Three Jewels of Buddhism and Their Role

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The three jewels of Buddhism which are the main ideals at the heart of Buddhism are together identified as the Three Jewels, or the Three Treasures. These jewels are the foundation of all forms of Buddhism. These are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. It is by making these the central values of one’s life that one becomes a Buddhist. The first word Buddha refers both to the historical Buddha and to the ideal of Buddha hood. The Buddha word means the awakened one.

It is more meaning than what most people think of it as it applies to only shakyamuni Buddha who was a former prince of Siddhartha, and become the perfect Buddha in the 6^th century before the Common Era in India.he is famously known as historical Buddha. The jewel of Buddha means all those who have awakened from the sleep of ignorance and blossomed into their complete potential. Those people who have been awakened and blossomed serve as teachers of others for this religion as its principles demands. (Maha, 1987)

The most important role of the jewel of Buddha is very profound just as important as the fact that they are awakened them. Bearing in mind that awakening leads to freedom from suffering and gain of salvation. The will of liberation, omniscience and Buddha hood, all comes from someone’s own understanding, his insight into his own reality. It does not come just from the blessing of another, from some mysterious empowerment, from some sort of clandestine gimmick, or from membership in a crowd.

It doesn’t even come only through ones faith, although some good faith may help. Moreover, it can’t come through contemplation, either, at least not by meditation alone. So, the most significant element of Buddha to Buddhists is that Buddha is a teacher, and he gives them a teaching. Now, teaching is not indoctrination; it’s not imposing a dogma. A teaching furnishes them with a set of ways that they can employ to develop , to learn, to think over, to meditate upon, and finally, to gain deep, profound transforming insight, wisdom, and understanding. Therefore, they take safe haven in the Buddha.

This helps them to turn to the teaching of the reality of happiness, the teaching of the method of achieving happiness in whatever form it comes, whether it comes as Christianity, whether it comes as humanism, whether it comes as Hinduism, Sufism, or Buddhism. The form doesn’t matter. Simply Buddha forms the core of a teacher, one who can point the way to Buddhists own reality. He/she could be a scientist or she/he could be a religious teacher. (Maha, 1987)

. The second jewel for Buddhist refuge is Dharma. Dharma means to be held. The Dharma principally means the teachings of the Buddha, or the truth he understood. Although dharma has many meanings, the most important is the meaning of the unmediated Truth or reality itself: as experienced by the enlightened mind -and Buddhist Teachings. The truth is mediated by language and concepts. In the second sense Dharma is the teaching that was born when the Buddha first put his realisation into words and communicated it to others at Sarnath in Northern India. This event is traditionally referred to as the first turning of the wheel of the Dharma.

The eight-spoke Dharma wheel is a common emblem of Buddhism. As well as this Dharma, refers to the entire corpus of scriptures which are regarded as constituting the Buddhist canon. These include accounts of the Buddha’s life known as the Pali Canon. The records of scriptures from a later date and the written teachings of those people who have attained enlightenment over the centuries are also included.

The entire list is many hundred times as long as the Bible. It represents a literature of supreme riches. It includes works such as The Dhammapada, The Diamond Sutra, and The Tibetan Book of the Dead. Another meaning of Dharma is the practices which are outlined within the scriptures. Regardless of the prosperity of its literature the essence of Buddhism is very simple: it is finding ways to transform oneself. It could be summed up as ‘learning to do well while closing down to do evil; sanitizing the heart’ as the Dhammapada says. (Barkhoff, 2000)

The uppermost meaning of Dharma is the reality reality that holds in freedom from suffering, holds in a state of bliss. Dharma is one own reality that Buddhists seek to understand and to open it fully. Dharma therefore, also consists of those methods and the teaching of those methods that are the arts and sciences which enable to open mind ness. Furthermore, there are practices that are done, which helps to open, which follow those teachings, which implement them in practicable lives, in practice and in performance, which deploy those arts-they are also Dharma.

Virtues and beliefs and practices are also Dharma. Even the qualities that are done to develop, the constructive qualities that guide toward freedom and reality are also included those in dharma. That is how dharma came to signify a religion in some circumstances and also duty and other kinds of routines in Vedic Brahmanism, before Buddha used it in the liberating way. (Barkhoff, 2000)

In later Hinduism, in the Bhagavad-Gita, dharma was used by God to say that do your dharma, which meant -do your duty or Follow your role as a fighter, Arjuna!” said God, “Krishna, you warrior, follow your dharma!”

This Buddhist term, ‘Dharma’ may be compared to a guide as the Christians use the scriptures of the bible as their core guide in their Christianity life. The pursuing of one’s bliss gives Buddhist freedom. The word bliss means – your freedom. Dharma therefore means, ‘follow your freedom!’ it came more to mean that in India, after Buddha’s time, also in another strand in the Gita, in Hinduism and Jainism, as well as Buddhism. Ultimately, dharma is a place to take refuge in reality itself, because that is the only safe and sound refuge. If protection is taken in any unrealistic thing, it could be blown down by this-and-that howling wind.

However, when refuge is taken in reality, which is what endures. It is uncreated. It is not made by anyone. It is there, and therefore it can give refuge. The ultimate taking of refuge is embodying reality in our being, realizing that reality is the body and breath and thought and mind. Therefore, the absolute refuge is only being Buddha ourselves. But meanwhile, to whatever extent they can open to reality and take refuge in reality, ‘the second jewel dharma’. (Marcum, 1989)

The third jewel is sangha. The term sangha has two meanings in Theravada Buddhism. The first meaning denotes the community of monks and nuns that follow the Buddha. This is the community of followers of the Buddha who have taken monastic vows. The second meaning links the sangha to the accomplishment of a stage of higher knowledge. According to this description, the sangha is the followers of Buddha who have attained the first inspirational path sotapanna or “entry into the stream flowing inescapably to paradise.

In the West, the sangha has come to mean the entire community of supporters of the Buddha, not just individuals who have taken monastic vows, or those who have managed to a stage of higher knowledge. This term parisa is much closer to this western use of sangha though this term- parisa- is virtually unknown in common manner of speaking. Because of its common usage in the West, the term sangha is used in a broad sense to mean the community of followers of the Buddha. (Schmidt-Brabant, 2000)

As said above, the society of those who like the jewels of refuge, who learn that teaching, seek that understanding, and work to exemplify that Dharma. They are consciously evolving toward being Buddha’s, sharing their understanding and bliss with others, as teachers of freedom to other beings, helping them discover these jewels. All Buddhists do this everywhere in the world and through time in many parts of Sri Lanka, Thailand, Burma, Tibet, China, Korea, Mongolia, Japan, Vietnam, in ancient time and still now in India.

Generally, the three jewels are repeatedly said in common phrases in Buddhism which emphasize on there foundation. These phrases comprises of the three jewels of Buddhism as follows-: Namo buddham sharanam gacchami, Namo dharmam sharanam gacchami and Namo sangham sharanam gacchami. All Buddhists globally say this, each in his own language. Namo means- “I bow expressing trust and faith and respect, to throw you on the mercy of another. Buddham is ‘to the Buddha.’ Sharanam means ‘refuge,’ a safe place of regeneration/ a resort. Gacchami means ‘I go.’ It solely therefore means “I bow to Buddha and resort to him as refuge Sangha. (Marcum, 1989)

As I conclude, Buddhism is not an abstract attitude or dogma. It is an approach of life and therefore it only has any meaning when it is embodied in people. So Buddhists place great value on the fellowship of others who are treading the same path, and those who embody its goal. In the broadest sense the Sangha means all of the Buddhists in the world and all those of the past and of the future. Buddhism being a pathway, some people is further highly developed along it than others, and scrupulous respect is paid to the lineage of great teachers down the millennia. This can be crowned by the deeper knowledge and understanding of the three treasured jewels of Buddhism.

Reference

Barkhoff, M (2000): Exchanging spiritual experiences. Anthroposophy Worldwide No.10, pg. 2.

Marcum, U. (1989). Rudolf Steiner: An intellectual Biography. University of California, Riverside.

Schmidt-Brabant, M. (2000): Journal of the Anthroposophical Society for cultural, social and economic research in Australia. pp. 3-4.

Maha S. S., (1987): A survey of Buddhism: its doctrines and methods through the ages.

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Three Jewels of Buddhism and Their Role

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