And so it comes to pass - the student becomes a teacher. I am excited and nervous about my new role as a 'corresponent' teacher to prison inmates in the US as part of the social services project organised by Ven Robina & her team at Liberation Prison Project.
I pray that I will be guided by Buddha, Manjushri, & the manifold teachers of the past & present, with whom I have the deepest respect and admiration for.

Oh how lucky I am - this precious gift was given to me on my birthday by my dear teacher, Geshe Sangey Thinley - a long life deity with which I can begin a practice. O joy!!!

The survival of a path is achieved not by preserving it, but by walking it - even when you have no clear idea of where it will lead.
taken from Stephen Batchelor's Living with the Devil - A Meditation on Good and Evil

Since you must follow a doctor's advice,
Even when stricken by ordinary illness,
What need is there to mention those who are constantly stricken
With the illness of so many faults, attachment and the like?

taken from Shantideva's Engaging in the Bodhisattva Deeds

As he says, I've been sick for a long time with the illness of the afflictions such as attachment - an illness that is long-lasting, intractable, and causes strong suffering. Therefore, I must recognise this to be my situation. Ga-ma-pa said that if we were not in fact sick, then meditating on our sick condition would be misguided. However, stricken with the virulent and chronic disease of the three mental poisons (attachment, hostility and ignorance), we are extremely sick, but we are completely unaware that we are ill.

Refuge Precepts

There are six precepts which relate to the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha individually - three things to be abandoned and three to be adopted:

Buddha

• Not considering any other refuge or source of protection higher than the Buddha. This doesn't preclude one from seeking help from other powers or deities when it's appropriate, but one shouldn't consider them more powerful than an enlightened being, since actually they are not.

Dharma

• As far as one is able, not harming other living beings. The essence of Buddhist conduct is non-violence. Sound ethical conduct forms the basis for all insights.

Sangha

• Not allowing one's physical, verbal or mental activity to be influenced by those who dislike, disparage or oppose the Buddha's teaching. This does not mean one should cut off relations with them - one should cultivate compassion and kindness towards them but not allow oneself to be influenced by them.

Buddha

• Respecting all images of the enlightened ones, spiritual teachers and deities, whether or not they are well made or made of something precious. The images should be treated as if they were the Buddha in person.

Dharma

• Respecting all texts which contain instruction on what behaviour and attitudes to adopt and what to discard, since they are intended for one's own and others' well-being. One should not step over them, place then on the ground or on chairs or throw them into the rubbish. If we need to dispose of them, they should be burnt.

Sangha

• Respecting all members of the spiritual community, no matter which forms of Buddhism they practise, and regarding them as spiritual companions. Though one may feel that some are not worthy of such respect, by showing it we honour what their robes symbolize. This benefits oneself.
  
  There are six general precepts:
• Taking refuge again and again, understanding the special qualities and distinguishing features of the Three Jewels and what sets them apart from other teachers, teachings and communities.
• Offering the first and best part of food and drink, and making other offerings, remembering the kindness of the Three Jewels. Since one has to eat and drink every day and since one puts on clean clothes, these ordinary activities can become the source of much merit. One can offer both what one owns, what one doesn't own (such as beautiful views etc), and one can make all kinds of imaginary offerings.
• Encouraging others, who trust us and show an interest, to take refuge but one should not proselytize.
• Taking refuge three times each day and three times each night, remembering the benefits of doing so:
  1. One becomes a Buddhist
  2. One becomes a suitable basis for holding all vows
  3. Formerly accumulated karmic obstructions come to an end
  4. Extensive stores of positive energy are easily accumulated
  5. Harm from humans and non-humans will not affect one
  6. One will not fall into a bad re-birth
  7. One will accomplish everything one wishes
  8. One will become enlightened quickly
  
  The idea of taking refuge at three different times during the day and during the night is intended to keep the thought of refuge alive in us at all times, like stoking a fire to keep the warmth going. Often however, people just take refuge three times in the morning and three times in the evening.
• Entrusting oneself to the Three Jewels in whatever activities one undertakes. If one has something important to do one should go to one's shrine or just inwardly make a request for help. When one has completed the task, a gesture of thanks should be made.
• Not giving up the Three Jewels even in joke or at the cost of one's life.

"... During the last five decades interest in Buddhism has become widespread in the West. From being the closed preserve of professional orientalists, whose interest was largely linguistic and historical, and to whom Buddhism was little more than a particularly well-preserved mummy in the museum of Comparative Religion, the wise, compassionate, and vital teachings of the Buddha have started attracting the attention of an increasing number of sensitive and thoughtful people who, though having outgrown authoritarian creeds of every kind, are yet in search of a framework of psychological and spiritual reference ample enough to contain and elastic enough not to confine their aspirations. Whether choosing to describe themselves as Buddhists or not, those who feel 'at home' within the framework called Buddhism, and who settle down therein, in effect commit themselves to the realisation of an ideal by following a certain way of life in the company of other people similarly committed. This is what is traditionally known as 'Going for Reuge' to the Three Jewels, an act which, though it may find ceremonial expression, is essentially a profound inner experience, a spiritual rebirth or 'conversion', as a result of which one's whole life is transformed and reoriented.
The Three Jewels are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. By the Buddha or Enlightened One is meant not only the historical Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, but the ideal of Enlightenment both in its universal aspect and its ultimate reality. The Dharma or Doctrine is not only the sum total of the Buddha's teachings but the whole body of moral and spiritual laws, discovered and revealed by him, of which the doctrinal teachings form the conceptual formulation and practical exemplification. Similarly the Sangha or Assembly is the spiritual community of those who, following the Dharma, have attained the same level of spiritual experience, or observe a common rule of monastic discipline, or simply the whole body of the faithful going for refuge to the Three Jewels - enlightened and unenlightened, monastic and lay, real and nominal.
The Three Jewels are, therefore, of pivotal importance in Buddhism. Indeed, the Three Jewels are Buddhism...."
taken from Preface of 'The Three Jewels' by Sangharakshita, Windhorse Publications, 1998