Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

good methods in the position of consequence (see, for
instance, the Oxford Tibetan Series).
Extending the simile we have already used, we may say,
"The golden stone has now become a golden
Buddha-image through the refuges of the Vajrayana."
If a person has the high goal of becoming a Buddha,
then first he or she should get an early and perfect
renunciation of all possessions and take refuge in the
Four Gems (in esoteric Buddhism, refuge in the guru
precedes the other three). One who thus takes refuge
does not behave like a common person who offers a
khata (ceremonial white scarf) to a rinpoche, repeats
three times what he says, and then hurries away. Many
foreign students spend money to come to me and, with
the return ticket booked, ask me for the refuges. First of
all, I am not a guru, and secondly, people with such an
attitude are not ready to take the refuges.
I hope that our readers will have read much on our
subject and made all the necessary meditation
preparations very thoroughly. With their minds well-set
on these ideas, they may then truly take the refuge.
Taking refuge, after all, is not a social matter, as though
one were joining some school with an ambition to make
a name for oneself in some subject. Even in school it is
necessary for a pupil to follow the syllabus for the
prescribed number of years and to accept the disciplines
and instructions of the teachers. In a spiritual matter,
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