Taking The Refuge Of Right Faith

After accepting the Three Refuges, it is important to take the Refuge of Right Faith. People who have cultivated the Buddhadharma in their previous lives and have developed strong, deep roots and, thus, have natural confidence in the Teaching can take the Refuge of Right Faith directly. One takes this Refuge of Right Faith in the presence of a teacher and offers one's unlimited devotion to the Three Precious Ones. When reciting one's affirmation of the practice path to Bodhi, one should visualize worshipping at the Buddha's feet and achieving unity with the infinite Dharmadhatu of the Triple Jewel.

As the nature of a drop of water and the ocean is the same, so is the nature of a small space and A large one; similarly, there is and should be non-differentiation and non-discrimination between the worshipper and the worshipped. It follows from this, then, that there is no duality between one's self-nature and the Buddha-nature; i.e., there is no notion of an ego, personality, being, etc., involved, the only reality being the complete identification of one's self-nature with the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and their unlimited compassion extended to all sentient beings. This awareness is transcendental to all notions of inside, outside and middle, and it comprehends all the ten directions. Transcending considerations of time, it has no beginning or end and encompasses the Three Realms.

Now, just at this moment of right faith and concentration, one makes a determination to dedicate oneself to the Dharmadhatu of the Three Precious Ones for all time without beginning or end. This is done in accordance with an adamantine faith in wisdom that is compared to eating a small diamond that one can never digest. This is the manifestation of fundamental faith and is one of the four kinds that are explained in The Sastra of the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana, where it is said: "This faith is the delight of True Dharma." The acknowledgement of this Original Faith is considered to be right faith, and one who possesses this is eligible to undertake the preliminary training of the Bodhisattva Tao.