How to Take Refuge in Recovery: Refuge in the Buddha cont.

The 12-Step Buddhist Podcast: Episode 84
How to Take Refuge in Recovery: Refuge in the Buddha cont.

This week we continue deepening our understanding of precisely what it means to us to take refuge, in the Buddha, in recovery. Last episode, we discussed the Four Kayas of a Buddha. This episode continues the discussion of Objects of Refuge, Refuge in the Buddha, The Five Wisdom aspects. Don’t worry, we’ll break it down simply, and do some practice to gain direct knowledge of refuge in the Buddha.

From Essential Instructions on Refuge and Bodhicitta and rigpawiki.org

The Buddha is endowed with the Four Kayas and the Five Wisdoms.
We continue with the Five Wisdoms.

The Five Wisdoms
The wisdom of dharmadhātu, which is the inherent purity of absolute space.
Wisdom of dharmadhatu
Wisdom of dharmadhatu (Skt. dharmadhātujñāna; Tib. ཆོས་ཀྱི་དབྱིངས་ཀྱི་ཡེ་ཤེས་, Wyl. chos kyi dbyings kyi ye shes) — one of the five wisdoms. The wisdom of the dharmadhatu is the realization of the absolute truth, the natural state of all things.

The mirror-like wisdom, which is wisdom’s unceasing clarity aspect.
Mirror-like wisdom
Mirror-like wisdom (Skt. ādarśajñāna; Tib. མེ་ལོང་ལྟ་བུའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་, melong tabü yeshe, Wyl. me long lta bu’i ye shes) — one of the five wisdoms. Just as the clear surface of a mirror reflects everything before it, the wisdom of the absolute nature ‘reflects’ all the phenomena of samsara and nirvana. This clear reflection is the mirror-like wisdom.
The equalizing wisdom, which is the absence of attachment and aversion towards anyone or anything, near or far.

Wisdom of equality
Wisdom of equality (Skt. samatājñāna; Tib. མཉམ་ཉིད་ཡེ་ཤེས་, Wyl. mnyam nyid ye shes) — one of the five wisdoms. Just as all the reflections in a mirror are the same in being simply reflections, without any concept of good or bad, the wisdom of equality is to regard samsara and nirvana as equal, as having a single mode and one taste.
The wisdom of discernment, which knows objects without confusing or conflating them.

Wisdom of discernment
(Skt. pratyavekṣanājñāna; Tib. སོ་སོར་རྟོག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་, Wyl. so sor rtog pa’i ye shes) — one of the five wisdoms. It is the knowledge that while from the point of view of the absolute nature all phenomena are the same in being equal, from the point of view of the phenomena themselves all things in samsara and nirvana are distinct and not confounded.

All-accomplishing wisdom which effortlessly brings about the welfare of others.
All-accomplishing wisdom (Skt. kṛtyānuṣṭhānajñāna; Tib. བྱ་བ་གྲུབ་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་, jawa drubpé yeshe, Wyl. bya ba grub pa’i ye shes) — one of the five wisdoms. Like a doctor who diagnoses a disease by taking the patient’s pulse and then does all he can to treat and remedy the disease, the buddhas, with their all-accomplishing wisdom, consider beings and the ways by which they might benefit them, and then appear spontaneously and effortlessly, without change or exertion, to benefit those beings.

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