Seeking refuge and going to refuge is one of the most frequent practices of Buddhists. Usually, one goes to refuge to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha - Three Jewels, as Buddhists like to call them. One goes to refuge four times a day, one turns to them over and again.
Yet, does it mean these three will actually shelter the seeker from the physical, emotional and mental onlsaught of Samsara, the environment we inhabit in human form? Does it mean Buddha (or one's Dharma protector for that matter) will start shaping the world so as to put the seeker into a sort of safe and secure incubator?
No, they will not and do not. The only refuge they provide is available through realisation and the only help they provide leads to the realisation. They work with seekers guiding them from one realisation to another.
When Buddhist prays for 'Samsara to cease', it does not mean physical disappearing of Samsara, but the change of a mind state so as to perceive Samsara differently, to see its ultimate essence - emptiness from which energies surge and play.
Thus reach Buddhists the only true refuge they could ever have - full realisation of emptiness.
This is wat they aspire four times a day.
