2021-04-15 Refuge (4 of 5) Actions as Refuge

Insight Meditation Center13min

Gil Fronsdal

00:02

To continue this topic of refuge – refuge arises in us when we understand that there is a profound support for our lives. There is a way of being that provides a sense of safety, purpose, direction and orientation for our lives. When we have some clear insight – this can be the basis or support for how we live our lives.

Gil Fronsdal

00:48

Refuge is considered to be deeply valuable in Buddhism. As I have been saying, in the early Buddhism, teachings of the Buddha, there are different things that are highlighted as worthy refuge. Certainly what we most commonly know about is the Buddha, Dharma, the Sangha. Yesterday I talked about having oneself as a refuge. Today I want to talk about action, the activities.

Gil Fronsdal

01:21

The Buddha also said that we have our actions as our refuge. It is not just a matter of passively allowing, being present, and being the recipient of some deep inner or outer support for us – trusting that we do not have to do anything. Dharma practice is an active practice – there is doing that is part of it. Hopefully, what we are doing is learning how to act in ways that are wise, healthy, nourishing, free of strain, obligation, pushing, being busy, and free of conceit and self-consciousness – self-consciousness that is equivalent to being self-preoccupied.

Gil Fronsdal

02:27

Action is so important in the teachings of the Buddha that in a few different locations, the Buddha is referred to – in these ancient texts – as a "teacher of action." I guess there were people at the time of the Buddha, spiritual teachers at his time, who felt that actions were inconsequential – no matter what you did, it didn't have any long term benefit, effect or repercussions. Some people interpreted that to mean that you can just do whatever you wish. It doesn't matter how immoral, unethical it is. Other teachers at the time of the Buddha said nothing matters, so you shouldn't do anything. Actually not doing, radical non-doing is the way forward.

Gil Fronsdal

03:21

The Buddha taught that some actions are worth doing and some are not worth doing. Over and over again, you see in his teaching, sometimes very emphatically, when people ask him a question like, "Do you believe in restraint?" "Do you believe in non-action?" "Do you believe in this or that?" He would answer the question by saying, "I teach the doing of what is wholesome and the not doing of what is not wholesome." So in terms of restraint, "I teach the teachings of restraint that is a wholesome restraint, not the restraint that is an unwholesome restraint." "Do you teach non-doing?" "I teach the non-doing of what is unwholesome, but not the non-doing of what is wholesome." "Do you teach that we should always do X?" He says, "No, I teach you should always do X that is wholesome. But you should avoid that which is unwholesome or unskillful." I like to use the words "helpful or unhelpful" or "healthy and not healthy" for this distinction that Buddha makes repeatedly between the wholesome and unwholesome.

Gil Fronsdal

04:51

When we do wholesome things in a wholesome way – when we do beautiful things in a beautiful way – when we do ethical things in a way that doesn't harm ourselves or harm others, so that is actually nourishing, beneficial – that is how actions can be our refuge.

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