I explain the Triple Gem to Westerners who know nothing about Buddhism in an unconventional way. I use an analogy that helps them understand what the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha really mean — through something they already respect: Einstein and the laws of physics.

The Buddha — The Discoverer

When I talk about the Buddha, I say he’s like a scientist — but not just any scientist.

He’s like Einstein in some ways.

The Buddha discovers the laws of Dhamma, just as Einstein discovers the laws of physics. Those laws existed before, during, and after the discovery — the Buddha didn’t create them; he found them.

Of course, the comparison isn’t perfect. The Buddha’s discovery is beyond worldly science. But it helps people understand that the Buddha’s realization was about truth — timeless, universal laws of nature.

The Dhamma — The Law Itself

The Dhamma is like E = mc² — a universal truth that doesn’t depend on belief. The Dhamma existed before the Buddha discovered it and continues after him. It’s the truth of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path leading to that cessation — the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path.

These are not ideas, but natural laws governing the mind and life itself. When one understands these deeply, one becomes awakened.

The Saṅgha — Those Who Understand

Then I explain the Saṅgha through the example of elite researchers. Anyone can study physics, but only a few reach the research level where they truly see the law at work. Likewise, anyone can hear the Dhamma, and even practice it. However, only the Ariya Saṅgha — those who have directly realized it — truly know it.

That’s why we say refuge is not just in any community, but in the Noble Saṅgha — the four pairs and eight individuals who have attained Nibbāna.

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The Poster on the Wall

Once I met a physicist who said he didn’t believe in religion.
He said that many elite physicists don’t believe either. They think when you die, that’s it, you’re dead and nothing else happens. Orthodox Theravādins might think of the Buddha in similar ways. While a normal person is subject to rebirth, old age, sickness and death, an Arahant or Buddha is no longer subject to that. When he dies, there is no more rebirth-linking-consciousness that arises in the next mind-moment.

A physicist, who is also an atheist, might have a large poster of Einstein on his wall. When he’s stuck on a problem, he might look at it and even say, “Help me, Einstein!” He doesn’t believe Einstein is listening — yet he feels inspired. Einstein lives on through the laws he discovered and through those who continue to explore them.

That’s exactly how the Buddha “lives” through the Dhamma.

The Buddha himself said,

“Whoever sees the Dhamma sees the Buddha.”

So when someone knows and practices the Dhamma, the Dhamma is alive in that person, and he knows the Buddha in that way — not as a being somewhere else, but as wisdom itself. As long as Einstein’s Physics are known and alive, we could also say Einstein lives on too.

Going Beyond Mind and Matter

In the end, all that arises — the five aggregates, body and mind — pass away. When one truly knows Dhamma, that knowing leads beyond mind and matter itself. That’s Nibbāna: the complete cessation and no more arising of new mind and matter.

So may this reflection help you develop right view and right understanding, so you can see clearly into the nature of reality and reach Nibbāna safely and quickly.

Summary Poem

The Buddha saw the timeless law,
Unwritten, pure –without a flaw.
Like Einstein seeing the light of form,
Knowing effects of the atom torn.

The Dhamma lives when truth is known,
The Saṅgha walks with wisdom grown.
Not in a realm unseen, no gods above.
The Buddha lives, when Dhamma is loved.

• Buddha
• Einstein
• Tisarana
• Atheist