The benefits of refuge practice could never be counted. They are innumerable, beyond what our minds can perceive.

The first benefit of taking refuge is that you become a Buddhist. In Tibetan we say nang pa, which means inner being - a person who completely relies on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha with the support of the two causes of refuge in his mind. The two causes, again, are (i) fear of the samsaric suffering realms and (ii) full confidence that you can be guided from this state of suffering by the Enlightened One.

Relating to the first cause, even if you don’t fear all of cyclic existence, at the very least you should fear the three lower realms. Relating to the second cause, in order for you to have full confidence in the Enlightened One, you should understand the knowledge of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha fully, and also must completely comprehend and fear samsaric suffering and the suffering nature of samsaric beings' minds. This also depends on understanding and believing in the evolution of karma, which in turn depends on understanding and believing in past and future lives. This doesn't depend on robes, beads, or prayer wheels, but only on what is in the mind - not on saying prayers or playing cymbals. To become an inner being is not easy - it is a question of mental understanding and takes time. It does not depend on the clothes or the way a person acts. Refuge is in the mind.

If you think, "Who cares about becoming an inner being?" you should know that without depending on refuge in the mind you cannot attain realisations or enlightenment. Achieving the higher path depends on the achievement of the lower path, which depends on the fully renounced mind, which in turn depends on fully understanding the nature of samsaric suffering and so forth. The internal equipment of refuge comes at the very beginning, before you even receive the path. It is the beginning of the development of the positive mind. This is the foundation. There is no way to follow the high path without refuge, and the stronger the two causes for refuge, the quicker the realisations will come. With refuge, every action you do becomes an inner action, higher, more powerful, more beneficial, more positive, and purer than those of the person who does not have refuge in the mind.

This teaching is given by Lama Zopa Rinpoche.
Courtesy of Lama Yeshe Wisdom Archive.

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