Chattha Sangayana CD - Vipassana Research Institute
Dhamma  Our Shield

•	S. N. GOENKA

Remaining anxious about the future has become man's nature. To have a pleasant and secured future man seeks the refuge and beneficence of various mundane and supernatural phenomena. However, apart from Dhamma, Truth, there is no refuge nor any aid nor any other power which can really shield us, which can really secure our future, which can free us from all our anxieties about the future.

The Dhamma that shields us is the Dhamma that we develop within ourselves, the Dhamma that we apply in our lives. This alone fully secures our well-being. The Dhamma that arises and develops in someone else is of little help to us unless it becomes our own. Dhamma developed in others can at the best show us the path and inspire us to develop the same in ourselves by lighting the torch of insight and Truth within us so that we may live the life of Dhamma ourselves. This means that taking refuge in Dhamma is actually taking refuge in our own selves. This really helps us.

Hence Bhagawan Buddha has said: Attasamm±panidhi ca, eta½ mangalamuttama½ - that is, our greatest good lies in directing our attention properly towards our own selves. This is taking refuge in ourself. If we take refuge in some imaginary external power and direct our attention towards it, this can only make us dependent, weak and insecure by entangling ourselves in more and more delusions.

When we direct our attention properly towards our own self, i.e. towards our own changing mind and body, we start purifying ourselves and thus start developing Dhamma within ourselves. In every time of trial, every moment of travail, we have to awaken the Dhamma within us and through our insight we become an island unto ourselves so that our life finds a secure mooring.

The best thing for us to do to ensure our well-being is to remain in wisdom, Dhamma, and with control of our minds, keeping our sam±dhi sharp to continue to purify ourselves, and by restraining our actions of body and speech to remain established in S²la. As we get established more and more in this Dhamma of s²la, sam±dhi and pañña, more and more awakened to it, and as we incorporate and practice Dhamma more and more in our lives, in the same proportions through the Dhamma that we have ourselves acquired the Dhamma protects us and shields us in our lives.

It has been well said by Bhagawan Buddha:

"Dhamma have rakkhati dhammac±ri½"  Dhamma automatically protects the one who practises it. So for complete protection for now and for the future let us keep this torch lit, and let us protect this torch of Dhamma and Truth to keep it shining. In this lies our well-being; in this lies our protection, in this lies our good.