There is No Refuge in Samsara

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Commitment to the Path”

Lord Buddha teaches us about the impermanence of all things so that we can appreciate that fact and so that we are not duped. And folks, we are so duped. Everything in our lives is geared to dupe us by false stability.  Watch the commercials.  Commercials are fascinating.  Someday, for Dharma practitioners, they ought to have the commercials going and knock out the shows because commercials will teach you everything.  They will teach you that when you have a new car, you will be safe.  They will teach you that if you have air bags, you will be safe.  They will teach you that if you have Gap clothes, you will be cool, because groups of people will form around you and start dancing.  And that feels really cool.  And they’ve told you that if you have, let’s see, if you invest online then you are like the coolest dude in the world and it’s just so cool.  You’ll find great stability there.  So from commercials, from information, you’re always getting this “There, there little kid.  It’s all going to be fine.”  And you are left impotent, unable to understand.  So Lord Buddha teaches us, don’t find your security in that.  All that stuff is impermanent.  All of that stuff is as good as truthless; it’s so impermanent, without validity, without stability.  Money does not provide stability.  Relationships do not provide stability.  Things that we do both occupationally and recreationally do not provide stability.  Comfort food does not provide stability.  None of the things we use provide stability.  And this is what the Buddha is trying to say. He’s not trying to break your heart.

When you first wake up to this, it’s kind of sad.  It does break your heart a little bit and you find yourself in the position of needing maybe to grieve just a little. It’s like waking up from a dream where everything is promised to you.  You wake up and it’s all gone.  Nothing was delivered and you have a sense of grief.  Have you ever had a dream like that? When something really precious and important came to you and when you woke up it was gone?  Maybe a person returned to you or some money came to you or whatever.  So that’s how it is.

Lord Buddha is not in the business of breaking our hearts.  We have to think of Lord Buddha in this case like  a dedicated physician, or like the supreme mother or parent who guides us like a good parent would, through our confusion into clarity and healing.  That is what the Buddha is doing when the Buddha speaks about impermanence.  The Buddha goes through all kinds of teachings about impermanence.  It’s really important to get this, whether you are a beginning student, or whether you have practiced for years.  You will go dry in your practice if you do not constantly review these teachings that everything is impermanent, because we are so habituated to find security right here, right now, where this is absolutely none.  We even see our bodies as stable.  I feel very safe right now because I can look in the mirror and see that I am healthy.  What kind of delusion is that?  How much have I changed in the last 20 years?  Have I gotten healthier?  I don’t think so.  Nothing about the body is stable, nothing.  Nothing about anything that we have built up around ourselves is stable, and yet we find stability thinking that it’s always going to be this way.  Even having seen the change from babyhood to childhood to young adulthood to maturity, even having seen that, we still don’t believe.  We still try to find safety in false things, temporary things. So Lord Buddha really spends a lot of time on that in order to condition us so that we will have the opportunity to focus and be mindful, and begin to wake up from that narcotic sleep,  The Buddha wants us to see the truth, wants us to understand that this is not refuge.  Here in samsara there is no refuge.

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