Refuge

“Bound, themselves, in the prison of samsara,

Whom are the worldly gods able to protect?

Therefore, it is the practice of the bodhisattvas

To go for refuge in the three unfailing jewels.”

-the 37 practices of a bodhisattva, verse 7*

Samsara means suffering. Actually, samsara doesn’t mean suffering. But that is how this word usually gets translated. Samsara means that things are a little off. In life, things are a little off. When people say, “the Buddha taught that life is full of suffering” that’s not really a…