The Buddha awoke, taught the Dharma for 45 years, and gathered the sangha of bhikkus and lay people around him. Each of these three is a Treasure giving us refuge from Samsara, the suffering from our greed, hatreds, and delusions, which have no beginning. This is obvious in the ordinary way, but each is also a koan, because we want to understand it fully as the Buddha did, as the Dharma points to, and as the Sangha carries on. Many great masters have explained that otherwise Buddhism could not last.
These are also matters of ceremony and symbol, like the Triratna above. In Theravada practice one regularly recites the Tisarana, beginning
Buddham saranam gacchami.
Ti-Sarana: The Three Refuges: The Three Jewels Of Buddhism (Pali & English)
In English, it can also be
I go to the Buddha for refuge.
I go to the Dharma for refuge.
I go to the Sangha for refuge.
Or, in Zen,
Homage to the Buddha; Homage to the Dharma; Homage to the Sangha
In Chinese characters, but Japanese pronunciation,
namu kie butsu 南無歸依佛 namu kie ho 南無歸依法 namu kie so 南無歸依僧
And again, in the verse after meals,
The universe is as the boundless sky, As lotus blossoms above unclean water. Pure and beyond the world Is the Buddha Nature of the trainee. O Holy Buddha, we take refuge in Thee.
Food, the sky, lotus blossoms, unclean water, and the Buddha Nature are all well-known koans as well. We have looked at nearly all of them in this series.
Step 1. When you are told to recite these or other Buddhist texts and mantras, just go ahead, and don’t worry where this is taking you.
Step 2. Exactly the same, but now mean it.
Step 3. Ask yourself who is taking refuge.
Steps 4 onward. These are koans. They work in the usual way—The Thought of Awakening, great faith, great doubt, great, um, well, you have to go there. I can’t literally explain what can’t be described.
In the image above, the jewels are rendered as round. But they are also described as jewels cut with 84,000 facets. Never mind that that is physically impossible. We are dealing in metaphor, in allegory, in Skill in Means. The point about the multiplicity of facets is that there are many more viewpoints than that in the world, but all of them permit you to see to the same heart of the jewel.
So, what koan have you brought with you today?