Three Jewels - Refuge Formula

Refuge Formula

Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is central to Buddhist lay and monastic ordination ceremonies, as originated by Gautama, (The Buddha), according to the scriptures. The practice of taking refuge on behalf of young or even unborn children is mentioned in the Majjhima Nikaya, recognized by most scholars as an early text.

Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is generally considered to make one officially a Buddhist. Thus, in many Theravada Buddhist communities, the following Pali chant, the Vandana Ti-sarana is often recited by both monks and lay people:

  • Buddham saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Buddha.
  • Dhammam saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Dharma.
  • Sangham saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Sangha

The Burmese Pali version, which differs from traditional Pali pronunciation (to suit the Burmese language phonology), is as follows (in the Burmese script and IPA):

  • 1ဗုဒ္ဓံ သရဏံ ဂစ္ဆာမိ။
I go for refuge in the Buddha.
  • 1ဓမ္မံ သရဏံ ဂစ္ဆာမိ။
I go for refuge in the Dharma.
  • 1သံဃံ သရဏံ ဂစ္ဆာမိ။
I go for refuge in the Sangha

1ဒုတိယမ္ပိ and တတိယမ္ပိ are prefixed to the chant when lay members seek the refuge for the second and third times respectively.

The Cambodian version, or បទសរភញ្ញ (EN: Bot Sa-Rak-Phorgn), was written by Samdech Sangha Raja Jhotañano Chuon Nath with greater descriptions of the Three Jewels with Cambodian touch at the ending.

  • ១.សូមថ្វាយបង្គំព្រះសម្ពុទ្ធ ប្រសើរបំផុតក្នុងលោកា ជាគ្រូនៃមនុស្ស និងទេវតា ទ្រង់ត្រាស់ទេសនាប្រដៅសត្វ។
I go for refuge in the Buddha, the Greatest in the world, the Guru of human beings and Devada, who was Enlightened and a Teacher to men.
  • ចង្អុលឲ្យដើរផ្លូវកណ្តាល មាគ៌ាត្រកាលអាចកំចាត់ ទុក្ខភ័យចង្រៃអោយខ្ចាយបាត់ អាចកាត់សង្សារទុក្ខបាន។
Guiding the right central path, the way that can eliminate all the sufferings.
  • ២.សាសនាព្រះអង្គនៅសព្វថ្ងៃ សត្វមាននិស្ស័យពីបុរាណ ប្រឹងរៀនប្រឹងស្តាប់ចេះចាំបាន កាន់តាមលំអានបានក្តីសុខ។
His teaching nowadays, men with destiny from the past trying to learn and listen, and practice for happiness.
  • ឥតមានសុខណាស្មើក្តីស្ងប់ បញ្ចប់ត្រឹមសុខឃ្លាតចាកទុក្ខ តាំងពីលោកនេះតទៅមុខ ក្តីសុខនឹងមានព្រោះធម៌ស្ងប់។
No such happiness that is genuine as the one that is free from sufferings, from this world now on, the happiness prevails because of the Dharma.
  • ៣.ខ្ញុំសូមបង្គំឆ្ពោះព្រះធម៌ ព្រះសង្ឃបវរទាំងសព្វគ្រប់ រួមជាត្រៃរ័ត្នគួរគោរព ជាម្លប់ត្រជាក់នៃលោកា
I go for refuge in the Dharma and the Sangha, all combined as the Triple Jewels, the cold shade of the world.
  • ព្រះរូបព្រះធាតុនៃព្រះពុទ្ធ វិសុទ្ធតាងអង្គព្រះសាស្តា សូមគុណត្រៃរត័្នជួយខេមរា ឲ្យបានសុខាតរៀងទៅ ៕
May the Triple Jewels guide Cambodia (and its people) to happiness forever.

The Mahayana Chinese/Korean/Japanese version differs only slightly from the Theravada:

  • 自皈依佛，當願眾生，體解大道，發無上心。
I take refuge in the Buddha, wishing for all sentient beings to understand the great Way profoundly and make the greatest resolve.
  • 自皈依法，當願眾生，深入經藏，智慧如海。
I take refuge in the Dharma, wishing for all sentient beings to delve deeply into the Sutra Pitaka, causing their wisdom to be as broad as the sea.
  • 自皈依僧，當願眾生，統理大眾，一切無礙。
I take refuge in the Sangha, wishing all sentient beings to lead the congregation in harmony, entirely without obstruction.

The prayer for taking refuge in Tibetan Buddhism.

  • སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ།
Sang-gye cho-dang tsog-kyi cho-nam-la
I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha
諸佛正法眾中尊
  • བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི།
Jang-chub bar-du dag-ni kyab-su-chi
Until I attain enlightenment.
直至菩提我歸依
  • བདག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས།
Dag-gi jin-sog gyi-pe so-nam-kyi
By the merit I have accumulated from practising generosity and the other perfections
我以所行施等善
  • འགྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །།
Dro-la pan-chir sang-gye drub-par-shog
May I attain enlightenment, for the benefit of all migrators.
為利眾生願成佛

Read more about this topic:  Three Jewels

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