, in their gods, in the power of prayer, and in the possibility of a better future. Many people are only just now realizing the impermanent and ephemeral nature of everything they once believed firmly, and are feeling rootless, disappointed, and failed by ways of thinking they formerly held dear. Much of what is emerging in the current political landscape seems bleak at best, outright sinister at worst. In times of such outward disillusionment, a trend toward despondency, anxiety, and depression can take root, causing the conditions that heighten inward delusion and suffering. Times of trial like these can lead to nihilistic attitudes, hardening of hearts, and spiritual suffocation in the quicksand of fear.
There is an alternative view, of course. If you have chosen the path of being a spiritual warrior, times like these can be like a splash of freezing water that creates a moment of awakening. Are you ready to understand what it really, truly means to "be woke"?
During moments such as we are now experiencing, we must look through the eyes of refuge and see that the current circumstances are not the end of us; they are our work. The challenges we face as a national and global sangha are intimately related to the work we now must do within ourselves, for the benefit of others. Now is not the time to seek refuge by hiding under the blankets, numbing ourselves with addictive or compulsive behaviors, or cutting ourselves off from reality. None of these paths are refuge- they are escapism, which is different. These behaviors are understandable, but useless.
Now is the time to actively accept responsibility that each of us, even though we are fundamentally alone and may feel very afraid, must do our best to create circumstances of compassion, sanctuary, and liberation from delusion that will benefit others. We must courageously throw freezing water upon our tendencies to seek the warmth of privilege. We must awaken the parts of ourselves that have substituted feelings for facts all of these years, and curtail the tendency to choose empty platitudes over facing the truth. We must cut through our own delusions with the sharpest blade possible to sever the growth of selfishness and speed the healing of the whole being.
If you would seek refuge, do not seek self-gratification, which leads of ego-centric clinging and aversion. If you would seek refuge, do not deny any part of the ugliness of your own process. If you would seek refuge, forget bliss and reach deep into the discomfort. Though it may seem a paradox, when you do this you somehow become happier, more whole, more calm, stronger, more courageous, and more satisfied than you can possibly imagine amidst your current life of relative convenience in the pre-fabricated illusion of reality you had perhaps hoped would remain intact. Through that door of acceptance of what it means to become a spiritual refugee, which seems so frightening, the only lasting joy that is not contingent upon outside circumstances or delusion awaits you.
While you may not feel that it is appropriate for you to take ceremonial refuge to become a Buddhist in this life, please also remember that the first Buddha was not a Buddhist, either. He just started a protest march that is beyond time and labels, and he has no intention of stopping until all beings are free. You can take refuge in this idea of a never-ending journey toward collective wholeness, the cultivation of your own wholeness as a part of that, and the necessity of ultimately leaving no one behind. If nothing else, you can take heart in his example and the example of so many who have come before you, who have created profound comfort and support for others even in difficult circumstances.
By choosing to open your eyes and see reality for what it truly is, you can become limitless, and your capacity to lend help to others will increase. This is what is needed now.
Chasing the Invisible
How much time do you spend each day thinking about the past or the future? Do you find yourself ruminating upon past problems and reflecting on past joys wistfully? Do you find yourself worrying about what might happen, if you will be alone, if you will be ok in the future? These thoughts arise unbidden from the landscape of the mind and provide us with the majority of the narrative we pay attention to daily.
The past is tricky, because unless we spend at least some time reflecting on what has happened, we are unlikely to learn or retain valuable lessons. Yet, every one of us has experienced the ways that sad memories and depressing or regretful thoughts creep into our consciousness and drain our life force. If you find yourself rehashing old arguments and conversations, thinking about what you could have said in order to "win" the discussion or gain situational favor, then it is likely that you are not getting the best possible lesson from your reflective time. If you do not have reflective time in your life deliberately set aside, it's even more important to pay attention to how rumination crashes into your daily life with a painful force, threatening your ability to be present.
The future is also tricky. Though you might consult oracles, make plans, coordinate schedules, save money, and create certain conditions in your life, you cannot ever really be sure of what will happen. All it takes is one single instant for everything to shift, for plans to fall away, for the whole fabric of life to change shape. In light of this, you must not get too attached to your mental fabrications of the future. Yet, you still must plan, because if you do not acknowledge that winter is just around the corner, and if you fail to store food sensibly, you will starve. Without any plans at all, the future is chaos. This is why it's important to pay attention to things like social security, the rising sea level, and health care contingencies. If you do not set aside the time to pay attention to these things, they, too, burst unbidden into your mind at the most unlikely and inconvenient times, like when you are just getting ready to sleep, or celebrate a birthday. And what good can you do about them then?
Without proper deliberate attention to reflection and planning, without the time put aside to attend to these things, they begin to dominate your life, swinging like a wrecking ball and derailing your intimate relationship with the Here and Now. Think about how much of your day you spend chasing the invisible: ruminating, rehashing, planning, and dreaming about what may come. It adds up. How much time? An hour? 6? More? How much of your day is spent in a time and place other than here and now?
When you find yourself chasing the invisible, yet again, don't judge yourself too harshly. Just notice how your human, animal self is seeking a comfort that it will not find in the past or future, and turn your attention instead to the wonder of Here, Now. It is possible that you will find everything you might be trying to fabricate if you do this.
Steady Through
You're at your desk trying to finish the report that is due by the end of the day, but the phone keeps ringing, there are emails and texts popping up like mad, you're distracted because you're worried about that scratchy throat that's just beginning, you're dreaming of your big escape this weekend for some quiet time, and, oh wait, there's the phone again.
Your kids have been screaming at each other nonstop for three days, all of your laundry needs to be re-washed because the cat peed in the hamper, you've got your period, the argument you had with your partner still hasn't worn off and the feelings are right below the surface, you can't find your wallet, and you forgot it was your mom's birthday. Again.
All of the bills are due four days before payday, the doctor's office has now sent three notices that you need to pay for the test you thought was covered by insurance, you're pretty sure you have a cavity and need new glasses, your phone warranty expired just before you dropped it last week, and the airline fares to go visit your family for the holidays just keep going up before you get a chance to buy your ticket.
For many different reasons, it's easy to get overwhelmed. Work, family, finances, email, and even social activities can pile up, causing irritability, anxiety, jitters, imbalance, and worry. These difficult emotional states have a tendency to not stay put within the echo chamber of the mind. They want to go out into the world. They overspill their borders and start to seep out, touching and tainting everything in reach. These emotions lead to snapping, withdrawing, avoiding, blaming, and getting cranky about even things that usually give us joy, like someone's silly joke.
It's easy to think that our external circumstances determine our emotional states, and to some degree they do. Our external circumstances, if nothing else, provide our minds with things to latch on to, complain about, resist, and avoid. But the choice to do any of those things is still a choice. The emotion arises automatically, but we do not have to follow it when it starts to run away with us.
Instead, we can stay steady through. We can acknowledge that, yes, things are difficult right now; yes, I am feeling annoyed; yes, I am overwhelmed; yes, I am afraid about the future. But then we can choose to persevere, to continue doing what must be done step by step, and in doing this, we dissipate the negative emotional response instead of clinging to it.
However, when the emotion arises and we choose to follow it, we will be led through an exhausting obstacle course, wherein everything and everyone becomes just another problem on the pile, whether that's true or not. When we reach this state, even helpful and generous offers from others feel like a burden, and this can cause us to deny ourselves one of the greatest things one human being can give another: help.
Down through the center of your being, starting at the crown of your head and reaching down through and past your tailbone, is a shaft of light. When stress, daily drama, and expectations start to beckon you to go cycling through a new wash of negative emotions, just retreat into that shaft of light for a moment. When you are bathed in that light, the light of "Now," see if you can find it in you to choose your responses to your emotions rather than feeling overcome by them. Everyone experiences overwhelm sometimes. There's no reason to judge ourselves for it. But there's no reason to latch onto it, either.
Your Sacred Wild Self
Do you know who you are apart from the opinions of others? Do you know who you are without the labels you apply to yourself or your process of identity in the public sphere? Do you know who you are without your accomplishments and mistakes? Do you know who you are without your pain?
Right now, before you automatically begin to argue that these things are all ways of knowing yourself, before you begin to defensively reach for security in your list of labels or identity markers, before you react with fear to empty presence, try instead to just play pretend: in your mind's eye, strip off all appearances and become a vast swirling cloud of nothingness. Just try it for one minute, knowing you can always come back.
"I am not my name. I am not my appearance. I am not my preferences. I am not my gender. I am not my religion. I am not my social media persona. I am not my job. I am not my relationships. I am not my problems. I am not my...."
Who or what are you when you are not made of things? Who or what are you when no one is looking? Who or what are you when you are not reporting to anyone, judged by anyone, approved or legitimized by anyone, or compared to anyone?
You are, now and always, nothing more or less than a sacred wild self. You are something beyond language. beyond identity, beyond appearances, beyond pleasure and pain. Your name, your labels, your appearance, and your experiences may serve to describe you, but they are not YOU.
YOU are a very smart animal that wears clothes and labels, but that also hears the call to return to a less contrived and more natural state in which labels, clothes, words, identities, and ego all disappear, replaced by the naked song of your heart. Your sacred wild self clings to the naked song of your heart, the music that only it can hear, even when every other sense and sensibility seems to drop away in times of grief, pain, death.
Your sacred wild self is inconvenient at board meetings. She is a mess at cocktail parties. She gets in trouble on the Internet for having strong opinions and fighting with people. She does not behave herself in church, or in line at the DMV. Your sacred wild self gets you into some problematic situations and warns you against others (whether you listen or not). Your sacred wild self bows to no one. She is more likely to sniff at the hand of a stranger warily than offer hospitality. So often, because she is not socially acceptable, you ignore her or try to keep her quiet, or put her on a leash, or chain her out in the yard when company comes over.
But your sacred wild self is also the most raw, authentic part of you, who is there for you at some of the most extreme moments of your life. She kicks free from negative situations, she gnaws through societal shackles, she growls at those who would cause you harm or hardship, and she sings you to your death with her wyrd, haunting, discordant song.
For everything else you might wear, do, or say, your sacred wild self is who you are when life strips all of those things away. She deserves your respect. She deserves your caution. And she deserves to be nourished by appropriate activities. She loves to be in nature. She loves good food. She loves sex. She loves sleep. She loves nudity. She loves getting her ears scratched. And when she doesn't get these things, she gets irritable, gruff, and bitey.
When was the last time you nourished your sacred, wild self? If it's been a while, how might you nourish her today?
You Are Not Public Property
First, you are not "property" at all.
Doesn't always feel like it, though, does it? You are a social security number, with legal government surveillance attached to you. You are an online stream of data feeding advertisers, with dollar signs attached to you. You are a parent of a toddler or a teen, with endless questions and needs following you around. You are tethered to a device that squawks every time anyone wants to know anything about you or say anything to you, no matter where you go.
It's no wonder why more and more people want to curl up in a ball and hide from the overwhelming visibility and expectations we encounter every day. For some, this is merely inconvenient. For others, it manifests more seriously, as anxiety, depression, or suicidal tendencies, because the desire to escape from constant demand is so strong it begins to affect the mind, body, and hormonal balance.
Whether it's the ringing of the phone, flip comments on a thoughtful post, the prying of a casual acquaintance, or a pop-up window demanding your information, there are many seeming obstacles to privacy. The only true privacy one has, sometimes, is found exclusively in the depths of one's own mind.
It's a good thing that, not coincidentally, this is where the real you lives.
You are allowed to retreat. You are allowed to keep your own counsel. You are allowed to have opinions that you choose not to share. You are allowed to disagree and walk away quietly. You are allowed to be secretive about precious things so that they do not become soiled by the grabbing hands and suspicious eyes of the world.
When you cultivate space for privacy, for respite, for solitude, and for quiet, it's as if you have stepped into an inner river. From that wellspring flows so much creativity and happiness that eventually something will bubble up over the banks of your mind and flood its way into the world. When it does, it is a gift you can freely give with an open heart.
Iyanifa Ifalade TaShia Asanti says, "Give from the overflow." When you feel depleted, exposed, baked in the harsh light of the public eye, you have no overflow left, nothing to give. Your wellspring dries up in the heat. Do not be afraid to withdraw from everything from time to time and rejuvenate your spirit...in your own way, at your own pace, on your your terms. Remind yourself, and everyone else, that you belong to YOU, that you are not public property.
Then watch how quickly you begin to flow again.