อัตตาหิ อัตโนนาโถ แปลว่าตนเป็นที่พึ่งแห่งตน หมายถึงธรรมภายในตน คือศีล สมาธิ ปัญญา วิมุตติ วิมุตติญาณทัสสนะ ที่ต้องศึกษาและปฏิบัติให้มีให้เป็นขึ้นในตนเอง จึงจะเป็นที่พึ่งที่แท้จริงได้ ไม่ใช่การพึ่งพาคนอื่นหรือสิ่งภายนอก"Attā hi attano nātho" means one is one's own refuge — referring to the Dhamma within oneself: morality, concentration, wisdom, release, and knowledge-and-vision of release, which must be studied and practiced until they truly exist within us. Only then do they become a genuine refuge — not reliance on other people or external things.
Someone asked the meaning of "attā hi attano nātho," and how to apply it to life.
"Attā hi attano nātho" means one is one's own refuge. When we lack , we tend to rely on this person or that, this thing or that — a government worker relies on their superior; when trouble strikes, people rely on guardian spirits, sacred objects. None of that counts as relying on oneself.
What does "oneself" actually mean here?
"Oneself" here refers to the we have studied, understood, and practiced until it truly exists within us — wisdom, effort, , truthfulness, resolve, , equanimity — cultivated through bodily, moral, mental, and wisdom development. Knowledge and ability that we have properly built becomes our own genuine refuge. The other part is Dhamma as energy — the merit from the good deeds we have properly performed.
Each of us carries different shortfalls. Someone lacking in generosity struggles to earn a living. Someone lacking in morality lacks safety, falling ill or having accidents often. Someone lacking in renunciation remains attached to sensual pleasure. Someone lacking in wisdom cannot solve their own problems skillfully. Someone lacking in effort is lazy. Someone lacking in patience cannot endure. Someone lacking in truthfulness has no life direction. Someone lacking in resolve cannot bring their aspirations to completion. Someone lacking in loving-kindness has no warmth of heart. Someone lacking in equanimity cannot hold the mind neutral. Each shortfall points to a deficiency of energy that makes it hard to move life forward. We must therefore examine which perfection needs repair, and build that one up.
How do we truly become our own refuge?
Within our own orb of Dhamma are three components: the subtle elements (earth, water, wind, fire, space, and consciousness), the Dhamma component — morality, concentration, wisdom, release, and -and-vision of release — and the energy component, the merit and demerit already completed. New merit we create gives only about 10% of its result in the present; the rest bears fruit in the future. True , therefore, comes from — being sfied with what we have and what we are — because everything within our store of energy has already been placed on the timeline, waiting its turn, largely beyond our ability to change.
Morality, concentration, and wisdom are the tools we must learn to understand, in order to purify ourselves and raise the quality of our life through release and the knowledge-and-vision of release — release frees us from stain, and that knowledge-and-vision brings us to a better life. When we understand this mechanism and act rightly upon it, the proportion of wholesomeness within us keeps growing, and we truly become our own refuge. But without that understanding, one cannot be one's own refuge at all — because one does not know where to even begin.