Refuge (Buddhism)

Faith (saddha)

Faith is an important teaching element in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions. In contrast to perceived Western notions of faith, faith in Buddhism arises from accumulated experience and reasoning.

In the Kalama Sutra, the Buddha explicitly argues against simply following authority or tradition, particularly those of religions contemporary to the Buddha's time. There remains value for a degree of trusting confidence and belief in Buddhism, primarily in the spiritual attainment and salvation or enlightenment. Faith in Buddhism centres on belief in the Three Jewels.

Precepts

For someone who wishes to study and practice Buddhism, the five ethical precepts encouraged are to voluntarily undertake the practice to:

1. refrain from killing.
2. refrain from stealing.
3. refrain from lying.
4. refrain from consuming intoxicants.
5. refrain from improper sexual conduct.

note: The precepts may be listed in order of the gravity of harmful actions guarded against. Improper sexual conduct can roughly mean 'hurtful or harmful' sexual conduct.

For those interested in slightly more advanced practices, on full moon, new moon, and sometimes other quarter moon days, it is encouraged to undertake the eight ethical precepts, which also includes:

1. refrain from eating after noon
2. refrain from singing, dancing, music, watching entertainment, wearing jewelry, using perfumes and colognes, and wearing make-up.
3. refrain from sleeping on high and luxurious beddings

Wording

Sanskrit version:

बुद्धं शरणं गच्छामि। धर्मं शरणं गच्छामि। संघं शरणं गच्छामि। Buddhaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dharmaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Saṃghaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi. I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.

Pāli (Theravāda) version:

बुद्धं सरणं गच्छामि। दम्मं सरणं गच्छामि। सङ्घं सरणं गच्छामि। Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.

Khmer characters:

ពុទ្ធំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ ធម្មំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ សង្ឃំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ To the Buddha for refuge I go To the Dharma for refuge I go To the Sangha for refuge I go Dutiyampi buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.

Khmer characters:

ទុតិយម្បិ ពុទ្ធំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ ទុតិយម្បិ ធម្មំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ ទុតិយម្បិ សង្ឃំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ For the second time ... Tatiyampi buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.

Khmer characters:

តតិយម្បិ ពុទ្ធំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ តតិយម្បិ ធម្មំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ តតិយម្បិ សង្ឃំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ៕ For the third time...

Uyghur version:

Namo but. Namo dram. Namo sang.

Chinese version:

南無皈依佛 (to the Buddha for refuge I go) 南無皈依法 (to the Dharma for refuge I go) 南無皈依僧 (to the Sangha for refuge I go)

However, some substitute the above with a (Mahāyāna) version taken from the Avatamsaka Sutra which reads:

自皈依佛，當願眾生，體解大道，發無上心。 (I take refuge in the Buddha, wishing for all sentient beings to understand the great way and make the greatest vow.) 自皈依法，當願眾生，深入經藏，智慧如海。 (I take refuge in the Dharma, wishing for all sentient beings to deeply delve into the Sutra Pitaka, gaining an ocean of knowledge.) 自皈依僧，當願眾生，統理大眾，一切無礙。 (I take refuge in the Sangha, wishing all sentient beings to lead the congregation in harmony, entirely without obstruction.)

Tibetan : The basic refuge in Tibetan is:

སངས་རྒྱས་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། ཆོས་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། དགེ་འདུན་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆིའོ། Sang-gyé la kyap-su chio (I go for refuge to the Buddha) Chö la kyap-su chio (I go for refuge to the Dharma) Gendün la kyap-su chio (I go for refuge to the Sangha)

A Mahayana refuge in Tibetan:

སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ། བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི། བདག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱི་པ་འདི་དག་གིས། འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲུབ་པར་ཤོག Sang gyé chö dang tsok kyi chok nam la Jang chup bar du kyap su chi Dak gi jin sok gyi pa di dak gi Dro la pen chir sang gyé drup par shok

Three Roots

In Tibetan Buddhism there are three refuge formulations, the Outer, Inner, and Secret forms of the Three Jewels. The 'Outer' form is the 'Triple Gem', (Sanskrit:triratna), the 'Inner' is the Three Roots and the 'Secret' form is the 'Three Bodies' or trikaya of a Buddha. These alternative refuge formulations are employed by those undertaking Deity Yoga and other tantric practices within the Tibetan Buddhist Vajrayana tradition as a means of recognizing Buddha Nature.