• Good morning. This is the third and final episode on my series about the "Three Jewels". The Three Jewels are three broad aspects of Buddhism that taken together make up the whole Buddhist spiritual path.
• We first talked about the sangha, the community of meditators. The importance of the community is hard to overstate in spiritual practice, because relating with other people is the best way to pop our bubble of self delusion and see ourselves honestly. It's hard to think of yourself as too holy or enlightened when you realize you just spent an hour arguing with someone over the best way to cook rice or you just yelled at a five year old for no good reason. Sangha will show you who you really are.
• Then we talked about Buddha, the teacher. The jewel of the Buddha is the historic Buddha Siddhartha and the example he set through his pursuit of realization. The Buddha is also the living teacher who shows us how and why to meditate. This jewel is also all teachers in our life, meditators or not, people (beings really) who helped us understand things that we wouldn't have learned without them. I've read accounts of cancer patients who talk about their disease as a teacher. And finally the jewel of the Buddha is about our own innate wisdom compassion awareness.

What Is Dharma? Truth in Buddhist Teaching

• The word "Dharma" also has many different meanings. In terms of the Three Jewels, Dharma most often means "The teachings". So the Buddha teaches the Dharma to the Sangha just like the Professor teaches Physics to the Students. Most of the books written about Buddhism, at least the ones written by meditators, are Dharma. As such, they are precious and should be treated with care and respect.
• More broadly, Dharma means "Truth" in the sense of what's real. The dharma of fire is that it's hot, you can cook with it, you make it with wood, there are different ways to start it, etc etc.
• The path of Buddhism and the practice of meditation is very much concerned with what is true - what is real. As you know, that's not an easy thing to figure out.
• Joni Mitchell opens her song "Down to You" with this amazing line:
  • Everything comes and goes
  • Marked by lovers and styles of clothes
  • Things that you held high
  • And told yourself were true
  • Lost or changing as the days come down to you
• So the precious jewel of the Dharma is the truth that we are searching for. We have it, we find it. We try to hold it and it slips away. We climb to the mountain top, come home and realize it was in the kitchen all along. It's in books, on computers, then it's not. The truth is glimpsed in art, in love. But "everything comes and goes" so is there actually Dharma? Is there an abiding truth?

Guided Meditation: Sitting with What Is True

• That's one thing we are asking ourselves when we sit down to meditate. What's real about this experience? What part of this moment is true, and what part is just me telling myself stories to make myself feel better because everything around me is changing and I'm scared.
• What's the truth of that fear? What does it smell like and taste like? Is there something underneath it?
• Ok let's sit for a bit and see what comes up.