Good evening!
We are going to have the longest night of the year tonight. If we do not have refuge, we stray around in the dark sea, encountering hardships and even shipwrecks.
We may be totally destroyed unless we find a truly reliable refuge, like the Mongolian warships carrying 140,000 warriors by the typhoon.
If we take refuge in the right dharma (norm of all forms, dharma of dependent origination), we know where to sail and settle in safety, serenity, and satisfaction any time.
12/21/12
The Mongol invasion of Japan was poorly prepared with poor people and ships from colonies, poor preparation against wind and water (typhoon and wave dynamics), and poor prognosis about the real refuge: dharma, not karma.
So, the Buddha said,
Better than the one who would conquer thousands upon thousands in the battlefield is the one who would conquer one-self. This is the true conqueror among war conquerors.
