I saw six or seven Buddhist get baptized today. Not really baptized because they were not converting to Christianity. They were, however, sprinkled with water. What they were actually doing was taking the vow of refuge in the Three Gems of Buddhism. “What are the Three Gems” you ask? They are, I have learned, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. “Sort of like the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” you ask? No, not really. More like Buddha-nature, Buddha teaching, and community. I should not be so quick to project my Christian idiom on Buddhism, given that the Buddha lived 600 years (give or take) before the Christ.
Still, though, it was like people were getting saved. It was a little Southern Buddhist altar call. The vow of refuge is the first step of Buddhist practice. These folks were saying that they are really going to do it. They are really going to practice meditation. They are going to live in a community, to take care of each other. They are going to attempt to be compassionate to the world as the Buddha was compassionate. Those vows are not, exactly, my vows. A baptismal covenant we call it. Still, it’s inspiring to see people making a commitment to live spiritually, to trudge the road to happy destiny.