Taking Refuge Online Experience – November 2025

On November 9, 2025, we had our third and last auspicious Taking Refuge Online ceremony for the year. This was also the the eighteenth online ceremony led by Venerable Guo Yuan, the guiding teacher of Global Meditation Center New York and the Abbot of Dharma Drum Retreat Center.

As more worldwide practitioners understand Why Take Refuge in the Three Jewels, we had a group of six (6) fellow Chan practitioners from Brazil, Greece, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Here is the heartwarming words of sharing from two of them, to “share the precious forward” for practitioners coming in the future:

from Karen:
Before taking refuge, I had been meditating for nearly ten years on my own as a way to take care of my mental health. More recently, I had come deepen my Buddhist practice and my appreciation for Buddhist philosophy as it applied to my personal life and to social justice.

Searching for a Buddhist temple and lineage to take refuge in, I discovered Dharma Drum Retreat Center and the Venerable Guo Yuan, who had studied under Master Sheng Yen. Soon after, I was plagued with vexations and doubts.

Is this a legitimate Buddhist center? Can I really take refuge online? Am I joining a cult?

Taking refuge is a serious commitment. It is a personal decision and a public declaration that carries significant weight in many Buddhist traditions. If I took refuge, I would no longer just be someone who meditated. I would formally be recognized as a Buddhist.

Yet the more I listened to my inner Buddha and learned more about Ven. Guo Yuan, I calmed myself and remembered why I had been called to my current path. The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha have no barriers to entry. All are welcome and interconnected. We are all on the path to enlightenment, even if those paths might look slightly different from each other.

Therefore, I am eternally grateful to Ven. Guo Yuan, Warren of Dharma Drum Retreat Center, and all innumerable beings—past, present, and future—who allowed me to take refuge on the auspicious day of November 9, 2025. To hear my fellow Dharma siblings' voices from across the world recite the precepts with me was a transcendental rebirth I won't soon forget.

Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Karen

from Pedro:

Dear Venerable Abbot Guo Yuan and Dharma Brother Warren,

I am deeply joyful and profoundly grateful for the refuge ceremony. It is truly remarkable that the light of the Dharma has reached even a young Brazilian like me, bridging oceans and cultures through the compassion of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. I sincerely thank you both for your kindness, humility, and understanding—for welcoming me so warmly into this lineage and community of practice.

I also express my heartfelt gratitude to the late Master Sheng Yen and to the Dharma Drum Mountain Sangha, whose wisdom and compassion continue to guide countless beings toward peace and awakening.

May all beings awaken to wisdom and compassion.
Homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, to Bodhidharma, to Bodhisattva Guanyin, to Bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta, and to Amitabha Buddha.

With gratitude and faith,

Pedro

For more information or to apply for the next Taking Refuge Online, please visit here.