Key Terms/Śaraṇagamana
From Bodhicitta
शरणगमन śaraṇagamana
going for refuge
སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་
skyabs 'gro
皈依
guīyī
Sanskrit - Noun
3·Study
Study details
- Abhidharma (Indo-Tibetan): In the Abhidharma context, śaraṇagamana (T. skyabs 'gro) is analyzed as a mental state or volition (cetanā) that seeks protection from the sufferings of cyclic existence. It is categorized as the preliminary step for all subsequent vows. Taking refuge is motivated by two primary causes: fear (bhaya) of the lower realms and belief (śraddhā) in the power of the Three Jewels to protect. In this tradition, the actual objects of refuge are the Buddha (as the teacher), the Dharma (as the cessation and the path), and the Saṅgha (as the community of noble beings who have attained realization).
- Mahāyāna (Indo-Tibetan): Within the Mahāyāna framework, the scope of taking refuge is expanded through the lens of bodhicitta. Refuge is not taken merely for personal protection from suffering but for the sake of attaining enlightenment to benefit all sentient beings. The objects of refuge are viewed through the trikāya (three bodies) of the Buddha. The ultimate refuge is the dharmakāya or emptiness, which is the true nature of the Dharma. The Saṅgha consists of the noble bodhisatvas who have attained the spiritual levels (bhūmis).
- Vajrayāna (Indo-Tibetan): In the Vajrayāna or Secret Mantra tradition, the practice of refuge is further elaborated into the "Inner Refuge" or the "Refuge of the Three Roots" (mūla). While the outer refuge remains the Three Jewels, the practitioner additionally takes refuge in the Guru (the root of blessing), the iṣṭadevatā (yidam, the root of accomplishment), and the ḍākiṇī (the root of activity). Often, the Guru is seen as the embodiment of all refuges. Some systems also speak of the "Fourfold Refuge" (Guru, Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha) or even a "Sixfold Refuge" combining the Three Jewels and Three Roots.
- Dzogchen/Mahāmudrā (Indo-Tibetan): In these traditions, refuge is understood as the recognition of the primordial nature of one's own mind. This is sometimes called the "Resultant Refuge" or "Refuge of the Innate Nature." Instead of seeking protection from an external source, the practitioner recognizes that the ultimate Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha are already present within the "alpha purity" (ka dag) and "spontaneous presence" (lhun grub) of their own mind-essence.
In other languages
Tibetan
སྐྱབས་འགྲོ་
skyabs 'gro
kyab dro
Sanskrit
शरणगमन
śaraṇagamana
Chinese
皈依
guīyī
Japanese
kie
Korean
guiui
How translators render it
going for refugeBuddha-nature Standard
In the dictionaries
Tshig mdzod chen mo
གནས་སྐབས་དང་མཐར་ཐུག་གི་འཇིགས་དང་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པའི་ཆེད་དུ་བླ་མ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་ཡིད་ཁྱེད་ཤེས་ཀྱི་དད་པས་བརྟེན་ཅིང་གསོལ་བ་འདེབས་པའོ།
Dung dkar tshig mdzod chen mo
ངན་སོང་གི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་འཇིགས་ཏེ་སྙིང་ཐག་པ་ནས་དཀོན་མཆོག་གསུམ་ལ་སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་
Term type
Noun
Source language
Sanskrit
Topic
śaraṇagamana
Alternate spellings
refuge, skyabs su 'gro ba, སྐྱབས་སུ་འགྲོ་བ་
