liar writes me: "This word has been
hitherto very inappropriately and erroneously rendered _Refuge_, by
European Pali scholars, and thoughtlessly so accepted by native
Pali scholars. Neither Pali etymology nor Buddhistic
philosophy justifies the translation. _Refuge_, in the sense of a
_fleeing back or a place of shelter_, is quite foreign to true
Buddhism, which insists on every man working out his own emancipation.
The root _Sr_ in Samskrt (_sara_ in Pali) means to move, to go;
so that _Suranim_ would denote a moving, or he or that which goes
before or with another--a Guide or Helper. I construe the passage
thus: _Gachchami_, I go, _Buddham_, to Buddha _Saranam_, as my
Guide. The translation of the _Tisarana_ as the "Three Refuges," has
given rise to much misapprehension, and has been made by anti-Buddhists
a fertile pretext for taunting Buddhists with the absurdity of taking
refuge in non-entities and believing in unrealities. The term refuge
is more applicable to Nirvana, of which _Saranam_ is a synonym. The
High Priest Sumangala also calls my attention to the fact that the
Pali root _Sara_ has the secondary meaning of killing, or that
which destroys. _Buddham saranam gachchhami_ might thus be rendered
"I go to Buddha, the Law, and the Order, as the destroyers of my
fears--the first by his preaching, the second by its axiomatic truth,
the third by their various examples and precepts."

[3] This qualified form refers, of course, to laymen who only profess
to keep five precepts; a Bhikkhu must observe strict celibacy. So,
also, must the laic who binds himself to observe eight of the whole ten
Precepts for specified periods; during these periods he must be
celibate. The five Precepts were laid down by Buddha for all people.
Though one may not be a Buddhist, yet the five and eight Precepts may
profitably bo observed by all. It is the taking of the "Three Refuges"
that constitutes one a Buddhist.

[4] Karma is defined as the sum total of a man's actions. The law of
Cause and Effect is called the _Patice a Samuppada Dhamma_. In the
_Anguttara Nikaya_ the Buddha teaches that my action is my possession,
my action is my inheritance, my action is the womb which bears me, my
action is my relative, my action is my refuge.

[5] After the appearance of the first edition, I received from one of
the ablest Pali scholars of Ceylon, the late L. Corneille
Wijesinha, Esq., Mudaliar of Matale, what seems a better renderin