[Buddha-l] Refuge in what?

[joy_gmail]

Hi Dan,

Dan to Dee: Oh? Depends what you think "unmediated experience" means. Buddhism promises 
direct access, but not to the Transcendent. That's across the hall, in the 
Hindu room...

Joy: Could you explain how refuge works Dan?

Dan: How it "works"? You mean taking refuge in the three jewels? As mediation?

Well, I don't find those categorisations (Buddhist, more Buddhistic, Hindu...) very helpful. A certain "Buddha" discovered a certain means of "liberation" (moksa). People of different backgrounds came to see him and his followers, because they were more interested in liberation than in a certain means of liberation. They apparently had some common ground to be able to understand each other. Rooms are made to walk into and out of and halls to walk through or across. "Buddhism" makes quite a lot of various people over a period of 2500 years. Various things may have been promised by some of them, among which perhaps something similar to "the Transcendent". Many different names have been given to "liberation". Some "Buddhists" and "Hindus" even agreed on the idea that names are only names. So what is it that "Buddhists" access when they access "everything just as it is" (knowing that whatever they think it is, it is different yet)  and "Hindus" when they access "the Transcendent"? What do they actually do, what actually happens when they do it and how does it work? If we compare the "how does it work" of both accesses, who knows in what room we end up in.   

Now refuge. What does a Buddhist in the room on the right side of the hall take refuge in? What does he do when he takes refuge? What does he take refuge in. What makes that the refuge "works"? What is the refuge protecting him from or what does he think it is protecting him from? etc. etc.

Joy