THREE JEWELS

Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is

generally considered to make one officially a

Buddhist. Thus, in many Theravada Buddhist

communities, the following Pali chant, the

Vandana Ti-sarana is often recited by both

monks and lay people:

Buddham saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Buddha.
Dhammam saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Dharma.
Sangham saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Sangha

The Mahayana Chinese/Japanese version differs

only slightly from the Theravada:

自皈依佛，當願眾生，體解大道，發無上心。
I take refuge in the Buddha, wishing for all

sentient beings to understand the great Way

profoundly and make the greatest resolve.
自皈依法，當願眾生，深入經藏，智慧如海。
I take refuge in the Dharma, wishing for all

sentient beings to delve deeply into the

Sutra Pitaka, causing their wisdom to be as

broad as the sea.
自皈依僧，當願眾生，統理大眾，一切無礙。
I take refuge in the Sangha, wishing all

sentient beings to lead the congregation in

harmony, entirely without obstruction.

The prayer for taking refuge in Tibetan

Buddhism.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་དང་ཚོགས་ཀྱི་མཆོག་རྣམས་ལ།
Sang-gye cho-dang tsog-kyi cho-nam-la
I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and

Sangha
諸佛正法眾中尊
བྱང་ཆུབ་བར་དུ་བདག་ནི་སྐྱབས་སུ་མཆི།
Jang-chub bar-du dag-ni kyab-su-chi
Until I attain enlightenment.
直至菩提我歸依
བདག་གིས་སྦྱིན་སོགས་བགྱིྱིས་པའི་བསོད་ནམས་ཀྱིས།
Dag-gi jin-sog gyi-pe so-nam-kyi
By the merit I have accumulated from

practising generosity and the other

perfections
我以所行施等善
འགྲྲོ་ལ་ཕན་ཕྱིར་སངས་རྒྱས་འགྲྲུབ་པར་ཤོག །།
Dro-la pan-chir sang-gye drub-par-shog
May I attain enlightenment, for the benefit

of all migrators.
為利眾生願成佛