Rachael Wooten, Tara - The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha

 The vow is repeated before every practice, "I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha." Hearing the phrase, "I take refuge in the Buddha," sometimes mistakenly conjures up the idea of taking refuge in one person, Siddhartha Gautama, who became known as Shakyamuni Buddha, the buddha of our age. However, Buddhism maintains that you are taking refuge in the enlightened consciousness that he accessed and revealed in his teachings. You are also taking refuge in your buddha nature, your innate capacity as a human being to awaken just as he did.