In my opinion, there cannot be a refuge for a living being if Nibbana is one thing and ‘a living being’ would be something completely different. If Nibbana would be one thing and a living being or mind would be something completely different, it is impossible to ever realise or even experience Nibbana. In other words, if Nibbana would be alien to ourselves we are lost.
We will never be able to make a refuge of ourselves, if, in deepest sense, we would only be unstable mental and phyiscal processes. I do not understand why this is not clear. Peace would be absolutely impossible when we are only fleeting processes.
The Buddha does not teach we are these fleeting processes. It is the other way around. He instructs us in many sutta’s to see that we are not those unstable mental and phyiscal processes. That insight will open the gate to the unconditioned.
While identifcation with rupa, vedana, sanna, sankhara and vinnana (anything conditioned) weakens, we become more and more stable. How is this possible when anything about us would be unstable?
Siebe