Conventional and Ultimate Refuge

ཁྱོད་ཡིན་པའམ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ནང་ཚན་དུ་གྱུར་པའི་དོན་དམ་པའི་སྐྱབས་མེད་པ་གང་ཞིག དངོས་པོའི་གནས་ཚོད་ལ་ལམ་གྱི་བགྲོད་པ་མཐར་མ་ཐུག་པའི་སྐྱབས།
ཀུན་རྫོབ་པའི་སྐྱབས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Definition of conventional refuge: That which is 1) a refuge that has not completed traversing of the path in actuality and 2) there is no ultimate refuge that is it or its subdivisions.
This and temporary refuge are mutually inclusive. དེ་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཀྱི་སྐྱབས་དོན་གཅིག

དངོས་པོའི་གནས་ཚོད་ལ་ལམ་གྱི་བགྲོད་པ་མཐར་ཐུག་པའི་སྐྱབས། དོན་དམ་པའི་སྐྱབས་ཀྱི་མཚན་ཉིད།
Definition of ultimate refuge: A refuge that has completed traversing of the path in actuality.
This and final refuge are mutually inclusive. དེ་དང་མཐར་ཐུག་གི་སྐྱབས་དོན་གཅིག

Only the Buddha is a final refuge. These are not:

• The twelve branches of scriptures that are included in a disciple’s continuum - because it is something that will be abandoned upon completing the clear realisation of the meaning of the scriptures, like a ferry.
• True paths in the continuum of a learner:
  • because of being a deceptive falsity: despite appearing as free from all defilements from its own perspective, it is not free from all defilements.
  • because of being an impermanent phenomenon that must change from the state of possessing defilements to the state of being free from defilements.
• Nirvana without remainder - because of being distinguished merely by a non-existence of afflictions and suffering.
• Tenth-grounders as well as Hearer and Solitary Realiser Arhats - because of possessing the fear of the knowledge obscurations.

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