We had a day course on Refuge Sat with Gen Khedrub, where we learned about how to rely on the 3 Jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Of the 3, relying on Sangha can be the hardest to understand. It makes sense to rely on enlightened beings and what they teach, but how can you rely on ordinary people, who can be unreliable? We're all deluded after all.
One traditional analogy for the 3 Jewels is that they are like the doctor, the medicine, and the nurses. I don't know where I'd be without my nurses. Like ordinary nurses, they can offer practical tips about what the doctor has prescribed ("mix the L-gluatamine with apricot nectar or tomato juice"), to make it possible to actually do it.
One of the ways we go for refuge to Sangha is for encouragement. For example, I was inspired by Carol and Ken in our local Sangha, who are doing their Preliminary Guides, and have even finished a couple! Now I, too, am keeping track of my daily prostrations and water offerings, and have a sheet for tallying my mandala offerings as well. I'm in no rush. Drop by drop, we fill the bucket.
I'm also encouraged by my discussion partners in class who know their outlines and who can summarize what we're studying. I don't want to disappoint them when it's my turn.
We're taught that our Resident Teacher is Sangha too; for example, I consult with him about what retreat I'm thinking about doing.
I can't imagine where I'd be without Sangha - probably in a ditch by the side of the road (as my Mom used to say), in the spiritual sense.
Maybe it even helps that they're deluded - they know what it's like, on a chilly December morning, to prefer a warm bed to a hard cushion. (I've learned to call on Vajrapani then.)
They can make prayers for us, and they pray with us.
They keep us company on the path.
In the end, who knows who they really are? Before I went to my first Festival, someone recommended borrowing a video of Geshe-la teaching to get used to his accent. He gave the teaching that we could be the last ordinary being in the world - that everyone around us is an emanation of a Buddha. I've always found that quite plausible.
My Sangha have instructions to lock me in the gompa if I ever talk about following the samsaric path ; )
In Eight Steps to Happiness Geshe-la says "'Self' and 'other' are relative terms, rather like 'this mountain' and 'that mountain ... 'This' and 'that' therefore depend upon our point of reference. This is also true of self and other. By climbing down the mountain of self, it is possible to ascend the mountain of other, and thereby cherish others as much as we presently cherish ourself."
Monday, December 5, 2011
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