The Three Jewels

In the main hall of the pagoda, everyone had just pressed their palms together and bowed. The chanting rose, even and warm as a stream of water. "Quy y Phật. Quy y Pháp. Quy y Tăng." Then once more. Then a third time.

A little girl beside her grandmother heard the three lines again and again. She leaned close and whispered.

"Grandma, are Phật, Pháp and Tăng three different people? And why do they have to say it three times?"

Her grandmother smiled. In a pause between two chanting sessions, she quietly led the girl out to sit on the veranda. On the altar inside, a small oil lamp was burning.

"Look at the lamp on the altar. I will explain the Three Jewels with that lamp, so it is easy to remember."

The girl nodded and followed her grandmother's hand.

"For a lamp to shine, it needs three things. The first is the flame. The second is the oil that feeds the flame. The third is the person who adds the oil and keeps the lamp from going out. Without any one of the three, the lamp cannot shine. Phật is the Buddha. Pháp is the Dharma. Tăng is the Sangha. The three are just like that."

"So which one is the Buddha, Grandma?"

Her grandmother pointed to the tiny flickering flame. "The Buddha is the flame. He is the light. Long ago, a man practiced until he reached the end of the path. His heart was free of greed and anger, and it shone like this flame. People honored him as the Buddha Shakyamuni. Buddha means one who has woken up, one who has become bright."

"But remember this. The Buddha said something very unusual. He said, I have become a Buddha, and all of you will become Buddhas. It means that inside every person, even you, a tiny spark is waiting to be lit."

The girl's eyes went round. "There is a flame inside me too?"

"Of course. Everyone has one. That is the most precious thing the Buddha showed us."

Her grandmother tipped her hand, as if pouring from a jar of oil. "And the Dharma is the oil. A flame needs oil to keep burning. The Dharma is what the Buddha taught, the path he pointed out. It is not old words lying still in a book, little one. It is how we live each day so that we suffer less. Learning to see things rightly, to speak kindly, to live honestly."

"Remember my story about pulling out the thorn, and the four truths, and the path of eight steps on the wheel outside the pagoda gate. All of those teachings are the Dharma. They are the oil that keeps the lamp burning long."

"Then what about the Sangha? Is the Sangha the one who pours the oil, Grandma?"

"That is right, clever girl." Her grandmother stroked her hair. "The Sangha is the keeper of the lamp. With no one to tend the flame and oil, the lamp still dies. The Sangha is a whole community who practice together, keep the Buddha's words and pass them on to those who come after."

She added slowly, "And do not think the Sangha means only the monks in brown robes at the pagoda. The Sangha is everyone who lives by the Buddha's words. There are monks, and there are also people like me, like your mother and father. At home they live gently, still go to the pagoda, still teach their children to do good. Our whole family is part of the Sangha too."

The girl looked inside, where everyone sat chanting, then turned back. "Why does it need all three, Grandma? With the flame and the oil, there is already light."

Her grandmother shook her head gently. "This is the best part. The three have to lean on one another. Without that first flame, where would the light come from? Without oil, the flame burns a little and goes out. And without a keeper, the oil runs dry unnoticed, and the lamp dies in the night."

"It is the same with the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Without the Buddha, no one would have found the path to show to others. And without the Sangha to keep and pass on the teachings, the Buddha's words would have been lost long ago, never reaching us. Lose any one of the three jewels, and all three are shaken."

The girl thought for a while. "Then what is quy y, Grandma?"

"Quy means to return. Y means to lean on. Quy y means to come back and lean on something." Her grandmother took the girl's small hand. "Life can be very dark sometimes, little one. Times of sadness, of fear, of not knowing which way to go. At those times, we come back to these three jewels. The Buddha gives us light to see by. The Dharma gives us a path to walk. The Sangha gives us friends to walk with, so that we do not feel alone. It is like a lamp someone has left ready for us in the night."

"And why do they say it three times?" the girl asked.

Her grandmother smiled gently. "Because words said just for show blow away in the wind. Saying them three times is how the heart truly means them and truly remembers. Every Vietnamese person who follows Buddhism begins with these very three lines. The first step to becoming a Buddhist is quy y Tam Bảo, taking refuge in the Three Jewels. Many ceremonies at the pagoda include these three lines too. That is why they are among the first things a child hears there."

Inside, the next chanting session began. Everyone pressed their palms together, and people lit more candles on the altar. One flame after another flared up, until light filled the whole hall.

The girl looked at the small oil lamp again, and this time it looked different. It was no longer a lonely little flame. She saw the flame, the drop of oil that fed it, and the hand that quietly kept the lamp from going out. Three things, one light. She pressed her small hands together and softly chanted along with her grandmother. "Quy y Phật. Quy y Pháp. Quy y Tăng."