taking refuge with the master

7/29/2019 Taking Refuge With the Master

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After first seeing Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche in Bodh-Gaya in the winter of 1985, i felt

that i had to take refuge with him. However there were so many people in Bodh-

Gaya that year that i decided to follow him to Nepal to his Monastery in Boudhanath

in order to make my request.

Taking refuge with ones chosen Master, is something akin to the Buddhist equivalent

of taking communion in the Christian tradition. It is a commitment to take refuge in

the Buddha, to endeavour to practise His Teachings, the Dharma, and to honour his

followers, the Sangha. But more than this, taken with a strong and clear intention, in

front of the Master, one promises to tread the path to liberation for the benefit of all

sentient beings.

It is advisable to take refuge with a teacher in whom one perceives all the qualities ofan authentic Master, as this is a connection that will continue not only for this

lifetime but for however long it takes to reach 'enlightenment'. Therefore making a

careful and confident commitment is of the utmost importance.

There are as many paths to 'truth' as there are beings to 'realize' it. But our journey

can be dramatically shortened by following a Master in whom we have complete

faith. Thus there is the potential in the 'refuge' process for not only powerfully

focusing our intention to attain 'enlightenment' but also gaining thereby, the

complicity, protection, guidance, and inspiration of the Master.

The Buddhist tradition has its own particular appeal. For many it clearly addresses an

issue that we are all very familiar with, namely that of 'suffering.' But more than this,

it offers a means with which to free ourselves from this cycle of 'suffering'.

Taking 'refuge' is like stepping into an 'ark'. At the 'helm of this mighty ship is the

Buddha, all the various Masters and lineages that emanate from Him are like

ministers and boatmen who keep the ship afloat and moving. The Dharma can be

likened to the 'vessel' itself and the 'sangha' to all those who have climbed on-board.

This mighty ship is just a speck in the vast ocean of 'being' and ultimately all thosewho have climbed on-board are tossed over the side and into that ocean. However for

a while there is the comfort and companionship of the 'sangha'; sustenance of the

'teaching' and protection of the Buddha.

Personally, i am not very religious. Although i respect most of the great religious

institutions, i feel they are a means to an end and not the end itself. After all

'enlightenment' is the simplest and ultimately most natural of things. A drop of water

emerges from the ocean and eventually is absorbed back into it. It does not need to

change its nature or 'become' something else. It is already 'that', the very sameessence as the ocean from which it has sprung.


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When i first saw Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche i was not a Buddhist and had no particular

idea of becoming one. However Rinpoche was very much a part of this religious

tradition. I found that its many precepts enhanced my path, therefore i saw no reason

not go through the formal doorway of 'refuge' and become a Buddhist.

As soon as i arrived in Boudhanath, a town on the outskirts of Kathmandu, i made myway over to Shechen Monastery where Khyentse Rinpoche was residing. Rinpoche's

rooms were above the main temple and consisted in a series of large chambers, all of

which opened into a big hall-like waiting room in the centre of the building.

Khyentse Rinpoche sat most of the day in a wooden meditation box near a window

in his main room which opened into the waiting room via a series of full length glass

doors which could be rolled back when need be. It was a well thought out

arrangement, as during teachings and empowerments the doors could simply be

moved so that Rinpoche's room became an extension of the waiting room and manymore people could then partake in what ever was happening at the time.

After first making my offerings i requested Rinpoche to give me the refuge vow. He

immediately assented but said i should wait outside in the main hall until he called for

me. At first i thought this would be a matter of some few minutes, or hours at the

very most. However it turned out that i was to sit in that hall for three whole days

before being summoned.

Waiting outside Khyentse Rinpoche's room for three days, turned out to be no great

hardship at all. In fact i learnt a lot about Rinpoche, and the various people who werevisiting and life in the monastery in general. During those first three days i would

come early in the morning, and after making three prostrations to Rinpoche, he would


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beckon me to come near him, and then extend his huge hand and touch it to my head

in blessing.

I would then go to a favorite seat i had chosen outside his room. From this vantage

point i could not only watch his every move, but i could watch everyone else's

comings and goings as well. I only took occasional breaks to visit the bathroom or goto my room for meals. Somehow i found the life going on around him endlessly

fascinating. There was no boredom in this waiting at all. In his presence one felt

oneself inside a vast mandala, nothing was accidental, nothing could be taken for

granted. Nothing was overlooked.

Nevertheless by the end of the third day i began to have a niggly little doubt and

wonder if i should remind him of my request. It seemed unlikely that he could have

forgotten, especially as i was sitting right outside his room and peering in at him most

of the day!

There had been an endless stream of visitors since i had first arrived and these never

seemed to lessen. It was amazing to see how effortlessly he could accommodate

everyone. There was no sense of hurry or tension, or weariness. The people just

came and went and each seemed to get what he wanted, and i am sure a few got more

than they bargained for as well.

I decided it didn't matter how long i sat there, i would just wait and see what would

happen.

Then, on the morning of the fourth day, his attendant suddenly called me to go into

Rinpoche's room. It was the auspicious day of the 25th of the Tibetan month and i

realized that he must have been waiting for this. In general Tibetans are very mindful

of auspicious dates, and astrological concurrences and such things, so this was all

quite in keeping with tradition.

What surprised me however was that the room was suddenly empty. This seemed to

have happened as if by magic, as there was seldom ever a moment when other

Lamas, or visitors were not present. It impressed me deeply that Rinpoche had lostno time at all in calling me in and taking advantage of the quiet space that had opened

up.

After making several prostrations he beckoned me to approach him. I can still see

that enormous finger with its long nail motioning me to come closer and closer. All

the while he was watching me with a peculiar little grin which was very

characteristic. One corner of his mouth would rise, and he would squint with one

eye, while the other remained normal. I was totally in awe of him. Trembling

shamelessly from head to foot. There was something unspeakably powerful in hispresence and it touched me in a way that i had never experienced before.


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Only when i had crept right in front of the big wooden meditation box, did thebeckoning finger cease to move. There was something of the extra-ordinary about

Khyentse Rinpoche's hands. I had never seen hands like these before. Not only were

they very large, but they were also wonderfully graceful. There were no clumsy

movements, these hands had a power and grace all their own.

One finds this about the movements, and gestures of a 'realized being'. Potentially

even a seemingly insignificant gesture can have the power to stop ones mind.

After the beckoning stopped i remember Rinpoche's hand coming down on top of myhead, pulling it right in, so that the sound of his chanting of the mantras seemed to

flow and reverberate through my entire being.

For as long as it took to recite the prayers and mantras of the refuge ceremony, some

five or ten minutes, the hand remained firmly in place. If i had been a cat in that

moment, i would have been purring loudly. All sense of the ordinary had long since

disappeared and yet there was something so profoundly familiar, so inexplicably part

of what is, that in the highest use of the word 'ordinary' as in ' unaltered' or

uncontrived, there was a complete naturalness in this communion.

There was no doubting the validity or the profundity of the simple ceremony of

refuge. If one can be likened to a drop from the 'ocean' of being, then it trembles in

the proximity of that 'ocean'. The ocean will as surely swallow it up, erase all traces

of the false self, irresistibly take it back and claim it as its own.

Such is the importance, the power and the potential of the sacred vow and bond of

taking refuge...

"The ultimate teacher, the Absolute,is never separate from us, yet immature beings,

not recognising this, look outside and seek Him far away.


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Sole Father, with your immense love you have shown me my own wealth;

I, who was a pauper, constantly feel your presence in the depths of my heart."

Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

taking refuge with the master

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