Dec 23 Tip: Learn to be your own refuge

December 23 Compassionate Living Tip from Interfaith Paths to Peace

From Buddhism Now: Learn to be your own refuge

http://buddhismnow.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/being-our-own-refuge-by-geshe-tashi-tsering/

It is you who must make the effort. The Great of the past only show the way. Those who think and follow the path become free from the  bondage of Mara.

If  we all have an instinctive wish for happiness, these words taken from the Dhammapada tell us where to begin the search to fulfil it. We are our own refuge. The key to fulfilling our need for happiness lies within, not outside, us. This means that we have all we need right here, inside, without looking to external things. And more good news—it’s cheap! We don’t have to pay for our happiness!

I cannot emphasise enough how powerful and accurate this verse is. Everybody, all the time, is trying to fulfil the instinctive wish to attain happiness and avoid unhappiness, and yet no one seems able to do so. Here, however, is the simple truth: the source of our own happiness is within ourselves.

We are still not really aware of the inner refuge that the Buddha says we should understand, because we have not reached the level where we can tap it. Until we do, we will continue looking for happiness outside, and there will be no way to satisfy that instinct. Bringing that internal refuge to life is what Dharma practice is all about.

It is really up to us. The Buddha says in the Dhammapada that we should work for our own liberation because the buddhas can only show us the way. They can give us the tools, but we must use them ourselves.