Formal and Informal Devotion
When you do devotion (vandana) by yourself in your home
or at a temple you may kneel down comfortably and start your vandana
directly with the salutation to the Buddha, then proceed to the formulas for
the refuges and precepts.
When you do formal vandana with a monk or nun present, you make a formal
request to a monk or nun to administer the refuges and precepts. This
procedure preserves the religious relationship between the laity and clergy
in the heritage of Theravada Buddhist practice.
After you have made making the formal request the
monk or nun begins the administration of the refuges with the following
formula of salutation to the Buddha. "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato
samma-sambuddhassa." (I pay homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the
Fully Enlightened One.) The lay person repeats it three times after the monk
or nun. The word for word meaning of the formula is this: "Namo" = "I pay
homage"; "tassa" = "to him"; "Bhagavato" = "to the Exalted One"; "Arahato" =
"to The Worthy One"; "Samma Sambuddhassa" = "to The Fully Enlightened One."
After the salutation repeat another formula three
times to take Refuge in the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha. These three
are called the Three Refuges in the Buddhist religious tradition. They also
are called the Triple Gem. By taking refuge in the Triple Gem one is
initiated into the practice of the Buddha's teaching. From that point on one
can be considered to be a Buddhist. However, the real Buddhist is the one
who lives a life following all the principles of the Buddha's teaching with
full understanding.
Therefore the recitation of the formula of taking
the Refuge should be done with full understanding of the meaning of the
Three Refuges. The first of the three Refuges is the Buddha who is the
discoverer and expounder of the path to liberation. He is the supremely
enlightened being who elevated human dignity to the highest spiritual
attainment, purifying the mind through the practice of the path laid down by
all enlightened beings including himself. The Dharma is the Buddha's
teaching of the truth. The Sangha is the community of enlightened disciples
of the Buddha. They are four pairs and eight individuals. The four pairs are
those who have attained the Stream-entry Path and Fruit, those who have
attained the Once-Returners' Path and Fruit, those who have attained the
Never Returners' Path and Fruit and those who have attained the Arahants'
Path and Fruits. When these pairs are separated there are Eight Individuals.
Taking refuge is purely a mental process of
accepting the Triple Gem as one's own supreme guiding principles. In order
to achieve the goal of these principles one has to follow their meanings.
This means translating the Buddha's teachings into action and living by the
Dharma.
