Free Into the Heart of Life by Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo Page A

tomorrow—what would we do today? How would we spend our time? What would we do with our body; what would we do with our speech; what would we do with our mind?
    The word buddha means “to be awake” and is the culmination of ultimate wisdom, compassion, and purity. We go for refuge to that. We go for refuge to our own inner potential for buddhahood. We all possess what is called buddha nature. That means we all possess within ourselves the fullness of wisdom, compassion, and purity. But it is covered over. And it is this which connects us with all beings—not just human beings, but animals, insects and everything that is sentient. Anything which has consciousness has this potential. It might take a long time to uncover it, or it might happen in a moment, but we have it. We also go for refuge to that within ourselves—our own innate true nature.
    When we go for refuge to the Dharma, first of all we go for refuge to the teachings of the Buddha. After the Buddha’s enlightenment, he went around northeast India for forty-five years talking to many different sorts of people—the rich and the poor, lay people and monks, males, females, the young and old—and much of this instruction was recorded. In the Tibetan canon, there are one hundred and eight volumes of the Buddha’s teachings. But we also go for refuge to the Dharma in the sense of ultimate reality—to that which is revealed when the clouds of our confusion and delusion part and we see truth face-to-face. That ultimate reality is out there and within ourselves, too. That is the true Dharma, the universal law.
    The meaning of sangha , or community, is threefold. There are the ordained monks and nuns who are the monastic sangha. Then there is the maha , or great, sangha—that means all followers, monastic or lay, of the Buddha. Lastly there is the arya , or noble, sangha, who are those, monastic or lay, who have had authentic experience and realizations of the nature of reality. This last category is the genuine sangha refuge.
    It is as if we are all sick. Sick with the five poisons of delusion, greed, ill will, pride, and envy. The Buddha is like a physician who says, “You’re sick but you can be cured,” and then he prescribes the medicine. The medicine is the Dharma. And just as with ordinary medicine, it is no good just reading the label or knowing the ingredients: we have to take the medicine; we have to follow the cure. And there is a cure. We can be healed. Those who help us and look after us are the sangha. They are like nurses—they take care of us, they help us to take the medicine in the right doses, they look after us until we are completely healed. When we are healed, we can then take their place and help others.
    Genuine happiness comes from the heart. It comes from a mind which has become more stable, more clear, more present in the moment; a mind which is open and cares for the happiness of other beings. It is a mind which has that inner security, a knowing that whatever happens can be handled. It is a mind that doesn’t hold on so tightly any more; it is a mind that holds things lightly. This kind of mind is a happy mind.
    Let us take His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an example. He lost his country. Every day people come to him from Tibet and elsewhere with ghastly stories. Truly awful things are happening in Tibet. He sees his people suffering. And not only that: because of his position, people come from all over the world to tell him of oppression in their own countries. He takes it all completely to heart. When people tell him of their sufferings, he weeps. But when you think of His Holiness, you think of him as always smiling and happy. You look into his eyes and they’re dancing. Why?
    When people are in the presence of His Holiness they are so happy, and they come out floating. It’s because he has this quality of genuinely caring for others beyond himself. He has this quality of really putting the happiness of others before himself so