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The Buddha abolishes the 3 Refuges
In the
Mahavagga (28/3) of the Vinaya (i.e. a late Buddhist dhamma compilation), the
Tathagata (later renamed ‘the Buddha’) states unambiguously: “Bhikkhus, I abolish from
this day the upasampadà (i.e. full ordination) by the threefold
declaration of taking refuge (Pali: sarana, meaning: protection,
shelter, house or help; or remembrance), which I had prescribed.
Bhikkhus, I prescribe that you confer the upasampadà by a formal act of the
order in which the announcement is followed by three questions.” The
Tathagata/Buddha changed the admission requirement from taking the 3
refuges to agreement by the bhikkhus as to the worthiness of the individual
seeking admission. Half way
through his career as an itinerant wisdom busker the Tathagata changed his mind
about the 3 refuges. That’s because he had realised that taking refuge in any
‘thing’ (hence a dharma, later a sankhara = an emerged from conditions
phenomenon) other than the final goal, namely the (unconditioned) deathless,
was counter-productive. In other words, attaching to what would, centuries
later, be deliberately euphemised as ‘The three jewels’ would seriously
impede progress because both the dhamma and the sangha, arisen due to
conditions, would change, decline and decay due to conditions (eventually at
least 5 major schools and hundreds of sects emerged in India. All degenerated
and disappeared. In short,
The Tathagata realised that the dhamma and the sangha would be corrupted by
those who claimed to follow him since they would emerge from and adapt
themselves to changed conditions, specifically to changed political
conditions, as which happen during the reign of Ashoka, who turned the dhamma
into a political agenda (operating as a national rehabilitation programme,
much needed after his genocidal road to the top), the bhikkus (i.e. indeed,
some of his own children) into its enforcers and, possibly, the Tathagata
into the Buddha (as myth). Note: the
notion that the murderous turned pacifist Emperor Ashoka was a ‘Buddhist’ was
invented by 19th century Christian, mainly Victorian amateur
archaeologists and cryptologist who ‘read into’ in the Ashokan rock edicts
some aspects of the later, mythological Buddha dhamma. The Ashokan rock
edicts do not name either the Tathagata or the Buddha. Had the
Tathagata not stated time and again: “Bhikkhus, this dhamma (possibly meaning teaching, possibly law)
is for giving up not for taking hold of, listen to it carefully.” Majjhima 3: 2. Obliging
both bhikkhus and puthujjanas (i.e. worldlings (i.e. lay persons or monks)
bound by the 10 fetters) to taking the three refuges (= homes) served (and is
still serves) to bind individuals…. into the
Tathagata’s (now Buddha’s) sect, not for their welfare (enhanced by un-binding) but for the material and
morale benefit of the Buddhist sect officials. Refuge?
For ‘one gone forth into homeless’? The meanings of the name Tathagata |