In Seoul I used to attend Saturday Sangha with Chong Go Sunim and some of the good people you can see on the sidebar here. In Bangkok my Sangha was the Seon Club and the whole Littlebang group. Here in Tokyo, I’m working so hard I’ve hardly even had the chance to look for a spiritual community.
Yet at the same time the whole community is already here with me. My Dharma brothers all blog, Dharma friends email and say hi, even postcards are exchanged (thank you again Roy!). I live with my wonderful wife, truly the most patient Dharma teacher you could imagine, and I have the whole of the Internet!
Tonight on my walk home from work I was listening to a podcast from the wonderful Tara Brach, a talk called “Taking Refuge” from January 2010. One bit, just as I was approaching my door, really caught my attention and I thought I’d share it here. What I love is the way she brings together both the outer and inner dimensions of refuge.
The outer refuge, the way we take refuge in the Buddha in an outer way, is – we bring to mind any being that expresses to us the enlightened heart-mind. It could be the Buddha, or Jesus, or the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Kuan Yin, or any being, living or mythic, any spiritual figure that in some way represents that to us. And the way that we then take refuge is to imagine that being’s love and that being’s awareness. And then let ourselves sense how that lives through us.
The reality is that in many of our moments we live in this trance of a small and limited self. Many of our moments the idea of an awakened being is outside of us, down the road, something exotic, so when we talk about taking refuge in Buddha-nature it seems abstract. And yet this refuge is so powerful, so liberating. If you imagine for a moment how your life would change every day, many times a day, in some way you glimmer that this radiant awareness really is your very essence. That in a way this whole spititual path is undoing that trance. It’s stopping pedalling away. When we stop pedalling away we come home to an amazing amount of space and aliveness and awareness.
The full talk and many more, as well as guided meditations, can be found on her website http://tarabrach.com/. So really, with all these resources, how can I ever forget that I’m always in the midst of Sangha? How can I forget, as Daehaeng Sunim says, that within myself I always have a Dharma hall, “which is always filled with light and where Buddha is always present.”
All we need now is for Chong Go Sunim to grab a microphone and master the art of podcasting too!
🙂
Wake Up and Laugh! 
Hi. Marcus.
I’m happy to know you find your space in busy city Tokyo.
And find the space for your spirit. 🙂
Thank you Nat!
And I hope you are safe and dry right now.
Take care and thank you again!
Marcus
_/\_
PS – my new yoga class is here: http://www.twigtea.com/grace/yoga/contents/home
Looks jolly yoga teacher. I know you enjoy yogic practice!
I enjoy Japanese autumn and tasty food. Thank you.
HELLO MARCUS: so much time!, I AM ALEJANDRO (MUN HYE), BY Asuncion – PARAGUAY – SOUTH AMERICA – Want to share with you. THAT I was recently in Gramado – BRAZIL AND VISIT MY wife AND I Khadro Ling a Tibetan Buddhist temple he bought AND A BOOK ON THE RED TARA IN THE COMMENT THERE Alexander Berzin TRANSLATOR OF SS THE DALAI LAMA, who made a comment on the word “refugee” CARGO SHELTER SAYS AN IDEA OF ISOLATION, Retirement IVORY TOWER, INTENDED AS A COMMITMENT IS A HEART WITH ALL THE DHARMA.
This produces a change in OUR INTERIOR AND ALL TRANSFORMATION BEGINS TO OCCUR IN OUR INTERIOR TRANSFORMATION IS IN CONSTANT CHANGE AND CONNECT WITH OUR INTERNAL BUDDHA all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the three times.
I really like this concept of taking refuge, which would “TAKE HEART’S COMMITMENT TO THE BUDDHA (in its three meanings), with the dharma (in its three CONCEPTS), and the Sangha (in its three forms) .
Blessing!
HOLA MARCUS: ¡TANTO TIEMO!, SOY ALEJANDRO (MUN HYE), DE ASUNCIÓN – PARAGUAY – SUR AMERICA – QUIERO COMPARTIR CON UDS. QUE HACE POCO ESTUVE EN GRAMADOS – BRASIL Y VISITAMOS MI SEÑORA Y YO UN TEMPLO BUDDHISTA DE KHADRO LING Y ALLI ADQUIRI UN LIBRO SOBRE LA TARA ROJA, EN EL HAY UN COMENTARIO DE ALEXANDER BERZIN TRADUCTOR DE S.S. EL DALAI LAMA, QUIEN REALIZÓ UN COMENTARIO DE LA PALABRA “REFUGIO”, DICE QUE REFUGIO CARGA UNA IDEA DE AISLAMIENTO, DE RETIRARNOS PARA UNA TORRE DE MARFIL, EN TANTO QUE LA INTENCIÓN ES UN COMPROMISO DE TODO CORAZÓN CON EL DHARMA.
CON ELLO SE PRODUCE UN CAMBIO EN NUESTRO INTERIOR Y TODA UNA TRANSFORMACIÓN COMIENZA A OCURRIR EN NUESTRO INTERIOR, TRANSFORMACIÓN QUE SE ENCUENTRA EN CONSTANTE CAMBIO Y CONECTA NUESTRO BUDDHA INTERNO CON TODOS LOS BUDDHAS Y BODDHISATTVAS DE LOS TRES TIEMPOS.
REALMENTE ME GUSTÓ ESE CONCEPTO DE LA TOMA DE REFUGIO, LO QUE SERÍA “TOMAR EL COMPROMISO DE CORAZÓN CON EL BUDDHA (EN SUS TRES ACEPCIONES), CON EL DHARMA (EN SUS TRES CONCEPTOS), Y CON LA SANGHA (EN SUS TRES FORMAS).
¡BENDICIONES HERMANOS!