Review
We are continuing with our progress through the graded stages of the mind, the lam-rim.
The Precious Human Rebirth
We have gone through the precious human rebirth, trying to recognize what it is, what we have, and that it is a respite – which means a temporary freedom – from the worst states in which we would have no opportunity, no ability, and no freedom to be able to follow the spiritual path of Dharma. We’ve seen that our lives are enriched with the various opportunities that make it possible to work on ourselves in this spiritual way. We’ve learned not only to recognize the precious human rebirth but to appreciate its rarity, its importance, and its value, having seen what the causes are and how difficult it is to obtain.
Death and Impermanence and the Importance of Taking Preventive Measures (Dharma)
As difficult as the precious human rebirth is to obtain, it is equally as easy to lose. We will all lose it at the end of our lifetimes. Death will come for sure, and there’s no telling when that will happen. The only thing that is going to be of any benefit to us at the time of our deaths is if we’ve taken advantage of our precious human rebirths by having built up beneficial habits, which means having meditated on the teachings we’ve heard, having thought about them, and having actually integrated them so that we have gained various insights – they might not be terribly deep, but something – and also having purified to a certain extent. That is what will enable us to build up the proper causes for continuing to have precious human rebirths. If we haven’t done that, then we can easily fall to one of the worst rebirth states. In fact, if we look over our lives, we can see that we have built up far more causes for worse rebirths than we have for precious human rebirths.
Ethical Self-Discipline – The Basis for Attaining a Precious Human Rebirth
The precious human rebirth is based on having practiced ethical self-discipline very strongly, which means that when impulses came up to act in destructive ways, we saw the disadvantages of acting in that way, and we refrained from acting those impulses out; we restrained ourselves. In addition, it’s based on having engaged in positive, constructive behavior. But I think what is much more difficult, actually, is restraining ourselves from acting negatively because it means recognizing when we are about to act in a destructive way – “Ah, ha! Cause and effect. What is this going to lead to in terms of my own future experience?” – and then exercising discipline to refrain from acting destructively, “remaining like a block of wood,” as Shantideva would say. And all that has to be supplemented by practicing the other far-reaching attitudes besides ethical self-discipline – generosity, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, mental stability, and discriminating awareness – and accompanying all of that with prayers and dedications to continue having a precious human rebirth.
If we compare how much effort and time we’ve put into building up those causes as opposed to the causes for worse rebirth states – acting destructively, which means, acting on the basis of the disturbing emotions such as lust, greed, selfishness, anger, hostility, naivety, jealousy, arrogance, pride, etc. – we can see that, even in the course of one day, we’ve built up far more causes for worse rebirths than for better ones.
The Three Lower Realms
We then went through the descriptions of the worst rebirth states. We looked at the joyless realms, being a trapped being in the joyless realms, the so-called hell realms. We looked at the clutching ghosts, the so-called hungry ghosts. We looked at the creeping creatures, the animals. We tried to recognize the amount of suffering and difficulty that they have, putting the emphasis, in this particular context of the initial scope, on the thought that “I don’t want to be reborn like that.” Thinking in terms of a Mahayana scope helps us, of course, to develop compassion for those who are already in that state or who have built up the karma to be reborn in that type of state but who are not yet there.
Different Ways of Working with the Lam-Rim
There are various levels at which we can work with the lam-rim. The first level is as a beginner. We’ve never heard of the lam-rim before, and we’re working through it step by step. If we’re doing it like that, then we follow the type of presentation that we have in the texts, which is to work just with the initial scope motivation and to leave it at that. We are not yet thinking in terms of compassion for others and so on because we would first need to work ourselves up to having a firm, secure basis for developing that compassion. Otherwise, any compassion we would have would be very unstable.
On another level, we have already worked through the lam-rim material. And whether we’ve gone through it in the exact way it’s presented in the lam-rim text, or we’ve gone through it by way of the four thoughts that turn the mind to the Dharma (blo-ldog rnam-bzhi) or by way of the parting from the four clingings (zhen-pa bzhi-bral) makes hardly any difference. There are many ways in which this material is presented in the different traditions, but they all cover the same material. It’s just a matter of how it’s organized.
In any case, the lam-rim is intended to be more than just a framework for indicating our level of progression: it is something that we need to go back over, over and over again. It is important to develop these graded levels or states of mind to a point where they become so totally – pardon the word – “real” to us on an emotional level that they totally transform our way of thinking. To accomplish that, we follow the sequence the way in which it is presented in the text, but that doesn’t mean that we forget about the earlier stages as we progress. As we go along, we deepen our understanding of the earlier stages with the insights we gain later on. Everything networks with everything else. It’s like the image that I’ve used so often – that of a jigsaw puzzle in which all the pieces fit together in many different ways, not just in one way. So, it’s important to network everything together. For that we need more and more familiarity. So the more we go through it, the more we add to it all the other teachings – lojong (blo-sbyong, attitude-training), tantra, mahamudra, dzogchen, or whatever we’re studying – the more we see how it all networks together and fits into the basic framework of the lam-rim, that of developing our motivation.
The Meaning of Refuge
What comes next in this lam-rim sequence is safe direction, or refuge. As I’ve often explained, I find the word “refuge” to be a bit inadequate. Although it does have the connotation of being a protection, it gives the idea that the sources of protection come from outside. The Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are not our saviors. Rather, they are examples for us to follow. “Source” doesn’t mean that they’re giving safe direction to us. So, though we say, “I take safe direction,” it’s not that we’re actually taking something from them. We have to provide the protection for ourselves. We protect ourselves from suffering and the causes of suffering. That direction is indicated or provided by the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, but we have to go in that direction ourselves. That’s why I don’t care for the word “refuge”; it has far too passive a connotation.
When we look at the reasons for putting safe direction in our lives, we can look at them just from the point of view of the initial scope, but we can also look at them from the point of view of the intermediate and advanced scopes as well. In this way, putting safe direction in our lives gets deeper and deeper as we progress. Even so, we also have to look at and develop each of these motivations individually:
- Do I really take rebirth seriously? What am I actually doing to try to benefit my future rebirths?
- Am I really, really working to overcome samsara, uncontrollably recurring rebirth? Do I even understand what the mechanism of it is and how I would overcome it?
- Am I really working to overcome the cognitive obscurations that prevent omniscience? Do I even understand what they are?
I think it’s a little bit like ngondro (sngon-’gro). Ngondro are the preparatory or preliminary practices. I like to refer to them as preparations for a journey. These are a number of practices that we do at least 100,000 times, if not more. When doing that type of practice, we do a certain number of repetitions of each practice each day. Although you focus on the first one, doing more of that, you’re always doing a little bit of all of them. At least that’s the usual way of doing it, according to what I have been taught, read, and seen. It’s the same sort of thing when working through the lam-rim. So, even if we have an idea of the whole scope of the lam-rim and even be working in terms of the entire scope, we nevertheless need to deepen our understanding of each point in the sequence before we can have any hope of sincerely understanding the next point and taking it to heart. So, this is something that I wanted to share with you.
Participant: Is the term “taking refuge,” or “safe direction,” taken from the Sanskrit or Tibetan? What’s the meaning of the word in these languages?
Dr. Berzin: The Sanskrit root is sharana, which means “protect,” “protection,” “help, “defense.” That’s how it’s translated into Tibetan as well – as “protection” (skyabs).
So, it is we who protect ourselves. It’s not so much that the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are protecting us and that we just have to sit back and be receptive. The example that’s used in the teachings is that if it’s raining, and we’re cold and wet and we see a cave, going in its direction is the only way to enter under its protection. Just standing outside and saying, “I take refuge in this cave. I turn to this cave for my protection,” and not actually going into the cave is not going to help us much.
Question about Preparatory Practices
Participant: As far as I know, these preliminary practices are often done in retreats. Does that contradict what you said about doing just a little bit every day?
Dr. Berzin: Well, no. There are two general methods for doing these preparatory practices, the ngondro. They aren’t contradictory. And you don’t have to follow only one. You could follow one for a while and then the other. One method is to do the practice as a single event, which means doing it all day long until you finish. So, you do it within a set period of time – usually, in four sessions a day, like you would in any sort of formal retreat. But you can also do it in fewer sessions a day and outside the context of a restricted retreat – meaning one where you can’t go outside a certain physical boundary. Usually, though, you don’t have a set boundary when you do the preliminaries. As far as I know, it’s only when you do a tantric retreat that you have a set boundary, one that you’re not supposed to go outside of. In any case, you can do fewer sessions a day and for any length that you choose. The important point is to do it every day, never to miss a day, and to set a minimum number that you’re going to do each day. The minimum number you set during the very first session.
Serkong Rinpoche always used to say, “Only do three repetitions the first session. Don’t ever do any more than that for your first session. If you get sick or something really serious happens, you will at least be able to do three.” If your minimum number is 100 or 300 and you get sick, you’re really going to be in trouble. And if you don’t complete the minimum, you need to go back and start all over again – if you’re going to do it properly, that is. Also, if you do it 100% properly, you need to do it in the same place every day, same cushion every day – although there are, of course, exceptions to that.
Participant: I thought that referred only to Vajrasattva.
Dr. Berzin: Not necessarily. But as I say, if you’re going to do it formally, as in the actual tantric retreats when you’re doing a deity practice, then that’s emphasized. But even then there are exceptions. The example from my own experience: I was doing a retreat, and I was asked by His Holiness’s office to go to another place to translate some teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Serkong Rinpoche said, “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course, you go.” You don’t say, “Well, sorry, I’m doing retreat. I can’t go.” So, of course you go, but you maintain one session a day while you’re there. And you have your minimum in case there are many other duties that you have to do. So, one always has a certain flexibility. This is important to realize.
Very often what people do when they’re not in a retreat setting is to do some of the practice in a morning session and some of it in an evening session. This is particularly the case when it’s going to take a long time to do these practices. Everything depends on your speed, which, of course, increases with familiarity. You don’t want it to go so fast that it’s mindless, but then, again, you don’t want it to go so slowly that it’s going to take you twenty years to complete your ngondro. So, one has to gauge oneself in terms of that. I did the 100-syllable mantra in a year. I think I did 300 a day. 300 a day times three 360 is about 100,000. So, it can be done within a reasonable period of time. Of course, you also do a little bit of prostration, a little bit of mandala offering, a little bit of guru yoga.
If you look at the long, full sadhanas, the tantric practices, you will find that they have a section called “preparatory practices.” In that, you do a little piece of each of the ngondro practices.
Anyway, that is not our topic.
Reasons for Taking Safe Direction
When we look at the reasons for taking safe direction, we see that there are basically two: (1) dread of suffering and the causes of suffering and (2) confidence that going in the direction of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha will help us to avoid those sufferings. So what are we looking at here? We’ll go through this a bit slowly because putting this safe direction in one’s life is something that is actually very profound.
The thing that is quite sad is that safe direction, or refuge, practice, is trivialized by so many people. It is not at all trivial. It’s something that is very, very deep and that signifies a very strong change in our whole lives. It’s the demarcation between being Buddhist and non-Buddhist. It’s having a direction in our lives – knowing what we’re doing, knowing where we’re going.
(1) Dread of Suffering
What is dread, which is different from fear? First of all, what is the object of dread? Remember what Tsongkhapa said in Letter of Practical Advice on Sutra and Tantra: In order to generate a state of mind, we have to know what the mind is focused on and the way in which the mind is focusing. Once we know that, we can generate it. There are a lot of other things as well: what supports it, knowing what its effect is, etc. So what are we focused on here? We’re focused on the first and second noble truths. So, we are focused on suffering – true suffering – and the true causes of suffering.
The First and Second Noble Truths: (1) There Is Suffering and (2) There Are Causes of Suffering
The Three Kinds of Suffering
What is true suffering? There are three kinds of suffering:
- The suffering of suffering, pain
That kind of suffering is what is represented here, in the initial scope, by the three lower realms.
- The suffering of change, which is our ordinary happiness
If the suffering of suffering is represented by the lower realms – and with the initial scope of motivation, that’s what we want to avoid – then the suffering of change, which is our ordinary happiness, is represented in the intermediate scope by the suffering of the three higher realms. That’s what we also want to avoid in the intermediate scope. But, then, beyond that, we want to get out of samsara, uncontrollably recurring rebirth, altogether. That’s referring to the third kind of suffering:
- The all-pervasive type of suffering of the basis, as described in the twelve links of dependent arising (rten-‘brel yan-lag bcu-gnyis), which describe the mechanism by which rebirth is generated
So, again, in the initial scope, we’re looking at the suffering of suffering – specifically, the suffering of the three lower realms, the cause for which is destructive behavior. That’s the true cause of that kind of suffering. So, that’s what we dread – creating that cause and experiencing that result.
In the intermediate scope, we’re looking not only at the suffering of suffering but also the suffering of change and the all-pervasive type of suffering – so, the suffering of the higher realms and then the suffering of samsara altogether. We look at each of those two kinds of suffering in the lam-rim and want to get rid of both of them. What are the causes of those types of suffering? It’s the emotional obscurations – so, the disturbing emotions and their tendencies – as well as the unawareness of how we and everything exist. Additionally, there are the karmic habits that are built up from acting on the basis of those disturbing emotions and attitudes. All of that’s described in the twelve links. All of that comprises the content of the intermediate scope of motivation.
In the advanced scope, we are focusing on the suffering of everybody, not just our own, and on our inability, even as arhats, to be able to truly help everybody out of that suffering. The only way that we would be able to help them would be to become Buddhas. So, what’s preventing that? It’s the cognitive obscurations, the habits of grasping for truly established existence, which make our minds perceive things as if we were looking through a periscope or to see them as if they were enveloped in plastic. Because of that, we don’t see the connection of cause and effect, etc., in terms of what’s the best way to help others. That’s what we want to overcome.
Dread versus Fear
In each of the stages, what we have is dread: “I really don’t want this.” So what’s the difference between dread and fear? This is important.
Participant: Fear is paralyzing, and dread is mobilizing.
Dr. Berzin: Why? Analyze it.
Participant: With fear, you fear something that’s coming from the outside, which you have no control over.
Participant: You could dread the consequences of not taking refuge and not acting.
Dr. Berzin: Right. You could dread the consequences of not doing something.
An example of dread is “I dread having to go to this boring meeting.” It’s not that we’re afraid of it; we just wish that we didn’t have to do it. That’s the main thing: “I really don’t want to these things to happen.” But this is only a superficial difference. Let’s go deeper.
The deeper aspect is that fear is a disturbing emotion; dread is not a disturbing emotion. Why is fear a disturbing emotion? With fear, we inflate the negative aspects of suffering and its causes. We project truly established existence onto what we’re afraid of and onto ourselves. We think that these truly existent, horrible things are going to overwhelm the truly existent “me.” And although we might wish to free ourselves of the objects of our fear, we feel helpless to do so. Does that make sense? We make whatever we’re afraid of – for example, a spider – into some solidly existent monster, which the solidly existent “me” then feels threatened by. Then we feel hopeless, thinking that this horrible thing is going to overwhelm and hurt me, me, me.
Participant: As you said, it’s a disturbing emotion, so it makes the mind shaky. It makes it go out of control.
Dr. Berzin: Right. That’s what defines a disturbing emotion: it causes you to lose peace of mind and to lose self-control.
That’s the difference between dread and fear. Dread looks at the true suffering and its true causes objectively without inflating them or projecting truly established existence onto them or ourselves. With dread, we deeply wish not to continue experiencing the objects of our dread, but that does not imply feeling helpless – although we might acknowledge that we need help. Rather, what it leads to is renunciation – the determination to be free of suffering and its causes – which is a very levelheaded state of mind. “Dread” is not quite the right word either in English. We could feel very uneasy with dread also.
Participant: You could be fed up.
Dr. Berzin: To be fed up is part of the whole emotion or attitude of renunciation. There’s a word for that in Tibetan. But dread is leading to that.
So, let’s try to digest for a moment the difference between fear and dread. We don’t want a cause for safe direction to be a disturbing emotion, do we? That would not be stable. In all the texts in our languages, this term is usually going to be translated as “fear.” We see that in other religions – developing great fear of going to Hell and so on. But that’s not what we’re talking about here. It’s important to understand the subtle differences between these two emotional states.
Participant: Maybe you could just redefine the word “fear.” Then you could see a way to go through it.
Dr. Berzin: That is certainly something that many translators have done. Some translators love to use the word “sin” to translate the word that I translate as “destructive potential,” or “negative force.” They say, “Just redefine the word ‘sin.’ ‘Sin’ is a perfectly OK word.” The problem with that is that words such as “sin” carry such heavy connotations that they automatically bring up incorrect connotations. That makes it very hard to keep mindful of a different definition. And for people who are already fearful, fear can be devastating.
Participant: I think these words can also be difficult for people who are new to Buddhism. Like with me, the first time I heard this word, I thought, “This is the same old bullshit. I won’t engage in that stuff.”
Dr. Berzin: Right. Words like “fear” can turn a lot of people off.
So, again, there are two points here: what is the mind focused on, and how is it focusing on its object? The mind is focusing on true suffering and its causes. So, we have to accurately identify what we’re talking about and then accurately identify the state of mind that is focusing on true suffering and its causes, which is dread as opposed to fear. That dread will lead to wanting to get rid of suffering and its causes – in other words, to renunciation.
(2) Confident Belief in the Sources of Refuge
The Third and Fourth Noble Truths: (3) True Stoppings and (4) True Pathway Minds
The second cause of going in this safe direction is confidence in what will bring us out of suffering and help us to avoid creating the causes for suffering, which, as we will see, are the third and fourth noble truths, true stoppings ('gog-pa'i bden-pa, true cessations) and true pathway minds (lam-bden, true paths).
So, if we look at it on a deeper level, we can see that this whole thing of safe direction, refuge, is very much involved with understanding the four noble truths. We’re not talking about taking so-called refuge in worldly gods, alcohol, drugs, or sex. That is a superficial way of discussing it, sort of a Dharma-lite way of discussing it. Real Thing Dharma is all about the four noble truths and having a deep understanding of them.
Further Discussion about Dread versus Fear
Let’s think a little bit more about this difference between fear and dread and about our attitude toward suffering in general. We can use a simple example of pain, such as the pain of having root-canal work done. Do I fear it? Do I dread it? What am I doing in terms of projecting some kind of solid, true existence onto the pain and onto the “me” – a solidly existent “me” that feels threatened because it’s going to be injured? Is that the way that we face pain and suffering, loneliness, depression, or whatever it might be? But let’s start with something fairly basic, like having root-canal work done. Do we fear it, or would we just dread it? Try to appreciate the difference.
[meditation]
Identifying the Object of Dread
Now, when we are working with safe direction, we could do it on the level of “I want to avoid root-canal work and pain” and stuff like that. But working with pain can lead us in another direction, not necessarily in this safe direction. I’m just sharing the thoughts I had during this meditation, which are “well, but then there’s mahamudra meditation – the nature of the mind, the nature of the sensation of pain, and so on.” When I go to the dentist for this type of work, I see it as an interesting experience – dealing with the sensation, dealing with the whole experience of having a root canal. I’m certainly not afraid of it. Nor do I dread it either. I see it as an interesting experience. But that’s not really what we’re talking about here.
What we are talking about – now we have to bring it back to the precious human rebirth – is what we really, really dread. I don’t dread going to the dentist. That’s not a problem. What I would dread is wasting this precious human rebirth, using it just to accumulate 10,000 hours of watching television. What a waste! And I would dread being in a situation in the future in which I couldn’t do any spiritual practice. I would dread being in a situation where – even if I’m a human – I just wasted my life on meaningless things and, at the end, when looking back on my life, seeing that it was meaningless. I dread that. Or I dread being born in one of the lower realms or as a human with terrible restrictions and not being able to follow a spiritual path or to work on continuing to improve myself – let alone this whole Mahayana thing of benefiting others.
Now, that’s something very different from dreading going to the dentist. It’s a much, much deeper point than the one about dreading pain as opposed to being afraid of pain. So, when we talk about the object in the context of true suffering, we’re not just talking about pain but about being reborn in the worst rebirth states and what a waste that would be. That’s what we’re dreading. How horrible to have spent this life and, in the end, have nothing to show for it except having been famous or having had a lot of money. “In my bankbook, there’s a large number.” So what? When you’re dead, you’re dead.
Participant: I think it’s not only about having no dread or fear of pain. I think we also have to accept it.
Dr. Berzin: Right. You’re just saying in different words what I was saying – that not only do we not want to have fear of pain, we do not even want to dread it. “OK, there is pain. That’s the nature of samsara. I can use it as an opportunity for looking at the nature of the mind, for developing compassion for others who have this pain – tonglen (gtong-len, giving and taking),” etc. There are so many things we can do in a situation of pain. We can apply lojong (blo-sbyong, attitude training), transforming negative circumstances into positive ones.
But the main point here is the precious human rebirth – dreading wasting it and dreading being in a situation in which there would be very little that we could do, even if we wanted to. So, let’s think in those terms.
Also, it’s not that we’re afraid: we have confidence, which is the other cause for safe direction. We know that there is a way of avoiding suffering, of being free of it. That’s why we have to have confidence in the third and fourth noble truths. We also have confidence that others have done it and that we can do it. So, we don’t feel helpless. It’s just that we feel, “How stupid I would be not to use this precious human rebirth.” They always use the example of the sea merchants that go to The Island of Jewels and come back empty handed. How stupid. How stupid that I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities that I had.
[meditation]
Identifying the State of Mind of Dread
OK, give me an example, just in terms of this lifetime – so a Dharma-lite example – of dread and what you would do about it. What would you dread? For instance, you and I got the swine-flu shot yesterday. Why did you get the swine-flu shot? Did you dread getting sick?
Participant: Fear.
Dr. Berzin: So you had fear, but you could imagine dread. For example, “I don’t want to get the swine flu. I don’t want to die; therefore, I will get the shot.”
I’m going to be sixty-five in another week. I do not want to get dementia and to become decrepit as I get older. I dread that, I really do, especially since my mother had Alzheimer’s. I know what it’s like. So, I go to an exercise club; I use my mind all the time. I try to do things to prevent that dementia. Am I afraid of it? Well, I can think in terms of voidness – which is an example of what I was saying earlier about bringing in the later steps of the teachings into the earlier steps, which in this case is refuge. If I think in terms of voidness, then it’s not that there’s this solid “me,” this “poor me – I’m going to suffer,” and so on. It’s just seeing objectively that there’s so much that I still want to accomplish in this lifetime and what a waste it would be not to be able to do it because of dementia. I don’t want that type of limitation. And here’s something that I can do to try to prevent it. It’s only a provisional prevention, of course. There’s no guarantee.
This is just an example, of course, but we need to come up with an example to know what we’re talking about, to understand the state of mind of dread. Once we can identify this state of mind, then we have part of the ingredients for actually being able to develop this refuge. We have to have a proper object to focus on, a proper way of taking it, and a proper state of mind for dealing with it. So try to find an example from your own life, from your own experience. You stopped smoking cigarettes. Well, you dreaded getting lung cancer, so you stopped. Maybe it was fear. But as I said, changing fear to dread – and not feeling helpless – does require some understanding of voidness and having confidence that there’s a way out.
When it comes to the third and fourth noble truths – the true stopping and true paths that lead to that stopping or the states of mind that are the result of that stopping – then we can have full confidence. It’s not as if maybe it will work. “Maybe, if I exercise, I’ll live longer and my mind will be clearer as I get older.” There’s a difference in the kinds of confidence. We can’t have complete confidence that doing exercise is going to prevent dementia. So, there’s a big difference between having conviction in that and having conviction in the third and fourth noble truths. But that will come next week when we speak about the other cause, the belief that there is a way out. And in order to get that, we, again, have to identify the object. What are we actually talking about when we talk about the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha? They are more than just what represents them – the statues, the books, the monks, and the nuns. Those are just representations. Those are not the actual Three Jewels. OK?
In the last minutes, try to think of an example, one from your own life, of what we’re talking about – having dread as opposed to fear and of having some sort of way of avoiding what it is that you dread or fear. Think of an example in which you are actually avoiding it. Now, it could be in a very neurotic way: “I fear getting emotionally hurt, so I won’t get involved with anybody.” That’s a classic neurotic example of fear as opposed to dread. So, try to find some healthy examples, please.
[meditation]
One of the things that I notice when trying to describe this state of mind of dreading some horrible situation combined with having confidence in there being a way to avoid it is that it’s a very strong state of mind. It’s not a disturbed state of mind. It’s not shaky. With fear, we’re weak: “I’m afraid of this. I’m helpless. There’s nothing I can do” With this state of mind of dread combined with confidence in a way out – which is what describes the state of mind of refuge – we feel strong. That’s what is meant by protection. We develop a state of mind that protects us from feeling weak and helpless. So, we protect ourselves through Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha – so, basically, the four noble truths, those who have attained non-conceptual cognition of them and who exemplify that attainment, etc.