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heart? To ask a question to a Buddha is not to ask a question to a professor. It needs a certain quality in you; then only will you be benefited by it.
THEN MANY MONKS APPROACHED
TO WHERE THE LORD WAS,
SALUTED HIS FEET WITH THEIR HEADS,
THRICE WALKED ROUND HIM TO THE RIGHT
AND SAT DOWN ON ONE SIDE.
Walking thrice is symbolic of the three bodies. The first round is for the physical body, the body that we can see, which is available to the senses. The physical body of the Buddha is also beautiful; it is the shrine where God abides. So the first round is a salutation for the first body, the physical body. The second round is for the bliss body, the second body. And the third round is for the Buddha body, the truth body.
These three rounds are symbolic of something else too. In Buddhism there are three shelters, three refuges: "I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the sangha, I take refuge in the Dhamma." These three rounds are symbolic of them too.
When a person comes to Buddha to ask anything, he has to take refuge. He has to have this state of mind -- that "I am falling in tune with Buddha," that "I am ready to vibrate in the same wavelength." "I take refuge in the Buddha. You are my shelter, I come to you as a disciple, I come to you knowing that I don't know, I come to you in innocence, I bow down to you, I recognize that you know and I don't know -- so I am ready to receive whatsoever you think I am ready to be given."
"I take refuge in the sangha, in the commune."... Because one Buddha is only a representative of all the Buddhas of the past and the future. One Buddha is a door to all the Buddhas. You can call the Buddhas the Christs or the Krishnas; it doesn't make any difference. These are different names given by different traditions.
So the first refuge is in this Buddha who is just in front of you. The second refuge is in all the Buddhas, the sangha, the commune of the Buddhas -- past, present, future. And the third refuge is in the Dhamma -- that essential being that makes a man a Buddha. That art of awakening is Dhamma, the religion.
AT THAT TIME THE VENERABLE SUBHUTI
CAME
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